How We Travel · 2016-11-18 · How We Travel 03 Katie Bowman, The Sunday Times Travel ! Katie is...

How We Travel

HandG_Airbnb_report_pr8c:Layout 1 16/11/2016 17:31 Page 1

How We Travel 01

02 Introduction03 The panellists

04 The Past and Present of Travel05 The search for authentic experiences: has travel lost its way? 07 What really makes a travel experience special to each of us?09 The generational shift in travel: welcome to the Millennial

adventurers11 Is social media benefitting our travel experiences?

12 The Future of Travel13 Discovering new places14 For a true travel experience, immerse yourself heart-first15 Making our travel fantasies into reality

16 Conclusion

Contents


How We Travel 02

The early travellers moved with purpose – they went to explore andconquer, or to learn, trade and build. But modern travel has become mass-produced, standing in line to take a photo of the same landmark or staying in the same kind of hotel room no matter what city you’re in.

Are people travelling in 2016 with true purpose? Are the days of standing in line to take the same photos as everyone else coming to an end? Are travellersseeking experiences that allow them to really see and understand destinations, as if they were part of the community and living like a local person?

Airbnb wants to encourage travellers to get more from travel, to live like locals and to create a world where people can belong anywhere. With this mission inmind, the world's leading community driven hospitality company invited some of the most inspiring, well travelled thought leaders, experts and writers to cometogether to discuss the future of travel. This was launched off the back of newexclusive research to discover how people in the UK are travelling and what these experiences are.

Introduction


How We Travel 03

Katie Bowman, The Sunday Times Travel magazineKatie is the features editor for The Sunday Times Travelmagazine. The magazine is a monthly glossy title soldseparately from The Sunday Times broadsheet papercovering holidays worldwide.

Elle Blakeman, High Life Elle is the commissioning editor of High Life, the inflightconsumer magazine for British Airways passengers. Shecommissions pieces about 'intelligent travel', shares expertadvice, and encourages readers to stay ahead of the travelcurve.

Jonathan Thompson, British Travel Writer of the year 2015Jonathan has travelled to more than 70 countries and allseven continents. He has contributed to a number of LonelyPlanet guidebooks and regularly writes for a variety ofnewspapers and magazines including the Daily Telegraph,Guardian, Conde Nast Traveller, Sunday Times Travel andBA High Life. He is currently the BGTW Writer of the Year.

Michelle Jana Chan, Condé Nast TravellerMichelle is acting deputy editor of Condé Nast Traveller andwrites for them a weekly column, Where I want to be rightnow. She is also the BBC’s Global Guide on The Travel Show,Telegraph Travel’s Asia expert and author of their adventure-oriented Action Packed column.

Serena Guen, SuitcaseSerena is the Founder and CEO of SUITCASE magazine, amulti-media publication that swerves underwhelming touristclichés and embraces the eclectic and adventurous appetiteof a generation of creatives and entrepreneurs. She wasnamed “the Mark Zuckerberg of publishing” by Bloombergand has recently been shortlisted for Young TravelEntrepreneur of the Year Award.

Kate Quill, travel writer and editorKate writes about travel, property, interiors and the visualarts for the broadsheets and glossy magazines. She is aformer assistant editor of travel on The Times.

Chip Conley, AirbnbChip is Airbnb’s Head of Global Hospitality. Havingfounded the US boutique hotel company Joie de Vivre, he is also a hotelier, entrepreneur, author and speaker. In his role at Airbnb, Chip is primarily focused on helpingimprove experiences for travellers and helping people be better hosts.

Dylan Jones, GQAs the editor of men’s fashion and lifestyle magazine GQ, Dylan brings luxury city breaks and epic adventureholidays to his thousands of readers.

John Simpson, BBC World Affairs Editor John is set to celebrate 50 years of working for theBBC this year. He has reported from 140 countries andinterviewed around 200 world leaders.

