Every year, Raffour Interactif, a firm specialised in tourism marketing research, gives a conference session to present the latest trends in the sector (see box). The figures from the press release show the latest data from their 2019 Barometer.
A record 66% of people went on holiday in 2018**!
70% of French people prepare to travel by setting aside a specific budget.
Holidays are an opportunity to take an emotional time out and a well-deserved break, which is increasing important within a troubling international environment and everyday lives filled with numerous obligations.
Travel is like a balm for the troubled soul. People explore new horizons, regardless of the distance, meet new people, change pace, gain new perspective and recharge their batteries.
Trend for 2019: 53% of French people have expressed a “vital need to go on holiday”!
French people still place large importance on their vital need to go on holiday and are “prepared to make other financial sacrifices” to achieve this.
Travel starts with increasingly precise organisation and the dual expectation of quality on a human level and high-quality services. French people love new experiences and their trips are built around a whole list specifications with an average of 12 criteria.
E-commerce leads the way in travel!
– 79% of French people travelling in 2018 organised their holidays online,
– 58% used their smartphone or tablet to organise their trip, especially once they had arrived at their destination,
– 55% booked all or some of their trips online (via a desktop or laptop computer, tablet or smartphone), paying for everything online.
There are numerous reasons to explain the preference for online booking: the importance of m-tourism (mobile tourism), which provides access to tourist information 24/7 whenever they need it, with real-time visibility of availability in order to organise trips and activities once they have arrived (depending on the weather, their preferences, events, children, etc.); highly competitive prices that can be compared to get the best value for money; more experience-based choices.
The fact that 79% of customers are e-tourists means that all travel professionals need to adopt omnichannel sales strategies (…)
Online travellers with very specific needs!
French people have gained considerable power with e-tourism, which forces all professionals to constantly optimise their business model and their added value.
2019 is set to see leisure activities become even more digital, opening up enormous potential for e-tourism!
French people like to communicate before, during and after their trip and have expressed a need for online support. They are drawn to increasingly immersive multimedia and are looking for more practical information and precision when it comes to details and options (type of cabin, accommodation, seats in transport, extras, etc.). They want optimal organisation of their trips, contractual transparency and commitments to be honoured.
They are looking for increasingly personalised and unique high-quality services, shifting away from a purely destination-based choice for meaningful themed trips tailored to them.
IFTM Top Resa, a trade show with all industry professionals
IFTM Top Resa is the only B2B trade show in the travel industry in France, combining the leisure, business, MICE & group tourism segments.
Every year, it features around 1,700 brands in a 33,000 m2 exhibition space separated into 10 zones (Africa, the Americas, Asia & Pacific, the Caribbean, Europe & the Mediterranean, the Middle East, Indian Ocean, general operators, Tech Zone, partners) and 12 villages (Destination France, tour operators, cruises, startups, digital technology, influencers, Business Club, parks, mountains, distribution networks, coach operators, medical tourism).
The trade show includes a diverse conference programme of 150 sessions and key events like the Startup Contest, Hackathon, Business Travel Grand Prize and the Travel Agents Cup. IFTM is also organising Digital Day on 1 October, a thematic day of lectures based on digital technologies, focusing on major changes to consumption habits and products and services offered by the industry.
| Save the date! Raffour Interactif will deliver its analysis of the latest travel trends at IFTM Top Resa, in the ARENA main auditorium, Hall 1, Porte de Versailles, at 3:45pm on 1 October 2019. |
**About the 2019 Barometer
For the past 17 years, this Barometer has provided detailed data on French people’s holidays and their use of desktop and mobile online solutions to organise and book their trips. The 2019 Barometer was carried out by professional pollsters from January to February 2019. They surveyed 1,005 people representative of the French population aged 15 years or older by applying 5 quotas: age + region + municipality size + gender + socioprofessional category (CSP).
***Total departure rate for French people aged 15 and over, for leisure / recreation / holiday tourism in 2018.
About Raffour Interactif.
Raffour Interactif provides marketing research on tourism and new trends. The firm was founded in 1988 and specialises in marketing studies for the tourism / transport / leisure sector. It analyses the behaviour, opinions and attitudes of tourists from the general public and business travellers, travel agents and various infomediaries and tourism professionals. Its studies are the benchmarks in the sector. The annual comprehensive Barometer study is published on a USB drive containing all cross-analysis research obtained through daily data monitoring. The firm will conduct its 13th Barometer of new leisure and business traveller behaviours as perceived by travel agents, and present it at IFTM Top Resa.
Data subject to copyright and intellectual property laws.
Any citations must quote the following: Source: Raffour Interactif 2019 Barometer and IFTM Top Resa.
