The Nine State of the Nation travel event held at the Sydney Opera House revealed a new era of holiday trends set to re-shape the travel industry.
A panel discussion featured some of Australia’s most respected travel executives, with insights provided by global futures consultancy The Future Laboratory.
A culture of remote working, a passion for having a positive impact on cultures and the planet, and a desire to push the boundaries of unique experiences will drive future travel trends, despite the short-term impact of pandemic-induced travel difficulties.
There was also detailed analysis and strategic insights that combined bespoke data from Nine audience intelligence, the fascinating look into the future examined how travel is changing, from the evolving role of agents to the push for regeneration and the promise of luxury’s most extreme frontiers to show how travel brands can stay ahead of the curve.
Hosted by 2GB Breakfast presenter Ben Fordham with a panel featuring Stephanie Tully, Qantas group chief customer officer; Michelle Mickan, head of marketing of Abercrombie & Kent Australia; Fiona Dalton, general manager ANZ, Virtuoso Travel; and Ryan Taibel, VP sales and marketing P&O Cruises and Cunard, the event aimed at providing inspiration to an industry that has suffered through a crippling pandemic.
Michael Stephenson, Nine’s chief sales officer, said: “Travel is a part of our DNA at Nine, and we have the leading travel brands in publishing across our digital ecosystem and on television.
“Eighteen months ago, we launched our first State of the Nation series event at what was a critical time for the travel industry. A lot has changed since then – local and international borders are now open, allowing us to travel more freely both here in Australia and overseas.
“This event explores the changing role of travel agents, the push for regeneration and the promise of luxury’s most extreme frontiers, to show smart travel brands how they can stay ahead of the curve,” Stephenson added.
With the insights highlighting eight burgeoning trends – from the ultra luxury market finding new frontiers to an ever growing solo travel scene changing the rules on the much maligned singles surcharge – the message to travel providers and brands is they must embrace sustainability, innovation and ever-emerging categories to stay ahead of the curve.
As an overwhelming number of Australians look to book their next overseas holiday, with 81% of Nine’s audiences set to travel abroad in the next 12 months, travel and luxury trends are already shifting.
Barry Mowszowski, associate strategy and foresight analyst at The Future Laboratory, said: “The growth opportunities in the global travel sector are immense and Nine and its travel partners are well placed to capitalise in the areas of regenerative travel, educated experiences and wandering workers among others.”
These trends include how remote working has broadened the role of travel to create a new mode of traveller who desires a slower pace of life with a longer-term stay that combines work, leisure and travel.
Qantas group chief customer officer Tully said post-pandemic, the Australian airline is seeing really strong demand for point-to-point travel with travellers wanting to avoid connections.
“We saw it pre-Covid with Perth to London direct which was successful, but Covid has really accelerated that trend. Project Sunrise is only a couple of years away and will see the East Coast of Australia connected directly to London and New York.
“We are seeing a strong strength in demand for that. We’re also seeing a growth in premium so the desire and the booking patterns in premium cabins are stronger than ever before. People are spoiling themselves with the way they are travelling,” she added.
Mickan from Abercrombie & Kent agreed, adding: “People are really wanting to treat themselves and we’re seeing transactions up by 25-30% by each traveller who wants to do each destination well. They’re spending longer in destinations and we’re seeing much smaller lead times, with people not booking as far in advance as they were pre-pandemic. And in terms of what people are booking, they’re looking for new frontiers and anything that’s new and exciting; the Middle East has made the biggest comeback we’ve ever seen.”
The insights also reveal consumers will pay a premium for trips which have a positive impact on both people and the planet, with this trend seeing pressure on brands and travel companies to offer tangible evidence that shows their commitment to purposeful travel.
In a world that is increasingly small and devoted to mass tourism, unique personalised experiences that push the boundaries of possibility will be the new frontier. The new luxury will be experiences that offer the conquest of unexplored realms, from space travel to ones that blur the line between fantasy and physical.
They are designed to make the traveller feel like they are witnessing a moment in time, such as staying in the world’s first ‘wandering hotel’ which changes location every six months.
“We’re tailoring cruising to our clientele – if you’re a couple who wants a refined experience, then we have smaller cruises for those people; or we have the kids’ friendly holiday cruises,” said Taibel from P&O Cruises and Cunard.
And in good news for travel advisors, holidaymakers daunted by the complex planning of an adventure are increasingly turning back to professional help to navigate their trip. Nearly half of US travellers who rarely or sometimes used travel agents in the past, said they were now more likely to use one post-pandemic, according to the American Society of Travel Advisors.
Dalton from Virtuoso Travel said: “We’re seeing people spend a lot of time online planning and finding inspiration, and then coming to a trusted travel advisor and working with them to curate not just one trip, but the next three or four trips because if you are solely focused on what you’re doing next, you will probably miss out on that experience.”
Amanda Upton, Nine’s client director – Travel & Luxury said Nine was uniquely positioned to help travel and luxury marketers capitalise on the post-pandemic travel boom and future trends. As part of the State of the Nation travel event she announced Nine was making a number of key initiatives in publishing and data assets to help the industry grow and reach consumers looking to travel.
These initiatives include Traveller’s 15th Anniversary special, a revamp of the Traveller website, Return to Cruise Month, The Australian Financial Review’s new lifestyle/travel magazine FIN, the Traveller HOT LISTS series for 2023, as well as dynamic ad units now available through the Nine Data platform.
Upton said: “Research by Nine has revealed travel is the number one consumer purchase consideration across the Nine Audience. Through our internal Nine Nation polling we know our audience’s appetite to travel has never been stronger. To meet this demand, we are producing more travel content than ever before.
“Through our Nine Travel ecosystem brands can reach the majority of Australians who will spend more and travel more over the next 12 months. With this in mind, we have tailored a series of initiatives, to provide ultra relevant and inspirational content and in turn; the ultimate environment for advertisers to capitalise on Australia’s desire to travel,” she added.