NEW YORK, Dec. 15, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Horizon Media, a leader in delivering data-driven business outcomes for some of the most innovative and ambitious brands, today announced findings from its recent study into consumer sentiment on travel during the pandemic and the implications for brands across the U.S. travel and hospitality industry, a sprawling $1.5 trillion category (Source: Statista).
The findings are part of an ongoing Finger on the Pulse Consumer Sentiment Tracker by Horizon’s WHY Group into the way people understand and react to today’s environment. Brands are faced with unprecedented uncertainty regarding how people will react to economic turmoil, continued COVID-19 spread and the promise of a vaccine. In this new normal, Horizon is helping clients to understand people’s current sentiment, behaviors, and cultural shifts as these will shape how brands respond.
The Horizon study found that people are returning to travel in fits and starts as they balance competing emotions, practical considerations and also the decision to spend their hard earned money or save it during this period of financial uncertainty. Despite rising rates of infection, the recent surge in Thanksgiving travel showed that pandemic fatigue has set in; people have exhausted ways to avoid quarantine fatigue and there is a persistent appetite for new experiences. Those willing to travel are planning their trips with an approach that weighs the risks and rewards, striking a precarious balance between serendipity and security.
Those feeling the travel bug are ready to take off and would-be travelers and hospitality brands alike are fixated on the question of when we will return to pre-COVID-19 travel. 47% of those who traveled pre-pandemic report already dreaming about the exciting vacation destinations they will visit in the future. To meet this pent-up demand, brands must stay top-of-mind by advertising during the holding period and catering to last minute purchasers when travel resumes.
The return to normal travel will be driven by sentimentality and a collective mood of celebration, rather than a sense of adventure, with 56% saying their first trips post-pandemic will be focused on seeing loved ones, and 29% will be attending delayed milestones like weddings.
The study also found that, based on travelers’ willingness to plan and book trips in response to vaccine accessibility, people fell into one of three segments of approximately equal size – those who were living their life normally (dubbed “Live my life”), people awaiting a vaccine before booking (“Are we there yet?”), and those who were putting travel on pause for the foreseeable future (“Shelter in place”).
The implications are significant for traveler brands who can win by placing their bets on key travelers.
Horizon believes that for the first half of 2021, travel brands should focus on those with a “Live My Life” outlook, people who tend to be young, affluent parents hoping to provide their kids with adventure or find their own escape. Then for the second half of 2021, we will see more demand from the “Are We There Yet” camp, an affluent group of older travelers, often parents, choosing to wait it out for their own safety and the safety of their communities. Brands should expect little activity among the “Shelter In Place” group, who are more likely to have paused travel due to financial insecurity and loss of employment.
The survey also identifies a segment Horizon is calling the “New nomads” as the COVID era’s great escapists. After months of lockdown and work-life imbalance, an estimated 55.9 million remote workers in the “Live My Life” and “Are We There Yet” segments still view travel as a great escape. They’re capitalizing on more flexibility with long-term “workations,” where they work part-time at vacation destinations or fully embrace nomadism by living and working on the road.
There are of course challenges for the travel industry and its adjacent brands as the nation braces for a winter of continued COVID-19 spread. Nevertheless, 2021 is primed to be a year of recovery and hope as more vaccines are approved and become more widely available.
About Horizon Media
Horizon Media, Inc. is a leader in delivering data-driven business outcomes for some of the most innovative and ambitious brands. The company was founded in 1989, is headquartered in New York, and has offices in Los Angeles and Toronto. With estimated billings of approximately $8 billion ($9 billion pre-COVID) and over 2,400 employees, Horizon is the second largest U.S. media agency according to the AdAge Datacenter.
Recognized as one of the world’s ten most innovative marketing and advertising companies by Fast Company, Horizon Media has been named Media Agency of the Year by MediaPost, Adweek and AdAge and is known for its highly personal approach to client service. Renowned for its culture, Horizon is also consistently named to all the prestigious annual Best Places to Work lists published by AdAge, Crain’s New York Business and Los Angeles Business Journal, and was named by Fortune as a best place to work for Diversity, Women and Millennials.
Bill Koenigsberg, President, CEO and Founder of Horizon Media, has earned a host of industry accolades and, in 2019, garnered the industry’s highest honor when he was inducted into the American Advertising Federation (AAF) Hall of Fame.
For further information please contact
Horizon Media
Stephen Hall
shall@horizonmedia.com