How Will We Travel in 2033?

What will travel look like in 2033? What will motivate individual travelers? How will they choose to explore the world? And will globetrotters be much different than the travelers of today?

A new report from Amadeus, titled Travel Tribes 2033, attempts to answer some of these questions about the future of the travel industry.

Based on research conducted by Northstar Research Partners, the report reviews how 1.947 billion travelers will evolve over the next 10 years, in an attempt to understand travelers’ complex behavior and what the industry as a whole might look like in 2033.

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“One of our goals is to identify the future forces—the incoming disruptions likely to transform travel by 2033. This ranged from the role of international families (where family members live in different countries) to changing the reasons we’ll travel to how different forms of data will personalize travel,” states the report.

“We then combine these future forces with traveler traits—knowledge about how people make decisions and why—to understand if these future forces will be as transformative as experts predict,” the report adds.

As part of the significant research effort, 22 experts from inside and outside the travel industry were interviewed, and some 10,345 travelers from 15 countries were surveyed.

And because travel is ultimately about humans, human behavior, and the way humans think, the report focuses on providing and discussing the different types of unique travel tribes that will exist a decade from now.

Researchers found that there will be four distinct types of travelers in the years to come:

—Excited experimentalists: Travelers in this category will have a “try it and see” approach to life, mid- to high-income, and few commitments. Meaning? They are well-positioned to explore the world.

—Memory Makers: This group of travelers are comfortable with themselves and put emphasis on people and on having experiences through travel. But this group does not concern itself with sustainability.

—Travel Tech-fluencers: The young business travelers of today, these individuals are currently on modest incomes. However, they are confident their earnings will increase as they explore the world in search of opportunity.

—Pioneering Pathfinders: The final group, Pioneering Pathfinders, are characterized by above-average income. This reality lets pathfinders live a progressive, fast-paced life. And these individuals are always searching for their next big adventure.

The Amadeus report points out that every travel tribe presents a unique value to the travel sector and that only by understanding these tribes can the industry prepare now and invest in the technology that will be critical to improving travel in 2033.

Understanding these emerging tribes, says the report, is the most effective way to “support the industry to adapt in a way that places the ‘human’ at its heart...and collectively innovate, bring fresh thinking, and better meet the needs of travelers in the coming years.”

When it comes to sustainability issues in particular, which is one of the most pressing challenges facing the planet today, the report also uncovers a clear relationship between the traveler traits it has identified for 2033 and the potential for related actions (or lack thereof) on the issue.

“As businesses, policymakers, and governments continue to create options to travel sustainably, the future force of sustainability will keep its current momentum between now and 2033,” says the report. But this future force collides head-on with three significant traveler traits.

The first of the three traits is the “say-do” gap, which is a discrepancy between what we say we will do and what we actually do. The bystander effect, meanwhile, with regard to traveling sustainably, involves individuals who often neglect to act in the face of a problem when they expect others will act. The third trait that impacts taking action to travel sustainably is the “bias toward smooth travel,” which, as the name implies, are travelers who want to have a maximally efficient travel process.

Further underscoring the gap between wanting travel to be more sustainable and the willingness to take action to help make that happen, a full 63 percent of travelers surveyed said they are not willing to pay more for a flight operated with eco-friendly biofuel. This is despite the fact that 35 percent of travelers say the chance to travel in more environmentally friendly ways in 2033 excites them.

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