BERLIN and NEW YORK and SHANGHAI, March 6,
2019 /PRNewswire/ -- In response to the world's
growing problem of "Overcrowding", Travelzoo® (NASDAQ: TZOO), a
global publisher of exclusive offers and experiences for members,
will present today at ITB Berlin the results of a new international
consumer survey, with its Global Head of Brand, Sharry Sun, stressing the relevance of
Travelzoo's service. Travelzoo's mission and business have always
been to inspire and activate people to travel to destinations and
times where and when there is excess inventory, thereby playing a
crucial role in driving more evenly spread-out demand for
destinations and suppliers.
"Overcrowding" of destinations means that too many tourists are
travelling to the same destinations, leading to environmental and
social problems. The problem was first covered in 2017 in a report
by McKinsey & Company and the World Travel & Tourism
Council (WTTC), 'Coping with success: Managing overcrowding in
tourism destinations'. By 2020, the 20 most popular countries will
add more international arrivals than the rest of the world
combined. Now, in partnership with ITB, the world's most important
tourism industry conference, and advised by Professor Dr.
Roland Conrady, Scientific Director
of the ITB Berlin Congress, Travelzoo has conducted an
international survey* to gather and analyse the feelings and
opinions of travellers on the subject of "Overcrowding".
Sharry Sun, Global Head of Brand
at Travelzoo, will present key findings from the research at the
session "Overtourism: The Global Tourist's View" today at ITB in
Berlin at 1
p.m. CET in City Cube Club, ITB Congress.
Travelzoo's and ITB's survey of 8,000 consumers in Canada, China, France, Germany, Japan, Spain,
the U.K., and the U.S. found:
- 69% believe that protecting the local environment from
tourists' damage is one of the most important issues of our
time
- 52% of consumers are more concerned about the effect on local
residence and infrastructure than a degraded travel experience for
themselves
- 65% of consumers said they'd be open to travelling at less busy
times of the year
- 43% of consumers said they are interested in supporting local
brands, local small businesses, and local culture
The survey also found travellers are willing to pay a premium to
tackle the problem of "Overcrowding":
- 76% of Germans, 69% of the French, and 61% of the Spanish would
pay an extra EUR 100 to EUR 300 to stay away from overcrowded
destinations
- 42% of Japanese would pay an extra JPY
30,000 to stay away from overcrowded destinations
- 41% of Canadians would pay and extra CAD
500 to stay away from overcrowded destinations
- 31% of Chinese would pay an extra CNY
4,000 to stay away from overcrowded destinations
- 28% of British would pay an extra GBP
500 to stay away from overcrowded destinations
- 19% of U.S. travellers would pay USD
1,000 to stay away from overcrowded destinations
"These results show it will become increasingly important for
consumers to see alternative choices of destinations," said
Travelzoo's Sharry Sun. "This is
exactly what Travelzoo has always been specializing in. It is just
becoming more relevant."
"The interesting insight for us from the data is that a
significant number of consumers are willing to pay more to stay
away from overcrowded destinations. When promoting destinations
with excess inventory, Travelzoo has always managed to provide its
members with irresistible offers at lower prices. We would like to
invite all these consumers to Travelzoo to see how they can stay
away from overcrowded destinations and enjoy very attractive prices
at the same time."
Overcrowding is an imbalance between supply and demand
fundamentally. When we face the imbalance, increasing the supply by
investing in building more hotels, offering more cruises, or
opening more restaurants might seem like an immediate solution. In
the meantime, shifting the tourists' demand by applying pricing
discriminative strategies is often in discussion too.
Travelzoo proposes a more sustainable and achievable strategy to
help match the demand with the supply within its best capacity by
negotiating special offers with hotels, airlines and local
businesses for its members to enjoy quality travel at lower prices
when they visit lesser-known destinations or explore popular places
during off seasons. "Travelzoo will continue to leverage its
know-how to set trends, direct demand as well as to enable members
to enjoy new and old destinations in a creative, smart and
responsible way," adds Sun.
In 1998, Travelzoo, founded by journalist Ralph Bartel, pioneered the service and business
of inspiring and activating people to travel at less busy times by
presenting irresistible offers. Travelzoo not only got tens of
millions of people spontaneously "off the couch" and traveling
(which was Mr. Bartel's mission) but also created substantial
incremental and different demand for the industry. Twenty years
later, Travelzoo's service is becoming more relevant than ever.
About the Survey
The global and representative online
survey was conducted in January 2019
by the market research institute Norstat. 8,000 people consumers
aged 18 and over in Canada,
China, France, Germany, Japan, Spain,
the U.K., and the U.S. Multiples answers were possible for some
questions.
About Travelzoo
Travelzoo® provides our 28 million
members insider deals and one-of-a-kind experiences personally
reviewed by one of our deal experts around the globe. With 25
offices worldwide, we have our finger on the pulse of outstanding
travel, entertainment, and lifestyle experiences. For over 15
years, we have worked in partnership with more than 2,000 top
travel suppliers—our long-standing relationships give Travelzoo
members access to the very best deals.
Travelzoo and Top 20 are registered trademarks of Travelzoo. All
other names are trademarks and/or registered trademarks of their
respective owners.
Travelzoo
Pariser Platz 4a
10117 Berlin
Media contacts:
Viktoria Prantauer – Berlin
+49 30 300 145 570
vprantauer@travelzoo.com
Cat Jordan – London
+44 20 7420 0416
cjordan@travelzoo.com
Xu Lin – Shanghai
+86 216 056 1056
xlin@travelzoo.com
Christie McConnell – New York
+1 212 484 4912
cmcconnell@travelzoo.com
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SOURCE Travelzoo