On the Road Again: Affluents and Their Joy of Travel
Two-thirds of Affluent American adults are constantly in travel planning mode – they are always thinking about and planning their next vacation. To them, travel is their number one passion. In fact, the vast majority of Affluents say they would rather spend money on a fantastic trip than an expensive car. And spend they do! Whether they are exploring new travel destinations or once again returning to a favorite place, 8 in 10 Affluents says it’s worth it to pay extra for comfort and service. That’s one of the reasons why Affluents contribute more than $300 billion to the travel industry during a normal year.
Listen in as Tony Incalcatera, Chief Research Officer and Jesse Peretz, Research Director for Ipsos Affluent Intelligence share results from our latest research on the special relationship that Affluents have with travel. You will hear more about:
- The types of vacations that Affluents are planning this summer
- Where they’re going and how they plan to get there
- How this year’s vacations will differ from last year
- Who wields the decision making in the household when it comes to airline and hotel choices
- Important factors for Affluents when considering where to stay
- How likely business travel will recover in the near term
Today’s AI-generated audio transcript is offered below. Apologies in advance for inconsistencies that have been included.
0:03
Thank you for joining us for today's ... webinar, Exploring Affluents’ Outlook for Travel in 2022, both Personal and for Business.
0:14
Today's presentation is Being given by Tony Incalcatera and Jesse Peretz and you can read more about them on the slide in front of you.
0:24
Throughout today's session, you will remain in listen only mode, however, throughout the webinar, you may submit questions online using the Q&A feature.
0:35
Time permitting, our plan is to answer questions at the end of today's session. However, if time went short, then your question will be answered by e-mail.
0:45
Today's webinar is also being recorded, and will be directly e-mailed to you.
0:51
So, now, without further ado, it is my pleasure to introduce today's speaker, Tony Incalcatera, SVP, with Ipsos’Audience Measurement team. Tony, you'll have the floor.
1:05
Hello, everybody. Thank you for joining us.
1:08
Today, as we talk about one of my favorite subjects, which is all about travel, So my colleague, Jessie and I are going to take you through quite a bit of information, and let's get on with the show.
1:23
Whoops.
1:26
OK, so today, you're gonna see a lot of insight. That's, that's based on two sources, two primary sources.
1:36
The first is our ongoing Ipsos Affluence study in the USA.
1:41
Then that's going to be combined with in-depth study, an in-depth study that we conduct every quarter as part of what we call our Barometer Series.
1:51
These studies are deep dives into specific topics, and this one happens to be very, very fresh since we just finished building it last Monday a week ago.
2:03
So, the results are all relatively new.
2:07
We're part of a 49 country, global effort to measure and look at affluents to understand who they are, what they buy, what they use, how they think, and then, ultimately, you know, how you can most effectively reach these people and speak to them in the most pervasive way or persuasive way.
2:30
Today, we've got a lot, as I said, we're going to really look at the intense relationship that afterwards have with travel, but first, what we want to do is start out with a broader discussion of how affluents are currently feeling, as they're reacting to the world around them, these are really quite trying times for everybody.
2:52
And it's important to understand that as a backdrop, to getting a better understanding of the implications for travel.
3:00
So my colleague Jesse isn't going to focus on profiling affluent travelers, getting a better understanding of the reason why getting away so important to them.
3:11
And then I'll come back, and we'll talk some more about what Affluence we're looking for in, excuse me, as they approach the summer travels.
3:21
Jesse is going to come back and talk about how lodging and accommodations are critically important and what affluents are looking for.
3:30
Then as much as we really would like to put the pandemic behind us, we're going to have to spend some time examining what what I call the lingering side effects of coping, both on personal and business travel.
3:46
Then finally, we will try to summarize everything.
3:48
Give me some salient takeaways.
3:52
So first, let's spend some time talking about the emotional state, and psyche of what I call the most important consumer segment of the world.
4:03
We often talk about the financial installation that apple is possess, and that really enables him to stave off any negative impacts from the US economy delays.
