q2 2016 global travel insights - travel’s direct demand …€¦ · · 2017-05-17and tourists...

Q2 2016

Global Travel Insights

APRIL 2016 TO JUNE 2016

http://www.sojern.com

SOJERN.COM / [email protected] 3 2

Table of Contents

Global Travel Trends

A Bird’s Eye View

North America: Q2 Search Trends

Latin America: Q2 Search Trends

Europe: Q2 Search Trends

Middle East & Africa: Q2 Search Trends

Asia-Pacific: Q2 Search Trends

Q2 2016 Travel Events

North America: Copa Games

Latin America: Colombia Visa Restrictions Lifted

Europe: Euro Cup Update

Middle East & Africa: Ramadan Update

Asia-Pacific: Golden Week

Looking Forward

North America

Q3 Search Trends

Travel Changes Throughout the Summer

Latin America

Q3 Search Trends

Updated Olympic Outlook

Europe

Q3 Search Trends

City Search Patterns Compared

Middle East & Africa

Q3 Search Trends

Tourism Trends in Middle East & Africa

Asia-Pacific

Q3 Search Trends

Singapore Formula One Grand Prix Preview

Appendix

Glossary

Regional Coverage

Methodology

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Sojern is travel's leading performance marketing engine. Through the Sojern Travel Platform and billions of traveler intent signals across online and mobile channels, we put more heads in beds, travelers in seats, and tourists in towns for our clients worldwide.

GLOBAL TRAVEL INSIGHTS

Sojern analyzed travel behavior worldwide in five regions: North America, Latin America, Europe, Middle East & Africa, and Asia-Pacific in order to understand travel intent for Q2 and looking forward into Q3 and beyond.

Using data based on search and booking behavior provided by major airlines, online travel agents (OTAs), meta-search and other travel service providers, we provide travel marketers with insights to help plan more strategic and effective campaigns.

Interested in learning more about your market’s travel trends? Connect with us.


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SOJERN.COM / [email protected] Q2 2016 GLOBAL TRAVEL INSIGHTS 5 4

Global Travel Trends

A Bird’s Eye View

Top 10 Countries Searched and Booked

France

Germany

Greece

Italy

Mexico

Netherlands

Portugal

Russia

Spain

Thailand

US

UK

Switzerland

SEARCHED BOOKED BOTH

JuneMayApril

SEARCHED BOOKED

Share of Q2 Search and Booking Volumes by Month

34% 34%33% 33% 34% 33%

What were the quarterly outbound search trends for North America?

12+ Days

8 to 11 Days

4 to 7 Days

0 to 3 Days

60+ Days30 to 59 Days22 to 29 Days15 to 21 Days8 to 14 Days0 to 7 Days

New York City

Miami

Las Vegas

Los Angeles

Chicago

Top 5 Destinations Party Size

Lead Time

Trip Duration

43%

32%

11%

14%

23% 33%9% 9%17% 10%

1 TRAVELER

2 TRAVELERS

3+ TRAVELERS74%

18%

8%




What were the quarterly outbound search trends for Latin America? What were the quarterly outbound search trends for Europe?


Miami

New York City

Madrid

Orlando

Los Angeles


Lead Time

20% 43%7% 7%15% 8%

1 TRAVELER

2 TRAVELERS

3+ TRAVELERS71%

17%

12%

12+ Days

8 to 11 Days

4 to 7 Days

0 to 3 Days

Trip Duration

27%

24%

15%

34%


London

Barcelona

Palma de Mallorca

Lisbon

Paris/New York City (tied)


Lead Time

21% 42%7% 7%15% 8%

1 TRAVELER

2 TRAVELERS

3+ TRAVELERS

63%23%

14%

12+ Days

8 to 11 Days

4 to 7 Days

0 to 3 Days

Trip Duration

38%

25%

11%

26%




What were the quarterly outbound search trends for the Middle East & Africa? What were the quarterly outbound search trends for Asia-Pacific?