Sue O’Connell, travel photographerSue is a finalist in the National Geographic Traveller PhotoCompetition 2016 and among many other awards shewas highly commended in the 2015 Travel Photographerof the Year awards for her entry to the People andCultures portfolio.

Reggie Yates, presenter and documentary journalistReggie’s recent award-winning 'Extreme’ series has seenhim travel the world confronting some of its mostpertinent socio-political challenges. Reggie was recentlyawarded an RTS award for Best Programme for ‘ExtremeRussia’ and earned a RTS award for Best Presenter for thedocumentary. ‘Extreme Russia’ followed ‘Extreme Africa’and ‘Extreme UK’, which aired on BBC1 and BBC3 in2014/2015 to huge critical acclaim.

Fatima Bhutto, activist and writer In addition to her travel writing, Fatima was previouslyYoung Global Leader for the World Economic Forum. She is the niece of assassinated former Pakistani PrimeMinister Benazir Bhutto.

Charley Boorman, travel presenter and writer Charley is known for his enthusiasm for motorbikes, as demonstrated in several documentaries of his travels,including two with his friend, the actor Ewan McGregor.

The panellists


How We Travel 04

Chapter 1:

The Past and Present of Travel


How We Travel 05

Why do we travel and what do we want from it? The history of travel goesback almost as far as humankind itself: exploration and discovery lies deepin our DNA. Travel takes us out of our comfort zone, allows us to see newways of living, builds confidence and a money-can’t-buy feeling ofgratitude. Ultimately, travel is all about experience.

But how do we find the ‘real experience’ in a world of mass tourism and over-exposed scenery? And what creates an authentic experience for the modern traveller?

Research shows that discovering a corner of the world we didn’t know existed is the most important element to finding a true authentic experience, with over four in ten of us (42 percent) saying finding an undiscovered location istrue authenticity. These findings complement further statistics that reveal nearlynine in ten of us (89 percent) see travel as a chance to escape our everyday lives,to do something different.

Award-winning travel photographer Sue O’Connell agrees: “I drove to Morocco in

the 70s, alternately camping and sleeping in the back of the car. I longed to stay

in a hotel back then; only afterwards I realised the real experience was the one

I had. Since then, I’ve tried to find the same authenticity, but it’s rare these days.

I recently did a homestay with camel herders in Mongolia. Admittedly I was

desperate for a shower and sometimes I longed to be airlifted out, but in

retrospect it was a unique experience worth all the discomfort.”

The idea of discovering something new is also key to the ‘authentic package’ with 60 percent of us more open to new experiences when travelling, withwomen (63 percent vs men at 57 percent) and 18-25 year-olds leading the chargefor discovery (72 percent). This demonstrates a new wave of travellers who areshaping how their generation will travel for their lives to come, as the newdemographic of travel consumers.

Further, when asked what makes a favourite holiday so memorable, the findingsreveal that scenery comes top of the list (55 percent) showing that our appetite forseeing the big landmarks isn’t set to wane – has anyone ever been to Pisa withoutseeing the famous Leaning Tower? However the findings also show that we wantmore than just a post card picture and that there are a variety of factors that makea travel experience special, for example:

• 33 percent love feeling indulged and pampered, with 37 percent of womenrelaying this vs 28 percent of men

• 20 percent of respondents stated the emotional connection that they made tothe people or the place is what made it special

• 32 percent said the sense of belonging to the destination was key, though18–25 year-olds got this feeling less than other age groups (24 percent)

The search for authentic experiences: has travel lost its way?


How We Travel 06

Searching online for travel experiences unearths some unusual and incredibleactivities from cliff-camping in Colorado, to seeing wild horses at sunset, tozipping around the Pyrenees in an ancient Citroen 2CV – and perhaps they arebecoming more desirable than having a private butler in a five-star hotel andsleeping on a thread count higher than your annual salary. “Glamour is shifting to

experience,” says Reggie Yates. “Your unique experience is what you want to tell

your friends about.”

