What moves travellers and what makes them stop? Destination Factors and Travel Barriers
There are as many reasons to travel as travellers in the world. You can travel for business or pleasure, to visit friends or family, to go to an event, and more. But what about the other side of that coin? Travel barriers are those factors that make people think twice before deciding to visit a certain destination. In this article we will show you how they work and provide a few examples to demonstrate how they can help you.
Destination Factors: what are they and how to use them
Let's begin with the Destination Factors. This aspect of our market research focuses on the importance of different aspects of a vacation to specific segments of travellers. Our database identifies a range of 36 factors that hold a certain relevance when travelling. Level of importance or indifference, can order these depending on the needs of your market research.
The factors focus on different sides of the travel experience. You have, for example, structural aspects like cleanliness, health and hygiene standards, and low crime levels. There's also financial factors like affordability, logistical, like being able to drive to the destination, and much more.
For example, when analyzing the answers for all of our markets in 2022, we notice that the most relevant Destination Factor is cleanliness. This means that cleaning standards are the most important characteristic of a destination or travel experience for European travellers. Other factors with high levels of relevance are nightlife and safety standards.
The huge value of this type of data relies on knowing what is relevant to the traveller when deciding where to travel. With these insights you can't stop guessing and start developing data-fueled campaigns that can adapt your destination's experience to the travellers needs and expectations.
Travel Barriers: what are they and how to use them
After analyzing what travellers want, we continue with what they don't want. Travel Barriers are the answer to the following question: To what extent would each of these situations have a negative effect on your travel planning? Basically, this section of our market research focuses on those aspects of a travel experience that people want to avoid.
Like the Destination Factors, Travel Barriers focus on different aspects of the experience, but they work on an indirect level. This means that most of these aspects are beyond the destination's control. They go from particular events like flight cancelations to global crisis like COVID-19 or Monkey Pox. If we analyse the answers of all of our markets in 2022, we detect that the predominant travel barrier is "Political instability in my country". It is followed by "Inconvenience in airports" and "Political instability in destination".
Even though most of these events are beyond the destination's control and can even be unpredictable, they provide valuable data. These insights can help you understand the concerns of your traveller and also learn about the negative perception they have about your destination. For example, even though you don't have control over a COVID-19 outbreak, this data can help you prepare for this scenario. You can improve your health protocols and present yourself as a destination with high standards in this matter.
Conclusion
In conclusion, Destination Factors and Travel Barriers are two sides of the same coin. The first one works with aspects of the travel experience that travellers consider important and actively look for. The second one works with factors that travellers want to avoid and that can even prevent them from travelling to a certain destination. Understanding what moves travellers and what makes them stop, can help you develop better marketing strategies. It can also help you design experiences that adapt better to the expectations and needs of travellers. Some of the most relevant Destination Factors for European travellers are cleanliness, nightlife, and low crime levels. As for Travel Barriers, travellers worry about political instability, both in their country and their destination, and inconvenients in airports.
Do you think that Destination Factors and Travel Barriers can be useful?
Photo credit: Annie Spratt