A Race to the Starting Line

The sculptures are lit, the roller coasters are running, the animatronic apatosaurus is munching themed greens—but who will push through the 2021 turnstiles? Chances are, your 2020 visitor looked different compared to years past. Will this trend continue in 2021?

To forecast 2021’s leisure travel, Voice of the Visitor examined personal risk tolerances. This resulted in the identification of five visitor segments, each with a distinct mindset. And just as not every Gen Xer loves street food, or every millennial ‘grams’ their meal, these mindsets will influence visitor behavior but not define it.

Go!

Early Birds and Fast Followers make up 50% of today’s travelers. They tend to be millennials with families and are comfortable trying new places for the first time. On average, they visited 3-4 attractions in 2020 and intend to visit even more in 2021.

Set

Adapters and Slow Starters are more cautious but are still willing to travel to locations they feel are safe. When they do decide to go out, they will likely stay close to home and revisit attractions they have gone to before. Safety precautions will be important to these visitors, and they may consider friends’ and family’s experiences when choosing a destination.

Ready

The Cautious Consumer is carefully monitoring vaccine distribution in their community and following CDC guidelines to the letter. They tend to be older and have more disposable income. They were by far the heaviest travelers in January and February of 2020, but by April, only a few ventured out. These frequent travelers are the epitome of pent-up demand!

IT’S ALL ABOUT THE … TIMING

Early Birds and Fast Followers make up 56% of travelers planning on pushing through the 2021 turnstiles. Surprisingly, this means that almost half of 2021 travelers will come from the more risk-conscious groups. Keep in mind that many from this group are going to be among the first to receive vaccines, which might give them the confidence they need, i.e. the first person to pet your apatosaurs may not be a baby, but a Baby Boomer!

Since so much of this year’s travel is conditional, timing becomes an evolving target for marketing. At the top of the year, marketing teams may find success by focusing on the first two groups. As the year progresses, destinations may want to broaden their approach to reach the last three groups.

Next week we will be examining the measures that the more risk-adverse travelers told us they need to feel safe and have fun at destinations.

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