To make the reality of travel match our aspirations, it seems we have topurposefully seek out adventures that aren’t usually open to tourists. The findingsrevealed that nearly a third (31 percent) of us say having an experience that fewpeople get to enjoy is what makes a trip special.

And this could be thrill-seeking or, in fact, for empowerment and possibly even toprove first-hand that the world is nowhere near as dangerous as we fear. Gettingto know a place for yourself, seeing what it’s like on the ground, inspires a feelingof safety. The key? Meeting local people and discovering how they live can reveala new side to a place you thought you knew.

A quarter of UK travellers (23 percent) agree with this, stating that getting to knowthe local community inside out is what makes a trip special to them.

The search for authentic experiences: has travel lost its way? (continued)


How We Travel 07

With so many options and so many things to do, what actually makes a truly special experience? And does it come down to personality type?

The study shows that we pride ourselves on being independent travellers andyearn to do something new and different on holiday, but 30 percent of us admitwe are Tourist Ticklisters– we know exactly what to expect from our holidays andtick each landmark off our bucket list.

On the other hand, that leaves a huge seven in ten of us claiming we travel to see new experiences, whether living like a local or going off on our own ‘beatentrack’.

• 30 percent describe themselves as Tourist Ticklisters – they like knowingexactly what to expect from their holiday and ticking each landmark off theirbucket list. Women are more likely to be Tourist Ticklisters than men: 32percent vs 26 percent

• 15 percent call themselves True Insiders – they get a kick out of living like a local and love it that no-one thinks of them as a tourist. The over 45s are themost likely to say this (18 percent)

• 15 percent identify as Wild Adventurers – they love going off the beaten track,the more remote and unusual the better. Millennials are twice as likely to feel the pull of adventure than Baby Boomers

• 6 percent are Thrill Seekers – they live for the buzz of trying something new,especially if it’s adrenaline fuelled. Women are more seduced by new thrillsthan men

But what really makes a travel experience special to each of us?

6%

15%15%30%30% TOURIST TICKLISTERS“I like knowing exactly what to expect from my holiday”

15% TRUE INSIDERS“I get a kick out ofliving like a local”

15% WILD ADVENTURERS“I love going o! the beaten

track and into the wilderness”

6% THRILL SEEKERS“I live for the buzz of

trying something new”

34%34% OTHER


How We Travel 08

To make the reality of travel match our aspirations, we have to purposefullyseek out adventures that aren’t usually open to tourists.

When looking at the specifics of what we love to experience and why, two-thirdsof us (67 percent) are extremely happy with our most recent holiday abroad, itpaints an interesting story.

• Scenery came top of the list when we asked what made your favourite holidayso memorable (54 percent)

• 45 percent of people praised the accommodation

• 45 percent of respondents raved about the food on holiday, with 26–30 year-olds revealed as the biggest foodies

• 42 percent say the people they travelled with made their holiday special,though Millennials and Generation Xers say this more than Baby Boomers

• 29 percent of people say they felt totally at home on holiday, and women weremore likely to say this

• 21 percent of those surveyed were lucky enough to experience the unexpectedelements you can’t get in a guidebook

• 20 percent simply fell in love with the people and the place

Looking at gender differences, men are more likely than women to remembertheir favourite holiday because of the people they met abroad (27 percent vs 23 percent respectively). And in terms of age variation, under 30s favouriteholiday scored special status because of how it changed their life when they gothome (15 percent), whilst other age groups missed out on this feeling.

It’s clear there is a generational shift and change in travel experiences andadventure.

