“Stopover Finland” Consumer Research for Asian Travellers ... · Research Findings and...

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Copyright © Nepa All Rights Reserved

“Stopover Finland” Consumer Research

for Asian Travellers

Research Findings and Proposition

Recommendations

Summary

February 26th, 2016

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Table of Contents:

Table of Contents: ................................................................................................................................... 2

1 Project Background .......................................................................................................................... 3

2 Research Objectives ........................................................................................................................ 3

3 Research Methodology .................................................................................................................... 4

3.1 Online quantitative research .................................................................................................... 4

3.2 Respondent recruitment and sample specification .................................................................. 4

4 Executive summary and recommendations ..................................................................................... 5

5 Full Market overview ........................................................................................................................ 9

5.1 Which packages are most popular and why? .......................................................................... 9

5.2 Initial thoughts on appeal and engagement with the target audience ..................................... 9

5.3 Optimising the penetration and the value .............................................................................. 10

5.4 Motivation drivers................................................................................................................... 12

5.5 Increasing overnight bookings ............................................................................................... 12

5.6 How do travellers make decisions for their stopover? ........................................................... 13

5.7 To what extent are different types of packages chosen? ...................................................... 14

5.8 Price positioning – Leveraging price positioning to optimise expected popularity ................ 15

5.9 Target group and message positioning ................................................................................. 16

6 Comparisons of markets and packages.......................................................................................... 18

Appendix 1. List of all tested packages/products and the popularity, all markets ............................. 19

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1 Project Background

About Stopover Finland

Finpro coordinates a national Stopover Finland program. The key objective is to encourage foreign

direct investment in Finland and to promote tourism to the country.

This specific project is to launch a new proposition for Stopover Finland, targeted at the Asian market

who may not have considered stopping over to visit Finland. The targeted concept is to encourage

travellers to make a stopover from 5 hours to 5 days in Finland.

The ultimate objective is to create financial growth from this additional tourism income and targets to

be achieved over two years, by 2018, are:

A growth of 45% registered overnight bookings

An incremental tourism income of 80 ME

Currently, only 4% of Finnair passengers to Europe stayed for 24 hours or longer in Finland, as a

stopover from Asia to Europe.

2 Research Objectives

In order to create and launch the optimum proposition for the Asian traveller, Stopover Finland needs

to present the most relevant and appealing stopover packages.

The primary research objectives are therefore to evaluate which package modules both elicit the best

response from the key target audience, and best enable Stopover Finland to meet their key targets by

2018. Understanding potential stopover motivations of Asian travellers, along with their willingness to

invest in Finland as a stopover destination is a key factor of this research.

Key questions to understand and evaluate, include:

- What experience and activities are most desired in different markets and by different target

groups?

- What type of packages are of most interest?

- What is the potential length of a stopover vs. desired experiences and activities?

- What are the potential clients willing to pay for their experience/packages?

For the purposes of this research, we have compared and contrasted motivations and preferences

from 5 different markets to give clear direction on where an ‘umbrella’ proposition should be portrayed

for all potential Asian travellers to Finland; and where unique differences by market need to be

addressed with relevant messages/propositions. These markets are:

Beijing, Shanghai, Hong Kong, Japan, South Korea

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3 Research Methodology

3.1 Online quantitative research

Nepa has used a mix of methodologies to best answer Stopover Finland’s research questions.

We have used Purchase Simulations methodology (in a realistic Stopover website menu mock-up) to

understand how consumers optimally want to compose their stopover experience/packages,

depending on target group and trip conditions (e.g. purpose, length etc.).

Purchase simulations replicate actual behaviour in the context of a hypothetical booking situation. This

has allowed us to collect data on real behaviour, compared to if we had asked attitudinal questions

only.

We have also used Choice Based Conjoint exercises to identify respondents’ price sensitivity and

thereby optimal price points for different packages and experiences/activities, all of which have yielded

some interesting and insightful conclusions for Stopover Finland.

