People come together over food – from planning and preparation to feasting. While every person on our planet eats, not everyone would consider themselves a “foodie” – or someone who keeps up with culinary trends. Yet when we travel, the culinary scene of a destination is a top three consideration – whether you’re from the U.S. or Europe.
According to the recently released MMGY 2024 Portrait of American Travelers® “Fall Edition,” 56% of American travelers are influenced by the culinary scene when choosing a destination. The recently released MMGY 2024 Portrait of European Travellers™ shows similar habits, with 58% of European travelers interested in restaurant/food experiences when they travel. These figures have stayed consistent for European travelers over the three years MMGY Travel Intelligence has been conducting the study; for Americans, their taste for culinary experiences has created a hunger that continues to grow at a strong pace year over year. In fall of 2021, only 49% of American travelers were influenced by a destination’s culinary scene. Just three years later, that figure has jumped 7%.
This could be where many destination marketing organizations and marketers stop with their data analysis. After all, targeting culinary enthusiasts can be enough to generate incremental visits and secure restaurant reservations. With access to the entire library of MMGY Travel Intelligence research reports and traveler segment profiles through a subscription to the Intel Library, it’s possible to tease out a more poignant story about who these travelers are – one that digs deeper into what drives their dish-driven decision-making.
Both Portrait of American Travelers® and Portrait of European Travellers™ note a crossover in audience segments between culinary enthusiasts and those who call themselves eco-conscious. For American travelers, 64% of those who consider a culinary scene when selecting a destination also describe themselves as environmentally conscious, according to the 2024 study. And for travelers who take their love of cuisine a step further and refer to themselves as “foodies,” 53% also label themselves as environmentally conscious in the 2024 study, increasing from 46% in 2022.
European travelers show an eco-mindedness, with 51% saying they always eat at a local restaurant or buy locally produced food when traveling, and another 45% saying they sometimes do – netting out to the vast majority making conscious decisions to eat local. Similar to their American counterparts, European travelers with an interest in culinary experiences also overlap with with eco-conscious travelers – and this trend is also growing. In 2022, MMGY’s Portrait of European Travellers™ indicated that 42% of those interested in food/restaurant experiences were influenced by the sustainable and environmentally conscious practices of the provider. The most recent report found that percentage has increased to 45%.
Whether these travelers are driven first by their desire for good food made from the finest, freshest ingredients or by their desire for sustainable environmental practices, the overlap between these two audience segments is significant and consistent. For destinations that have a culinary scene that is eco-conscious and highly focused on sustainability – or that simply want to bring in more of that type of traveler – the data in these research reports offers key pieces of information for pulling together a highly targeted persona. The premade MMGY TRiPs audience profiles also give DMOs and marketers the ability to go after specific personas by activating multiple audiences that demonstrate significant crossover in interests, as these culinary and eco-conscious travelers do.
At MMGY, we know that good data builds a solid foundation for campaigns that reach the right audiences for your destinations – and it can also attract travelers who will help you attain larger organizational goals while establishing regenerative tourism for your community. That’s why we’re offering access to the entire library of MMGY Travel Intelligence research through a yearly subscription to our newly launched Intel Library. And you can access MMGY TRiPs U.S. and UK traveler audience segments for free to drive better ROIs for your campaigns. For U.S. TRiPs profiles, you can activate through programmatic trade desks or through TravelDesk, MMGY’s digital programmatic solution. UK TRiPs profiles can be activated exclusively through TravelDesk.
To learn more about accessing this wealth of data that you can immediately use to improve your strategies, learn more about the Intel Library here.
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