But what really makes a travel experience special to each of us? (continued)


Savings/Investment funds

Travelling

Purchasing a car

Purchasing a home

Paying o! debt

56

5538

4334

64

55

35

42

44

% set asidemoney to

fund

“The younger Millennial attitude to work and leisure is fundamentally

different to my Baby Boomer generation,” says Dylan Jones. “It’s now

completely usual to work in an office for six months, then go off travelling,

and work far away from home.” That explains the remarkable 36 percent of Millennials who identify as Wild Adventurers, more than twice theaverage traveller (15 percent) – they love going off the beaten track, themore remote and unusual the better. And interestingly, how does thistravelling mentality compare to other life goals?

Millennial’s priorities over the next five years and what they are saving for

Most Millennials are now prioritising travel over buying a home, buying a car or paying off debt (55 percent vs 42 percent vs 35 percent vs 44 percentrespectively), according to the study.

It highlights the importance that Millennials place on travel in the UK (and acrossthe globe) and how they are looking to build their own adventures through uniqueexperiences. More than eight in ten of Millennials (81 percent) said that they arealways looking for a unique travel experience and the same number prefer tocreate their own itineraries rather than leave it up to a packaged tour company.And this also reinforces the theory that Millennials are more interested in spendingmoney on experiences than ownership.

Airbnb’s Head of Hospitality Chip Conley said: “Status today comes from

being in the know, from experiencing and sharing something that your

friends haven’t seen before. It’s been called the sharing economy, but it’s more

accurately described as the access economy. Millennials don’t want assets

weighing them down as they have to be taken care of; owning a car or a home

reduces your choices.”

Access equals the freedom to find your own adventure. And clearly this sense of freedom and access allows Millennials to live like the locals do, with 8 in 10 (81 percent) saying this is the best way to really learn about a place, with more than half (53 percent) rather staying in cool, local neighbourhoods even if they are far away from tourist attractions.

How We Travel 09

The generational shift in travel: welcome to the millennial adventurers


How We Travel 10

Millennials are the most likely to select their holiday destination in order to seeknew entertainment, try a new sport or discover a new passion they can’t get athome (35 percent) with these travellers being three times as interested as BabyBoomers and twice as interested as Generation Xers in mastering a new skill likenature photography, kite-surfing, Brazilian jiu-jitsu or Buddhist meditation.

And when Millennials are on their travels, food ranks as the most importantexperience (46 percent) and –by a big margin –Millennials would also rather trylocal foods and local restaurants as opposed to places they recognise from home(71 percent vs 29 percent).

It’s no surprise that Baby Boomers are the most likely age group to holiday in thesame place every year (20 percent) given the development in travel choices forrecent generations.

Writer Elle Blakeman comments: “My grandparents, if they were lucky enough to

go abroad, ate the same food they did at home and were happy enough reading

a book in the sun and shutting the world out for a few days. Now when we

travel, we want to be part of somewhere and truly feel like a local, whether

that's going to the best coffee shop or finding hidden side streets or just meeting

people from that place.”

Now cheap flights, heightened accessibility, flexible working and a growing sensethat the world –and its local neighbourhoods – is wide open are changing theway we think about travel, and ourselves.

Chip Conley attributes Airbnb’s phenomenal growth to digital nomads. “They

need a place to stay for one week to three months.

“Most of these people don’t own a home or have a landlord, and being in a box

doesn’t work for them. I was in Bali two weeks ago, surrounded by people with

an average age of 27. All of them were living that nomadic lifestyle, and

planning to do so for two years; not a two-week holiday.

“Not only were those digital nomads really immersed in the local community,

they were making a living working remotely while doing it. If you have your

device, you can be mobile and live that leisure life combined with business.”

The generational shift in travel: welcome to the millennial adventurers (continued)


How We Travel 11

How does seeing a picture on Facebook or Instagram affect our travelchoices? With three quarters of Millennials (74 percent) choosing to sharetheir travel experiences via social media, they are clearly having a big impacton travel choices, and Facebook is king when it comes to what platformBrits are using.

Travel photographer Sue O’Connell said: “There’s a huge element of ‘me too’

in photography. This is fed by TV and travel magazines and amplified by social

media: everyone wants to get the same picture for themselves. But the problem

for the photographer is then to choose an angle that will hide all the other

tourists queueing for the same shot.”