Together, the Purchase Simulation and the Choice Based Conjoint analysis have enabled us to

identify the optimal combination of packages and activities that will yield the highest penetration and

value in each market. From this, we have made recommendations as to:

- The execution of the final menu

- The selection of prioritized experiences/packages that should be communicated in each market

- Guidelines for future products/packages

- Pricing of individual packages

3.2 Respondent recruitment and sample specification

Method of data collection: Web panels

Respondents recruited: 500 interviews per market:

Beijing, Shanghai, Hong Kong, Japan,

South Korea

2,500 in total

Target audience: Travellers from these markets who have

either a) travelled to Europe in the last 12

months b) are planning to travel to Europe in

the next 12 months.

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4 Executive summary and recommendations

Overall Summary

The following analysis of the appeal of the ‘Stopover Finland’ proposition to Asian travellers has

revealed some interesting results, both in terms of who this will most appeal to and the types of

packages they are most interested in.

Stopover Finland has the following objectives: To create financial growth from additional tourism

income and to achieve the following targets over two years, by 2018:



The following report outlines proposition solutions (at both a total market, and individual market level)

that will enable Stopover Finland to meet these objectives.

We have highlighted the key findings here.

What is the general interest, and who are the key travellers?

Overall the key target audience are travellers who are 50 years and under, travelling in a couple,

family unit or group. They are unsurprisingly higher income individuals and tend to have either visited

Europe and/or Finland before.

At a market level, however, Shanghai target travellers tend to be mostly females under 50 years old,

who prefer to travel alone. Whilst in Hong Kong, there is a tendency for travellers to be older than 50

years old.

More than half (53%) of those surveyed across Asia stated that they would be willing to book a

stopover in Finland if they travelled to Europe, and almost two thirds of these (65.5%) are frequent

travellers to Europe.

Japan has a lower willingness to book a stopover in Finland than other markets (28%), whereas

Shanghai has a very large potential with 73% stating they would be interested in a Finland stopover

when travelling to Europe. This all indicates that Stopover Finland does have both a viable and

attractive proposition for the Asian market.

What is most likely to motivate these target travellers?

In terms of overall motivation of selecting a possible package, ‘Natural Attractions’, ‘Pure Nature’,

‘Unique and Distinct Experiences’ are all key drivers for all Asian travellers. These key themes are

similar at both a total and an individual market level.

Indeed, when we have analysed travellers’ key decision criteria in detail (i.e. what are the most

important factors in deciding how to select a package), the most important package characteristics

echo these motivation drivers. Our statistical analysis of the decision process shows that a given

traveller’s preferences to a large extent fall within one of five categories, each fulfilling different criteria:

1. A relaxing and cosy nature experience

2. A unique Aurora Borealis experience

3. A cultural food experience in Helsinki

4. A unique city excursion

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5. Another type of sightseeing experience

Seasonality is another important factor for how Stopover Finland position ‘Stopover Finland’. Autumn

and Winter packages are most frequently selected – across all markets. Whilst in terms of

location; Helsinki, Lakeland and Lapland/North Finland have the most appeal.

The proposition statement ‘Between two worlds – Stopover Finland’ has the strongest appeal to

capture the essence of the above for target travellers across all markets.

However, at an individual market level, ‘Do you dare to stop in Finland – you might want to come

back’ is a clear winner for the Japanese market.

What package propositions will enable Stopover Finland to best achieve its

objectives?

Maximising Penetration and Reach of ‘Stayover Finland’

Overall, nature and unique cultural experiences such as: ‘One night chase of the Auroras’,

‘Experience the peaceful nature of Lakeland’ and ‘Lapland highlights in 24 hours’, drive appeal to the

maximum numbers of potential travellers.

Similar package themes which drive penetration can also be seen at an individual market level e.g.

