Grans are booking holidays purely for the ‘gram’….
Mature holidaymakers are choosing destinations purely based on how good their photos will look on Instagram and other social media sites, according to Iain Powell of over-50s specialist Saga
"It’s not just younger people doing this because most of those using Facebook are older," insisted Powell. "People are openly booking holidays because the pictures will look good on social media. It’s quite incredible."
Pointing to the spike in sales to Iceland after the Kardashians posted their holiday snaps on Instagram, Powell said social media was having a huge impact on travel sales.
Joining a panel debate at the Advantage conference in Cadiz, Kirsty Chambers of WIN Global Travel Network, who is a millennial, agreed that social media was swaying people’s decisions. "I spend about an hour scrawling through my Instagram feed every day, and I think we are influenced by where other people have been," she said
However, Amy Hogarth of travel and event management company TAG cautioned against companies focusing too heavily on technology for customer interaction just because customers have adopted the technology already out there. "People my age – I’m 31 – are sick of apps. They want personal interaction. They want the technology, if I check into a hotel I want to download its app, but I also want to be able to call somebody to help me out, if I need it," she said.
"Big TMCs are focusing on AI and chatbots, that’s amazing technology, but my peers just want to have a real human interaction sometimes."
Lee Ainsworth of Advantage agreed. "I think the future is not in technology. It’s always going to be about face to face. The best business is always face to face. Don’t even get me started on chatbots, they are the most horrendous thing ever. You go round in circles trying to find an answer when all you want to do is speak to someone."
The panel agreed that customers are also becoming increasingly concerned about a destination or company’s green credentials , although environmental issues aren’t having a huge impact on sales at the moment. "I definitely think this is a topic at the moment and there is so much choice out there that if one option if more environmentally friendly people will choose that," said Paul McCarroll of Paul McCarroll House of Travel. "It is very topical."
Environmental issues aren’t making a difference at the moment, according to Chambers, but she said over-tourism will be a problem in the future. "The growth in travel will cause issues if the number of travellers doubles by 2037 as expected," she said. "Although this is great for us as an industry, it is going to have an impact on the environment."
Linsey McNeill
Editor Linsey McNeill has been writing about travel for more than three decades. Bylines include The Times, Telegraph, Observer, Guardian and Which? plus the South China Morning Post. She also shares insider tips on thetraveljournalist.co.uk
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