But we’re becoming increasingly wise to the fact that Instagram and other socialmedia only tell a fraction of the story.

“Isn’t all social media embellished to some degree? Everyone crops, filters

and edits to paint the best picture possible,” said High Life’s Elle Blakeman.

“Social media is a great way to know what to avoid,” adds Fatima Bhutto. “I don’t want to do what everyone else is doing. I want to see something new.”

Perhaps then, authenticity lies in the simple experiences that others overlook. The advent of social media means that reality will always struggle to keep up with aspiration when it comes to travel.

Is social media benefitting our travel experiences?


Chapter 2:

The Future of Travel

How We Travel 12


How We Travel 13

Over half (53 percent) of people believe ‘the world is big and I want to see asmuch of it as I can’, which applies to both women and men (55 percent and51 percent respectively). The under-30s have the biggest drive, across ages,to be ahead of travel trends and find new places before everyone else does(10 percent).

A further 42 percent of all respondents said discovering a corner of the globe thatthey didn’t know existed is what makes a holiday special. But in our overexposedworld, where is there to go that genuinely feels new and exciting?

BBC World Affairs Editor John Simpson said: “I’d advise everyone to go on

holiday in Afghanistan because it’s beautiful and fantastic. When I was filming

in Kabul recently, two ragged characters came up to me – to my surprise they

were British. One said ‘I’ve got to thank you so much, my wife and I were at a

travel show and you told us to go to Afghanistan as it would be perfectly safe –

and you were right!’.

There’s a definite shift towards more adventurous extended holidays among all ages, with 40 percent of us getting a buzz from discovering a new place.

“Life is far more open; there are far more possibilities now. There’s a real feeling

of wanting to make the most of every trip. If I retire, I’d holiday somewhere

benign – an interesting, complicated city like Ulan Bator in Mongolia. And if I

catch malaria at age 73, at least I’ve had a good crack at life,” added Simpson.

And even if not everyone gets ‘buzz’ from a different place, there is a definite trendto discovering new destinations as the research shows that only 16 percent ofrespondents go on holiday to the same place every year. However, for those whodo, new experiences can still be found in familiar surroundings.

Charley Boorman said: “There’s a growing trend to see familiar places in a fresh

way. Only when friends stayed with my family in London did I realise I’d barely

seen the city myself. I’d never been on the London Eye, or to Borough Market,

or zipped past MI5 by boat. It was awesome. It’s easy to forget what is on

your doorstep.”

Discovering new places


How We Travel 14

We want more than the generic service of modern mass-produced tourism:its genuine connections with the local community that enrich our travelexperience. On any trip, what stands out are the people who lead us to amemorable experience that you can only enjoy when you’re in the rightplace at the right time. “Good service is born from hospitality – it comes

from the heart,” says Chip Conley.

A key part of Airbnb’s ethos is to provide an antidote to impersonal hospitality: tofoster genuine connections that enrich the whole travel experience. Currently, only20 percent of us said we fall in love with the people and the place when onholiday. Clearly, we need a closer connection with our destination and its residents.

The key is to reach out and exchange values with people of other cultures. In thefuture, people will want to go beyond visiting a destination and feel like they aretruly at home, that they live there.

Michelle Jana Chan, acting deputy editor of Condé Nast Traveller, said: “It’s not

enough to buy a ticket for a display of so-called local dancing that’s obviously

put on for tourists.”

Travel writer Jonathan Thompson added: “Increasingly, people want to culturally

plug into a new place, to access and interact with the local community properly.

Real travel is about immersion.”

How do we ‘culturally plug in’ to a new place that may be completely foreign tous? Only 15 percent of people think of themselves as a ‘true insider’ on their travels– they get a kick out of living like a local and love it that no-one thinks of them as a tourist. That means that the huge majority – 85 percent of people – are missing out.