4:15
Or any of the kinds of things that would affect people who have less Asad or less value less wealth.
4:23
But these are particularly difficult times in trying times, while most affluents really are not facing financial hardship.
4:32
There are definitely some general fears that are settled in, and frankly that could cause some change in consumer behavior.
4:39
The important thing to remember is that changes in affluent spending have huge implications for the economy as a whole.
4:48
We have to remind people, the top 20% of earning households in the US, annually, spent twice what non athlete would spend and that that outsized influence impacts virtually every market sector from groceries food to alcoholic beverages. In fact, in the alcoholic beverage market, affluence account for almost half of the total amount spent in the U S in a year.
5:20
So the good news is that so far affluent stresses is moderating somewhat.
5:27
It's not overwhelming.
5:30
Overall about, excuse me overall affluence rate their stress as 4.9 and the scale 1 to 10 and that's slightly lower than our post-holiday reading back in January and it's lower still than the non affluent population, which is about a third of a weight on average higher.
5:51
Now, as good as that sounds, we still see a disparity between older and younger affluence and males versus females, in particular, in terms of there, their sense of stress.
6:07
Now at the beginning of the year, we saw affluent male, high stress spiking too, to levels that we hadn't seen previously. And it actually matched that of women.
6:19
But in this quarter, we're seeing the pattern return to where it had been previously, which is that women are showing higher levels of stress compared to their male counterparts.
6:30
Much of that has to do with the fact that women continue to take on a higher proportion of the burden of running affluent households.
6:38
I recently had a POV for Ipsos on the disparity in personal income showing that affluent women are earning 20% less than their male counterparts, and I'm sure that that is also adding to the stretch, to the differential stress level.
6:57
So we continue to be concerned about the youngest afterwards. There's less established. They have fewer financial cushions. They're really in the early years of their careers.
7:08
And quite honestly, we're seeing from two fairly high stress levels, particularly one Gen Z, where 1 and 3 of them are saying their stress level is high.
7:19
And then thankfully, we see that with each subsequent generation or with each older generation, we are seeing those who are strong.
7:30
Now, the primary causes of stress continued to be the gamma and mounting pressures at work, These are themes that we've been seeing for quite some time.
7:40
But frankly, the war in Ukraine is starting to show up among affluent consumers.
7:46
We're going to talk a little bit more about that in a few minutes more detail.
7:52
But we also wanted to, you know, focus on the fact that gas prices, and other economic factors, resulting from high inflation, global economic turmoil, supply chain issues, they're really all contributing to stress.
8:09
And again, as much as we wish coven was behind us Affluence or are still seeing increased cases. And they're often experiencing experiencing it themselves.
8:22
Again, layering more stress into their lives.
8:26
Now, in the beginning of the year, we asked Affluence, what they felt were the three most important issues facing the country.
8:34
At that time, we were seeing new code, the variants, a huge spike in, in cases that caused the pandemic too rise, again, to the top to be the single most important issue.
8:47
After dropped a second place in the fourth quarter of 2021, in addition to code where the affluence wrong edge about the economy, health care general, and the continued political polarization country.
9:02
But what a difference, three months makes you, of course, the big story is rising inflation, which catapulted that concern from the fifth most important issue in Q 1, 2, the number one issue, that affluence fuel are facing America today.
9:23
Despite increases, encode the cases, there's been a sharp decrease, in the percentage of app was readiness as their top concern.
9:32
Yeah, other than inflation And the economy, the rest of the other 23 areas of concern that we measure, we're really in the single digits, the low single digits.
9:45
And that really says to us that there are a great number of issues that pulled together afterwards with a coalition around an issue.
9:56
It should be noted that this survey was in field when news of the Supreme Court memo that was leaked came out.
10:06
So it didn't surprise us that, although on abortion was less than 1% in January, that he jumped too little bit over 4% in this way, But again, not a huge issue, not rated as one of the single most important issues.
10:24
I did mention it earlier that concerns about the War Ukraine were starting to filter into affluent stressful.
