Tourism Research Centre at UPEI releases report on travel packages

In a recent address to the Tourism Industry Association of PEI, Joe Veneto, international tourism management consultant and author of 'The Travel Packaging System,' revealed that the number one secret to packaging success is not only to think like a customer, but also to 'use research.' To that end, a newly released report on travel packages by the Tourism Research Centre (TRC) at the UPEI School of Business should help.

The survey on which the report was based was distributed by the TRC to a panel of online volunteers who had requested information about visiting PEI from Tourism PEI. The make-up of the panel is very similar to that of visitors to PEI.

'Although we looked at what types of travel packages people purchased, and who they travelled with on package holidays, we also examined why people do not buy travel packages,' says Dr. Monica MacDonald, Research Director of the TRC. 'This research, along with other research undertaken earlier this year, will help operators understand how travellers are using travel packages and why they are buying them.'

Participants who had never purchased a travel package revealed that the most common reason for not doing so was that they prefer doing their own research for their holidays. About a quarter of respondents who had never purchased a travel package believed packages lacked flexibility, and others thought they cost too much.

'The results really give us an idea of who is purchasing travel packages and for what reason. Almost three-quarters of Canadian participants who had purchased a travel package had bought an all-inclusive holiday package. However, less than half of US respondents had bought that type of package. They were much more interested in a flexible package that contained, for example, flight and hotel, or car rental and admission to local attractions,' says MacDonald.

A summary of other results includes:
• Slightly less than half (47.6 per cent) of the respondents to this survey have purchased a travel package in the two years prior to the survey.
• The overall interest in travel packages is rated 3.48 out of 5, about midway between neither uninterested or interested, and interested. This is a fairly good rating given that many of the respondents have not recently purchased travel packages and might be unfamiliar with their features.
• Combination packages in PEI generally omit one of the key elements that many travellers want: travel to the destination. This is not surprising given that PEI is not a major air traffic destination, and that it does not have an operating rail line. Some private tour companies offer transportation to PEI as part of either guided or unguided tours, but they seem to be the exception rather than the norm. PEI does provide, however, quality products for other sought-after package components: accommodations, and food and beverages.
• Canadians tend to purchase packages for southern, warm destinations, while Americans tend to travel within their own country.
• Those who had purchased travel packages in the past often chose to book through offline travel agencies.
• For those purchasing a travel package, the average party size was 4.72. This is substantially higher than the average party size of 2.85 visitors to PEI as reported in the 2007/08 exit survey report. During the peak season (July and August), the average party size is 3.15 people. The larger party size for those purchasing packages may be related to the perception that packages are good value for money and thus cheaper for larger groups compared to price and value per individual component.
• Price is important for travellers thinking about buying packages; the majority expect that packages will help them save money.
• On the other hand, there may also be a perception that packages are more costly than purchasing individual components. Cost was the third most popular reason why respondents had not purchased a package in the recent past.

The full report is available on the TRC's website at www.trc.upei.ca. For more information about the TRC's research and reports, please visit the website, email trc@upei.ca or call (902) 566-6096.