The drive for connection takes us away from anonymous hotel districts and intolocal areas where ‘real people’ live. Staying in their homes, eating the same food,sharing the same sights, smells and sounds, and above all having a conversation is what immersion is all about.

It’s gratifying to know that this unique brand of travel offers a genuine exchangethat benefits both sides. Hosting helps communities from the ground up:

• 53 percent of hosts say that hosting helped them stay in their home

• 48 percent of host income is used to pay for regular household expenses likerent and groceries

• 42 percent of Airbnb guest spending is in the neighbourhoods where they stayed

For a true travel experience, immerse yourself heart-first


How We Travel 15

Travel can be uplifting, mind-expanding and rewarding. Our desire for amore authentic experience is shaping travel for the future: now is the time to realise our real travel ambitions. Independence is increasingly valuable to travellers, right from the start of the journey.

Chip Conley said: “Now you can create your own itinerary and put your

fingerprints all over your trip.”

“Planning a trip gives me almost as much pleasure as the holiday itself – like

getting breakfast at a hard-to-book diner in New York because I’m going to be

up with jet-lag at 5am anyway,” adds Katie Bowman from The Sunday Times.

And with only 21 percent of people being lucky enough to experience theunexpected elements you can’t get in a guidebook, we’re ditching the traditionalguidebook and creating our own luck.

“In the future, we’ll see services to help you find things you didn’t know how to

research,” said Chip Conley. “Wouldn’t it be interesting to go to Berlin and meet

people with the same tastes as you, who are having dinner tonight, and you can

join them?”

‘Luxury’ is becoming less desirable. While 57 percent of us haven’t had our idealholiday because of the cost – Millennials are almost twice as likely to say this asBaby Boomers, and women are more likely to cite lack of money as a factor thanmen – we’re realising luxury isn’t what it’s all about. In fact, luxury puts you in abubble; it can risk isolating you from the real, local experience.

“The prefix of choice has gone from ‘designer’ to ‘luxury’ to ‘bespoke’,” said Dylan Jones. “You can tailor travel to suit you.”

“There’s a big desire for back to basics and a feeling of safety in travel now.

A safe haven can be escaping to a remote hut in Tibet where there’s no

connectivity, or going somewhere you know really well” said Serena Guen.

Kudos comes from enjoying a completely original travel experience. While sharingour adventure on social media enhances or extends the pleasure we get fromtravelling, we don’t just want to replicate what we’ve seen on other people’s socialfeed. We want to be completely connected, 360,̇ with every element of ourtravel. We want to be the create our own water cooler moments when we go back to work, and share our experience safe in the knowledge that no-one else will be able to replicate what we had.

Making our travel fantasies into reality


How We Travel 16

Conclusion

From planning a trip to talking about our travel experiences when we come home, this research reveals that the way we travel is changing.

Instead of having the same mass-produced holiday as everyone else, andcoming home to a chorus of “been there, done that”, there is a growing thirstfor creating our own unique experiences, and to travel with real purpose andto see previously unseen corners of the world with our own eyes.

Through travel, we want to immerse ourselves in different cultures, meetnew people, open up new ways of thinking, and explore the world forourselves.

We’re rediscovering our instinctive human desire to explore the world andform genuine connections with other people – to live a life beyond what weknow and to embrace the differences in the world around us.

ENDS

Notes to editors

Airbnb commissioned research house One Poll to survey a representative sampleof 1,750 British adults who had been abroad in the last five years, in October 2016.

• 30 percent of respondents are Millennials (aged 18–35)

• 40 percent of respondents are Generation Xers (aged 36–55)

• 30 percent of respondents are Baby Boomers (aged 56+)

Additional Airbnb data came from research conducted by GfK from September27 to October 12 2016. A total of approximately 1,000 interviews each wereconducted online among millennials (aged 18-35) in the US, UK and China.


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