Social ‘alter egos’ will drive travel of the future

Social media has created a parallel ‘alter ego’ group of travellers whose distinct desires also need to be served, according to Culture Trip CEO Kris Naudts.

Dr Naudts was speaking at a recent event, hosted by TravelMole and Four Communications, in which digital experts shared new insights into understanding customers of the future.

Dr Naudts said millennials have their own ‘alter egos’ – versions of themselves they portray through social media – which are driving the experiences they seek out and the way they plan and go on holiday.

At every stage, millennials’ desire to experience deeply and to share those moments affects their behaviour and the choices they make, according to Dr Naudts, a former psychiatrist who founded Culture Trip to inspire people to go beyond their cultural boundaries and connect with the world around them.

"For the nearly 20m millennials that use Culture Trip, there are 20m alter egos that must be served as well," he told delegates at the Modern Travel and Disrupters in the Space session.

"These individuals are looking for more than just a booking engine: they want new, inspirational content, creative formats, and insightful, thoughtful local travel recommendations," he said.

Millennials are experience hunters and their travel alter ego is no longer the traditional "Look at me at the beach" social post; it’s moved towards "I’m on a motorbike, exploring this little-known village with a local in Vietnam".

Millennials often want to share their experiences of connecting with the world and the "alter ego" experience starts from the dreaming phase all the way through to post travel because they share their experience again and again, he added.

Culture Trip has increased its share of hard-to-reach millennial audiences from five million unique visitors a month in early 2016 to more than 18 million in just two years. 

Dr Naudts described how he started the business from a tiny room in London with ‘a young multicultural team with a desire to work in new ways’.

"We now use technology and creativity to inspire and enable people to explore culture around the world," he said.  

"We didn’t write for SEO we wanted to be a creative inspiring source of information, ideas, video and images and that’s what’s driven our fast growth. We now have seven million social media followers across our social platforms and two billion views of our videos.We’ve built an audience united by its interest in the world and its wish to show others how it travels and dreams about travelling," he added.

Four Communications used the session to describe how technology could transform customer targeting and tracking in the future.

Kath Ludlow, managing director of Four’s insight’s division Four Engage has launched a proprietary Mapper360™ digital modelling service which uses millions of data points to identify target groups, and to understand what communication, imagery and content resonates with them.

However, Tonia Savchenko managing director of Four Media highlighted that accurately measuring the return on investment on marketing to such consumers still remains incredibly difficult. 

She said: "Many brands rely on click-through rates, or last-click conversion models, but these metrics don’t encompass the full consumer journey or allow tourists boards to accurately assess the impact of investment.

"In response we’ve used the expertise we’ve gained working for retailing clients and we’re trialling a new evaluation service for the travel industry which we’ve called ‘Cost Per Location Visit’ (CPLV).

"CPLV allows travel brands to track how many people who engaged with advertising content actually have actually landed in a destination or hotel," she added.