Global: How much does cost influence a traveller’s holiday destination?

What makes consumers choose one place over another when picking a holiday destination? Data from YouGov’s newest tool, Global Profiles, reveals the factors that consumers consider when picking a holiday destination. Global Profiles tracks consumer thoughts, feelings, behaviours and habits, and monitors global trends and media consumption across 43 markets.

In this piece, we are looking at 24 countries from all the markets surveyed in Global Profiles. While climate and natural beauty are one of the main factors for travellers when choosing a holiday destination, value for money and overall cost also play an important role. When asked what influenced their choice of holiday during their most recent trip, slightly over a third of global respondents pick low cost as a contributing factor (31%).

Individually most Asian markets over-index the global audience. Indonesia (57%), Malaysia (54%), Philippines (50%) and Singapore (47%) are significantly more likely than global consumers to say that low cost is an important factor. However, slightly fewer consumers in Vietnam (38%) and Japan (35%) say the same, but that’s still more than the global audience.

South Africa registers over two in five consumers who are more likely to look at the total cost of the holiday before selecting the destination. Markets in the MENA region – UAE (40%) and Saudi Arabia (36%) – also register significantly more than a third of consumers who say that low cost is a factor. However, Morocco is among the markets least likely to say the same is true (22%).

Consumers in Italy reveal that the cost of the trip doesn’t concern them much. Less than two in ten Italians (16%) say that low costs are a factor in deciding where to go on holiday. The other European markets are not far behind with only around a quarter of consumers in Germany (24%), Great Britain (25%), France (25%) and Spain (27%) thinking on similar lines. Greece (41%), Bulgaria (38%) and Ireland (37%) are the only exceptions in the European region where nearly two in ten consumers say they choose a holiday that is cheap.

The US features lower on the list with over two in ten consumers (23%) considering cost compared to its North American counterparts who register over a third of consumers – Canada (34%) and Mexico (33%).

Receive monthly topical insights about the travel and tourism industry, straight to your inbox. Sign up today.

Discover more travel and tourism content here

Want to run your own research? Start building a survey now

Methodology: YouGov Global Profiles is a globally consistent audience dataset with 1000+ questions across 43 markets. The data is based on continuously collected data from adults aged 16+ in China and 18 and over in other markets. The sample sizes for YouGov Global Profiles will fluctuate over time, however the minimum sample size is always c.1000. Data from each market uses a nationally representative sample apart from India and UAE, which use urban representative samples, and China, Egypt, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Malaysia, Morocco, Philippines, South Africa, Taiwan, Thailand and Vietnam, which use online representative samples. Learn more about Global Profiles.