Travel & Outdoor Trends from MERCURYcsc — The Love-Hate Relationship Between Tech and Immersion

BOZEMAN, Mont. — The first official edition of The Pulse from Think T+O™ ­— a more experiential take on trends in Travel + Outdoor — explores the increasing push-pull tension between disconnecting and staying connected while vacationing and spending time outdoors. Does technology and the ability to stay connected almost everywhere inhibit or enhance travelers’ leisure time? Is it a blessing or a curse, and have we come to peace with its role in our “vacations”? Also, how do we even define “vacation” in today’s connected world?

Thanks to recent initiatives like the U.S. Travel Association’s Project: Time-Off, perhaps the U.S. cultural norm will return to the days when a vacation was really a vacation. That is, if people really take their vacation days. As this Skift report shows, 42% of Americans didn’t take a single vacation day last year.

Thankfully, 97% of your best customers did.

We know this because we’ve conducted our own research, using the exact same question and available answers that Skift used, with a subset of the population known as experiential travelers (or, Geotravelers).

This growing segment is still the ideal target market for Travel and Outdoor industry brands due to their propensity to make travel and outdoor recreation a priority. But they are struggling with an increasingly difficult balancing act between immersion and connectivity, and safety and adventure.

Thanks to insights from this edition of The Pulse, we know that experiential travelers are bucking the U.S. trend and the majority of them took more than 10 days of vacation in 2014. But that doesn’t mean they completely check out from their commitments. In fact, even though the majority of them intend to disconnect while on vacation, they are still bringing along their mobile devices and checking in. Why?

Find out in our full report. We’ll provide you with results from The Pulse and actionable insights that you can employ as you look to connect with this audience.

About MERCURYcsc

MercuryCSC is a Bozeman-based, converged marketing agency that connects brands with people who value travel, the outdoors and a sense of place. Fueled by its proprietary Think T+O research and team of emerging media, creative and public relations experts, MercuryCSC boasts Effie-award winning excellence.

Media:

Maclaren Latta, Vice President of Consumer Insights

406.600.4459, maclaren.latta@mercurycsc.com