Travel Outlook: Families Planning Vacations, But Still Budget-Conscious

By Rieva Lesonsky

Travel industry entrepreneurs have reason to be cautiously optimistic this year, according to a new survey by blog WhyMomsRule.com. The survey of 634 moms, divided among Baby Boomers, Gen X and Gen Y mothers with at least one child at home, found an increase in the number of working moms who plan to use all their paid vacation days (64 percent, up from 57 percent last year).

However, although moms are devoted to the importance of the family vacation, they will still be budget-minded in planning their trips. Rather than “putting it on plastic,” 44 percent of Baby Boom and Gen X Moms and 46 percent of Gen Y Moms will pay with monthly savings, followed by 28 percent of Gen Y and X Moms and 11 percent of Boomers using their tax refunds. Thirty percent of Boomers planned to use credit cards, compared to 21 percent of Gen X and 14 percent of Gen Y moms.

Moms are still sacrificing other aspects of the budget to pay for vacations. In last year’s survey, however, moms reported making sacrifices all year long to save for a vacation. However, this year, there was a slight shift in favor of being more frugal while on vacation. For example, last year, 42 percent said they cut back on eating out all year long to save money for a trip, but this year, only 33 percent planned to do so.

Other signs of optimism: More moms this year are planning vacations that involve flying instead of driving (36 percent, up from 28 percent last year), and 32 percent are exploring new travel destinations (32 percent, up from 25 percent last year).

If you’re involved in travel marketing, this survey is good news. What’s the takeaway? Keep moms in mind when planning your marketing strategy. Of course, you’ll want to focus on the budget or money-saving aspects of your offerings. You may also want to offer savings or deals during the vacation.

However, the importance moms place on family vacations shows that you can also market successfully by emphasizing the value of the family trip. If you have a higher-end product or service, you may be able to get around the high cost by focusing on the lasting memories and quality time that will make the extra expense worthwhile.

Image by Flickr user Alan English CPA (Creative Commons)

This entry was posted on Friday, March 11th, 2011 at 6:00 am and is filed under Generational Marketing, Marketing, small business. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.


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