Planning with AI, facial recognition and ease of payments key to traveller tribes in region
Read into it what you wish but it would appear that, according to Amadeus “Traveler Tribes 2033” study, the majority of travellers in markets such as Singapore, Japan, Australia and New Zealand are Memory Makers while Pioneering Pathfinders dominate in countries such as China, India, Indonesia and Thailand.
Based on 5.3 million data points covering 15 countries in total, the global study, “designed for us to understand traveller behaviour so we can innovate”, said Karun Budhraja, senior vice president, Travel Unit Marketing, Amadeus Asia Pacific, revealed two other tribes – Excited Experentialists and Travel Tech-Fluencers.
Fred Barou (standing) and Karun Budhraja sharing the findings with the media in Singapore.
Globally, the tribes break down into 43% Pioneering Pathfinders, 25% Excited Experentialists, 15% Travel Tech-Fluencers and 17% Memory Makers, but the results in Asia Pacific are interesting in showing a general skew towards either Pathfinders or Memory Makers in the aforementioned clusters.
Given India is a market that’s on fire currently and China a market about to be lit, due to its recent reopening, it’s interesting to learn that 55% are Pioneering Pathfinders, with the second most dominant tribe Excited Experientalists at 20%. Memory Makers form 14% while Travel Tech-Fluencers comprise 12%.
In India, Pathfinders stand at 40%, followed by Experientalists (32%), Tech-fluencers 19% and Memory Makers 9%.
Half of Thais are Pathfinders, followed by 23% Experientalists, 15% Tech-Fluencers and 12% Memory Makers while in Indonesia, Pathfinders (34%) are slightly ahead of Tech-Fluencers (31%), Experientalists 18% and Memory Makers 16%.
So, what defines Pioneering Pathfinders? According to the study, this group lives a fast-paced life, always looking for their next adventure. Globally, their life is in full swing with 82% between the ages of 23 and 41. They like to plan but are not afraid of risk and are open to new experiences. This group is more willing than others to let sustainability influence their decisions. They will also be very comfortable using all forms of alternative payment methods in 2033, whether via cryptocurrency or within a virtual reality environment.
And, in general, the technologies that will most interest them are being able to pay for trips by cryptocurrency, using data to create relevant trips, trips mostly planned by AI and biometrics.
One key characteristic of this tribe is being able to plan their own trips and the development of AI tools will accelerate this process.
Barou said that the development of generative AI such as ChatGPT “will influence travel search for sure, whether it be Open AI or something else. It allows for more natural language questions in search and is more of a curated search.”
However, Barou said the complexity of data is a big challenge. “We use our own AI in search, and we process 20,000 search requests per second in our system, so it’s a very complex matter.”
Budhraja added that unless it develops more emotive nuances, he didn’t see it being a big game changer for now.
Another key characteristic of Pathfinders is they want to travel with flexibility and Budhraja noted that “tour packaging will be most impacted, tour operators need to work on flexibility of packages.”
Moving over to Memory Makers which dominate in Singapore, Japan, Australia and New Zealand, this tribe “takes a more simplified approach to travel: to make memories and visit places”.
Globally, 44% are aged 42 and over and are habitual in their travel behaviours. The future can be a daunting prospect for them. They put people first and place less value on technology and sustainability, reassured by existing methods. However, despite their skepticism about technology, they are excited about virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) preview tours with the majority expected to use VR tours before purchasing a trip.
Half of Singaporeans (50%); 41% of Japanese; 45% of Australians; and 65% of New Zealanders belong to this group.
Fred Barou, senior vice president, customer success managementtravellers want to get to destinations quicker, so the use of biometrics is important. They want to remember trips in more vivid ways, so how do we help travellers make more memories. They have environmental concerns – they understand the challenge but are not ready to pay, so there is a disconnect between what they say and do. And they are looking to technology to reduce problems during trips – for example payments.”
Barou said that facial recognition will become more widely used. “People will trust it more than passwords which will disappear,” he said, adding that Amadeus is trialling facial recognition tech in Kansai airport in Japan. Payment will go behind-the-scenes, he also predicted.
What defines the two other tribes?
Excited Experientialists – Globally, 44% are without children and have a mid- to high-income job with flexible working options, which enables them to readily explore the world. They have a you only live once (YOLO) approach. They are more likely than other travelers to act on instinct, making them 2033s ‘anti-planners’, favoring less predictable and more exciting accommodation experiences. They are also open to technology that helps them ‘speed up’ certain aspects of their journey, with many expecting to use artificial intelligence (AI) in the airport environment.
Travel Tech-fluencers – Globally, 48% of the group are under the age of 32 and their perspective is symbolized by how much technology they own. However, there is a discord when it comes to what excites and concerns them around the future of technology and travel. While many want to travel sustainably, it seems they are more conscious about sustainability options around their method of travel, rather than where they’ll be staying.
And what are their concerns? Cybersecurity attacks came in at 44% and safety of data at 41%. Up to 36% feared travel in 2023 would be unaffordable and the same percentage cited political instability, while 34% feared “that my trip will be more expensive if I want to be more environmentally conscious”.
Asked if the timing of the study, between June and October 2022, could have influenced the findings, given people were just beginning to travel, Barou said, “Yes, pandemic behaviour could have influenced the findings but there were 50 questions in the survey and we used different methodologies. It’s hard to say how much was biased but some fundamental behaviour has changed.
“People see work and travel differently, there are longterm trends that have changed and they will stay.”
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