How do people feel about visiting tourist attractions right now?

With tourism businesses reopening, and permission from the government granted to enjoy days out as long as safety measures are followed, how do the general public feel about visiting tourist attractions now?

London based market research firm BVA BDRC and Alligator Digital have teamed up to provide tourism marketers with a weekly snapshot. Their report looks at how consumers feel about a range of different things, including what their attitudes are to tourism and hospitality - and how that changes week by week.

Here’s some of the key takeaways from this week’s report

To what extent is consumer participation in each activity sector recovering to ‘normal’ levels?

Go on a day out to a visitor attraction

With visitor attractions having now been opened for a few weeks people are becoming more confident in visiting, with 35% likely to visit by the end of August- the highest proportion seen since lockdown. Equally, though, there is a growing proportion who are non-committal as to when they will visit.

Among those intending to go to a visitor attraction (who have a definite view as to when they will do so) average lead times have fallen sharply this week

Visit a zoo

When it was announced they were able to re-open we saw an increase in the proportion who would visit a zoo by the end of August. However, as time has moved on and other types of

activities and experiences have reopened, visit intentions for zoos have softened. Perhaps we will see a reversal in this downward trend in the coming weeks as a TV appeal fronted by David Attenborough to urge people to donate to the conservation charity behind London Zoo gains traction.

Visit an aquarium

As with the proportion who plan to visit a zoo, the proportion who plan to visit an aquarium has fallen – with 14% planning to visit by the end of December 2020 the lowest level recorded since this research began.

Visit a theme park

Likelihood to visit a theme park in the summer has fallen, with only 9% planning to do so by the end of September. Overall, 25% of people plan to visit a theme park by the end of December 2020- the lowest proportion recorded.

Visit a museum or gallery

Museums and galleries record a rise in the proportion likely to visit this attraction type by the end of August up slightly to 16%. Overall, the proportion who would visit by the end of the

year remained relatively steady at 46%. With the large national museums, such as the Natural History Museum and the Science Museum announcing August reopening dates, we may begin to see further increases in the proportion planning to visit a museum.

For those who plan to visit an attraction this year, the lead time for doing so has decreased, among those who commit to a likely date

Go to an outdoor garden, park or scenic area

Outdoor spaces have been a focus both for actual and intended leisure behaviour throughout the coronavirus crisis, but as other attractions slowly become more available it is little

surprise that some of the intentions to visit, while remaining very high, have softened just a bit.

Book a UK holiday

The proportion of people planning to book a UK holiday by September 2020 peaked last week, with a drop back to 37% this week, but the figures have held up for bookings to be made in July and August

Picture Credit: St Michael’s Mount

The main summary points from this week’s report are:

Little changed national mood increasingly seems to be determined by ingrained attitudes rather than to be responding to events

Now that we can go to the pub, stay in a holiday cottage or get our hair cut, for the nation as a whole our underlying mood barely seems to change from week to week. The proportion fearing the worst is yet to come is at its highest since what we know to have been the peak of the virus in mid-April. It would seem that continued worries about coronavirus are playing on our minds.

The challenge for us all will be how to manage future covid-19 outbreaks with local, even micro-level lockdowns and effective test and trace.

Our segmentation of attitudes to coronavirus risk is shown to be very stable in this the second week of it featuring in the report

Once again 1 in 3 British adults are in the ‘Life Goes On’ category. For them the risks from covid19 are no more than the other risks that may impact them. Indexing strongly amongst the younger age groups they just want to get on with their lives.

A further 1 in 5 are the ‘Pragmatic Policy Supporters’ who acknowledge the virus risks but support the government moves to get the economy going. The three further segments (an unchanged 47% of the population), are anxious, impacted or just cautious, and for all of them there is a concern that we are re-opening too fast.

‘Permission to visit’ is entrenching the divide in opinion

Confirming we are a nation divided, it seems now we have permission to do some things that have been verboten for months, for every person who is keen to participate there is another who has become more circumspect as to when they will re-engage.

This is true across categories in the tourism, leisure and hospitality sector: on the one hand we are seeing a welcome increase in the numbers saying they will participate by the end of August and as a result average lead times are coming down.

But on the other hand for many activities more also now say they want to do the activity but are non-committal as to when, so are excluded from the lead time averages.

We are a nation of shoppers

As we monitor the rate of recovery in different parts of the experience economy, going on a shopping trip / to a shopping mall is the top activity for its recovery. Amongst our travel activists 18% have already done this since retail was opened generally and a further 35%, a new high, intend to do so before the end of July.

The classic non-essential shopping motivations of personal reward and indulgence are surely ones the tourism, leisure and hospitality sector can emulate?

A challenge to make hospitality more than a one-off experience

6% of our activists have been to a restaurant since the lockdown was eased, with a sizeable uptick recorded this wave. But a concern is that intent to do so (again) by the end of August has fallen for a second week – it would seem a single visit does not over-turn the staying at home habit so the ‘eat out to help out’ scheme may prove very timely.

The hotel industry will be encouraged by the recovery in the intention to book, to a new high by the end of August, even if the shortfall to normal occupancy remains large. Generally social media comment about how hotels are handling the situation is positive and this may build a feel good factor for the sector.

Domestic tourism and leisure outlook much stronger still than overseas

Short term intentions to take a UK summer holiday are holding up well, sustaining the jump from a couple of weeks ago, with 8% of travel activists already having booked. Intentions to go on a day out to a visitor attraction in the next 2 months are at a new high, yet so to is the proportion non-committal on when they’ll next participate. In spite of quarantine quashing, overseas holiday expectations are receding.

Only 1 in 5 expect to take a holiday abroad this year, with twice as many assuming this now won’t be until 2021. That airlines continue to be pasted on social media is not helping their cause.

If you would like more insights into consumer behaviour around tourism, you can download the full report below. We’re happy to discuss how you can use these insights more fully in your marketing strategy and campaign planning moving forward - get in touch with us to continue this conversation.