The Travel Industry is Alive and Well

Trends from the 2016 U.S. Travel Association Annual Forum

This year I headed to Florida for ESTO, the U.S. Travel Association’s Annual National forum.

I’ve been able to attend the U.S. Travel Association’s annual ESTO conference for 11 of the past 12 years. The four-day conference is a coming together of nearly every state government travel entity and destination. The programming covers marketing, research, and public relations and it provides ample opportunities to share ideas and debate with travel industry (and agency) professionals. And, lest I forget to mention, U.S. Travel honors state and DMOs with their Mercury and Destiny awards program. These are the equivalent of the Oscars for the travel industry, and always fantastic to see the work that’s moving the needle and generating results.

A fair amount of the discussion and presentations focus on the future of travel promotion. Questions abound, such as:

“What’s the most effective ways to promote destinations?”

“What do travelers really want?”

“What’s the next big thing to shake up the industry?”

“What are we doing to attract more Millennials?”
(this one seems to hound agency and clients alike on a regular basis)

The takeaways from this year’s ESTO conference answer all of these questions and provide actionable insights on where the industry is headed.

Here are my favorites:

1. There’s no question about it — Millennials are the market.
   Peter Yesawich’s latest Portrait of the American Traveler put this in the best context: millennials (those aged 18–36) make up 83 million Americans vs. 76 million Boomers. This is a major shift as far travel goes — Boomers have long been marketed to as the prime traveling generation. Millennials are nearly 4x as likely to use shared economy services (Uber, AirBnB) and do so for perceived better value. But more so for greater social experience and meeting new people. Nearly 8 in 10 check their devices first thing in the morning, and give their devices a last look before going to bed. They’re also nearly twice as likely as Boomers to download a travel app or a destination guide and 55% of Millennial travelers bring pets (woof). And finally, six in 10 believe the destinations they visit say a lot about who they are.
2. So, what happened to Generation X?!
   GenX (of which I belong) runs behind millennials and boomers as far as travel generations go. Some of this is attributed to life stage, as X’ers tend to be more entrenched in their careers and have time poverty. This has two side effects: taking shorter vacations with family, and/or being more judicious with discretionary income. But the silver lining is travel intent for GenX is just as strong. And while they may not command the market share, they can be marketed to as family or multigenerational travelers. Of note: multigenerational travel is on the rise. One out of every four travelers is now a grandparent. Primary reason: grandparents showing grandkids things their parents never saw. It’s weird and sounds full of guilt, but interesting nonetheless.
3. There are new virtual and augmented realities of travel.
   One of the most fascinating trends in the tourism industry is the rapid growth of virtual reality in the space, and various brands have already found ways to cleverly (and expensively) make virtual and augmented experiences. This is a fantastic example. Many destinations also report jumping into the Pokemon Go fray to drive more foot traffic to their destination, or to visitation points within their destination.
4. Focus (and sell) the emotion in the travel experience.
   This seems intuitive, right? But it means more than just trying to get the traveler to picture themselves in a destination. It’s more than beauty shots of the best, most unique assets. I’ve seen a lot of work that was trying to present an emotional journey for the potential traveler to experience, but it’s about moments that travelers can relate to. It’s more storytelling, less of relying on show and tell. And underscores the vital part video plays as part of the mix — whether on a website, in social content or if used for broadcast.

In a final ESTO twist, I was part of a panel discussion about the agency-client relationship. Joining me on the panel was our client Dave Williams, Associate Managing Director from the Utah Office of Tourism. Together, we talked about how our teams have worked together over the past several years, and how that collaboration has led to some noteworthy work. It was a pleasure to share the story, challenges and how our agency-client relationship has evolved. Not so much a pleasure was how this panel was captured for posterity (see below).

UOT’s Dave Williams (left) speaking intelligently and myself (second from left) listening and looking unintelligently.

As always, ESTO is a learning experience. This year was also incredibly reinvigorating because it further demonstrated that the travel industry is currently in a really good position. This bodes well for our travel and tourism clients, not to mention all of the travelers and tourists seeking new, exciting destinations and the emotion in experience. Even if they are now mostly those wily millennials.

Jeremy Chase is Director of Client Services at Struck. He is also a proud Idaho native, skier, GenX traveler, and a theatre arts aficionado. You can find him on Twitter and LinkedIn.

Looking for more insights, facebooking, twittering, ramblings, musings and other thoughts? Follow our Greater Than collection.