According to information from GlobalData, vegan-friendly tours, excursions and travel apps are trending as a method for travel companies to attract trade as companies across the travel and tourism spectrum look to recover from the impacts of COVID-19. The company states that “accommodating every traveller type – vegan included – will be critical in the future of travel.”
Vegan travel apps such as Veg Visits and Air Vegan have emerged as key innovators in this new field. Veg Visits is a vegan home-sharing platform similar to Airbnb and operating in 80 different countries. Air Vegan rates how vegan-friendly an airport is, giving insights into the best vegan food spots at each terminal. Tour operators are also capitalizing on this market with smaller companies such as Responsible Travel promoting vegan holidays across destinations worldwide including Greece, Ethiopia, India and Costa Rica.
Johanna Bonhill-Smith, Travel & Tourism Analyst comments: “A common objective across the entire travel and tourism sector is to deliver a ‘seamless’ traveller experience for each customer along every touchpoint, on an individualized, trip-by-trip basis. Vegan travelers can often encounter problems ranging from where to stay to a lack of suitable meal choices. Language barriers and cultural differences can often exacerbate these problems. This creates an opportunity where personalized recommendations are lacking and catering for a growing vegan consumer base could soon be a key differentiator.”
Bonhill-Smith concludes: “The view that a vegan diet reflects a more sustainable form of lifestyle is gaining increased traction and is no longer considered a market niche. In a GlobalData survey conducted in December 2020, 76% of over 5,700 global respondents identified they were influenced by how ethical/environmentally friendly/socially responsible the product/service is’**
“Servicing a traveler’s every need is going to be critical in post-pandemic recovery to both restore confidence and ensure satisfaction. With a greater level of satisfaction, there is, in turn, a higher chance to attract loyal customers – a promising prospect in light of COVID-19 and the detrimental losses it has inflicted on company revenues. As travel companies aspire to personalize each individual’s experience, ‘veganism’ should be an area to be acknowledged and acted upon, not ignored across the tourism sector”.
(*) GlobalData’s Q32019 Global consumer survey – 29,744 respondents
(**) GlobalData’s latest Global COVID-19 Recovery survey (2-6 Dec 2020) – 5,766 respondents. ‘Always’, ‘somewhat’ and ‘often’ responses combined