10:32
And there's certainly, you know, humanitarian reasons why applicants are worried about the Russian invasion.
10:38
But much of their worries surrounds the personal impacts, the impacts that they're dealing directly.
10:44
So things like increased prices, and articles, and services, they buy, particularly gas, prices, know, as well as the potential for slow rachid.
10:57
While there is overall concern about our broader war, developing, as a result, afterwards, do not seem to be particularly worried about their personal safety, or their ability to travel within the US.
11:12
Yeah, We should note that International travel is more worrisome.
11:16
two App runs. Many of them are telling us that there are looking forward to renew travel outside the US.
11:23
So we're going to have to keep an eye on how the war is progressing, and how it's going to impact travel, especially to Europe.
11:35
So, with all of that, as a background, you can imagine that this is going to lead to a sagging, if you will, in confidence out the U S economy moving forward.
11:47
The last two years have really been a roller coaster as far as economic competence who's concerned after many years of optimism far outweighing pessimism about the economy, So, you know, I'm not surprised that confidence is declining, you know, particularly looking at it through the lens of the stock market, we saw the, the dow dropping about 11% a year, and one thing to keep in mind that, you know, according to the Federal Reserve Board, about a third of our food wealth sits in corporate equities and mutual funds.
12:27
So a huge drop in the stock market can change the perspective. And we can see over time, when the Dow is doing well, when the market is doing well, confidence is up when it drops.
12:41
It's suddenly there's a pessimistic view of the economy.
12:47
So nowadays, I painted this incredibly bleak backdrop.
12:52
I'm going to turn it over to Jesse, I'm hoping is going to, you know, brightened landscape with an explanation of really how important travel is to affluent wellness, both their, their physical wellness and their emotional wellness.
13:07
Over to you, Jesse.
13:09
So with the stress levels and confidence in the economy where there are it up.
13:14
It's unsurprising that most affluent just wanting to get away from it all go on toney.
13:24
So this is what the influenza has done in the past year.
13:29
Yeah, most phones have taken a trip in the past year, but it has been domestic.
13:35
For the most part. Only about a quarter have gone on trips outside the US, which isn't really that much lower than it would be in normal times. But it's still fairly low for that, and this is all pandemic related data.
13:54
The business trips are obviously down, especially international, and then, but people are planning to do more vacation in the next 12 months, and they are willing to go to do the willing to spend more on that than they were in the past, as well.
14:13
So.
14:17
Effluents are explorers, they want to go way, and they want to do it in style.
14:24
For the most part, men and women seek out the extra pampering that they can afford, so they want to 85% almost universal. Enjoy traveling to new destinations, and 78%, 80% say that comfort and service are worth paying extra for. They want to get away.
14:42
They want to go somewhere new and they want to be pampered if you go on to the next one.
14:49
So these blue chart blue bars are things that we've just shown you like the enjoy going to a new destination and traveling.
14:59
Comfort and service are worth paying extra for. But you also get the seats, three quarters of them, like traveling internationally, to help them learn about other cultures.
15:09
They'd rather spend money on fantastic trips and expensive cars, 72% like getting away for the weekend, anytime they can.
15:21
And then, while they are willing to go to new places, they do enjoy going back to places they've been before.
15:27
And they really enjoy planning their trips as much as they do, going on them.
15:35
So we did look at figure that, actually, the differences in genders.
15:40
And, well, it does seem like men are in more agreement in some of these aspects.
15:47
We do want to point out that this is showing that women are more likely to take vacation to want to take vacations abroad than domestically.
15:56
And, yeah, they want to go sightseeing, and they want to, and women are more likely to also are less likely to want to do it as part of a group.
16:06
They want to go out, You know, either on their own or with their family or with their traveling party, not necessarily a big group.
16:15
But you can see there are some differences with the genders, these.
16:20
But it's not to be taken as men are more likely to want to travel.
16:25
It's just that with the phrasing, the men are more likely to want to stay domestic than go international, things like that. You go to the next one.
16:38
Tony, two thirds of Affluence are always thinking about and planning their next vacation we saw a couple of slides ago, about 45 Is it 50, 60%?
16:49
think planning is just as fun as going on the trip, and two thirds of these people are always thinking about it.
16:57
So you know that there planning more than half of affluence or as well, R S advice is that since so many of them travel, they're going to give their opinions on it to their friends and family and their friends and family will seek out their information.
17:17
So it's important to get to them and make sure people are having good times.
17:23
If you go to the next one, we asked people if they have a bucket list destination, if they'd like that, they like to go into their lifetime.
17:32
About two thirds of affluent say they do have that.
17:36
Australia was the most popular destination by far that they said, followed by Hawaii, a whole bunch of places around Europe, Zealand. Japan are the ones that really pop.
17:48
there were a lot of countries in Africa that people want to go to in Africa generally.
17:56
And while I have some bad news for the people who said, they want to go to Yugoslavia or Czechoslovakia one day, we did have some more forward thinking affluent travelers who said they wanted to go to space or to the moon, which are increasingly becoming good possible for them to do, or to see as a achievable destination to go to.
18:21
So, you wanna move on the ideal summer vacation we asked about from people.
18:30
European River crews came up a bunch, rent the house and make you notice. That sounds lovely.
18:42
Want to take the private plane to an exotic island, to hike and scuba dive.
18:46
That sounds great. Who wouldn't want to do that?
18:51
Take a month long cruise around the world.
18:54
I assume, Tony, that's something you'd like to do.
18:58
On my bucket list?
19:00
Yeah.
19:02
Backpack through Europe, came up a bunch, and stay at a cottage on a lake, or in the woods for a month or longer.
19:10
People just want to unplug seven times and if you go to the next one, you will see when we ask people what their motivators are for travel, what what experiences they're looking for.
19:23
This kinda broke down into three tiers.
19:26
The top three relaxing, Eatin grapefruit, having new experiences, those are universally agreed upon.
19:34
Yeah, whether or not, the importance was there, Nobody said that It wasn't important to do those things, while on vacation. The next one, it's connecting my, with my family adventure, Learning across cultures and culture. These are a little more, not quite niche, but are there things that you have to do? You know, if you're traveling to connect with your family, your family lives somewhere else, some people don't far away from them.
20:04
And then the bottom three, bottom tier here, the learning about myself romance and meeting new people.
20:12
Interestingly, with the romance, men were almost twice as likely, as women to say that romance is extremely important.
20:21
While women crave new experiences and great foods more than men, if you I'll move on to the next one.
20:30
Parents have taken a big hit in the pandemic. And they are much more likely to want to get away then.
20:38
Non parents are.
20:41
They're in need of a good vacation, and in a lot of areas, there are two, or three times as likely as non parents to have agreed that.
20:49
These were important to them when traveling, connecting with my family, for people who haven't seen their grandparents, who haven't been able to take their kids to see their grandparents and to eat years or more.
21:02
And then you can see that romanced numbers, huge among the people with kids at home, as they've been stuck with their kids in their house for 2.5 years now.
21:13
Meeting new people is important. Culture, adventure.
21:18
But the, there's a couple of spots, where it's really the connecting, and getting to spend time with your family in a setting that's not home is important to them.
21:31
If you want to go to the next one.
21:35
Affluence, want to get away.
21:38
The the need for staycations are there, as everybody, as so many affluence have been working from home for so long, it's not really it's not even a staycation if you're home anymore, so 84% are saying they want to get away. Now, they want to go somewhere new. They want to take a long time.
21:59
It's that people need a break, and they want to get away from it all.
22:05
And they want to do it to relax.
22:07
If you go to the next slide.
22:12
So, in these are questions that we ask. Kind of every time we do these travel barometers, asking people if they want more time or more money, they want an extra vacation or extra salary.
22:24
That one, if they'd rather have a watch her jewelry worth $5000 or vacation, it's A It's generally a gage of what's more important to people.
22:36
So in 20 18, if 54% of the affluence are optimistic about the US economy moving forward and with less than 20% being pessimistic.
22:47
Now, optimisms dropped a bit to 41% and pessimism, is almost at that same level, at 37%, so it's not surprising that this change has occurred.
23:03
We're seeing now that, yeah, that in 20 18, 65% of people want more time, and now, that dropped to people saying they would rather have the money.
23:17
The vacation, wanting more vacation has dropped in four, in place of salary.
23:24
And that number of watches and jewelry versus vacation, you can see it stayed pretty stable there.
23:35
But what we're really seeing is that with two years of working from home, the salary is more important, it, Yeah. People are saving time on their commute.
23:46
So it's not, you get a few more hours a day with your family. As opposed to being in your car Or on the subway, by yourself.
23:57
Yeah. The money's going to go a lot farther, and that also might have to do a little bit. Was the inflation worries that we're seeing.
24:04
If you can go on to the next one, Tony.
24:08
So what we're saying here is that the younger employees, and women are more likely to say they prefer more money than more time. With the older generation saying they'd prefer more time and men as well, if you want to go to the next on the.
24:30
So we did as we did run this survey against non affluence as well.
24:38
So you can see that well.
24:43
Their similarities, the affluence are more likely to want to do things for the experience and just for.
24:49
Then just to get away, they are more willing to do touristy things when they go on vacation, and they're much more generous with their spending.
24:59
Which when you come into it, having more money to begin with will make sense. But that's still the 58% of non affluent swelling to splurge, that's nothing to sneeze at.
25:14
You wanna move on. So when do people travel, 60% of Affluence said they do most of their travel during the summer, but that means 40% of travel is done in the spring, fall and winter.
25:32
Especially with those who don't have.
25:35
So especially those who don't have kids in the household, they're more willing to travel on off seasons or in the night and summer seasons.
25:47
So now Tony will take it back and tell you about affluent summer travel plans.
25:52
So thanks Jesse: the astronomical or excuse me astrological I'm having so much trouble with that work today: The astrological start Summer of doesn't happen for another 20 days but the fact of the matter is summer travel for Apple Watches has already moved into high gear.
26:13
So we know that two thirds of affluence are planning to get away this summer and keep in mind, that's 50 million people, 45% of those people expect to spend more money on travel in the next six months than they did before.
26:31
So a big influx of money into the market, you know, this summer travel. As Jesse mentioned earlier, it's about breaking free of the bonds of home confinement, if you will.
26:47
This particular respond to your seems to be shouting.
26:51
You will finally get out of the house after you're being cooped up, it's cheap, this is her explanation of how this summer's vacation is going to be different from last years.
27:05
We're finally going to be able to take trips that, frankly, we put off for the last couple of years. So things like being able to take a cruise or a trip to Alaska, and big trips that we might not have done in the last couple of years.
27:23
Hmm.
27:23
Travel outside the US is always popular for after the ones that are quite honestly restrictions. Kovac concerns kept them food venturing outside venturing beside Beyond the borders and now with healthcare, consumer is lessening.
27:42
It's really time for athletes to explore to travel outside the country.
27:48
We're going to set aside local trips.
27:51
We're going international again and, you know, with fears about, you know, potential transmission in airplanes and travel restrictions, Leslie at airports are busy. I was in the airport a couple of weeks ago, and it was just, it was a suit.
28:12
Now, we will also note that airfares are much higher than they paid for the last couple of years.
28:20
And yeah.
28:22
We are going to see, despite back that, a lot of airline travel, because, quite honestly, it's the only way to get to some of these places.
28:33
But there's a cautionary note that we want to make sure we bring up here.
28:36
Which is, that not everyone is going to be spending what they spent previously, but the people who do, and most of them will spend more.
28:51
What's going to happen is that they're taking note, those higher costs, and they want to make sure that they have cost value.
29:00
That makes sense, so, it's a cautionary note to everybody in the hospitality industry: that, Frankly, affluents have high standards, they're seeing prices increase, they know they're going to be paying more, and they're expecting incredible service and accommodations as a result of it.
29:20
So the expectation is high and it's it's not a time to be under delivering. It's really a time to under promise and over deliver.
29:33
Now the average affluent is planning to travel for about 14 days that summer.
29:38
And of course the younger, less established Africans have the least amount of travel planned.
29:45
Gen Z is looking at 11 days compared to the older people who have more time that we're seeing the seniors were looking at, you know, roughly three weeks vacation.
29:59
And why we spent a lot of time at home, for the last couple of years, both working from home, as well as not venturing far from home.
30:10
We've spent a lot of time with our immediate family, and it's, it's now time to reconnect with our extended family and friends.
30:16
We haven't been able to, I spent time with, so that's going to be high on the list.
30:23
Types of vacation trips plan, the summer, affluence, or planning to enjoy some beach time.
30:30
They're looking to escape from the worries of everyday life to really do, to relax and kick back.
30:36
But we should point out that it's not all about belching out.
30:40
There's a good portion of affluence that are looking to explore new areas physically active.
30:48
Most importantly, for so many of them gets that, you know, they want to make sure that they are eating while drinking well and taking advantage of these new locations and what they have to offer.
31:04
So two thirds of Affluence are planning to travel within the 48 contiguous states.
31:10
Another 9% are looking to experience the great North of Alaska.
31:16
And 13% are looking for simple wyatt paradise.
31:21
Now, about one in six Affluence will head to Europe this summer, some of them maybe they're already helping to celebrate or Platinum Jubilee. And another one in eight are going to seek out the sun, sand, and crystal blue waters and the Caribbean.
31:41
It will be, yes. Planes trains and automobiles that transport affluence to their summer retreats.
31:49
57% plan to fly commercially, which is slightly more than the number that planned to travel by private vehicle.
31:58
One in five are looking to go on a cruise and 7% plan to fly on private jette in order to get to their summer vacation.
32:10
So now that we know how they're getting there, let's get a better understanding where they're going to be staying and why. So back to you Jesse.
32:29
I'm not sure we Jesse, it.
32:32
But in any case, I will.
32:34
I will pick up, Jerry.
32:39
So we asked affluents about there hotels and accommodations and what, what, what considerations they have when choosing them.
32:49
With this chart, the the blue section is the important considerations, and the green are the yellow things say like, but not necessarily deciding factors.
33:03
For most measurement, for most things that we asked about, you're getting about 80 to 90 plus percent agreement.
33:13
Both of those, but really, it's the convenience, location of where the accommodations are, and complimentary Wi-Fi, which are the biggest factors in where people want to stay.
33:26
They also like the cleaning sanitation policies, which certainly became much more of a factor in during cov it. If you want to go to the next one, these are some more factors in the accommodations that we asked about.
33:45
Again, you can see most of these have somewhere over 80% agreement That it's at least a factor they enjoy or appreciate.
33:55
Interestingly, the child friendly, it was only really important consideration of knowing about half of parents.
34:04
Because, yeah, for younger, for older kids, it's not really that much of an of a factor. And then, for younger kids, it is, it's just going to really depend on the age of the kids, whether or not that's important to them. But things like having a view and the rewards program, and the reputation are very important to people, still. If you want to move on.
34:30
So we ask people if they rather stay at a hotel or air-b.n.b., rental homes, VRBO view when they are 72% say they prefer to stay in a hotel, that that's not all that surprising. But we did ask, though, why? And when we asked people why they prefer the hotels.
34:54
It's amenities its services.
34:56
It's trust, it's no cleaning, they, they get a have, um, rewards programs, or we're just seeing all of those kinds of reasons in here. When you go to the why people want the rental homes or air-b.n.b.'s?
35:14
They're, they're really saying that it's more comfortable, that it feels like a home, that they get more space, that they can cook themselves, it's good for meals, it's good for families to bring people together. So it's really just a matter of what they're looking for with their travel.
35:34
And, you know, for a lot of people, it's, for about a quarter of the people, it's about, you know, having that space and meals and food and stuff.
35:46
If you wanna go to the next one, the value and consistency are really important.
35:54
Thanks to Affluence and their accommodations much more so than luxury and variety.
36:00
In the chart on the left, you can see that people are much more likely to want a good value than to be in a luxury or high-end accommodations. Well on the right, it's, yeah.
36:11
They're more likely to want to stay at the same brand of hotel to maximize miserable or two loyalty points.
36:17
And these are connected because the people who are going to stay at hotels to maximize their points, are gonna get better values on those luxury and high-end hotels.
36:29
When you use the rewards and loyalty points, you're going to know what you're getting into when you stay at a hotel, and that's worth it to people.
36:41
It's not that they want to stay at the same hotel brand every time, but, yeah, having an expectation and having it met by them is worth it to them.
36:53
If you want to move on to the impacts of covert.
36:58
So, yeah, I mean, I think I can safely say that we're all really tired of hearing about it. You know, as researchers, I think if we have to ask one more question about Calvin, had to slow.
37:11
But that said, you know, if we could truly move on, we would.
37:19
But unfortunately the the reality is that there are still lingering impacts from the from the pandemic that are affecting all sorts of different areas of academic life. But particularly as it relates to travel.
37:34
So post called one of the things that we're seeing and I put post in quotations, that's my hopeful post open. one of the things that we're seeing is that there's a shift in the types of destinations that people want to take or want to go to.
37:52
And the majority of applicants are telling us that since the pandemic they're more likely to choose a vacation destination that's less crowded.
38:02
They're often waiting longer to finalize travel plans, and you know, they're, they're monitoring the health situation.
38:11
They're making last-minute changes, depending on what's happening, and they know they are more likely to also, visit places that have strong, Hovy, related restrictions.
38:24
Now, we're also seeing some increases in the likelihood of utilizing travel insurance. Again, given everything that's happened, how long this will last, is anybody's guess. But, we certainly have seen some changes in the overall pattern.
38:45
Millennials and Gen Zs, who really have the least amount of time to travel.
38:50
These are also the people who are most likely to be thinking about these health related aspects to travel.
38:59
So, flipping over to wave from vacations to the business travel side of things, we want to take a look. We've been tracking the return to business travel for some time now.
39:14
Because it's me, it's been a big part of working affluents lives.
39:18
In the past two thirds of working affluents regularly travel business prior to the pandemic, you know, before they were clipped on the right side.
39:30
About four in ten companies that those applicants work for our back to traveling at pre pandemic in an almost equal number or traveling on a limited basis.
39:43
But they are doing some travel, about one in five affluenza, looking for companies that have yet to restart travel, This is we're not seeing anyone, the fact, if we ask, we asked if there was a sense that they wouldn't return to business travel.
40:02
And no one responded that there was a No, no return, likelihood.
40:09
So, we're expecting to come back by, we'll see, but the most important thing in that is really that affluent visser travelers are ready to restart, ready to, you know, to take back the road warrior ways, 61% saying they're already comfortable traveling from now, Another one is for saying, you know, within the next six months, they're going to be ready and they were very few affluent travelers are business travelers who remain what I call long term hesitant. Who are you thinking?
40:44
That it's going to take a while before, they're comfortable traveling for business again, And then, you know, the reason for this is, the reason why they're anxious to, to restart their business travel.
40:58
Is it a large majority of them? Feel that in person meetings are just simply more valuable than video calls.
41:06
That said, you know, an equal number, realized that even after restarting face-to-face business meetings, that the shift towards virtual meetings is permanent.
41:18
You know, it's, it's going to be very hard to go back to the the kind of levels of business travel that we had previously.
41:29
No, about half of our food business travelers just believe that moving forward, they simply going to have fewer face-to-face meetings, that that require then traveling to to see a client or a contact.
41:45
Yeah, this is obviously going to have a major impact on airlines and hotels that cater to business travel.
