Adventure travellers intend to take more trips and spend more on getaways this year.
That was a key finding of the Adventure Travel Survey UK produced by Wanderlust and revealed at the Adventure Travel Conference in London last week.
The research showed that 30% of adventure travellers surveyed intended to take more trips this year compared with 2016 and 42% intended to spend more on travel.
Of the reasons given for expecting to spend more, 26% attributed this to increased exchange rates while 74% said it was because they planned to travel to more expensive destinations.
The destination which topped respondents’ bucket lists for a "money no object” trip was Antarctica, followed by New Zealand, Australia, Japan and the Galapagos.
In the trade survey, completed by tour operators, travel agents and tourist boards, the industry reported that in the last year they have seen particular growth in solo travellers taking adventure trips, and are also seeing growth in multi-generational travel groups and instances of two friends travelling together.
Further findings showed that the most common booking window for adventure travellers is now three to four months prior to travel, with fewer than 15% of respondents saying they booked more than six months in advance.
The survey highlighted encouraging developments for suppliers in the adventure travel sector over the past year with 60% having recruited more staff, more than 70% having added itineraries in existing destinations and almost 60% increasing their marketing activity.
Looking at the most effective forms of marketing, more than 30% of consume respondents said both magazine and online advertising on travel sites helped them with ideas or information on the travel bookings they had made.
On social media, Facebook was deemed the most effective marketing tool, with almost 35% of those surveyed saying they would respond positively to a trip promoted on this channel, more than double the number who were influenced by Instagram and triple that of Twitter.
More than 2,300 consumers completed the survey, including Wanderlust readers and previous attendees of the Adventure Travel Show.
