Berlin, Germany – SiteMinder, the world’s leading open hotel commerce platform, has released the 2023 edition of the world’s largest consumer research on accommodation, which reveals that 91% of travelers globally intend to travel at least the same amount as they did over the past year, including at least 1-in-2 (57%) who intend to travel more. Additionally, the number planning to travel only internationally has more than doubled, from 20% last year to 42% this year.
Among travellers from Germany—Turkey’s largest source market—the proportion intending to travel at least the same amount as the year past sits at 90%. Additionally, more than half (55%) intend to travel internationally only. These findings, coupled with an increasing desire to travel internationally among travelers from the UK and US—two of Turkey’s other leading source markets—suggests a bullish outlook for local accommodation providers over the coming 12 months.
The findings are in SiteMinder’s Changing Traveller Report 2023, an analysis of more than 10,000 travellers surveyed across Germany and 11 other countries, including Australia, China, France, India, Indonesia, Italy, Mexico, Spain, Thailand, the UK and US. They form part of the four key characteristics underpinning the travel plans and motivations that will impact the global accommodation industry over the coming year:
- The enduring explorer: Committed to travelling, regardless of living costs
- The digital dependent: Reliant on new technologies and bound to devices
- The memory maker: Investing in experiences, in a roaring ‘20s rerun
- The conscious collaborator: An open ally to accommodations and the community.
When it comes to accommodation, in spite of inflation, 73% of local travellers globally say they are happy to spend money beyond the cost of their room. However, increased prices are forcing travellers to adapt, with package deals and cheaper rooms listed as the two most common ways they will overcome risen costs. The finding is unsurprising given that 1-in-2 German travellers say that what they need from their accommodation has changed in the last year. A great experience is what German travellers today want most and, for 1-in-5, it is more important now than this time last year that their accommodation has space for their family and friends.
SiteMinder’s regional director for DACH & EMEA, Clemens Fisch, says the research affirms the health of the travel sector in Turkey and the critical role that local accommodation providers must play.
“Even as travellers from Germany, broader Europe and indeed globally look at ways to adapt to inflationary pressures, what our research strongly suggests is that travel over the coming year will remain steady,” says Fisch. “The intent to continue travelling, especially internationally, is particularly strong, and this should stand as both encouragement and a signal to accommodation providers, to be ready.”
While two-thirds of travellers globally will be tolerant of accommodation providers having lower standards of service in light of staff shortages, a fundamental finding from SiteMinder’s Changing Traveller Report 2023 is that the accommodation sector is perceived to be lagging other industries from a technology standpoint. Nine-in-ten German travellers think the accommodation industry is either average or behind when it comes to technology adoption, while 35% agree that their booking experience and stay could be better if accommodation businesses were more tech-savvy.
SiteMinder’s research has found that technology use among travellers includes:
- AI – more than half of travellers globally, including more than two-thirds of millennials, are either likely or very likely to use AI to generate accommodation recommendations. German travellers are significantly more cautious about AI with only 23% either likely or very likely to use AI to generate accommodation recommendations.
- Social media – 42% of German travellers, including 7-in-10 Generation Zers, say social media influences how they discover their accommodation.
- Booking websites – while two-thirds of German travellers will arrange their accommodation by booking online, many say they have not proceeded with their booking because of a bad experience. Websites that don’t feel secure and processes that are difficult are the top two contributors to a bad experience.
SiteMinder’s Changing Traveller Report 2023 is available here.
