One of the biggest questions when booking a holiday is whether to get everything booked far in advance to get the timings, location and other specifics all in place. Or, to leave it to the last minute in the hope of being able to secure a cheaper deal somewhere desirable.
With the summer holidays now winding down to a close over the coming weeks, many in the latter category will be currently looking in earnest for a last minute, value deal. But who are those adults who book their holidays at short notice and how can marketers best engage them?
Latest data from Kantar Media’s TGI study of consumer behaviour in the Republic of Ireland reveals that 12% of adults (just under half a million people) have booked a holiday a month or less before they go away. This is an audience that is particularly likely to be in the older age groups and with few potentially few work or dependent family ties to discourage them from making last-minute holiday arrangements.
They are 42% more likely than the average adult to be aged 65+ and 67% more likely to be in the TGI Lifestage group ‘Empty Nesters’ (aged 55+, married or living as a couple and do not live with son or daughter). Conversely, parents with young children are particularly less likely to book holidays at such short notice, with those in the TGI Lifestage group ‘Secondary School Parents’ (live with son or daughter and youngest child aged 10-15) 46% less likely to do so and ‘Playschool Parents’ (live with son or daughter and youngest child aged 0-4) 32% less likely to do so.
This is a group that likes to know what they are going to be doing on holiday before they get there. They are 34% more likely than the average adult who has taken a holiday in the past 12 months to say they like to go on holidays where activities are organised for them. In terms of what these activities are, topping the list of ‘most enjoyed’ activities whilst away is eating well, cited by 42%, followed by relaxing/lazing around (39%), spending time with the family (33%), shopping (27%) and visiting natural sites (21%).
When it comes to targeting these last minute holiday-ers, TGI data reveals they are 44% more likely than the average adult to be amongst the fifth heaviest consumers of newspapers. Indeed they are also 57% more likely to agree ‘newspaper and magazine articles on holiday and travel influence my choice of holiday’. The most popular topics of interest read about in newspapers by this group are Irish news (56% very interested in this), local news (51% very interested), sport (33% very interested), travel & holidays (30% very interested) and weather (29% very interested).
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