Adapt or Die!
Responsible Travel and Tourism Trends Report
Includes Case Studies - Lagos, Algarve
2012 Edition
An Empowerment Gateway Research Initiative
Written by
Laurinda Seabra
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Adapt or Die – Travel and Tourism Trends – 2012 Edition January 2012
Foreword
Laurinda Seabra authored this report.
This report is produced solely by the Empowerment Gateway team
and has not been sponsored by individual companies or by any national
government or tourism boards.
Empowerment Gateway is a consulting, research and sustainable development
services organisation that assist local community stakeholders with the
development of sustainable tourism strategies, destination and product
development, marketing and research.
Empowerment Gateway believes that in order to establish a successful,
sustainable and more inclusive destination offering, requires the following:
• That tourism revenue is increased (meaning: attract more tourists,
lengthen duration of their stay, stimulate repeat business, increase what
they spend locally, reduce seasonality; while improving return on
investment and yield per visitor)
• That the benefits of tourism should be spread over more stakeholders,
particularly be of a direct benefit to local communities, and
• That balance should be maintained between economic, socio-cultural
and environmental impacts.
• That another important aspect of Responsible Destination Development
and Management is to focus on how the private sector, a crucial
stakeholder, should engage with the destination community to produce
positive impacts through its business model.
• That business follows recent trends in sustainable tourism management
and that they pay closer attention to: environmental stewardship, social
accountability, and adherence to corporate social responsibility
principles.
All Empowerment Gateway publications are protected by copyright.
It is illegal to copy, fax or electronically distribute copyrighted material beyond the parameters of the
license or outside of your organization without explicit written permission.
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Adapt or Die – Travel and Tourism Trends – 2012 Edition January 2012
Section 1 Introduction
Empowerment Gateway initially undertook this study in order to establish the challenges and
constraints facing the Lagos business sector, and to report back as to how the findings could
be used to develop effective strategies to counter-act those challenges and constraints.
But as our research progressed, still during the initial phase of our research, we realised that
not only Lagos, but in fact the whole of the Algarve is solely dependent on the travel and
tourism industry for survival!
That being the case, we started by asking:
• What does the future hold for the travel industry in general? Where is it headed?
• What is the impact not only for Lagos businesses alone but also for the entire Algarve
business sector?
In order to isolate the key trends and achieve a clear view of the direction of travel, the
author launched a global research project on the status of the travel industry. Broadly stated,
this report also examines the consumer and industry demand and major trends for
responsible tourism in key outbound countries in Europe, Africa and North America.
Based on these findings, the study delineates a wide range of marketing tools, techniques,
and strategies that companies and destinations can use to grow tourism, not simply in
numbers but also in the quality of tourists.
“Adapt or Die – Responsible Travel and Tourism Trends Report” is a qualitative and
quantitative research project that was carried out over three years, from 2009 to 2011.
As already stated, the objective of the initial research was two-fold: to identify key supply and
demand trends, and to explore the future of the business relationship between global buyers
and local suppliers.
The sample we used is representative of the global population by age, sex, educational level,
economic standing, and country of origin. In the first research wave 140 000 individuals were
targeted, with 35 015 respondents completing the general survey, 16 582 going on to tell us
about the trips they had undertaken in previous years, and over 11 258 respondents telling
us about some of the trips they were considering taking in the future.
Respondents to the various surveys came from a variety of sources, namely:
• Our own extensive international network of contacts registered in our various
databases including individuals registered in our own websites, newsletters, social
media platforms, social media networks, visitors to Lagos and Algarve, as well as local
residents.
• Government departments, civic society organisations, activists, community leaders,
multinationals, national organisations, small business owners and managers, students
and academics, and a pool of retired individuals
To measure, and check the main trends and challenges of the travel industry, extensive
desktop research, various Internet surveys with travel buyers and suppliers, as well as
various e-mail and face-to-face interviews were also conducted.
