Family time seen as new tourist trend

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ROCKPORT – The post-Sept. 11 dip in tourism is over, but Maine needs to adjust its marketing strategies to new travel trends that have emerged in the wake of the terrorist attacks, a speaker at the Governor’s Tourism Conference said Tuesday.

Vacations are shorter, but Americans still see their trips as a birthright, said Peter Yesawich, chairman and CEO of Pepperdine, Brown & Russell, a leading marketing and advertising firm specializing in travel clients. Yesawich was keynote speaker at the conference at the Samoset Resort.

Americans with children are seeing those precious few vacation trips as opportunities to reconnect with the family unit, not ditch the kids at the pool while Mom and Dad shop.

Yesawich based his report on an annual survey of 1,600 Americans considered “active travelers.” The National Travel Monitor report, available at his firm’s Web site, shows travel dipped for three years after Sept. 11, but began rebounding in 2005.

In 2002, 52 percent of households took overnight trips at least 75 miles from home. That figure dipped to 50 percent in 2003, and again to 49 percent in 2004.

“That number has rebounded dramatically,” Yesawich said, to 58 percent in 2005 and 66 percent in 2006.

But travelers today are not the same as they were before 2001.

The Internet is present in 80 percent of homes, compared to just 11 percent of homes in 1996. But just 56 percent of active travelers use the Web exclusively to make travel decisions, Yesawich said, leading him to conclude its impact as a marketing tool has reached a plateau.

Further supporting this view is that the survey showed 68 percent of those using the Web to research travel report having difficulty finding what they want, and 76 percent report banner ads are a “nuisance.” In 1998, banner ads were “clicked” by 4.6 percent of users, compared to just 0.2 percent today.

But at the same time, a Web trend has grown out of the Sept. 11 aftermath that has put travelers in a strong bargaining position, he said.

In early 2002, resorts, hotels and inns across the country began discounting their rooms to respond to the precipitous drop that followed the terrorist attacks. Then, consumers learned to use the Web to comparison shop. Now, travelers expect – and are obsessed with – finding, Yesawich said, a bargain price.

This new consumer attitude is “nothing short of vigilante,” he said.

Sites that allow comparison shopping for airfare and room rates proliferate, which means Maine must work to create a brand identity different from other destinations.

“As price becomes more transparent, brand clarity becomes more important,” Yesawich said.

Yet another trend line emerging after late 2001 follows changing social values.

After the roaring economic period from 1995 to 2000, many people reassessed, thinking, “Maybe it’s not about the money,” he said.

“Consumers want to reconnect with what they feel is really important in their lives,” Yesawich continued, and that something is family.

Surveys have shown 71 percent of parents wish they could spend more time as a family, and 69 percent wish they had more time to sit and talk with their children. Sixty-one percent of parents said they are willing to take their children out of school for a family vacation.

With one-third of U.S. households having children, Maine tourism marketing would do well to aim at this demographic, he said.

Other trends Yesawich highlighted are:

. The gas price at which travelers might reconsider driving vacations seems to be $3.50 per gallon, yet half of those surveyed would spend less in other parts of their vacation to avoid changing their plans.

. Extended families and groups of friends are now vacationing together, called “togethering” in the industry, a phenomenon Disney has created package deals to exploit.

. Even when travelers love their visit to, say, Maine, 76 percent then want to go somewhere they’ve never visited.

. Interest in timeshares is up, and cruise ship vacations are also up.

. On average, every nine seconds someone in the U.S. turns 50, which should gear marketing toward aging baby boomers with more time and money on their hands.

. An emerging generation – “Millenials,” born 1977-1998 – now number 75 million and are second to boomers in numbers.

. Vacations are getting shorter, with the average U.S. workweek up to 48 hours, tops in the industrialized world, and the average number of days off annually in the U.S. at 13, behind Italy with 42, France with 37, Germany with 35, Great Britain with 28 and Canada with 26.

“You’ve got to focus the message on new markets,” Yesawich advised those attending the conference.