“Yes” seems to be the answer. When looking for a factor that seems to be a common correlation to being a part of the U.S. tour and travel industry’s Top Ten Overseas Source Markets, look no further than the number of vacation days that workers in these countries receive. (Remember that correlation does not equal causation, but it seems worth investigating the connection for the U.S. marketer.)
INBOUND noticed the correlation when we went a little beyond the Expedia news release put out last week that announced the results of its 18th annual Vacation Deprivation® study today, which examines vacation usage and trends across 19 countries. The report found that global vacation deprivation is on the rise, and that workers in the U.S. took the fewest number of vacation days in the world in 2018, alongside Japan and Thailand.
Focusing on the U.S. an Expedia statement, that “with the number of U.S. vacation days awarded and taken at a five-year low, it’s no wonder that vacation deprivation levels for Americans are at a five-year high (59 percent, up 8 percent from 2017). According to the report, American workers received 14 vacations days and used 10, resulting in 653.9 million days left on the table in 2018.”
What the statement could have said—and would have been a source of much succor to tourism sales and marketing professionals—is that workers in five of the six top source markets covered in the Expedia report (China was not included in the study) were from countries that used all, or most of, their vacation days: UK, South Korea, Germany, Brazil and France.
While the image of the United States has taken a hit recently—a new Pew report showed a significant decline in approval of the U.S. worldwide—and U.S. share of global international tourism has declined over the past decade, travelers and potential travelers still spend more money in the U.S. and want to visit the U.S. than they do any other country. Several just-released tables and an infographic based on figures provided by the World Tourism Organization make the point; as well, they show U.S. travel sellers that their individual products will do very well by configuring them into the U.S. brand, which remains a global favorite.
The London-based marketing and advertising agency FKC says that the travel industry has less consumer loyalty than any other sector of the economy. In a just-released report on research that covered 18 major economic sectors including food and drink, fashion, retail, beauty and motoring, found airlines ranked the worst for loyalty.
While emotion-based marketing is a subject that has been thoroughly explored as it applies to consumer goods, automobiles and appliances, it has been left to scholars and researchers—especially in the area of proprietary research—to explore the subject in the area of travel and tourism.
A trend apparent in the tour and travel industry throughout Europe has continued apace during the past six weeks. The one common denominator to the activity seems to have larger travel sellers and suppliers acquiring smaller companies in order to fill a niche market segment or to add the same to their portfolios. Here are several examples based on recent activity on the tour and travel industry market place: