New YouGov research reveals that the pandemic has fuelled the appetite for travel across the globe. More than a third of respondents in Australia state that travel has become more important to them since the pandemic (36%) but agreement is much higher among affluent consumers*(at 59%).
YouGov’s Global Travel & Tourism Whitepaper 2023 covering 18 international markets, gets under the skin of high-end travel, to understand what luxury travel looks like post-pandemic. It focuses on the attitudes and behaviours of affluent consumers, particularly the affluent under 35s – the audience that will shape the luxury travel industry of the future.
Looking specifically among the affluent travellers in Australia, we see that almost a quarter (23%) of them spent more on travel in the last year and three in ten (30%) intend to spend more on vacations in the forthcoming 12 months. While it continues to be the top travel activity year on year and experiences a strong +7% uplift, traveling with a wider group of friends and/or family sees the largest increase from the previous year (+10% points). Another travel activity that affluent Australians are planning on undertaking to a greater extent in the next 12 months is taking a cruise (+6%pts).
Additionally, YouGov research reveals the priorities of global affluent travellers for their next travel destinations. Safety is the primary travel priority among global affluent travellers (at 37%), followed by a desire to experience diverse cultures (36%) and great local attractions and amenities (33%).
Among the affluents in Australia, most of the parameters rank higher, but they prioritise great local attractions and amenities over safety and security (at 41% and 35% respectively).
Their priorities are similar to global affluents but compared to the latter they put greater emphasis than them on the availability of a wide range of activities (with 28% saying that), quality luxury accommodations (27%), and quality services (28%) when choosing their next travel destination. This indicates the value of quality and top end lodging brands among an upscale audience.
Just like the global affluents, having the best culinary experiences, improving their health & wellness, and finding an interesting tour or activity are important to these upmarket travellers.
Having a personalized experience is a lower priority for them (9%), although it may be more relevant to their global counterparts.
Visiting remote destinations, having personalized experiences, and doing things few others can do resonate with affluent consumers and luxury travelers who will be looking for brands, experiences, and travel companies that understand their individual needs and unique requirements.
To understand their behaviour in detail, download the full report here.
*Affluent consumers defined as Higher income individuals: Higher than 200% of the median (based on household income)
Methodology
The insights in this report are drawn from a recent global YouGov Custom survey to understand what luxury travel looks like post pandemic, explore luxury travel experiences, what affluent consumers are seeking and their future travel aspirations. Covering 18 global markets of more than 19,000 respondents. Our survey results were further bolstered by connecting respondent level data to YouGov’s proprietary syndicated data solution, Global Travel Profiles, allowing us to merge our respondents and their answers to the 100,000s consumer attributes that we collect on an ongoing basis for audience segmentation and profiling.
Our survey was fielded the week of 9th to 23rd November 2022. Data for Australia is based on a nationally representative sample (of 16+) of 1030 respondents. The YouGov panel provides a naturally accurate and representative view of the population. Data is adjusted with mild weighting using interlocking demographic characteristics.
