Active travelers are likely to change travel plans this summer

This past week I attended the 2009 Destination Marketing Association International CEO Forum in Savannah, GA. Peter Yesawich, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Yesawich, Pepperdine, Brown & Russell, America's leading marketing, advertising and public relations agency serving travel, leisure and lifestyle clients served as our keynote speaker. Below is a recap of a portion of his presentation…

Most industry chatter is replete with anecdotal reports of cancelled business trips, meeting planners who are re-booking groups to more cosmetically "acceptable" venues in order to avoid the glare of the press, and postponed vacations. Yet the fact of the matter is the incidence of travel in America remains robust, as revealed in our most recent travelhorizons™ survey. The February (2009) edition of this nationally-representative survey of 2,200 U.S. adults which we co-author every 90 days with the U.S. Travel Association revealed that almost two thirds (63%) of U.S. adults are planning to take at least one overnight trip primarily for leisure purposes during the next 6 months (versus 60% in January 2008). Not surprisingly, intentions to travel increase with household income (fully 8 out of 10 households with an annual income over $75,000 are planning at least one overnight trip for leisure purposes during the next 6 months). And one out of 6 adults (16%) is planning to take at least one overnight trip primarily for business purposes during the next 6 months.

So contrary to what one might conclude from the prevailing news headlines, the problem does not appear to be a decline in the percentage of adults who are traveling for either business or pleasure. Rather, the real culprit is revealed in the replies given by respondents to a question about how, if at all, they are planning to change their travel behavior in the months ahead as summarized below:

As revealed in the table, the most frequently anticipated "changes" in future travel behavior appear to be motivated by a desire to reduce the cost of travel. No surprise here (hence the reason for the "trading down" phenomenon now underway in practically every category of the travel industry). And the Internet is clearly the weapon of choice. But the market force that appears to be exerting downward pressure on demand is the conscious effort on the part of travelers to reduce the number of nights they plan to spend away from home, regardless of the purpose of their trip (business or leisure). Fully half of all travelers who state they are likely to modify their future travel behavior plan to do so by staying fewer nights. Assuming an average trip length of 3 nights for business and 4 nights for leisure, the negative impact of the realization of this expectation on the lodging, cruise and attraction industries in particular could be significant. So the implication is clear: the real challenge facing the travel industry is less one of getting people to take trips they otherwise were going to postpone or cancel, and more one of getting them to extend their length of stay. This should therefore be the focus of your creativity, and communications, in future marketing programs.

In Peter's speech he makes some excellent points. The Marketing Communications team at the Louisville Convention & Visitors Bureau will be reviewing Peter's assessment and determining how to reposition our advertising message especially in terms of attracting more leisure travel to Louisville. People have migrated from packaging to ala' carte and now back to packaging. Look for the LCVB to add more inclusive packages in this year's leisure promotion.