Travelling Preferences Of People From Different Nations

Travelling trends of people from the United States

Question:

Discuss about the Travel management and mode choice behaviour.

‘Travelling and vacations’ had always been one of the most important components of people’s lives in every nations of the world. This is said so because it tends to make people feel refreshed and helps to cut out monotony and boredom of regular lives. However, one thing is always noted in the trend of travelling of different people in different nations. A number of factors determine where the travelers want to go, or can afford to go. Preferences also depend on culture of the people, their traditions, mindsets, economic strength and many others. Therefore, it becomes extremely important to understand the different intrinsic factors, which determine the vacation decisions and make them pick up places, which matches their choices and likings. These assignments would mainly depict how people from different nations have various travelling preferences, what enhances those preferences and who mainly acts as the main person to take decisions.

Being an inhabitant of United States, a number of factors had always been noted which is taken in consideration while making travel decisions. People in the United States had always been seen to be interested in seeing unique attractions and thereby increasing the cultural knowledge. Rest and relaxation is one of the most important priorities for the older travelers (Dutzik, Inglis and Baxandall 2014). They are mainly seen to travel so that they can escape from stress of everyday work and family obligations. On the other hand, younger travelers are seen to be more interested in satisfying their sense of adventure. The latter has a goal of broadening their horizons and exploring the unknown (Ralph 2017). One interesting fact that needs to be mentioned here is that the people in the United States like to visit by cars. This is indeed true, as 63% of the people in the nation have been seen to be taking vacations in their cars with 31% preferring planes and 2% preferring trains. Family travelers are mainly like to travel within the nations with suitable places to stay in. a statistical data shows that they like to stay in hotels by 41% in comparison to resorts by 29%. Vacation rental is seen to stand on 15% whereas campsite is only 6%. The statistics is also similar to that of the baby boomers of the nation who also prefer to stay in hotels the most on both international and domestic trips (Statistics portal-US 2017). Data shows that baby boomers mainly try to take domestic trips with friends and families, which accounts for about 30% (Yuan et al. 2016). They only take international trips with family and friends, which account to 14%. Therefore, this trend would be extremely helpful to learn about the preferences of the people of the United States.

In comparison, on interviewing the students who were from Bangladesh about what kind of travelers are mostly found in their country, it was seen, that the families mainly try to take vacations. When it was asked about their domestic or international travel preferences, they stated that travelers like to travel within the country for a number of reasons.  They are more concerned with the safety purposes of the family and are more detailed planners than Australians and United States families (Garikapati et al. 2016). Food requirements are one of the most important factors, which the families stress on if they travel abroad. In most of the cases, the nation being a Muslim nation prefers halal food and therefore they are very careful about the places to dine in (Chakravarti 2014). However, some of the Bangladeshi students also disclosed an interesting fact about the present trends of travelling. With the passing of days, they are gradually coming out of their comfort zones and are experiencing with local food in their travel destinations. They are even seeing trying out western cuisine on trips. The family trips mainly comprise of places, which involve family friendly leisure activities. Entertainment is a great draw for these travelers (Khan and Deb 2017). Moreover, it is also seen that economic concerns become one of the most important factors behind planning their trips. When it was asked about the places where they travel, they said that families mostly take trips within their own country at places like Cox Bazaar, which is a beach. Besides, they like to visit places of historical interest Mughal mosques, temples and monasteries over the nation. They try to take families to places that are safe and are already established as tourist spots unlike the United States people who feel the urge to know the unknown. One important thing that was noted in the interview with the students is that the people are technologically backward (Jennings 2014). They are not comfortable with applications on the internet and therefore their travelling patterns are mostly comprising of manual bookings, short trips, friendly gatherings and others. The luxury afforded by the trips remains mainly base on the economic strength of the families (Nakanishi and Black 2016). When it was asked about the person who takes the travelling decisions, they stated that the head member of families do the planning of the trips depending on the economic strength. Trips of young people are rare as allowance by the head of the family members hold importance.

Travelling preferences of families from Bangladesh

When interviews of the Australians were taken on the campus, the behavior of the students regarding travelling and vacations was seen to be much casual. When, the importance of the trips in their lives was asked, it was seen that they take these trips as parts of their lifestyles casually and not as anything significant to be focused on unlike the Bangladeshis. Survey conducted on the travel market in Australians showed that they travel to international places more than the domestic places. On average, Australian travelers take four international trips in one year of which two are mainly for leisure purposes. When it was asked about the main attractions about the places they travel, it was seen that unlike USA who are more interested to know the unknown, Bangladeshis who plan trips for spending time with families and see historical and entertainment places, Australians believe on leisure and rest (Wang and Yan 2015). About 88% of travelers are found to purchase insurance for their international trips and 12% do not do so. In case of domestic trips, 44% of travelers purchase insurance of domestic trips and 56% of people do not. This implies that they are more careful about travelling and considers travelling as a component of their lifestyle, which makes them to purchase insurance. Australians are well known for their adventurous spirit and love for travelling and therefore they take many trips throughout the year. When it was asked about which class of people travel the most, they stated that more than the high and low socioeconomic status of people, the middle class families seem the most excited. The students were of the opinion that even the middle class families try to spend less on average throughout the year so that they can splurge in the summer break and have the best time (Sierpinski et al. 2016). When data was searched, it was found that besides the urban areas; even the suburban areas nowadays also spend a lot on breaks. These suburbs include Rouse Hill, Baulkham Hills, Campbelltown, Brisbane, and Liverpool. Not only that, Queensland and New South Wales were seen to book cruises even and September and December were their favorite times. The travel destinations include New Zealand, United States, Thailand, Singapore, Fiji, Malaysia, Hong Kong and many others. Thailand and United Kingdom are also their favorite spots. When reasons of travelling was asked, it was seen that the reasons for travelling mainly include holiday for about 57% and for visiting friends and families for 23% (Auspost.com.au 2016). Three age groups are found who travel the most. Age groups of 25 to 29 and that of 45 to 49 are seen to travel for about 9.3%. On the other hand, people of age 50 to 54 are seen to travel for about 9.4%. Therefore, mostly the age groups mentioned are seen to be travelling at a large extent but also young families with children are also increasing in numbers with passing days.

