Leading price comparison site Skyscanner urged airlines to showcase their package holiday products as travellers become more cautious due to the Middle East conflict.
Catriona King, chief commercial officer, told the Trip.com Global Airline Conference in Amsterdam that although demand is resilient it is shifting to more regional travel.
She told the audience of aviation and airline executives that leisure holiday customers do tend to be more cost conscious that regular corporate travellers, so price remains a key factor.
Trip.com owned Skyscanner serves 160 million people a month looking for deals and has branched out from just flights to accommodation, ground transport and now holiday packages.
King said: “It's a really beautiful product. So many of you have really great holidays products, but there is very little discovery for airlines' holiday products internationally.
“There is no central place for travellers to discover all of the great product that the airlines have in terms of their holidays piece.
“We're really keen to help airlines integrate their holidays proposition into Skyscanner so we can help more travellers discover those great offers.”
King presented some of the latest findings of regular customer sentiment surveys Skyscanner conducts, although some reflected view before the conflict on Iran.
She said the main trend is ‘made for me’ travel as travellers look for something that they can tailor to their needs. “Travelers are planning with greater purpose,” said King.
However, King said price remains an important factor and the airfare aspect of a trip is also still a key focus, particularly as prices rise during the current conflict.
Three distinct travel types have been discovered by Skyscanner: the ‘glomads’ who combine beauty with travel, multi-generational family travel, and destinational ‘check-in’ travel.
Alongside these wider trends there continues to be concerns about sustainability, particularly from younger travellers, and the influence of social media, and ‘instgramable’ destinations.
“We know, of course, that sentiment has changed as we head into the summer. We know that the unrest in the Middle East has impacted travel. Of course it has.
“We feel that more than most, but also as travellers ourselves, we still know that people are still keen to explore the world…but they are thinking harder about how, and this is washing up into this concept of cost conscious exploration.
“We said at the beginning of the year, travellers are planning with greater purpose, shaping trips that reflect who they are and what matters most is a price that feels right for them.
“And, like we often see in these times of uncertainty, prices is becoming more of the decision. But global travel behaviour is really converging around the principle of cost conscious exploration.”
King added: “But despite this, confidence is very steady, with 54% saying that they are confident to travel in the next three months. And that's a really positive signal. That travel is resilient.”
