Profiling International Tourists: Beyond the Basics
For destination marketing organisations, granular air travel data is crucial. While official sources can offer high-level figures, ForwardKeys specialises in providing deeper analysis — looking at business-critical factors such as cabin class, length of stay, group size and regional travel patterns. It’s these invaluable added insights which allow DMOs and related organisations to make accurate data-driven decisions and optimise their engagement strategies.
In our second article in this four-part series on international travel to Brazil, we demonstrate the value of this level of insight — exploring some of the emerging trends in Q1 2024 which will affect destinations across the country’s major regions.
Visitor Origin: European Markets Show a Preference for Longer Stays
Analysis of international arrivals in Brazil in Q1 2024 reveals significant variation in stay length between origin markets. Travellers from within South America opt for the shortest stays, averaging only 10 nights. This is most likely due to Brazil’s relative accessibility, especially from neighbouring countries, making even one or two-night stays feasible.
U.S. visitors stay longer, with an average duration of 13 nights bringing them just under the global average of 15. Longer stays for travellers originating in Canada (19 nights) and Europe (21 nights) reflect the greater travel distance, with visitors making the most of their journey by choosing stays around the three-week mark.
The largest share of travel to Brazil from the UK and EU is in the premium segment — first or business class. This can be attributed to several factors — travellers are prepared to spend more to ensure comfort on long-haul flights, they are less price-sensitive in terms of cabin class for longer stays, and higher-income travellers are overrepresented on trans-Atlantic routes into Brazil.
Northeast Brazil: Week-Long Stays Gain Popularity Over Longer Trips
Focusing on international arrivals to the Northeast Region of Brazil in Q1 2024, the balance of long versus short stays is beginning to shift when compared to the equivalent period in 2023.
The number of stays of 5 nights or less, while representing only a 2% share of total stays, has seen growth of +31% year-on-year. Week-long stays (6 to 8 nights) demonstrate even more impressive growth — a +36% increase on Q1 2023 — and now represent 30% of all stays, up by 5 percentage points. Stays between one and two weeks (9 to 13 nights) show modest growth over Q1 2023 at +7%, while stays over 14 nights hold stable at +1%.
The trend towards week-long rather than multi-week trips may reflect a greater share of total visits originating in regional markets — favouring shorter stays due to their relative proximity and ease of travel.
Southeast Brazil: Leisure Travel Shows Strong Growth Thanks to Families and Groups
In Southeast Brazil, Q1 2024 sees modest growth in international arrivals for business travel (+7%) while leisure travel shows a more impressive increase (+25%) — when compared to data for the same period in 2023. This is a pattern visible in other destinations globally, as pent-up demand for tourism and VFR continues to be realised post-COVID-19 while challenging economic conditions in-destination have less impact than on business travel.
Analysis of group size reveals encouraging growth across the board — with an increase in the number of couples (+21%) and single travellers (+20%) arriving to pursue leisure activities. The key drivers of this impressive leisure travel growth, however, are family (+28%) and group travel (+27%) — contributing most to the overall rise.
South Brazil: Family and Group Travel Dominates
In South Brazil, the importance of family and group travel in Q1 2024 is even more pronounced, with year-on-year growth in international arrivals of +47% for families and +74% for groups.
The total share of international arrivals by group type has shifted significantly, with families gaining 5 percentage points to reach a 43% share, and groups up 3 percentage points to a 13% share. Larger group travel now represents the majority of international arrivals at 56%, with single travellers (-5 percentage points) and couples (-3 percentage points) making up a smaller share than in Q1 2023 — despite notable growth of +7% and +21% respectively.
Granular Data: The Key to Success for Destinations
This depth of analysis is crucial for destinations looking to thrive and succeed in an increasingly competitive global marketplace with myriad challenges and ever-changing traveller priorities and behaviours. The ability to accurately predict not only traveller numbers, but to focus on how they prefer to travel, with whom, and for how long, allows DMOs and other travel-dependent businesses to be more responsive, more agile and more forward-looking in their provision of tourism products and services.
Keep an eye on our blog and social channels for our next article in this series, where we’ll take a detailed look at how in-destination cultural events drive arrivals and impact traveller behaviour.
