Australia and New Zealand Travel ReportSojern & Googles Analysis of Inbound Consumer Travel Trends2 SOJERN Table of ContentsIntroduction 3Travel within Australia and New Zealand 41 | Emerging Consumer Trends 52 | Planning Trends 93 | Device trends 10Inbound Travel Trends 121 | Origin Market Trends 132 | Deciding on Travel to Australia and New Zealand 153 | Consumer and Planning Trends 174 | Device Trends 19 Conclusion 22AUSTRALIA NEW ZEALAND TRAVEL REPORT 3 IntroductionKnown for famous landmarks, wildlife, gastronomy, and out of this world scenery, Australia and New Zealand offer unique travel experiences for all tastes. And both countries are increasingly attractive to local, regional and international travellers alike.In Australia, total tourism spend is set to reach $131 billion by 2020.1As if people needed any more incentive to visit, the 2018 Commonwealth Games will be hosted in Australias Gold Coast this coming April, and are expected to provide a major boost for tourism operators in the region. Around 6,600 athletes and officials are expected to participate in 25 different sporting and para-sporting events.2Not to be overshadowed, New Zealand expects annual international visitor expenditures will increase 52.1% to reach $15.3 billion, and annual visitor numbers to reach 4.9 million by 2023more than the entire population of New Zealand.3In this report, Sojern and Google collaborate to explore and explain regional and inbound travel trends to Australia and New Zealand. We analysed travel preferences and patterns by utilising Google search data and layering it with Sojerns travel intent and booking data from 350 million anonymised traveller profiles and billions of predictive purchase signals. The result is an in-depth view of how inbound and regional travellers to Australia and New Zealand research, compare, and book travel as well as key takeaways for travel marketers to run strong campaigns.4 SOJERN Travel within Australia and New ZealandAUSTRALIA NEW ZEALAND TRAVEL REPORT 5 1 | Emerging Consumer Trends While Australia and New Zealand attract many long-haul travellers, domestic travel and trips between these two countries is also strong. According to Think with Google, New Zealands number one destination for air travel searches is Australia, which experienced a 6% rise year over year.4New Zealand, on the other hand, is among Australias top 3 destination markets for air travel searches, and has seen a healthy growth of 14% in air searches year on year. Australia is New Zealands largest international tourism market, accounting for almost half of all international visitors.5Fastest Growing Searched Air Routes6Which are the fastest growing routes in this region? The route between Sydney and Melbourne and its respective return leg are experiencing the largest growth in interest. Adelaide to Auckland comes in third position, followed by Sydney to Brisbane, and Adelaide to Perth.5. ADL > PER1. SYD > MEL4. SYD > BNE2. MEL > SYD3. ADL > AKL6 SOJERN AUSTRALIA NEW ZEALAND TRAVEL REPORT 7 Looking at the types of branded travel queries consumers from Australia and New Zealand are searching on Google gives us an indication of what kind of travel is on their minds.Generic queries are outgrowing branded queries, indicating consumers are less loyal to a brand when evaluating travel options. Air branded queries grew fastest year over year, followed by car rental. This indicates that travellers are not only looking more for domestic and regional flights, but are increasingly looking to travel once in-destination, taking a roadtrip to see the local sights. Branded Hotel and Holiday Rental queries have slowed in year on year growth. Travellers may search more generic terms or turn to the home sharing market to try and find the best deals while browsing online.Growth of Australia/New Zealand Regional Query Trends, For Branded Queries7Travel Marketer Takeaway: Its important to understand your audience and their consumer habits. Consumers research aspects of their trip together, but there is a clear order of booking. Travellers first consider their flights, followed by their accommodation, and then car rentals and other applicable add-ons. Travellers dont usually book all their travel in the same sitting. Rather, there are certain periods of time in which they are in-market for particular travel verticals. Use cross vertical intent signals when your audience is in market to understand the right timing to offer relevant ads and nurture your potential customers through to a decision. Then, its all about reaching them with the right message through the right channel and device. We partnered with Fox Rent a Car to identify who would be most responsive to their messaging based on their previous intent signals, including cross vertical search or booking behaviours. Using these data and insights, Sojern grew their direct bookings by 136%, and increased new users by 20%.8Air Car Cruise Hotel Holiday Destination GrandRental Activities Total34%28%16%25%16%8%-9%2%8 SOJERN AUSTRALIA NEW ZEALAND TRAVEL REPORT 9 2 | Planning Trends Australians are most likely to search for travel from population powerhouses like Sydney and Melbourne, followed by Brisbane, Perth and Adelaide.9Top origin markets for Kiwis are Auckland and Christchurch, followed by Wellington, Queenstown and Dunedin.10We see peaks in travel intent during the months of January, March and August, and the least amount of intent in May.11Bookings peak in March and remain more consistent throughout the year, increasing around September.12Aussie and Kiwi outbound travellers also have varied lead times for their travel. About a quarter of those staying domestic or within the region search last minute, 7 or days less, before their travel. However, a slightly greater portion, 30%, actually book last minute. Australian and New Zealander Lead Times13Flight SearchFlight Booking0 to 7 days 8 to 14 days 15 to 21 days 22 to 29 days 30 to 59 days 60 or more days26%30%12%11%9%8%8%7%27%28%19%16%This doesnt mean that there arent early planners. More than a quarter of both searches and bookings are made 60 days or more ahead of travel. The variation of lead times from this region indicates that the motivation of these travellers largely impacts the timing of their trip.Travel Marketer Takeaway: Travel marketers should lean into rich, real-time data and finely tuned data science to capitalise on these varying lead timesunderstanding the best time to engage with travellers, creating more tailored content and nurturing these travellers, regardless of how last minute or forward-looking they are in their travel planning. Consider Dynamic Creative to create and serve personalised ads reflective of a travellers search preferences in real-time. Companies using dynamic creatives see up to 115% greater click-through-rate compared to rich media.1410 SOJERN 3 | Device Trends Many regional and domestic travellers are now mobile-first, relying on their smartphones most often as a tool for research. Half of in-region Google travel queries for Australia and New Zealand come from mobile phones, up 12% year on year.15Travel searches, across devices, within this region peak on Mondays and Tuesdays . Even though overall search intent drops towards the weekends, the share of mobile increases to 43% of all searches during weekdays to 50% on weekends, when consumers are more likely to be outdoors or away from their laptops.The Share of Mobile Searches to Australia & New Zealand, by Day of Week16Bookings peak on Mondays, Tuesdays, and Wednesdays, with 29% made on mobile weekly. While desktop dominates the share of bookings, the share of mobile bookings remains fairly constant throughout the week, spanning anywhere from 27% to 31% of all bookings. The Share of Mobile Bookings to Australia & New Zealand, by Day of Week17The slight drop in users on mobile as they move from search to booking demonstrates that regional and domestic travellers use mobile primarily for research when they are higher up in the travel funnel. A portion of these travellers move cross-device as they continue along their path to purchase to a booking, likely due to friction during the online mobile experience. Therefore, its crucial that your website is mobile-friendly, as potential guests need to quickly access educational travel content and offerings from their mobile phone.Sunday Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday Sunday Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday 16%14%12%10%8%6%4%2%0%16%14%12%10%8%6%4%2%0% of Total by Day of Week% of Total by Day of Week52%71%73% 72% 71%70%70%69%48%29%27% 28%29% 30%30% 31%41% 41% 42%42% 45% 51%59% 59%58%58%55%49%