London

New York City

Paris

Istanbul

Dubai


Lead Time

20% 36%8% 8%18% 10%

1 TRAVELER

2 TRAVELERS

3+ TRAVELERS72%

14%

13%

12+ Days

8 to 11 Days

4 to 7 Days

0 to 3 Days

Trip Duration

27%

26%

14%

33%


Bangkok

Tokyo

Singapore

Hong Kong

London


Lead Time

19% 44%7% 7%15% 8%

1 TRAVELER

2 TRAVELERS

3+ TRAVELERS68%

19%

12%

12+ Days

8 to 11 Days

4 to 7 Days

0 to 3 Days

Trip Duration

37%

29%

12%

22%




Q2 2016 Travel Events

North America: Copa GamesThe US hosted the Copa America tournament for the first time in the games’ 100 year history on June 3-26. Cities including Seattle, San Francisco, and Orlando played host to soccer teams and fans from all over North and South America.

In our Q1 2016 report, travel intent revealed that Dallas, Chicago, and Boston were the top cities searching to go to the tournament. We’ve updated our look to include top originations booking flights to Copa cities during Q1 and Q2:

Top Origination for Copa Games Q1 Compared to Q2

Rank Top Booked in Q1 Top Booked in Q2 Rank Change

1 San Francisco New York City +1

2 New York City San Francisco -1

3 Chicago Chicago -

4 Dallas Los Angeles +2

5 Miami Miami -

6 Los Angeles Dallas -2

7 Phoenix Phoenix -

8 Philadelphia Philadelphia -

9 Houston Houston -

10 San Diego Washington, DC +

Knowing the origin markets headed to your city is important for any travel marketer, so too is knowing the magnitude of events like Copa for drawing travelers. With host cities seeing a sizeable increase in travelers during the Copa games, travel marketers need to take note and market to event-based travelers.

+29%for Seattle

+28%for Orlando

+131%Increase in the share of

searches for European destinations in May 2016 compared to May 2015

+21%for San Francisco

+42%Year-over-year increase in volume of bookings from

Colombia to Europe

Incremental Increase in Bookings Year-Over-Year During Copa Dates

1 Bendavid, Naftali. (June 10, 2015) “EU Signs Visa Pact With Colombia and Peru.” The Wall Street Journal.

Latin America: Colombia Visa Restrictions LiftedOn December 2, 2015, Colombia and the European Union (EU) signed a short-stay visa agreement. This allows travel between the two geos without the previously required visas.1 The increase in searches from Colombia to the EU was immediate and dramatic:

Lifting these restrictions has an impact on not only Colombian travelers, but also the global travel industry. If you’re a European travel marketer, knowing that you have access to a group who were previously difficult to reach, gives you a direct avenue for finding new customers.The substantial increase in interest to the EU means that there is a new group of in-market travelers who you can message.

If you’re a travel marketer in Latin America, you too have a new, fresh market in European travelers and should start planning accordingly.

0

50

100

150

200

MayAprMarFebJan '16DecNovOctSepAugJulJunMay '15

VISA WAIVER AGREEMENT SIGNED

BOOKINGS TO EUROPE

Indexed Bookings From Colombia to Europe100 = Monthly Average Bookings from May 2015 to May 2016




Europe: Euro Cup UpdateTRAVEL INTENT CHANGES Q1 TO Q2

In our Q1 2016 Global Travel Trends report, we looked at interest to this year’s UEFA European Championship tournament. Newcomers to the tournament, such as Albania and Slovakia, dominated in week-over-week travel intent from June 10 compared to the previous week. Our updated view shows that these newcomers continue to lead in travel intent:

Middle East and Africa: Ramadan UpdateIn our Q1 2016 report, we looked forward to early travel trends surrounding the big travel season post-Ramadan. For Q2, we refreshed the look in order to determine how last-minute bookers have shifted trends.

As we moved closer to the holiday, the ranking of popular destinations changed. Turkey, which was in third in Q1 dropped to two positions in Q2, but India remained the most popular across both quarters.