‘Lapland spa winter adventure’, ‘Fazer chocolate experience tour’, ‘Canoeing and hiking in Lapland’.

The key learning is that nature based (especially Northern Lights), unique and cultural

experiences are key package themes for Stopover Finland to offer in order for Stopover

Finland to achieve its penetration objectives.

The top three most popular packages in the Asian markets are:

One night chase of the Auroras

Touch of luxurious life in a Castle hotel

Helsinki City Highlights with a Delicious Touch

Furthermore, we show that over 90% of the total potential penetration can be reached by including

less than half of the 87 packages assessed.

Optimising the Revenue Return

Whether Stopover Finland wishes to consider the potential revenue return for either their own

requirements, or on behalf of Travel Agents and Tour Operators, we have assessed which package

propositions will provide the optimum return.

The optimal packages which maximise revenue (i.e. they have a high likelihood to be chosen and

have a strong value of package), are predominantly nature based activities. This is the case for

all markets, at both a cross market and individual market level.

Furthermore, we find that popularity with packages is quietly widely spread across the different price

ranges – some packages in the more expansive get a good uptake.

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Encouraging Overnight Bookings

In general, the travellers show a high openness for staying overnight with 64% stated willingness. Key

packages that encourage an overnight booking centre around nature based, luxurious and Helsinki

based packages. The top 3 packages within the group that are open to overnight stays are the same

as for the full group of travellers:

One night chase of the Auroras

Touch of luxurious life in a Castle hotel

Helsinki City Highlights with a Delicious Touch

Similar or identical top packages for driving overnight bookings hold true when we review a deep dive

in to individual markets, making it easier for Stopover Finland to implement a cross market

solution for this objective.

Price positioning

Taking into account both the likelihood to book and the revenue return of the proposition, a key part of

the analysis undertaken has been to review the price sensitivity of travellers in relation to each

package, and thereby find pricing guidance.

We find that overall, the packages are aptly priced. We have split the packages into Low / Mid / High

price sensitivity, and a majority of the “low price sensitivity” packages are found among the most

popular. However, the conjoint results are not strong enough for us to support any price changes, and

therefore our recommendation is to stay at current pricing.

How should Stopover Finland best action these findings?

Is there a ‘One Size Fits All’ proposition for all markets?

Our conclusion is that yes, a single proposition will have cross market appeal to travellers from

all five markets.

Whilst they are subtle differentiations between market preferences for different types of packages, the

commonalities outweigh these and Stopover Finland will be able to offer a single offering of packages,

pricing and messaging to the core profile of travellers i.e. those aged 50 years and under, higher

income individuals, travelling in a couple, family unit or group, who have either visited Europe and/or

Finland before.

How should Stopover Finland partner with Tour Operators and Travel Agents?

We understand from Stopover Finland that around 80% of the bookings, from travellers from Asia

to Europe, are through Tour Operators and Travel Agents. We believe that creating the optimal

proposition in partnership with these operators will be key to Stopover Finland’s success.

We have analysed the key reasons travellers gave for NOT wanting to visit Finland, and in all markets,

common themes emerged around:

o Perceptions of difficulty with travel plans (e.g. lack of flight connections, difficult to plan in to

itinerary, don’t want to organise a stopover themselves)

o Not being aware of Finland’s appeal

o Limited vacation time (and want to visit other countries more than Finland)

o Language barriers

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We therefore recommend that Stopover Finland therefore work with Tour Operators and Travel Agents

to ‘pre-package’ a solution that addresses these concerns and provides a ‘hassle free’ option

for potential travellers.

In addition, all proposition messaging and content should primarily focus on the ‘unique appeal’ of

Finland, emphasising the key aspects of the packages shown to be of most interest in this research

i.e. nature based, unique and cultural experiences.

