attitude than specific ages or demographics” EMMA ENGLISH, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, BETA
MOTIVATIONS Exploring other cultures and experiencing everyday life “as a local” are the top two motivations for youth travellers, according to a global survey.
Exploring other cultures is high on the list of motivations
global youth market, it’s huge: the World Youth Student and Educational (WYSE) Travel Confederation and the World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO) estimated that youth travel accounted for 23% of all international arrivals during 2017, adding up to a total market value of €250 billion worldwide. What’s more, youth travellers are likely to take longer trips than other types of tourists – the average main trip lasted 52 days in 2017, according to WYSE, with spending of €2,867 per person, which was an increase of 18% compared with 2012. The WYSE survey found that 60% of youth travellers were students, while 28% were in full- time work and 20% in part-time employment (including students). Beta’s own figures for the UK show how important the youth market is, accounting for 38% of all inbound tourists to the UK and bringing in £22.3 billion per year to the country’s economy.
Targeting the market As well as giving the latest market insights and statistics on the youth sector, the Capture Your Youth session will have a practical element, including presentations and case studies featuring travel companies and tourist boards that have successfully marketed to these age groups.
“We will talk about all different kinds of marketing methods including influencer marketing, using storytelling, user-generated content, artificial intelligence and so on,” says Beta’s English. “Each of the speakers will focus on a slightly different element of marketing in their case studies. For example, STA will be talking about
how they use video content to capture their audience, while Hostelworld has had some really cool campaigns – one of them featured Mariah Carey in a viral video.” The session will be moderated by Beta chairman Steve Lowy, who is also co-founder of Umi Digital, an agency specialising in helping hospitality firms to increase internet sales.
Anna Fawcett, global head of marketing at Flight Centre-owned Topdeck Travel, will be one of the speakers and she will focus on developing ways to “co-create value” with customers through storytelling initiatives.
The session will also hear about the experiences of long-established student travel agency specialist STA Travel from Tim Fryer, who is the company’s country manager for the UK and France. He says: “We will discuss the youth travel trends we have seen in recent years, including destination, product and travel style, and how we have adapted our marketing activity to successfully interact with the student youth demographic of today.” The session will also look at a social media-based campaign run by Tourism Australia, which has involved the creation of its own “tongue-in-cheek” TV news service, Aussie News Today, to promote the destination.
Sally Cope, Tourism Australia’s regional general manager for UK and Northern Europe, explains: “Curated by youth for youth, the channel shares quirky, funny and positive stories from across Australia. “Aussie News Today is a primarily socially led campaign, a response to social media now being the primary source of news and
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Simply “taking a holiday” is still the most popular reason for taking a trip abroad
travel inspiration for young people.” The session will also include a presentation from Samuel Vetrak, founder and chief executive of StudentMarketing, on the latest trends and forecasts for global youth, student and educational travel markets.
Meanwhile Simon Lucy, founder of the Hype Collective, will reveal the results of a series of focus groups with UK-based students on their attitudes to travel, including issues such as whether “the rise of purpose-led travel is here to stay or just a fad”.
Beta’s English hopes highlighting a variety of case studies will inspire other travel companies and tourist boards to target the lucrative youth travel market.
“The reason Beta exists is to raise the profile of the sector and to get over the message of the importance of youth mobility, whether they are coming to the UK or going overseas,” she adds. “It’s about offering travel with a purpose and not just going on a Club 18-30-style holiday.”
■ Capture Your Youth takes place today (November 6) from 10.30am to 12pm in Platinum Suite 4
Discovering culture was a motivation for 59% of respondents to a major study of 57,000 travellers aged under 30, carried out by the WYSE Travel Confederation and the World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO). This was followed by 52% who wanted to experience everyday life in destinations on their trips. Other important motivations included increasing knowledge (50%), “learning more about myself” (47%) and interacting with local people (46%). Taking a holiday was the most popular reason for a trip at 38%, followed by language-learning (23%), study (14%), work experience (13%), becoming an au pair (12%) and volunteering (8%). The top destination for the youth market was the USA followed by Spain, France, Italy and the UK – the USA has been the number-one destination for the past 10 years. Using online travel agents
(OTAs) was the most popular way of booking fl ights and accommodation among under-30s with just less than 40% of fl ights and 47% of accommodation being booked through OTAs.
The report revealed that more than 80% of bookings were made online by under-30s in 2017 – up from a fi gure of 50% for online bookings 10 years ago. There was also an increase in the number of bookings made on mobile devices and through social media channels.
YOUTH
“The youth market is now more about
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