Educating Aussies to invest in their safety

An opportunity for travel and insurance

The world can be a scary place at times, and today’s digital landscape has a way of magnifying anything and everything as it happens, including the worst of it—acts of terror and natural disasters. The magnification of these incidents has Australians growing increasingly concerned for their safety when they travel, with 61% claiming it affects their desire to travel. In fact, 28% of 18-24 year olds and 43% of people 25 and older say they’re travelling less as a result. 

Concerns about safety doesn’t only affect whether consumers travel or not. It drives how they travel. For example, many Australians are taking extensive precautions before they set out on a trip. Notably, visitation to the Australian Government Smart Traveller website increased 49% since last year. 

Of those who are concerned about travelling, 41% continue to travel. This group represents a unique opportunity for the travel industry to educate and invest in their safety, given their likely interest in learning about precautions to take when travelling, organised pre-planned trips and safe travel destinations. 

Appealing to safety-conscious Australians

To maximise campaign resonance, marketers need to understand what safety conscious Australians are looking for in a holiday.

Many travellers like to stick to destinations they perceive as safer, which means marketers and travel agents should ramp up their efforts to promote lesser known areas where people can still maintain a sense of safety. Safety-conscious Aussies are more likely to visit the well known destinations: consumers under 45 years old prefer to travel to U.S., Canada and Japan, while consumers over 45 prefer to travel to Europe, Thailand and Indonesia. However, 62% prefer holidays where they can see nature settings giving advertisers the opportunity to draw attention to smaller, less travelled destinations. Safety-conscious travellers are also open to all inclusive holidays and are more likely than the general population to consider cruises or resorts. 

Trusted sources are also really important to safety conscious travellers, with one-in-three feeling reassured using products recommended by an expert. Relevant messaging and the right media channels are key here for marketers. Consider that 39% of safety-conscious Aussies say that their holiday plans are influenced by TV and 28% say they are influenced by newspaper or magazine articles. 

Naturally, safety conscious Aussies are twice as likely compared to the general population to take up travel insurance. This is up 23% in the last five years and the presents a clear opportunity to offer a variety of options to appease travellers concerns. 

There is great potential for the travel industry to grow Australians’ intention to travel by appealing to their sense of safety, positioning themselves as a reputable source of information and at the same time boosting the importance of travel insurance in order to feel adequately covered when taking that long-awaited ‘trip of a lifetime’.