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5 Full Market overview

5.1 Which packages are most popular and why?

The ultimate objective is to create financial growth from this additional tourism income and targets to

be achieved over two years, by 2018, are:



To answer this, we have reviewed the following in combination, to assess the optimal package

proposition for Stopover Finland:

5.2 Initial thoughts on appeal and engagement with the target audience

Chart 1: All Markets – Likelihood of Booking and Popular Packages

All market results show that more than half of those surveyed are willing to book a stopover in Finland

(53%). Of this most interested group of travellers, over two thirds are frequent travellers to Europe

(65.5%).

The three most popular packages focus on nature based and luxurious ‘unique experiences’. We will

now review the most important packages in more detail.

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5.3 Optimising the penetration and the value

Overall, nature and unique cultural experiences drive appeal to the maximum numbers of potential

travellers.

Chart 2: All Markets – Packages to Maximise Penetration

In chart 2 we review the 15 packages most likely to optimise penetration for Stopover Finland, to

appeal to the maximum number of travellers. We see that packages such as nature experiences and

unique cultural experiences are among the most important to include.

The above chart takes into account the extent to which any two packages are liked by the same

people. It should be interpreted in the sense that each added package – from left to right – is the one

that maximises the incremental penetration. If Stopover Finland were to include only a single package,

the “One night chase of the Auroras” is the one to choose. Having added that, if offering only two, the

second one to add should be “Touch of luxurious life in a Castle hotel”. The third should be “Helsinki

food tour”, etc. going from left to right in the chart.

Instead of market penetration, chart 3 shows which packages maximise the expected value. This is

done in an equivalent way to chart 2, with the only difference that total value is in focus instead of

penetration: Given a finite number of packages to be promoted / included, which ones should be

chosen to maximise the revenue?

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Chart 3: All Markets – Packages to maximise revenue

Here we can see that some different packages now appear as important, giving greater importance to

the most expensive packages.

We discovered that popularity varies quite a lot within all price points – there are popular and less

popular packages both in the cheaper and in the more expensive range. Furthermore, we see that

there seems to be no patterns emerging as to potential length of stop over packages in terms of

popularity and price of package. This lack of pattern in stopover length is also consistent among all

markets individually.

However, when we review the types of activities which are both popular and are highest in price,

nature based activities show a clear trend to be the optimum ones that both appealing to travellers

and will generate strong revenues.

Chart 6: All Markets – Popularity vs. Revenue of Packages – Types of Activities

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5.4 Motivation drivers

This reviews, in general, which motivation drivers are most prevalently stated by the respondents,

from a pre-defined list, agreed beforehand between Nepa and Stopover Finland.

Chart 7: All Markets – Motivations

Following on from the findings of the most important packages to drive penetration and value, we can

also see here that ‘Natural Attractions, ‘Pure Nature’, ‘Unique and Distinct Experiences and ‘Good

price/benefit ratio’ are strong drivers for selecting a package.

5.5 Increasing overnight bookings

Increasing the number of overnight stays is a key target for Stopover Finland. We have therefore

analysed the willingness to stay overnight, and reviewed:

General willingness to stay overnight?

Which packages are most popular among those that prefer to stay overnight?

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Chart 8: All Markets – Overnight Bookings

The themes that encourage an overnight stay centre around nature based and luxurious packages,

but also Helsinki based themes. We can note that the group willing to stay overnight to a large extent

rate the same packages as the full set of respondents, which is not surprising when they constitute

such a large proportion of the full group.

5.6 How do travellers make decisions for their stopover?

We have assessed the importance of each of the aspects that describe the activities, for them to be

popular among the travellers.

We have used the data from the purchase simulation and applied a hierarchical clustering analysis to

reveal the travellers’ implicit ‘decision tree’, which is found below.

