The Growth Distillery and Pureprofile have released the findings from Signals of Intent: Travel, a new study identifying behaviours that predict when consumers are ready to book a trip.
The research analysed 500,000 travel transactions and surveyed 3,000 travellers to uncover five key intent signals. Findings show confident travellers spend 40% more, convert 25% faster, and deliver stronger ROI for marketers.
The five types of behaviours that predict travel readiness include:
1. Content Consumption: confident travellers who read travel content, consume 60% more content from trusted travel websites.
2. Social Media: excessive social media engagement often indicates uncertainty when it comes to planning the next trip.
3. Journey Decisiveness: confident consumers visit fewer sources and make travel decisions with greater focus and speed.
4. Risk and Safety Concerns: frequent visits to government safety websites signal weak booking confidence.
5. Life Stability: major life changes such as a new job, relationship or moving house significantly reduces travel confidence.
The research also uncovered four critical actions for travel marketers:
• Reduce Decision Paralysis: limit options to 3-5 to prevent choice overload
• Optimise for Speed: streamline booking flows with express purchase options
• Target Upselling Strategically: embed additional options within simple purchase paths
• Consolidate Platform Experience: provide inspiration, reassurance, and booking tools in one place
Jessica Folkard
The Growth Distillery Senior Manager Audience Intelligence Jessica Folkard said: “Greater frequency of content consumption from trusted publishers is a clear signal of purchase intent. Confident travellers actively seek quality information before booking, whilst uncertain consumers get lost in endless social media scrolling.
“Instead of chasing every signal, marketers should focus on identifying and targeting confident consumers who move decisively through the purchase journey.”
The Growth Distillery is News Corp Australia’s independent research think tank.