Future Traveler Tribes 2030

For several decades now, the notion of differentiation between groups of consumers on the basis that they have different characteristics that make them suitable for different products, services and marketing messages has been a well-accepted part of marketing practice. Such groups, which can be referred to as ‘segments’ or ‘tribes’, can be differentiated on features such as geographical location, product needs, demographics, product consumption occasions, and others.

In recent years, much has been written in the marketing trade press about the latest ‘segment of one’. This refers to the idea that modern consumers increasingly demand the kind of personalization in delivery of products and services that successfully treats each consumer as an individual. We believe that considering types of customers is still a valid exercise, and will continue to be so for the foreseeable future.

Back in 2006, Amadeus looked ahead to the world of 2020 and developed Traveler Tribes 2020, a report in which 4 travel groups were designed. Those types of tourist were built largely from functional building blocks such as demographics, nationality and travel behaviour (business versus leisure). Over the past ten years we have seen considerable evolution in societies and technologies, and an increasing awareness of complexity. We occupy multiple roles in our lives, each carrying different responsibilities and requiring different forms of support from brands. Fast-forwarding now to 2015 and the fast-evolving world of technology around us, we believe a new approach is needed.

We are now looking at the year 2030 and we have tried to anticipate the types of travellers who will be relevant 15 years from now and we have built our new tribes on the basis of more fundamental and relevant building blocks: we have taken a “psychographic” approach, forming new sets of travellers on the basis of their broadly similar outlooks on, expectations of and objectives for their travel. The traveller tribes are placed within the demographic, consumer and technological contexts that will shape the travel landscape up to 2030.

Find in this travel research report the features, behaviours, values and needs of the 6 travel groups that will travel in 2030: Simplicity Searchers, Reward Hunters, Social Capital Seekers, Cultural Purists, Ethical Travellers and Obligation Meeters.