Airport dashes, price over convenience, post-holiday stress levels, and low levels of loyalty revealed in insightful new report by Vamoos.

New research by Vamoos provides a fascinating insight into holiday booking behaviours, including the most common stress factors, many of which are falling under the radar of travel operators.

Research conducted on over 1,000 consumers who go on luxury, educational and/or adventurous trips in addition to 61 travel companies revealed a number of interesting discrepancies between the views of travel companies compared to customers.

These include:

– Fears over getting to the airport – 35% of customers cited getting to the airport as the second biggest cause of stress, compared to just 5% of travel operators.

– Sweating the small stuff – 51% of travel operators believe their customers are worried about factors they can’t control, such as strikes or terrorism, yet only 31% of customers agree. They were more likely to be worried about packing everything they need (44%), getting to the airport (35%) and concerns about forgetting things (33%).

– The prevalence of post-holiday stress – a quarter of consumers experience stress after their holiday, only 1% less than the number of people who feel stressed right before their holiday. Worryingly, only 5% of travel companies knew that their clients feel stressed after their holiday.

– A lack of loyalty – 81% of travel companies believed their customers were loyal to them, in stark contrast to just 51% of customers who felt they were loyal to their current travel company.

Reflecting on the findings, Tony Bean, Director at Vamoos commented:

“Our research showed that tour operators understood that their customers were likely to feel stressed prior to holiday, and both placed an importance on the need for everything to be well organised, in addition to the holiday going to plan. However, the similarities appear to stop there, with significant differences in the perceptions of tour operators compared to their customers on a number of different factors. It indicates that tour operators may need to re-evaluate what they think they know about their customers, how loyal they are, and what really matters to them when considering booking a holiday through a tour operator.

With two-thirds of consumers most likely to book their holiday themselves than through a travel company, operators need to work harder to understand the underlying motivations of their customers if they want to achieve the higher levels of retention and loyalty that were suggested in this report. This is in addition to a greater understanding and empathy for customers after they return, perhaps better preparing them for those initial feelings of stress they are likely to experience, along with some positive ideas for their next holiday to allow them to focus on their next exciting adventure.”

The full report can be accessed here.