MIAMI — Opportunities abound for travel professionals to tap into the Hispanic market, which, until now, has remained off the grid as a niche sector for many agents.
The demographics of Hispanic travelers and the market they represent were the focus of the NTA-ASTA Hispanics in Travel Caucus session at the ASTA Global Convention here.
Findings of the just-released Hispanic Traveler Research Project conducted by ASTA, the National Tour Association (NTA) and Florida International University revealed that it is a very big market indeed.
"Hispanics in the U.S. accounted for $1 trillion in purchasing power in 2010. That figure is projected to grow to $1.5 trillion by 2015," said Olga Ramudo, chair of the NTA-ASTA Hispanic Business Development Task Force, which organized the caucus.
Ramudo, who also is president and co-owner of Miami-based Express Travel, said the goal of the task force is to "teach, reach out and sell the Hispanic market."
The per-capita income of the Hispanic market is greater than the per-capita income of the BRIC market (Brazil, Russia, India and China), according to Ramudo.
"We need to promote ourselves as the experts and the professionals in the industry. We need to give Hispanic travelers something they cannot Google," she said.
Lisa Simon, president of NTA, pointed out that the Hispanic population is projected to be 29% of the U.S. population by 2050, close to double that of the numbers in the 2010 census, according to research compiled for the task force study by the Weldon Cooper Center for Public Service at the University of Virginia.
"The research project reveals many new business opportunities and new markets for our members," Simon said.
"The Hispanic market really is rising to the top, and our goal must be to reach out and sell this market," she said.
Although a small percentage of agencies surveyed in the research project consider the Hispanic niche an important market, 55% of the agencies that do target the Hispanic source market reported that 75% of their sales were derived from it.
The agencies that do well in the Hispanic market have some Spanish-speaking staff; 80% appear before community groups and civic organizations to drum up business; and 66% rely on referrals, word-of-mouth recommendations and social media for business.
Carlos Alcazar, CEO of Hispanic Communications Network, a marketing firm, said "New Generation Latinos, millennials," between 16 and 34 years old, represent "a growing, changing, exploding market, many of whom believe that booking travel is burdensome and prefer to use OTAs and mobile devices for their travel arrangements."
He advised agents to study the demographics and the likes and dislikes of the millennial Latino sector before entering the market.
Additional findings indicated that 51% of the overall Hispanic market is between 35 and 54 years old; that 53% of the market, from millennials to travelers in their mid-70s, take between two and three leisure trips a year; and 60% spend up to two weeks per trip.
More than 70% of older Hispanic travelers do so with three or more people in tow, while 38% of the millennial group prefers to travel with just one other person.
"The most important factors when choosing a destination are safety and security for 83% of the Hispanic travel market, followed by cleanliness and hygiene, 78%," said Carolin Lusby, professor in the School of Hospitality and Tourism at Florida International University, which participated in the task force study. Gambling is least important, she reported.
Other findings:
• 64% of Hispanics travel with family and friends.
• 58% prefer beach destinations, followed by national parks and visiting friends and relatives.
• Cruise vacations were at the bottom of the list for older Hispanics but were growing in popularity among the 35-to-54 age bracket.
• Florida, California and New York currently are the top destinations in the U.S., followed by the Caribbean for international travel, but that could shift as 61% of those sampled indicated that a European trip could be in their future.
• Hispanic travelers spend an average of $758 per person on a weeklong vacation, excluding transportation and accommodations costs, vs. $708 per person among the general population.
• 81% of Hispanic students book online as compared with 42% of the overall Hispanic travelers.
• 82% of Hispanic students use the Internet and Facebook to research travel destinations.