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Adapt or Die – Travel and Tourism Trends – 2012 Edition January 2012
How is the report structured?
The report is structured as three independent reports that are extensively interrelated with
each other. The author started by looking at what is happening in Lagos, followed by a study
to analyse what is happening internationally, including identifying what needs to be done to
attract visitors to Lagos, and the author concluded this integrated investigation with another
study on how the local small business community can attract more visitors to their stores
once the visitor is in Lagos.
Volume 1 The study begins with an actual analysis of the business sector in Lagos during
the period 2009 - 2011. Included in the research phase is a mapping of the
business infrastructure in Lagos, as well as the identification of other offerings of
potential interest to a visitor.
The author also conducted extensive interviews with 903 visitors to Lagos that
participated in the VIP Welcome to Lagos program run by Empowerment
Gateway. This section of the report also maps the respondent’s answers to their
specific experiences while in Lagos.
Volume 2 The study proceeds by looking at the range of global trends affecting, positively
and negatively, the tourism industry and specifically the market for responsible
travel.
In the current economic recession, Backpacking, Youth, Educational and
Volunteer tourism have remained strong, and responsible tourism appears to be
doing slightly better than the traditional tourism industry as a whole.
Significant global trends that are supporting responsible travel are the growth of
long-haul travel, as well as a dramatic increase in short-distance travel (short
break-aways); rapid expansion of Internet travel planning and bookings, online
travel communities and forums; and increasing consumer demand for travel that
offers authenticity, connections with nature, environmental stewardship, and
personal growth.
However, other trends - desire for escapism and fantasy, time constraints, and
recently the “Don't fly” movement, work against the growth of responsible
tourism.
It finds that responsible travel consumers actively plan their holidays, seek
interactive learning experiences, and travel “with a purpose” that can include
travellers' philanthropy or volunteering.
Volume 3 And finally, in Volume 3 we look specifically at what actions the local small
business community in Lagos can take. This report identifies a mix of
marketing tools and strategies that can help the small businesses in Lagos
to maximize their return while using their limited resources.
It includes international businesses case studies, as well as case studies of
successful and not so successful local businesses strategies.
Finally, it shows that it is very important to market not only to international
visitors, but also to regional and domestic travellers who can help provide a
buffer during periods of downturn in the international travel market.
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Adapt or Die – Travel and Tourism Trends – 2012 Edition January 2012
Who is this report for?
This report is aimed at people that have a vested interest in the Algarve! We hope that this
report:
• Will provide valuable insight into travel researchers, buyers’ views and requirements.
• That it will inform the Lagos (Algarve) business community of what they need to do if
they want to attract travellers to Lagos (or the Algarve) and customers to their
businesses.
• Will enable business owners and managers to make informed decisions about the
content and functionality that they should be providing in their own online and
mainstream marketing campaigns.
• Will ensure that their marketing campaigns are aligned with traveller requirements, to
secure not only sales but also to improve their businesses bottom line profitability.
Research Highlights
Overall, we found some marked differences in offerings versus what the respondents are
looking for in terms of information and the actual delivery of experiences.
• At the planning stage, images and written descriptions of what the destination offers
proved to be the most important factor in the assessment phase, closely followed by a
description of the destination accommodation facilities, maps and nightlife. Just as
important, is information about airports and transportation.
• Once the visitor arrived, the most important information relates to things to do and
see as well as what events are on offer. Local dining facilities also ranked as
important.
• Nearly three quarters of all surveyed, indicated that they struggled with poorly
constructed, confusing and inaccurate websites that failed to provide them with
sufficient images and information. In addition, they struggled with poor and often
confusing translations of content on various websites. We found that the most
common language used by all respondents is English.
• The survey also showed that consumers were frustrated by out-of-date information,
price disparities and misleading descriptions, as well as technology-related issues such
as slow downloads and broken links.