OPTIMISTIC FANS LOOKING EARLY

On June 20, we looked at inbound travel intent to France in order to see who had the most optimistic fans moving into the next round—that is, those fans already looking for travel to the final games before their teams qualified:

In our Q1 look, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Jordan showed the biggest increase in post-Ramadan travel intent. There’s a bit of a shift in which country is feeling the biggest impact, with the following making up the top five list:

Further:• Trips of 12 days or more remain the most popular for post-Ramadan travel at 39% of all travel;

• Regional trips increased from 15% to 25% of all travel after Ramadan; and

• June 20 and July 1 remain the most popular departure dates.

Understanding when and where Middle Eastern travelers search and book around such a major period of travel allows travel marketers to adapt to changing preferences and shift marketing strategies along with the traveler’s path to purchase.

Change in Destination Ranking Q1 to Q2 Departures: June 30 to July 6

Rank Q1 Origin Region Q2 Origin Region Rank Change

1 India India -

2 US Saudi Arabia +

3 Turkey US -1

4 UK Egypt +2

5 Germany Turkey -2

6 Egypt UK -2

7 France France -

8 Philippines Germany -3

9 Italy Jordan +

10 Canada Pakistan +

Travel intent, as we see here for Euro Cup, is not only exciting for the teams and countries that support them, it also translates into huge opportunities for travel marketers. Knowing which markets are flocking to your location allows you to target ads to them and upsell. If they’re coming in for the games, consider running a special that encourages them to extend their stay.

Travel marketers should take note of this event and try to capitalize on others like it—reaching out to event-based travelers is an ideal opportunity to offer additional experiences and upgrades while they are in destination.

+188%Bahrain

+164%Qatar

+148%Iraq

+132%Kuwait

+131%United Arab

Emirates

Percentage Growth in Travel Intent from June 30 and July 1 Compared to the Week Before (June 23-24)+108%

Turkey+69%

France+45%

UK+58%

Germany

Percent Increase in Intent from Group Stages to Games of Last 16

Italy

Germany

Portugal

Top Football Nations:Q1 vs Q2 Look

Newcomers to the Tournament:Q1 vs Q2 Look

+188%

+85%

+38%

+28%

+36%

+5%

NorthernIreland

Wales

Albania+3600%

+418%

+840%

+387%

+150%

+227%

Q1 Q2



http://http//www.sojern.com/travel-insights/2016-q1


Asia-Pacific: Golden WeekIn Japan, Golden Week consists of four national holidays within seven days from April 29 through May 5. This year, for the first time since 2011, Golden Week didn’t include a weekend. In order to see how changes to the season impact travel, we compared travel trends from 2015 to 2016:

A few other interesting travel trends emerged, including the fact that more group travel occurs during Golden Week than outside of it, and that most travelers book their trips roughly two months in advance.

Time your campaigns accordingly and know that offers for group travel will be more effective. Keep in mind that year over year trends are not static. Next year, Golden Week falls on a weekend, so trends are sure to shift again.

Looking Forward

3+ Travelers2 Travelers1 Traveler

77% 70% 20% 24% 3% 6%

Traveling Party Size for Golden Week

2015 2016

12+ Days

8 to 11 Days

6 to 7 Days

4 to 5 Days

2 to 3 Days

0 to 1 Days

5%

-48%

-19%

-18%

17%

41%

Change in Trip Duration for Golden Week 2015 to 2016




What are the Q3 search trends for North America? What are the Q3 search trends for North America?

Las Vegas

New York City

Miami

Los Angeles

San Francisco

London

Cancun

Paris

San Juan

Dublin

Top 5 Destinations

Party Size

Trip Duration

SHORT-HAUL LONG-HAUL

12+ Days

8 to 11 Days

4 to 7 Days

0 to 3 Days40%

15%

38%

26%

12%

19%

9%

39%


12% 11%20% 19%68% 70%

Share of Weekday Travel Departure

Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday Sunday

SHORT-HAUL 9% 10% 12% 19% 26% 15% 9%

LONG-HAUL 13% 12% 13% 16% 21% 15% 10%

Share of Weekday Searches


SHORT-HAUL 16% 18% 18% 16% 12% 9% 10%

LONG-HAUL 16% 17% 17% 16% 13% 10% 11%

HIGH LOW




Travel Changes Throughout the SummerSummer means vacation season for North America. But, how do vacations change over the course of the summer months? We looked at the top 10 searched destinations for North American travelers throughout July, August, and September in order to see changes in travel behavior:

Top Destinations for North America Throughout the Summer

Rank July August Septemeber

1 New York City New York City New York City

2 Chicago Chicago Chicago

3 Los Angeles Los Angeles Los Angeles

4 Miami Miami Miami

5 Dallas San Francisco London

6 Washington, DC Dallas Dallas

7 San Francisco Boston San Francisco

8 Boston Washington, DC Paris

9 Las Vegas Toronto Washington, DC

10 Atlanta London Boston

There’s little shift in the top four positions—they’re each large cities and, traditionally major summer destinations. The further down the list, though, the more interesting things become:

• London has quite a dramatic rise—from not appearing in July, to tenth spot in August, rising to fifth place in September. People look for international travel later in the year, hence the rise in London towards the end of the summer. Paris also pops up in September, supporting this theory.

• San Francisco peaks in August, notoriously the hottest month of the summer. Perhaps the city’s cooler temperatures, similar with Toronto, are the reason for increased interest.

• Washington, DC is most popular in July—US Independence Day may be drawing travelers to the capital for celebrations and fireworks.

Understanding how trends change over time is important to ensuring that your marketing efforts stay aligned with travelers' intent throughout every season.

What are the Q3 search trends for Latin America?

Cancun

Rio de Janeiro

Santiago

Mexico City

Lima

Miami

New York City

Madrid

Orlando

Paris

Top 5 Destinations

Party Size

Trip Duration


12+ Days

8 to 11 Days

4 to 7 Days

0 to 3 Days26%

15%

30%

19%

15%

17%

28%

49%


15% 14%18% 18%67% 68%




Updated Olympic OutlookIn our Q1 2016 report, we looked ahead to Olympic travel intent in order to see which countries were most excited for this year’s games. With growing controversy about the games, including Zika, Brazil’s unpreparedness and more, we refreshed our Olympics outlook in order to see any shifts in intent:

Japan, UK, and Brazil continue to show strong intent as we get closer to the game. The US and Italy also show increasing interest, but are the laggards of the group. Seeing which origin markets aren’t shying away from the Olympics should influence who you target for your own campaigns.

What are the Q3 search trends for Latin America?



SHORT-HAUL 15% 10% 11% 15% 25% 14% 9%

LONG-HAUL 15% 11% 13% 15% 22% 14% 10%



SHORT-HAUL 17% 17% 16% 15% 13% 11% 12%

LONG-HAUL 16% 17% 16% 15% 14% 10% 12%

HIGH LOW

Q2 Increase in Travel Intent to Rio for the Olympics from Q1

US

Brazil

UK

Italy

Canada

Germany

Australia

Japan

Spain

Netherlands

18%

105%

110%

13%

35%

24%

48%

130%

56%

54%

US UK BRAZIL ITALY GERMANY JAPAN

0

50

100

150

200

250

Jun '16May '16Apr '16Mar '16Feb '16Jan '16

Change in Travel Intent to Rio January through June 2016 for Olympic Dates100 = Monthly Average for Each Country




What are the Q3 search trends for Europe?

Palma de Mallorca

Barcelona

London

Ibiza

Malaga

New York City

Bangkok

Los Angeles

Bali

Miami

Top 5 Destinations

Party Size

Trip Duration


12+ Days

8 to 11 Days

4 to 7 Days

0 to 3 Days32%

15%

30%

13%

14%

12%

24%

60%


22% 18%26% 23%52% 59%

What are the Q3 search trends for Europe?



