Contiki chats with the Mole

While, Tammy Marshall, who heads up Contiki appears to be in the envious position of leading one of Australia and New Zealand’s strongest travel brands, with immediate recognition amongst their 18-35 market segment, she could be sitting on her laurels and rolling out the same programmes Contiki has been doing for years.

Not Tammy though! 

She explained to The Mole that what she and the Contiki team have actually been doing is making sure that Contiki’s product reflects contemporary consumer demand, making sure that they offer the products today’s 18-35’s really want to buy.

Tammy told The Mole about Contiki’s new and recently released iTravel report, which is available from www.contiki.com/itravel

The Mole: How much research do you do?

Tammy: We undertake ongoing research because we have to remain abreast of our market which is very dynamic and we also get feedback from our customers, because in this market segment in particular we have to stay on top of trends an also make sure that we are delivering to product they want to buy.

This is a very fast changing market indeed and product innovation is paramount with our product changing to deliver a different experience, allowing us to offering the depth that our clients want to and can experience.

An example, of that is Free Time.  We developed Free Time because it is something that our customers told us they wanted more of, so we developed Free Time into in our programmes.

Free Time allows our customers the opportunity to follow their own path and interests and this includes sightseeing and a range of other offerings, but they still have the security of knowing that we are there to guide them and drop them off etc, and they travel in a group with like minded people, want the fun a Contiki holiday brings, but Free Time recognises  that different people want different things and want to see different things and they need that flexibility, which we offer.

The Mole:  You tell us that in the past 3-4 years, over 1.5 million 18-34 year olds from across Australia packed their bags and journeyed overseas, where did they go and what did they do?

Tammy: They do all the things we would expect and visit all the major sights they tell us that they want to, but Free Time lets them now fulfil their own wishes and see some of the things they specifically want to see and we still give them maps, information and how to see the city, because at the end of the day, we are the  professionals so we guide and recommend and they can choose to plug into the programme or they can do they want – we have to understand that not everyone wants to see museums!

So the effect from our perspective is that within a Contiki programme, young people are enjoying customising their programmes and it came about from our research, and the iTravel research confirms that they are seeking a level of independence on a tour and we were seeing those trends and we needed to cement that into our offering.

For many young people the days are gone when they go on a Contiki tour and that is their Overseas Experience and while some still do that, others will also combine a Contiki tour with a wide range of free and independent travel.

Our focus and this is supported by the research, is all about the customer, what the customer wants and we want to deliver what might be that once in lifetime experience that is diverse and learning while having great fun.

The Mole: How did you go about this iTravel research?

Tammy: It is based on an in-depth study of over 400 young Australians and what our iTravel Report does is reveal the changing travel tastes of a new generation.

We had Galaxy do the research for us and we surveyed in depth 18-35 yr olds that had aspirations to travel but had not travelled on Contiki before.

The Mole: Is there anything different about the Australian and Kiwi traveller?

The core component that came over is that wherever they are from, they want to experience cultural adventure and the research said that sightseeing and culture ranked one and two with shopping coming after that – so they have changed and they are looking for an indepth experience but still want to have fun.

The most important revelation from the study is the emergence of the Intellectual Traveller or iTraveller.

This movement was first sighted in the US and the UK and it is now apparent that young Australian travellers are likewise embracing this notion and evolving their overseas holidays to broaden their horizons and experience the authentic character of a destination.

Rather than just dipping a toe into the sea of a generic beach holiday, we at Contiki are seeing our customers increasingly immerse themselves in the local culture of the communities, they want to get to knew real people and that is important and we want them to meet the locals and really get under the skin of the country, meet its people, eat its food, drink its wine etc etc.

To achieve this we also offer a balance of slower and faster paced itineraries including the Independent Getaway where they are free to explore themselves and discover the experiences they want.

We have also been getting away from the well beaten tourism path in the last couple of years, getting into new regions and we stop off in them too, for example, we visit Dresden, a very famous WW2 city and we visit Czech Republic villages where nobody speaks English.

Out travellers want to see the big cities but we give them a taste of the real culture of the countries they are visiting, sometimes not always in the itineraries but it happens and we encourage out guides to do that.

The Mole: What are the most popular destinations for Contiki travellers?

Tammy: The iTravel Report shortlists the most popular destinations among young travellers with respondents ranking the United Kingdom as the most visited destination and in the UK we have always had a London theme and Scotland and Ireland and they have always been popular and we do stop off in interesting places like York.  In a double victory, the UK also polled as the most popular destination for young Australians to visit in the future followed by the USA, France, Italy and New Zealand.

Other highlights of the study include tell us about future travel plans of our customers this generation, with  61% of young travellers, that is 1.3 million are planning to embark on short overseas holidays, such as a three-week, multi-country trip to Europe in the next 3-4 years.

We are targeting these travellers and offering them the opportunity to travel with Contiki and in these sectors word of mouth is critical, so we always have to do our very best to deliver.  We have a very strong community section on our site and they meet there and talk and check a programme or destination out with people that have travelled with Contiki.

The Mole: Young people today are extremely computer and internet savvy, so where do travel agents fit into this and are you intending to take direct bookings?

Tammy: Young people are very comfortable on line and they use the internet to research but our research shows that they like to go to a travel agent for that additional comfort factor and there may be many elements to their travel, which they need to check out and deal with a professional. 

We are still 100% supportive of the travel agent community and from a customers perspective, it is a large spend and they tell us that they need a face to face contact when dealing with so much money.

Our research also shows that 45%, almost 1 million are planning to take a number of overseas trips and a sizeable 25%, more than half a million of respondents are planning on travelling extensively for a number of months.

It also showed that shorter trips are increasingly becoming a preference due to the rising number of repeat travellers and their desire to embark on two or more overseas trips in a lifetime, as opposed to one trip of a lifetime.

Employment status was also found to influence travel duration with full-time workers intending on taking short-term trips, whereas part-timers have long-term holidays in mind.

So, we need to respond to these changes in the market, which is what we are doing and provide the product our customers want to buy and that will maintain our position as the leader in our sector.

The Mole: Were there any surprises?

Tammy: The biggest thing that surprised us was the propensity to want to travel was much more significant than we thought, with travel becoming more of a priority.  They are also travelling younger and the other thing was the variation between men and women – women arts and shopping and men wanted adventure, but both wanted culture and sight seeing.

The Mole: Thank you Tammy for revealing to us and the industry this leading edge research.

Contiki’s iTravel report, is available from www.contiki.com/itravel

Report by The Mole