As the ANTOR Secretariat, we were delighted to organise and host this year’s Annual Review in partnership with JCDecaux. We were joined by many of our member destinations from around the world to hear the latest data insights from JCDecaux UK’s Chief Commercial Officer Mark Bucknell and Business Growth Manager Travel Mavesh Malik, Gloria Guevara, President/CEO of World Travel and Tourism, The Future of Aviation’s Paul Gaffney and our expert panel, including:
YOUGOV’s, Global Sector Head of Travel & Tourism Eva Stewart
TRAVELZOO’s Senior Communications Manager, Cat Jordan
ABTA’s Spokesperson, Sean Tipton
Here is what we learned:
JCDecaux found in their Sentiment Tracker research that 1 in 2 people have wished to go on holiday during lockdown and wanted to do so more than any other activity. 58% of people surveyed also were planning on taking a holiday this year, so it is a vital time for destinations to grab consumers’ attention and stay top-of-mind. To support these statistics, London Heathrow has forecast that in 2021, they will have had 27 million passengers pass through their airport.
Future of Aviation Group, an advisory board set up in April as a response to the minimal support given to the industry, stated that Heathrow had gone from 1st to 10th in the 2020 ACI airport rankings due to the fall in passengers by 86%. Sadly, this saw the UK's aviation industry lose £4 billion across the year.
However, due to lockdown partially, and sometimes completely, shutting down the leisure, retail, and hospitality economies, consumers have saved a whopping £38 billion in total, with 12 million of these consumers stating that they are planning to spend these savings on holidays. JCDecaux’s CCO Mark Bucknell describes this trend as “revenge spending”, where consumers are willing to spend the money that they were not able to during lockdown. This consumer behaviour would be beneficial in restarting the economy and stoking its growth after its L-shaped recession.
This revenge spending could see long haul, big-ticket, bucket list destinations such as Samoa become a top priority for travellers, as well as island destinations such as the Majorca in the Balearics that are deemed to be “safer” due to being smaller and more isolated than large, land-locked destinations. These are both search results that have increased in recent months, according to Travel Zoo’s Cat Jordan. However, the staycation is still set to remain firmly in the minds of British consumers, with UK holidays representing the top-searched break.
Do you have any comments about these findings? Do they represent your consumer behaviour and intent for this year? Let us know, we would love to hear your thoughts!