Background and objectives

Research For Travel Ltd specialises in undertaking surveys within the travel & tourism sector. The US market is the most important source of business for many UK travel companies but has been in decline since the Foot & Mouth scare and the events of September 11, 2001. Research For Travel decided to survey a sample of USA residents about their future travel plans to the UK, and to identify the ways in which UK companies could attract more US visitors.

The Survey

The survey was conducted in December, 2002 using Cleverform software. The questionnaire was designed by the staff at Research for Travel and comprised 40 questions, including single choice, multiple choice and open-ended questions.

The questionnaire was sent out by e-mail in December to 12,500 US residents and 2211 responses (18%) were achieved, almost all of these being returned complete within 5 days - a very impressive and rapid response rate, especially as no incentives were offered

The Results

• Response rate of 18%
• Most responses received within 5 days
• Detailed information provided on how UK firms can attract more US visitors
• Future travel plans of US residents
• Brand Equity and Usage of 22 travel companies
• Panel information now available on over 2200 US travellers to the UK comprising:
  • gender
  • age
  • reasons for travel - business or leisure
  • preferred airlines, hotels and car rental companies
  • airlines, hotels and car rental companies used
  • improvements required from travel suppliers
  • personalised e-mail address for each respondent

Conclusions

"Using Cleverform we were able to conduct a large survey amongst US people at a very low cost and within a very tight time-frame. We now have an in-depth understanding of the future travel plans of US people to the UK, how they rate individual airlines, hotels and car rental firms and the main motivators behind their decision making. We also have a rich database of US respondents that will be invaluable for future research.

We did not need to invest in expensive hardware and software and could not possibly conducted a survey at such inexpensive costs without using Cleverform"

Roger Thomas, MD, Research for Travel