Reaching Quality Travelers That Spend More and Stay Longer
At a glance
- Study identifies three levers: attracting premium bookers, targeting longer-stay travelers for higher-margin returns, and promoting upgrades.
- Expedia Group conducted custom research with Global Web Index to help stakeholders identify and reach high-value travelers.
What the report covers
Expedia Group and Global Web Index conducted custom research to understand how traveler spend, length of stay, and upgrade behavior vary across booking platforms. The study surveyed over 8,000 respondents across eight global markets—Australia, Canada, France, Japan, Mexico, Singapore, UK, and US—who had booked vacations in the preceding three to six months. The research aims to help destinations, hotels, and travel companies identify, target, and connect with valuable travelers who generate higher revenue through longer stays and premium spending.
Key findings
The research distinguishes traveler value across booking platform preferences, recognizing that different platforms attract travelers with differing spending profiles, length-of-stay patterns, and propensity to upgrade. Understanding these differences enables stakeholders to direct marketing efforts toward platforms where high-value traveler segments concentrate. The study frames this segmentation as essential for destinations and operators competing for travelers who deliver disproportionate economic returns.
Premium bookings represent a key value lever. The report identifies travelers spending more at point of purchase as a distinct segment worth targeted acquisition. This group generates higher transaction values and contributes more substantially to operator margins, making their identification and attraction a strategic priority across hotel groups, airlines, and car rental companies.
Longer stays emerge as a driver of incremental revenue beyond the booking itself. Travelers planning extended trips generate higher-margin bookings while creating extended opportunities for in-market spending—restaurants, attractions, local services. The report positions length of stay as both a booking-value metric and a proxy for destination-level economic benefit.
Upgrade behavior—willingness to purchase premium options at booking or check-in, such as deluxe hotel suites or airline seat upgrades—represents a third revenue stream. The report treats this as a distinct traveler characteristic: the propensity to trade up signals both budget capacity and demand for premium experiences, creating incremental revenue opportunities beyond base bookings.
Key numbers
| Metric | Value |
|---|---|
| Global markets covered | 8 |
Figures as published in the source; forecasts and survey results are labelled as such in the note.
Why it matters
DMOs & destinations
Understanding which booking platforms attract high-value travelers—those staying longer and spending more in-market—enables targeted marketing investment and partnership prioritization. Directing promotion toward platforms reaching premium, extended-stay segments maximizes per-visitor economic impact and return on destination marketing budgets.
Hotels & hospitality
Identifying traveler value signals across platforms supports inventory and rate management strategy. Segmenting demand by booking channel, length of stay, and upgrade propensity enables hotels to optimize pricing, package design, and ancillary revenue while allocating marketing spend toward acquiring higher-lifetime-value guest segments.
Travel tech & distribution
Platform operators can use booking-platform preferences as a segmentation lens to refine targeting and merchandising. Understanding which platforms host high-spend, long-stay, and upgrade-prone travelers informs product roadmap priorities, commission structures, and partner incentive design—ultimately driving quality-over-volume distribution strategy.
Methodology and limits
Expedia Group and Global Web Index conducted custom survey research in 2024. The sample included 8,000+ respondents across eight global markets—Australia, Canada, France, Japan, Mexico, Singapore, UK, US—who had completed a vacation booking within three to six months prior to survey. Respondents reported their preferred booking platform and behaviours including spend, length of stay, and upgrade propensity. This brief is based on the publicly available summary; full methodological detail and data analysis are contained in the full report.
Official source
The report is © Expedia Group. This brief is an original editorial summary by TourismIntel — it quotes only figures published in the source and never reproduces the document.
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