From alpine treks to spa retreats and cultural immersions, APAC’s travellers are fuelled by diverse motivations when they plan and go on trips.
To satisfy those myriad desires and win customers, travel brands will need a keen understanding of what drives APAC’s travellers to dream, plan, and book holidays.
A recent survey of 7,000 people across the region, conducted by Google and Kantar, provides insights into the motivations and priorities of APAC’s travellers.
Here are two key insights and marketing strategies that can help you drive sales and brand preference among APAC’s travellers.
1. Travellers have myriad, multifaceted motivations and seek relevant experiences
APAC’s travellers have widely diverse motivations for their trips, so your brand’s marketing campaigns will need to speak to their myriad desires in highly relevant ways, at scale and speed.
For one thing, the motivations vary from individual to individual, with 68% of travellers agreeing that their travel needs differ from that of their friends.1
The motivations also change from trip to trip — 64% of travellers say their preferences vary for solo and family trips.2 Their top motivations are likely to differ too, depending on where they’re from.
On every trip, travellers also have an average of 4.7 motivations that they want to fulfil, so their motivations might differ almost day to day.3
To add to this multitude of motivations, APAC’s travellers also pursue a variety of experiences. When asked to describe their recent holiday, travellers selected an average of 3.8 trip types, such as enjoying food, nature, or culture.4
Having rich experiences also matters so much more to them than traveling to a particular destination that 46% of them are open to choosing destination “dupes”5 — more affordable and less crowded places that offer similar experiences to popular destinations.
What this means for brands: Tap into the power of AI in marketing to deliver highly relevant travel information, at scale and speed, to meet the myriad motivations of APAC’s travellers.
For instance, use AI to help you create and deliver the digital content and offers that travellers want. Already, many travellers have embraced such AI-powered travel services — 61% of them are using AI tools during travel planning and bookings.6
Brands like Alaska Airlines and Priceline have kept pace with savvy travellers by using Google AI, respectively, to offer personalised trip planning and to help travellers find the best deals faster.
You can also use Google Analytics 4, powered by Google AI, to help you find high-intent customers, and tap into AI-powered ad campaigns like Performance Max to deliver the most relevant travel offers to various customers at speed and scale.
2. Travellers prioritise brand value and trust over the cheapest deals
Another insight about APAC’s travellers is that they’re more inclined to choose brands which deliver great value, and which they trust, over those that simply offer the lowest price.
In fact, those surveyed had as their top two reasons for selecting a brand or airline: best value for money and brand trust. Price competitiveness ranked much lower on their list of reasons.7
As to how travellers define value, it ranges from hotels being clean and in a prime location, to airlines having direct flights, upgraded seats, and flexible bookings. Travel activity providers with flexible timings and unique experiences are also viewed as offering great value.
Value for travellers can also come from them getting a good deal on luxury offerings during their trip. For instance, they’re willing to splurge on one or two experiences, such as a business class flight or a one-night stay at a luxurious hotel. This behaviour is especially common among travellers from India, China, and Thailand — 60% of them seek to splurge on what they call “affordable luxuries.”8
What this means for brands: Build trust and showcase the value of your travel offerings by engaging APAC’s travellers on the platforms they trust.
Among the region’s travellers, YouTube is the No. 1 preferred video platform for finding the most trustworthy information.9
YouTube is also the platform that influences travellers across all stages of their trip purchase journey. It’s the No. 1 touchpoint used for travel inspiration, and serves as a key research tool alongside online travel agents, Google Search, and supplier websites.10 And the awareness it drives contributes to bottom lines.
Results show that 84% of YouTube branding campaigns have driven a significant lift in offline sales.11 So travel brands would do well to invest in video marketing across the funnel, instead of only towards the lower funnel.
How Agoda drove conversions with highly relevant content and AI-powered campaigns
The Singapore-based online travel platform Agoda wanted to drive conversions and app installs. So it created a video and app ads campaign, powered by Google AI, to help it engage customers at scale across 40 destinations.
Agoda used Google AI to generate more than 1,000 creative assets in seven languages. That enabled it to deliver highly relevant content at scale to meet the various motivations of travellers. For example, luxury shopper audiences were served ads with images of the iconic Marina Bay Sands’ shopping mall in Singapore, while families saw ads featuring Universal Studios.
Agoda then used Video action campaigns to reach, engage, and convert relevant audiences with video ads, spurring actions like getting viewers to click on links to Agoda’s app and website.
APAC’s travellers are ready to spend on brands that win their trust, offer great value, and meet their myriad motivations for going on trips. So convert them into your customers by showing up on the platform they trust, and using AI-powered campaigns to engage them at speed and scale with highly relevant content.