41:52
Now I do think it's interesting that the younger affluence, the people who are less establishing their careers are the ones who are most likely to say that those in person meetings are more valuable than video calls.
42:07
You know, despite the fact that these younger folks are are the more technologically savvy or technologically oriented.
42:16
They're also at a stage in their careers when they would be just beginning to build their networks.
42:22
And they may be finding that it's harder to establish strong bonds with their clients or with colleagues without the benefit of meeting in person.
42:32
So, you know, as they continue in your careers, it will be interesting to see if they maintain that, that belief, that in person meetings are just more valuable. So, it is entirely possible that we will see further change down the road.
42:50
Now, just for a little bit of fun, we asked business travelers about how they dress when they travel for business versus vacation.
43:00
And yes, while they travel for vacation, they're more likely to dress comfortably.
43:07
I'm a little concerned about the 8% that tell us they were pajamas to travel for business and vacation.
43:16
Um, but, you know, the, I think that says more about the discomfort of travel in general.
43:24
Then you end the belief that are changing our physical appearance for business travel.
43:33
It's really more of the bottom line. Really comes down to we shouldn't expect to see well dressed people coming down the aisles of the airplane the next time or on a flight.
43:46
So, you know, as always, we pack a lot of information into these webinars.
43:52
So I'm gonna try to give you some six succinct sound bites and takeaways.
44:03
And you know, really the first thing and probably the most critical element is that the mood of affluence is turning slightly darker.
44:14
And that's not surprising given the pressures of conservatives that are coming from both within the country, tours of the economy, and then outside our borders.
44:25
It's something that marketers really need to stay vigilant about You remember, this isn't the group of consumers that controls almost for every $10 spent in the US.
44:39
They control more than 70% of the total net worth.
44:44
So we're going to continue to monitor the impact that the darker mood or outlook may have, That marketers, messages of reassurance, are going to go a long way, is keeping affluents spending strong.
45:00
I think it's it to co-ordinate from that perspective, both in terms of the approach and the message.
45:07
We also know that summer is going to be travel with a vengeance.
45:12
As afterwards you're looking to break away you have to be cooped up for long periods of time at home.
45:21
They're seeking comfort and rejuvenation and want to reconnect with family friends.
45:26
So they're really looking at this as summer solace, not just summer solstice.
45:35
They want to explore new destinations. They want to experience the things that really been denied to them throughout the pandemic.
45:42
So summer travel with a vengeance is is really the mantra that we expect to see.
45:50
Now, the good news for the hospitality industry is that business travelers coming back, but it's not necessarily going to come back at pre pandemic.
45:59
Affluent workers see the value of in person meetings.
46:04
They are comfortable with doing so now.
46:07
We need to do as much as possible to make sure that that is happening.
46:13
And the reality is that video calls are not going to go away, but it's time, and afterwards, we recognize that it's time to get back into the war, personal connections, that, frankly, we all miss.
46:29
That is probably our strongest way of doing business.
46:34
And then lastly, you know, it's critical to remember that travel experiences are really the links, that that makes. All of the other things that happened in Affluent Slides seem less.
46:49
You know, it is that opportunity to experience the things that make us happy.
46:58
In this subject here, we know that most affluence, or they are always thinking about the next adventure.
47:03
They're always planning their next vacation, Half of them probably have a suitcase that's half packed already.
47:11
Travel is always going to be high on the list of priorities, and thankfully due to the fact that they have money, they can afford that, right.
47:21
Affluence.
47:22
You know, as I said before, outspend non affluence in, in airline fares and hotels they outspend non affluents 4 to 1. It's a huge, huge portion of the money that comes into the travel industry so monitoring what happens on the affluent side is going to be critical to understanding the health of the travel industry.
47:48
So you know on behalf of Jesse and myself and everyone at Ipsos really want to thank you all again for joining us today.
47:57
We hope that that we've brought you some great insight into just how important travel is to affluence as well as the importance of affluence to the Travel industry, To enjoy the rest of your day and thank you again.
48:17
Thank you.
