SOLVENT CZECHS LIKE TO HOLIDAY WITH A TRAVEL AGENCY. SEE WHAT YOU CAN DO TO APPEAL TO THEM IN YOUR TV ADVERTISING! - ScreenVoice.cz

Around 60% of Czechs go on domestic holidays every year, 45% go abroad. Although holidays are no longer exclusively associated with summer, summer is still the main season. Some people like to arrange everything themselves, others rely entirely on travel agencies, and some make a choice depending on circumstances. The current summer mood led us to the idea of looking at Czechs through the lens of holiday arrangements and we came up with one downright summer finding. Or more accurately, a travel finding.

If you see advertisements for travel agencies on TV, it is the right placement because people who use travel agencies for their holidays and travel in general watch more TV than people who don’t use them.

28% of Czechs use travel agencies at least once a year. How do they differ from those who don’t? In general, they are slightly older than the average population (the proportion of people 45+ is 55% for those using travel agents while for those who don’t it is 49%). If you expect differences by gender, there are none. Nor are there differences by number of children or whether one is a parent. But where there are differences, and big ones, are education and socio-economic status. Clients of travel agencies are significantly more educated (31% have a university degree compared to 22% for the other group). Mostly, though, they belong to the wealthier part of the population – 46% of travel agency clients are in socio-economic class AB while the other group only accounts for 30%. Last but not least, travel agency clients more often belong to the urban population – 48% live in cities and towns with at least 20,000 inhabitants compared to 41% of those travelling on their own.

Even from these few figures, it is clear that people who go on holiday with a travel agent are a relatively solvent target group, so we will focus on them in more detail. We have already mentioned that travel agent clients watch more classical television. 50% of them watch live broadcasts at least 4-6 times a week compared to 43% of people not using travel agent services. The daily ATS is not bad either: 118 minutes versus 107 minutes.

The differences may seem small at first glance, but with such a solvent target group, which we often have trouble reaching on TV, every minute counts. Yes, they are also moving to VOD, but there the differences between the two groups of the population according to the use of travel agencies are not big. It is also important for marketers that travel agent clients are a bit more tolerant of advertising (including TV ads). There is no big mystery behind this fact – the data shows that the reluctance to advertise is largely due to a lack of finance. When people are counting every penny, it doesn’t help to see more and more things they can’t afford every minute. However, travel agent clients are richer on average, so, they are a little more comfortable with advertising.

What are our travel agent clients interested in and what topics can you contact them about? We will skip the usual Czech topics now such as films/series, cooking, and housing. We will look only at the topics where there are the biggest differences between the two groups. Unsurprisingly, travel is the number one interest for travel agent clients (78% compared to only 55% for those not using travel agents). Leisure tips in general are also good (51% vs. 42%). Topics related to a healthy lifestyle rank quite high (42% vs. 34%, which is also due to the fact that travel agent clients have a higher level of education – and also have money for a healthy lifestyle). They are much more interested in more complex topics such as finance and economy (44% vs. 32%) or culture (theatre, etc.).

And what ads to combine with those for travel? For travel agent clients, you can add, for example, advertisements for mortgages and refinancing (they have mortgages much more often, 25% vs. 17%) and, naturally, insurance (not counting travel insurance).

People using travel agencies will also be intrigued by the various household technological gadgets, with over 40% already using some element of a smart home (compared to 30% of people not using travel agents).

In addition, travel agent clients are significantly more likely to declare that they are willing to pay extra for quality goods (69% vs. 59%) or for environmentally friendly products (41% vs. 34%). On the other hand, we are in the Czech Republic and traveling is not cheap, so travel agent clients (although richer) look for special offers and promotions slightly more often than people not using travel agent services (58% vs. 52%).

Travel agent clients as buyers

Source: mPanel, GroupM, Wave 04 (09-12/2022); Wave 05 (02-04/2023); Wave 06 (09-12/2023)

And because traveling has its challenges, the number of people who have used an over-the-counter anti-allergy medication in the last year is higher among travel agent clients than among Czechs who do not travel with agencies (30% vs. 24%).

Whichever of the above groups you belong to, we wish you a wonderful allergy-free summer.