How pandemic-led consumer behaviors might play out in travel
As travel companies eye industry recovery, they are also watching what consumer behaviors, triggered by the pandemic, might stick around in longer term.
Market research company Euromonitor recently published its Top 10 Global Consumer Trends 2021, which provides some clues for the travel industry.
The report is a general overview of how consumer behavior is evolving but a number of elements are certainly relevant to travel companies as they reach out to encourage consumers back.
Below we go into some of the trends and discuss how they might play out in travel.
Taking a stand
In the past year, brands have been expected to take a position like never before on social issues such as Black Lives Matter and the environment as well demonstrate wider responsibility.
Consumers are indeed watching and while Euromonitor coins the trend "Restless and rebellious" describing a push back against political systems, travel brands also need to take note.
At a recent CAPA Live event, Brent Coker, a consumer psychologist at the University of Melborne, Australia, discussed how 66% of consumers, particularly Millennials, are increasingly making buying decisions based on a brand's stand on social issues.
"Consumers are increasingly starting to blame brands, or look to brands, in terms of how they're impacting the environmental conditions. So it's not just government that's in the firing line now."
