bd4travel unveils summer intent and demand trends as part of its #comebackstronger campaign to help travel companies on the road to recovery. Visitors to leading European travel portals down 19% August vs July 2020; Proportion of visitors with concrete travel plans double in August.
FRANKFURT, GERMANY – bd4travel has released its monthly consumer intent and demand insights for August, analysing the peak summer period.
The data shows overall traffic to travel websites decreased 19% in August versus July 2020. This was particularly observed in visitor numbers with booking intent which peaked between 05 – 28 July, near tripling compared to June as European destinations reopened following lock-down. Booking numbers significantly fell in August reflecting the closure of air bridges and reduction of available products on the market as travel providers cancelled package holidays to respond to evolving high-risk destinations.
However by tracking visitor intent, bd4travel found that Planners represented a larger proportion of visitors, nearly doubling from 13% in July to 24% in August. Bookers represented a consistent proportion of visits at 7% for both August and July, compared to just 4% in June while Lookers, those on their initial travel search, peaked at the end of June representing over 82% of all visitors, before falling to 69% of web traffic in August.
The Frankfurt-based travel AI data company also noted travellers’ booking behaviour is changing with bookings now spread equally across every day of the week, compared to a majority of bookings in 2019 made on Mondays or Tuesdays. This indicates a significant change in consumer behaviour which will impact marketing plans and campaign scheduling.
bd4travel also found that trip conversion rate peaked the week of 26th July before countries were added to red-lists across Europe. This was the first peak above 1% since early May when travel was indicated to reopen in July. There was a sudden drop in conversion the week of 02 August, marking the point when Spain returned to red-lists.
However by the end of August, booking conversions began to rise again, reflecting the changes in intent that a larger proportion of visitors are now possible customers. By tracking intent signals of known and unknown visitors, travel portals can use these insights to respond to each individual user behaviour, with highly targeted messages and live promotions.
“With only a few travel corridors available between destinations, users seem to be more precise in their booking intentions right from the start of their search,” said Andy Owen-Jones, CEO and co-founder of bd4travel. “Travel companies need to focus on how to support Planners in decision-making as they represent ‘pent-up’ demand and to optimise messages and promotions to Bookers. Historic data and absolute figures are no longer providing the essential insights to enable travel portals to create targeted campaigns, requiring a deeper level of data in real-time.”
“Furthermore, as we emerge from summer into a traditionally quieter period for leisure travel, monitoring real-time visitor activity enables travel companies to respond to changing market conditions and consumer behaviour. Particularly as governments give warnings against non-essential travel abroad, businesses need to be as responsive as possible to their customers.”
bd4travel identifies live visitor intent into four key categories – Looker, Planner, Booker or Customer. This data enables travel companies to better target promotions dependent on each visitor's intent, guiding them quicker through the decision-making and booking process while providing an enhanced user experience.
Vicky is the co-founder of TravelDailyNews Media Network where she is the Editor-in Chief. She is also responsible for the daily operation and the financial policy. She holds a Bachelor's degree in Tourism Business Administration from the Technical University of Athens and a Master in Business Administration (MBA) from the University of Wales.
She has many years of both academic and industrial experience within the travel industry. She has written/edited numerous articles in various tourism magazines.