Chart 9: All Markets – Decision Tree

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This illustrates that a given traveller’s preferences to a large extent fall within one (or more) of five

categories, each fulfilling different criteria:

1. A relaxing and cozy nature experience

2. A unique Aurora Borealis experience

3. A cultural food experience in Helsinki

4. A unique city excursion

5. Another type of sightseeing experience

To pique the interest of the whole market, it is key that the suite of packages featured by Stopover

Finland covers all these five criteria. Furthermore, it is important for Stopover Finland to structure both

the website proposition and content in to clear sections that relate to these criteria, and any travel

operator/travel agent proposition should also reflect these key criteria.

5.7 To what extent are different types of packages chosen?

On an overall level, we have reviewed the selection frequency of the different aspects by which we

categorise the Stopover Finland packages. This is done by:

o Price

o Duration

o Theme

o Region

o Season

Chart 10: All Markets – Selection Frequency Index by Types of Packages

For seasonality, Autumn and Winter packages are the most frequently selected.

Sightseeing, Historical, and Food and Drink packages are also frequently selected.

Shorter stopovers of less than 6 hours and at a lower price points of between 100 – 300 euros

are sligthly more frequently selected than other duration and prices.

In terms of location, Helsinki, Lakeland and Lapland/North Finland seem to have the most

engagement (which relates clearly to the preferred package choices). Out of the outside-of-

Fnland options, Tallinn is of most interest.

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5.8 Price positioning – Leveraging price positioning to optimise

expected popularity

Using the data collected in the Choice Based Conjoint survey, we have conducted market simulations

to find pricing sensitivity for each activity, i.e. how the expected uptake of the package depends on the

price. A low prices sensitivity means that the uptake does not decrease much with an increased price,

while a high sensitivity implies that the likelihood to be booked drops more dramatically with an

increased price.

To identify this, we have started from a “base price” – indicated by Stopover Finland – for each

package and have compared the impact of altering this base price (upwards by 40% and downwards

by 40%) on relative popularity, and thereby revenue generated.

The summary here shows the 20 top packages in terms of popularity, and relative price sensitivity for

each of them.

Although there are some differences in price sensitivity, the overall finding is that the packages are

aptly priced, and our recommendation is not to increase nor decrease any of the prices dramatically.

Chart 11: Top 20 packages by popularity all markets – Price sensitivity

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5.9 Target group and message positioning

Key to Stopover Finland achieving its objectives is the way in which it positions the Stopover Finland

proposition (tone, message style and content), and to whom (who are the most likely travellers?).

These combined criteria enable Stopover Finland to pitch the right message to the right target

audience to better achieve their objectives. We have therefore analysed here:

What is the profile of the most likely travellers for Stopover Finland?

o Gender

o Age ranges

o Income

o Children in household

o Size of travelling group -- travelling with kids or not.

o Likelihood of travelling with kids

o Purpose of trip

o Previous travelling to Finland

o Travel frequency to Europe

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Chart 12 shows us the stated likelihood, within each demographic and other group, to book the

stopover in Finland. Percentages refer to the proportion of people that selected 4 or 5 on a scale from

1 (very unlikely to book) to 5 (very likely to book).

Chart 12: All Markets – Traveller Profiles

Finally, we take in to account the preferred slogans to present the Stopover Finland proposition:

“Between two worlds – Stopover Finland” has the strongest appeal for all market travellers.

Chart 13: All Markets – Proposition Slogans

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6 Comparisons of markets and packages Summary comparisons by market

Chart 14: All Markets – Summaries

* This refers to the average popularity of the two most expensive packages: “Exclusive Private

Meeting w/ Santa Claus in Rovaniemi” and “Lapland Spa Winter Adventure”

We see that Beijing and in particular Shanghai show the largest interest. The interest in Japan

is significantly lower than in the other countries. Furthermore, the Japanese travellers are

more price sensitive than people from the other markets, while Hong Kong shows the lower

price sensitivity. The motivation drivers are similar between all five markets, with nature and

uniqueness being chosen a lot.

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Appendix 1.

List of all tested packages / products and the popularity, all

markets

“Stopover Finland” Consumer Research for Asian Travellers ... · Research Findings and...

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