SHORT-HAUL 19% 8% 9% 14% 25% 16% 9%

LONG-HAUL 21% 10% 10% 14% 20% 15% 10%



SHORT-HAUL 16% 16% 15% 14% 12% 11% 15%

LONG-HAUL 16% 16% 15% 14% 12% 12% 16%

HIGH LOW




City Search Patterns Compared: UK Spotlight Not all cities within the same country plan travel in the exact same way, but often travel advertisers take country-level approach to their marketing strategies. But this misses the nuances of city and region-specific trends, which are important to reaching the appropriate audience. In order to get more strategic, we looked at a city-level comparison of searches and bookings from the UK, one of the biggest outbound summer travel groups in Europe:

London dominates for single travelers, followed by Edinburgh. Couple travel is biggest in Liverpool, and family travel (three or more) is most frequent in Birmingham. Understanding how each city travels, including popularity of party sizes, allows you to target your campaigns accordingly—promoting more family deals to the Birmingham audience, for instance.

DEPARTURE DAYS

The biggest day of departure across the UK is Friday—in London, for instance, 25% of departures take place then. As the UK is only a couple hours away from other European hubs, weekend city breaks are commonplace. Offering specials for these departures dates, or add-ons nearer to when people are leaving, are two great ways to make the most out of these timing trends.

LEAD TIME

Looking very generally at lead times, London and Birmingham stand out with tendencies towards last-minute travel, with 14% of their lead times fewer than seven days. A high population of business travelers in these big cities, coupled with a high propensity for city breaks, may be responsible for these standouts.

Knowing your strongest markets, and where you are weaker, can help make sure your marketing efforts are strategically diversified.

What are the Q3 search trends for Middle East & Africa?

Cairo

Dubai

Amman

Tel Aviv

Beirut

New York City

London

Istanbul

Paris

Bangkok

Top 5 Destinations

Party Size

Trip Duration


12+ Days

8 to 11 Days

4 to 7 Days

0 to 3 Days19%

15%

22%

22%

13%

17%

46%

46%


18% 21%11% 15%71% 64%

16%London

17%Birmingham

22%Liverpool

21%Glasgow

Percentage of Travelers Looking to Destinations in Spain

DESTINATIONS

Spain remains the most popular destination for UK travelers, but to varying degrees:

Searching and Booking with Departures Until End of 2016

1 TRAVELER 2 TRAVELERS 3+ TRAVELERS

0

20

40

60

80

100

OtherEdinburghLiverpoolGlasgowManchesterBirminghamLondon

64% 54% 54% 53% 51% 58% 53%




Tourism Trends in Middle East & AfricaTurkey, Tunisia, and Egypt have each had terrorist attacks on major tourist destinations this year. We looked at travel trends to the Middle East and Mediterranean areas to see if travel trends have shifted as a result of the year’s political instability.

We see that Tunisia, Egypt, and Turkey are down in travel intent from last year, but other areas in the region are experiencing strong growth:

Looking at specific origin markets for the month of July gives a more nuanced understanding of the shifts:

• Germany, for instance, is showing a 93% increase in travel to Croatia, and a 19% increase for Cyprus. On the other hand, Germany has a 24% decrease in travel to Tunisia.

• The UK is bucking the global trends with an increase of 10% in travel to Tunisia during July. The decline in travel intent to Egypt is only 3% and the UK is showing great interest in Israel (33%) and Morocco (44%).

• Russia’s weak ruble seems to be leading to a decline in travel across the board. Travelers there are only showing an increase in travel in five out of the 20 destinations, though Tunisia is one of them, showing a 35% increase.

Middle East marketers need to take note of the changing shifts in markets. The UK still shows strong travel intent to the region, so should be marketed to differently than other origins. Though political unrest is impacting year-over-year trends, some origin markets haven’t been significantly affected. Moreover, the region as a whole isn’t experiencing a ripple effect, which is good news.

What are the Q3 search trends for Middle East & Africa?



SHORT-HAUL 14% 12% 13% 18% 21% 11% 11%

LONG-HAUL 14% 11% 13% 19% 21% 10% 11%



SHORT-HAUL 16% 16% 16% 15% 10% 12% 15%

LONG-HAUL 16% 16% 15% 14% 11% 13% 15%

HIGH LOW

Bulgaria

Crotia

Cyprus

Egypt

France

Greece

Israel

Italy

Montenegro

Morocco

Portugal

Spain

Tunisia

Turkey

14%

69%

39%

-15%

64%

34%

24%

39%

36%

30%

97%

39%

-9%

-14%

Year-Over-Year Changes in Searches and Bookings for Global TravelDeparture Month: July ‘16




What are the Q3 search trends for Asia-Pacific?

