Failte Ireland Research: Business Tourism Sentiment Tracker 2021 

Key Findings: 

• 94% of internet users go online daily, and of these 39% use it all the time or nearly all the time.

• Internet users aged 16 to 29 years had gone online daily, and of these, 95% had used the internet at least several times a day.

• Older persons used the internet the least. 54% of persons aged 75 years and over had used the internet within the previous three months.

• Students were the most frequent users and had used the internet daily, of which almost all had gone online at least several times a day.

• The majority of households have internet access (94%), mainly fixed broadband (86%).

• Household internet connectivity was highest for the Dublin region (96%), compared with the Border and Midland regions (91%). Of the households in Dublin with internet access, more than nine in ten were via fixed broadband (91%), compared with 79% in the Border region.

The GBTA carried out an outlook poll amongst its members  in January2024  and found that:

• 83% of travel buyers say their 2023 global business travel bookings increased – significantly (31%), moderately (37%), or slightly (15%) – versus 2022.
• 84% of buyers reporting their travel spending increased significantly (33%), moderately (38%), or slightly (13%) over the same period.
• 59% of buyers expect the number of business trips will increase at their company in 2024 compared to 2023. 
• More travel buyers in North America (66%) expect an increase in employee travel in 2024 compared to European buyers (37%)

See more results in the report. 

The PWC Global Consumer Insights Survey is a biannual study that seeks to keep a closer watch on changing consumer trends.  In the June edition (8,000 polled across 25 countries and territories) some of findings included;

• Consumers use a range of sources pre-purchase - search engines, retailers websites and price comparison websites 
• Social media channels are also an important source for Gen Z consumers  
• There is a willingness to use chatbots to search for product information before a purchase but not for other services e.g customer service queries. 
• A majority of consumers say they have purchased products directly from a brand’s website rather than through another site.
• Consumers are willing to pay a small premium for sustainably produced goods. 

See more in the full report.

Dragon Trail Research surveyed mainland Chinese outbound travel agencies to get an overview of this travel market now that outbound travel has resumed.   They found that: 

• The millennial market is dominating travel trade sales
• Independent travellers are considered the most popular product type at 42%, group tours (34%) and customized travel for private groups (24%). 
• Group sizes are small, with groups of 20 people or fewer the most popular.
• Family travel, and special experiences are the best sellers  
• Beach and island (37%) is the top type of trip followed by family travel (33%). 
• Travellers chose the quality of products and experiences in destination over low prices.
• The top barriers for outbound travel from China is difficulty in getting visas and high airfare prices. 

See more in the report.

As technology has become firmly embedded in the hospitality experience this research looks at consumers attitudes to using technology within hospitality.

• 16% consumers surveyed believe digital solutions enable and enhance the best visits
• (55%) think the best solution lies in a balance of tech and human interaction.

To see how venues might strike the right balance between digital solutions and personal interaction click on the image for more insights.  

Results based on a survey of 5,000 of British consumers in May 2023.

Before the pandemic, the market share of Online Travel Agencies  in Europe continuously increased from 19.7% in 2013 to 29.2% in 2019 while direct bookings experienced a 10 % decrease for the same period. 

The travel industry has changed as a result of the pandemic with hotels and travellers developing new habits and there has also been a change in sales channels distribution. In 2021, the share of direct booking channels significantly increased. 

Read more about what this might mean for Hoteliers. 

Fáilte Ireland presents the results from the second wave of research conducted with International Associations, Agents and in-House Planners in Britain, Germany, and the US. Interviews were conducted in Q3 and Q4 2021.

This wave focused on their future planning and the impact of Covid-19 on short- and medium-term destination decision-making.

Other areas that were explored include the role of technology and  hybrid events, see more by clicking the image above. 

Accessibility is a key aspect for the Scandic Hotels Brand.

They are the first hotel company in the world to have developed an accessibility standard of 159 points which follows the start of the consumer journey - the route guests take from the parking area into and throughout their hotels.

Of the 159 points, 105 are compulsory at all hotels and all 159 points must be applied when renovating or building new hotels.

Read more about this standard in the article.

This report looks at digital usage and online behaviours in Ireland. 

Findings include:

• Smartphone penetration is up 2% to 96% and a there has been a significant increase in Wearables up from 50% to 67%. 
• Apple and Samsung are now the joint most popular brand at 38% each, with Apple the most popular with the 18-34 year old group.
• The majority of adults (67%) wish they spent less time on devices, up significantly from 51% in the prior year's survey.
• Three quarter of respondents use their smartphone as soon as they wake up (up from 59% in the previous year). This is highest among 18-34 year olds (71%).  
• 65% of phone owners look at their phone within 15 minutes or less after waking up and 36% state that they look at their phone at least 50 times a day.

See more insights in this report. 

This report provides tips and tactics that hotels can utilise to target travellers and guests throughout their path to purchase journey, which have been broken down into five distinct stages:

1. The Inspiration Stage
2. The Planning Stage
3. The Booking Stage
4. The On-Site Experience Stage
5. The Post-Trip Stage

A combination of initiatives that promote a hotel’s offering and attracts guests, will ultimately increases bookings.

See more in the full report. 

Many organisations & businesses are striving to become more “autism-friendly” by making adjustments to their existing services to make them more accessible to autistic people. 

AsIAm - Ireland's Autism charity has created an accreditation to help these businesses to achieve this. See more in the article above.   

This GWI report looks at Social Media channels and their influence on different generations, some insights: 

• Gen Z are the only generation who are most likely to discover new brands through social media advertising
• Millennials are most likely to think that influencers are knowledgeable about the products they recommend
• Baby Boomers are 2.5x more likely than the average consumer to say they don’t trust influencer recommendations at all.

See more in the infographic. 

This benchmarking study provides insights from the global business travel sector and others to reveal their top sustainability priorities. 

Key takeaways include: 

• 89% say that sustainability is already a priority for their company.  

• 76% of travel buyers say that they have  incorporated or are planning to incorporate sustainability objectives in their travel policies. 
• 80% of the global business travel industry report having a sustainability team and/or a sustainability program in place.  
• 88% of the global business travel sector views addressing climate change as the number one priority area for action. 
• Among the biggest barriers to more sustainable business travel management practices are higher costs (82%) and lack of transparent information and data (63%).

See more in this article 

Accessible Tourism offers a means of unlocking potential of your business to grow, while future-proofing your business to be more inclusive for all.

In this guide you will:

• Understand who are our accessible tourism visitors & the importance of this market for tourism.

Booking.com  surveyed 2795 premium holiday rental and hotel bookers across the US, UK, France and Germany about what matters most to them when choosing where to stay.

For this research, high-quality bookers were defined as those who  mainly choose top-quality accommodation.  

See the insights in the article. 

Premium bookers are  those for whom quality is more important than price and account for about 20% of all hotel and holiday  rental bookings, according to research by data analytics company, Kantar. In the US this increases to around 34%.

See what matters the most to this group when booking accommodation in the article above. 

When asking companies to tender for the organisation of a conference/congress, it is important to give them as much information as possible so that the PCO can provide you with an accurate estimate of the fees they would charge. Read for more detail