Answers which were received when questions on “Family members who take the decisions and what to buy” were asked:

Casual travel behavior of Australians

The Australians and US people like to explore a lot to new places and try out their cuisines. They buy clothes of the traditional culture of the regions where they travel and artifacts, which are found in those regions. Mainly they earning members of the family plan the trips but the males and females of the couple both get chances of equal participation in expressing their interests in planning their trips. However, in Bangladesh, the senior most head of the family who is usually the father and runs the family mainly plan the trips. They are mainly particular about their diet and are not much experimental. Although, the students have marked that Bangladeshis are now trying to experience and are gradually coming out of their comfort zones. They also tend to buy things from the places they visit to give them as gifts to family members and keep them in their homes.

Conclusion:

After interviewing with the foreign students like the Australians and the Bangladeshis, it was seen that there are certain differences in planning the vacations and travelling habits. It was noticed that in case of United States, young people, baby boomers, young families, middle-aged couples all go out for vacations and their preferences for international and domestic trips are approximately equal. Old aged couples mainly prefer domestic places than international destinations but the others often travel overseas. On the other hand, Bangladeshis mainly like to travel within their own country and rarely to overseas. Again, Australians like to travel internationally and are the most adventurous of all the three nations. The western countries mainly see both the mother and father to participate equally in making decisions but that is not the case of Bangladeshis. The head male member mainly takes the decisions and does the entire planning of the trip giving little scope to others to participate. Hence, all these information are very important, as the trends need to be known by every nation so that they can develop their hospitability sector in an advanced way.

References:

Auspost.com.au. 2018.  Travel trends - how Australians travel. [online] Available at: https://auspost.com.au/travel-essentials/how-australians-travel [Accessed 10 Jan. 2018].

Chakravarti, A., 2014. Regional Preferences For Food. Cultural Geography, Form and Process: Essays in Honour of Prof. AB Mukerji, p.355.

Dutzik, T., Inglis, J. and Baxandall, P., 2014. Millennials in motion: Changing travel Habits of young Americans and the implications for public policy. Educational Gerontology, 82(3), pp.152-174

Garikapati, V.M., Pendyala, R.M., Morris, E.A., Mokhtarian, P.L. and McDonald, N., 2016. Activity patterns, time use, and travel of millennials: a generation in transition?. Transport Reviews, 36(5), pp.558-584.

Jennings, H.M., 2014. Travelling people, travelling plants: an exploration into food-plant practice among Bengali women across transnational and generational landscapes. University of London, University College London (United Kingdom).

Khan, R.H. and Deb, S.K., 2017, November. Medical Tourism: Bangladeshi Consumers’choice Of Destination Country. In New Zealand Tourism and Hospitality Research Conference, 2010 (p. 103).

Nakanishi, H. and Black, J.A., 2016. Travel habit creation of the elderly and the transition to sustainable transport: Exploratory research based on a retrospective survey. International journal of sustainable transportation, 10(7), pp.604-616.

Ralph, K.M., 2017. Multimodal Millennials? The Four Traveler Types of Young People in the United States in 2009. Journal of Planning Education and Research, 37(2), pp.150-163.

Sierpi?ski, Grzegorz, El?bieta Macioszek, Marcin Staniek, and Ireneusz Celi?ski.  2016."Big Data Concerning Travel Preferences as a Means to Support Decision Making in the Field of Environmentally Friendly Urban Development." In New Pressures on Cities and Regions Conference Proceedings of the Regional Studies Association Winter Conference, pp. 84-85. 2016.

Wang, D. and Yan, L.I.U., 2015, December. Factors influencing public transport use: a study of university commuters’ travel and mode choice behaviours. In State of Australian Cities National Conference, 2015, Gold Coast, Queensland, Australia.

www.statista.com. (2018). The Statistics portal. [online] Available at: https://www.statista.com/statistics/470196/us-family-vacation-transport-preferences/ [Accessed 10 Jan. 2018].

Yuan, S., Hussain, S.A., Hales, K.D. and Cotten, S.R., 2016. What do they like? Communication preferences and patterns of older adults in the United States: The role of technology. Educational Gerontology, 42(3), pp.163-174