The ‘Future of Travel’ Unveils Intentional Ways to Keep Multicultural Travelers Engaged
“The Future of Travel” Report offers a roadmap for travel industry brands, organizations, and businesses to engage with the “largest high-growth audience that we’ll see in our lifetime” – the multicultural traveler.
The Culturist Group, Esra Calvert Destination Consulting, JMI, and Share More Stories – a collective of minority-owned research and marketing companies – have revealed the first edition of “Future of Travel” (FOT), a pioneering multicultural consumer insights report aimed at reshaping how travel and tourism brands and organizations perceive, understand, and connect with the growing U.S. multicultural traveler segment.
“Over the last 10 years or so, 100 percent of the growth in this country is multicultural. Our country is becoming more diverse, more multicultural, and more intersectional in the way we identify, and certainly, the study will shed some light on how those differences or similarities impact or work,” said Danny Guerrero, the openly gay founder and CEO of The Culturalist Group. Guerrero is also an advocate for a more inclusive travel industry.
FOT is powered by Share More Stories’ (SMS) SEEQ Platform and its innovative SEEQ App which utilizes the power of machine learning (AI) with the power of human storytelling to reveal key qualitative insights for both common and nuanced pathways along emotional indices.
To tap into what’s expected to be the “largest high-growth audience that we’ll see in our lifetime,” the collective group purposely recruited FOT participants who possessed diverse, intersectional, and underrepresented backgrounds, including race, ethnicity, gender, sexuality, age, religion, and ability. They also recruited a small subset of travelers who did not identify as part of any of the aforementioned groups for comparison purposes.
At the heart of the report are 263 multicultural participants across 40 U.S. states who were:
- Multicultural travelers well represented: Black (38%), White (22%), Hispanic (22%) and Asian (16%)
- 27% of all respondents identify as LGBTQ and 57% of all LGBTQ+ sentiment represented is multicultural (Black & Hispanic)
- Nearly 65% of respondents classified as Millennial and Gen Z
- Over 50% identify as Female
- 9% identify with a disability need
- 45% identify as non-Christian
Ultimately, “Future of Travel” is intended to help leaders take action in their brand, destination, organization, and or business and to adopt important ways to keep this multicultural consumer engaged by:
- Generating, communicating, and stewarding trust through transparency
- Offering cultural joy as an inspiration highway
- Providing trusted voices which has increased importance in decision-making
- Understanding that demonstrated nuance and balance can drive human connection across diverse groups
FOT does the work of providing the travel industry, brands, and businesses with exactly what this growing multicultural consumer wants. “This is what travelers and your consumers expect from you,” said James Warren, founder and CEO of Share More Stories. “Be inclusive. Be technology-forward and innovative. Satisfy my spirit of adventure but make it personal. And of course, I [the multicultural consumer] want to feel safe, and I want to contribute to sustainability.”
The “Future of Travel” Report is made possible thanks to the support of the Virginia Tourism Corporation, Richmond Region Tourism (Virginia), and Miles Partnership. Rita McClenny, President and CEO at Virginia Tourism Corporation commented on the significance of the “Future of Travel,” stating, “This research project is a game-changer, providing an in-depth look at the future of travel through the lens of inclusivity, diversity, and human connections. We believe this project will redefine the travel industry, preparing it for the demands of emerging consumers and communities.”
The collective group – The Culturist Group, Esra Calvert Destination Consulting, JMI, and Share More Stories – seek to build belonging into the future of travel narrative, by promoting continued research of multicultural travelers, offering leadership on inclusivity, multicultural connections, and human insights needed to advance the industry.
Want to find out more about the “Future of Travel” Report? Click here for more information and get details on how you can purchase the full report, which includes a 23-page Executive Summary with key insights, implications and recommendations, a companion deck with all the findings and data analysis, and self-guided tools.