Singapore

Tokyo

Bangkok

Taipei

Osaka

London

Paris

New York City

Los Angeles

Honolulu

Top 5 Destinations

Party Size

Trip Duration


12+ Days

8 to 11 Days

4 to 7 Days

0 to 3 Days34%

18%

38%

22%

12%

17%

16%

43%


17% 12%22% 20%61% 68%

What are the Q3 search trends for Asia-Pacific?



SHORT-HAUL 13% 9% 12% 16% 24% 17% 10%

LONG-HAUL 14% 10% 12% 15% 22% 16% 10%



SHORT-HAUL 16% 17% 16% 17% 13% 10% 11%

LONG-HAUL 16% 16% 15% 15% 13% 12% 13%

HIGH LOW




Singapore Formula One Grand Prix PreviewThe Singapore Grand Prix runs September 16-18 and an estimated 40,000 international tourists will pour into Singapore for the event.2 In order to preview travel for the Grand Prix, we compared travel trends from the week of the race with the previous week. We see an increase in travel intent to Singapore during the event for most regions:

Additional changes to Singapore travel trends include:

• A decline in Middle Eastern travelers of 63%. The Islamic Festival of Sacrifice (Eid al-Adha) occurs in early September this year and many Middle Eastern travelers are headed to Singapore then. The decrease in intent for the Grand Prix is only because there were so many travelers visiting earlier.

• Although typically Singapore weekend travelers arrive on Friday and Saturday, for the Grand Prix, the most popular date of arrival is Thursday.

• Trip duration also changes with travelers looking for more 4-5 day trips, perhaps to see the race and the qualifying:

Marketing to Grand Prix tourists means knowing how their behavior differs. Consider offering more ‘5th night free’ deals in order to capitalize on travelers looking for a long weekend. Also, knowing that the UK is your biggest international destination market means honing in your ad spend to the region.

Appendix

Glossary Lead Time (Search or Booking): The length of time between a search or booking and departure date.

Last-Minute Booker: A traveler that books a trip with seven days or less to travel.

Short-Haul & Long-Haul Trip: Short-haul is usually regional, while long-haul is usually inter-regional.

Regional CoverageSojern breaks down the world into regions and subregions as shown in the map below. Regions are shown with a colored background and subregions with a white background.

MethodologySojern’s quarterly insights reports are based on the rigorous analysis of more than a billion traveler intent data points, obtained through Sojern’s unique partnerships with some of the world’s most renowned travel brands. Our analysis is based on airport level data which is then aggregated to countries and regions. All of the insights are based on very specific data sets as provided by Sojern's data partners. Sojern’s data is rounded to the nearest whole number for readability and therefore not all charts and graphs will add up to 100%. Sojern never shares or distributes personally identifiable information (PII) such as names, emails, or addresses. The data provided is not a complete view of all global traveler information, as different data sources provide additional views of traveler behavior.

Caribbean

South America

Oceania

Southeast Asia

East Asia

South Asia

Middle East

North America

Europe

Central America

Latin America

Asia-Pacific

Eastern Europe

Central Asia

Sub-Saharan Africa

North Africa

Middle East & Africa

Western Europe

+19%Western Europe

+104%East Asia

+46%Oceania

+41%UK

Comparison of Travel Intent for the Week Leading Up to the Singapore Grand Prix to the Week Before

Change in Trip Duration Race Week vs Week Before

12+ Days

8 to 11 Days

6 to 7 Days

4 to 5 Days

2 to 3 Days

0 to 1 Days

-38%

-32%

-13%

65%

34%

-12%

2 Balfour, Andrew. (July 19, 2015).“Race Facts—Singapore Grand Prix.” F1 Destinations.



http://f1destinations.com/race-facts-singapore-f1-grand-prix/

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SINGAPORE

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q2 2016 global travel insights - travel’s direct demand …€¦ · · 2017-05-17and tourists...

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