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Future of global travel looks positive

LONDON, January 13, 2016

The future of global travel shows no signs of slowing down, with people around the world optimistic about making more travel plans, data from a new study shows.

According to Visa’s Global Travel Intentions Study, travellers said that they plan to take an average of three international trips in 2016 while affluent travellers have revealed that they plan to take an average of five international trips this year.

The study predicts the highest increase in outbound leisure travel for the year will come from Egypt (over 54 per cent), Morocco (over 43 per cent), South Africa (over 30 per cent), China (over 22 per cent) and Kuwait (over 14 per cent) with the most visited destinations expected to be the US, Japan, Australia, UK, France, Italy, Turkey, Thailand and Canada.

While leisure travel takes the top spot for reasons to travel, the lines between work and play seem to be blurring with 16 per cent of travellers having combined leisure and business on overseas trips in 2015, spending an average of 10 nights on their trip.

Moreover, three out of four ‘bleasure’ travellers are influenced by the ability to collect and redeem frequent flyer miles when choosing their destination, data revealed.

Spontaneous travel has tremendously picked up, with the percentage of travellers planning their holiday a month or less in advance jumping from 41 per cent in 2013 to 53 per cent in 2015.

The number of solo travellers have also doubled, with first-time solo travelling moving up from 16 per cent in 2013 to 37 per cent in 2015.

One of the key drivers of growth in the travel industry is the ability to access information on mobile devices on the go and Visa’s study shows that more tech-savvy travellers were taking advantage of information at their fingertips

In 2015, 64 per cent of the travellers used a mobile device to access online information before the trip, compared to 42 per cent in 2013. During the trip, 75 per cent of the travellers used mobile devices to access online information in 2015, up from 56 per cent in 2013.

Furthermore, payment choices available to travellers has drastically increased and become more secure with more travellers carrying payment cards when vacationing.

In 2015, 93 per cent of travellers opted to carry payment cards compared to 77 per cent in 2013 with eight out of 10 travellers using a combination of cards and cash while at their destination.

With greater options on offer and increasingly secure electronic payments available, leisure travel is beginning to reach a bigger market than ever before. - TradeArabia News Service




Tags: Visa | travel | global |

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