• During 2011, we found that there was a marked decrease in overall brand loyalty, be it
to a destination, be it to a supplier of goods or services; but there has been an
increase in the number of people that intend taking more than one break away from
home during 2012, in spite of the economic crises.
• There is a definite shift from trips of extended visits to more trips of shorter duration
with short breaks spread throughout the year. There is also a shift from long-haul trips
to trips closer to country of origin.
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Adapt or Die – Travel and Tourism Trends – 2012 Edition January 2012
Other Findings
As previously stated, there is no doubt that Lagos and the Algarve survives out of tourism
and it made perfect sense that we concentrated a large part of our effort and resources in
finding out what tourists and visitors to travel destinations are really looking out for,
especially in light of stiff destination competition, and the loss of visitors that Lagos and the
rest of the Algarve have been experiencing in the past ten years.
Our research also highlighted the serious marketing and branding shortfall of Lagos as a
destination; when marketing and branding was done, it often followed a shotgun approach
instead of a targeted approach.
Travellers Profiles by Country of Origin
To find out what travellers really want, we conducted further research and surveys targeted
at specific cultures. This resulted in us building comprehensive visitor profiles from the
following countries - Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Italy, Japan,
New Zealand, Mexico, Romania, Spain, South Africa, Switzerland, UK and USA.
The findings clearly indicated that although there are many common areas between
respondents of different countries, there are also marked differences based on various
cultural differentiators and indicators. The author believes that those differentiators need to
be acknowledged when destination branding and marketing campaigns are planned and that
it should be incorporated into the marketing mix offering.
In this report we give only an amalgamated view of those findings, but country-by-country
travellers profiles are also available on request.
In addition we also compiled a separate “backpacker” in-depth profile, as this sector can
have a massive positive impact in the earnings of a region if managed adequately.
Focus on Website’s Content
For years, we have heard everybody connected to the Internet, saying that if you want
increase web visibility, websites need to have good content, and our research results clearly
substantiate that.
Overall, website content was identified as a very important search criteria used by
respondents as sources of information.
Further research and surveys were carried out to identify the trends in travelling decisions,
its influencers, what content is most critical for travellers, and what can improve their
travelling experiences.
As a destination of choice, Lagos and its business sector need to ensure that they provide
travellers and ultimately their customers, with the information they are looking for, that is
easily accessible, and at the right time, so as to support the sale of their products and
services.
This report deals specifically with the task of attracting tourists/visitors to Lagos and what
needs to be done to retain them in Lagos. Although the focus is on Lagos as a destination,
the findings can be used and applied to all areas of the Algarve.
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Adapt or Die!
Responsible Travel
and Tourism Trends Report
Includes Case Studies - Lagos, Algarve
February 2012
Publication Date
March 2012
Language
English
Format
PDF
Number of Pages
300
Focus Country
Portugal
Focus District
Algarve
Focus Municipal Region
Lagos
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Adapt or Die – Travel and Tourism Trends – 2012 Edition January 2012
Sample Extracts From Report
Note:
Table of Contents is Available on Request
e-mail: laurinda.seabra@empowerment-gateway.com
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Adapt or Die – Travel and Tourism Trends – 2012 Edition January 2012
Further Information Request Form
Place your request for more information as follows: Scan this page and email us on
laurinda.seabra@empowerment-gateway.com
I WOULD LIKE MORE INFORMATION ON THE FOLLOWING REPORT (S)
BEFORE I PURCHASE
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Amalgamated Report
Adapt or Die March 2012
Responsible Travel and Tourism Trends Report
Volume 1, 2 & 3
Adapt or Die Report Series
Volume 1
A Look at Local Trends. March 2012
Sustainable Development and Tourism in Lagos
Adapt or Die Report Series
Volume 2
A Look at Global Trends.
Responsible Tourism, the Tourism of the Future March 2012
Adapt or Die Report Series
Volume 3
Attracting Tourists to Small Businesses in Coastal Communities March 2012
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