BRIC Visitors & Shopping – Global Competitive Survey

BRIC markets are teased by all destinations especially because they are seen as active shoppers. But is it a fact or a cliché?

New global competitive survey results report that BRIC tourists are actually shopping 30% more than average.

Based on its reference global benchmarking survey TRAVELSAT© Competitive Index, TCI Research confirms that over 25% of BRIC tourists mention shopping as main purpose of visit: it is twice as much as for other markets!

The survey also reports that more than 7  out of 10 BRIC visitors regularly shop during their stay, which is also 30% more vs average visitors.

Analyzing destinations’ brand experience however, countries and cities may need to extend shops’ opening days and hours if they wish to fully meet their expectations and emerge from competition:

Commenting on the results, TCI Research CEO Olivier Henry-Biabaud adds: “BRIC tourists are not only the fastest growing outbound markets: they also represent valuable visitors in terms of economic impact for destinations who will be able to attract them and meet their expectations better than others.

The “shopping fan” cliché usually associated to these markets is confirmed, however marketing the “BRICs” as a uniform segment is risky: each of the four markets has very specific expectations related to the shopping experience and other facets that drastically impact destinations’ competitiveness (visa and accessibility issues, safety feeling, accommodation, food, environment…).

About TCI Research 
TCI Research is a Brussels based leading independent research agency specializing in destinations’ competitiveness evaluation. It carries out the UNWTO Innovation Award Winning TRAVELSAT Index, a reference global competitive survey benchmarking countries, regions and cities’  brand experience,  helping public and private tourism decision makers increase efficiency of their policy, management and marketing by providing global and comparable demand data combining structured surveys and web social media conversations audits. 

abouTourism is the exclusive representative of TRAVELSAT© Competitive Index in Greece & SE Europe/Eastern Med Destinations. For more information you may contact us at: info@abouTourism.com or  (+30) 210 8941610.

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Global Travel Trends 2012

During the ITB 2012, IPK International unveiled the preliminary results of the World Travel Monitor® survey which  show a 5% rise in global outbound travel (with overnights) in 2011 to 750 million (following again of 7% in 2010).

The latest surveys conducted for IPK’s World Travel Monitor® indicate that significant changes are brewing in travel and booking behavior worldwide. For example, more off-season travel as well as continuing increases in online bookings can be expected. Unsurprisingly, the use of “social media” and “smartphones” will also be on the rise as sources of information or assisting in making concrete travel plans.

2012 Outlook

Even as the global economy may face recession, IPK anticipates a slight 2% growth in global tourism in 2012 coupled with the rifts in the world of tourism widening even further.

Tourism demand will grow in the emerging markets: by 4% in Asia and 6% in Latin America. The traditional European and North American travel markets will remain in a phase of consolidation with only moderate growth rates: 1% for Europe and even a slight drop (-1%) for North America. The release highlights the fact that distinct shifts are expected in the tourism source markets, especially as those in the southern “Euro crises countries” will not be in a position to travel in the manner to which they’re accustomed.

Main survey  findings include:

Europeans Embracing Cultural Travel

While Europeans took more trips compared to 2010, the World Travel Monitor data for 2011 shows that the total volume did not top the record high reached in 2008. The number of outbound trips rose 3.5% in 2011 to 414 million, following a 2% growth rate for 2010.

In terms of the types of holidays taken last year, the Europeans showed a preference for beach holidays, this segment increasing 5%. At 12%, the number of tours recorded potent growth while city breaks also saw a 9% increase. Countryside holidays, however, fell by 4%.

Large source markets stagnating while Russia booming

As IPK’s numbers show, Europe’s most important source markets experienced various ups and downs in 2011. Great Britain was the only European source market to experience absolutely no growth last year (0%), while the markets of Germany, the Netherlands, France, Italy and Spain increased their total outbound numbers by 1-2%.

Yet the largest growth in Europe last year, a 13% increase in outbound trips, was achieved by Russia. The outbound trips of the Swiss also recorded an impressive increase (+9%).

Positive trend continues in the all-German travel market

The World Travel Monitor confirms that the all-German market (domestic plus outbound trips) continued to develop positively last year. The Germans took 321 million domestic and outbound trips in 2011 (+4%) with overnight stays, at 1.6 billion, being 4% higher. Significant for the tourism sector: the number of holidays also rose 4%; i.e. now 45% of the entire travel market. Meanwhile, business (+6%) and private (+3%) trips also showed positive growth.

Once again, there was no change in the Germans’ top three holiday destinations in 2011: Austria came in first (16% market share), followed by Spain (15%) and Italy (13%). All three were able to hold onto their market shares with single-digit growth rates. Other popular outbound holiday destinations for the Germans last year included Turkey (8%), France (6%), the Netherlands (5%), Greece (4%) and Croatia (3%).

Germans taking more holidays at home as well as abroad

When it comes to their holiday trips, the Germans again showed a preference for staying closer to home, with the number of domestic trips rising 5% last year to 92.9 million. However, German outbound holiday travel was also able to post a robust 4% gain to 52.7 million holidays this time.

Source: www.ipkinternational.com

Check out the Latest Travel & Tourism Trends here

LAC Region Embraces Qualitative Research for Regional Tourism Development

It is always great news when we see that regional tourism cooperation is supported by establishing robust research processes to support sustainable tourism development and enhance cooperation amongst stakeholders.

The most recent example comes from Latin America, where OLACT a not-for-profit organization aiming at fostering cooperation within the Latin-American and Caribbean tourism industry, announced their official cooperation with TCI Research, the market research agency which offers tourism competitive intelligence combining traditional market research and digital data collection.

OLACT is a very promising regional cooperation initiative, aiming to encourage the development of regional cooperation within the Latin American and Caribbean tourism industry, to promote measures to protect the natural, cultural and social environment from the potential negative effects of the industry’s activities, and to improve the quality, supply and promotion of tourism related services.Both organizations aim to work together to increase knowledge and improve decision making in the Latin-America and the Caribbean tourism industry through the statistic tool known as TRAVELSAT Competitive Index©.

TRAVELSAT Competitive Index© benchmarks international tourists’ satisfaction and destination quality in a comparable and standard way supporting tourism governance. This tool is an innovative instrument for all national, regional and local tourism stakeholders to improve their competitiveness and attractiveness in a global and complex international tourism environment.

Source: www.olact.org

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abouTourism is the exclusive representative of TRAVELSAT© Competitive Index in Greece & SE Europe/Eastern Med Destinations. For more information contact us at: info@abouTourism.com or  (+30) 210 8941610.

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