Research from YouGov on behalf of Priority Pass™, the world’s leading and original airport experience programme, has found that the trend for experience over material goods is global.
Surveying over 3,000 people in Australia, China and South Korea, and more than 10,000 globally, the data shows that respondents in APAC all overwhelmingly value shared experiences – which manifests most clearly in the form of holidays.
Key regional currency of experience barometer
- Cultural holidays overseas.
- Holidaying at home.
- Going out for a meal.
- Catching a film at the cinema.
- Buying luxury items.
- Solo travel abroad.
- Overseas city breaks and weekends away.
- Attending live events.
- Wellness and spa holidays abroad.
- Watching live sport events.
Travel tops the table
- When it comes to their favourite activities, most people in APAC enjoy long-stay holiday overseas, with 39 per cent enjoy exploring other cultures abroad.
- Additionally, 18 per cent enjoy solo travel, 15 per cent enjoy overseas wellness and spa holidays, and 11 per cent enjoy overseas sporting trips.
- In the average year, 51 per cent of Australians enjoy taking cultural holiday overseas, higher than 38 per cent of South Koreans and 26 per cent of Chinese.
- 44 per cent of people like to holiday at home and enjoy domestic short breaks.
- Only 18 per cent enjoy buying luxury items.
Research found that people like taking domestic short breaks, with nearly half of South Koreans and Australians particularly enjoying them at 47 per cent and 49 per cent respectively.
In fact, travel topped the table of their favourite activities with near a fifth (17 per cent) of people in APAC saying they most enjoyed a cultural trip abroad. This was reflected in spending, with people splashing out an average of US$1,437 a year on getting away from it all. This was higher than any other activity and almost more than 50 per cent on what they spent on luxury items, which rung up an average of US$942 annually.
Sharing experiences
- Eating out was the most popular activity regionally (56 per cent).
- 52 per cent enjoy trips to the cinema.
- 22 per cent enjoy watching live sports events while 19 per cent enjoy health and beauty services (massages, manicures etc.).
Holidays are not the only experiences they enjoy. Around a fifth of respondents in APAC like indulging in health and beauty services (19 per cent) and watching live sports events (22 per cent), while 52 per cent said they like going to the cinema. And at the top of the experiences table, 56 per cent of people across the Asia-Pacific region said they enjoy going out for a meal.
The results suggest that a shared social experience is the key to people’s enjoyment, and social media use also adds to the perception of value of an experience. For example, travel for leisure and a trip to the cinema are the activities that were most likely to post about on social media (37 per cent and 33 per cent, respectively) compared to more solitary activities like a fitness session at the gym (13 per cent) or buying luxury items (11 per cent).
And when asked what they’d spend a US$300 cash gift on, almost a quarter of people (23 per cent) in APAC would put it towards a trip away, which is the same percentage globally, while 16 per cent regionally would pay for a special meal with friends and family – in fact, this was the most popular answer in South Korea (24 per cent).
The Next Big Thing consumer futurist, William Higham, said, “People increasingly look for more ‘meaning’ in what they do; therefore, possessions are proving less valuable than experiences, and the memories and learnings that we gain from them. And we’ll care more about status updates than status symbols. This will be encouraged by the growing importance of social media across all age groups, since experiences typically offer better opportunities to post photos and updates than products.”
Age really is just a number
- More than a third of respondents in APAC value culture holiday overseas across the surveyed age groups.
- 25-34s enjoy city breaks abroad the most (28 per cent) closely followed by 35-44s (26 per cent).
- Near a fifth (18 per cent) enjoy solo travel abroad across the surveyed age group.
- More than a fifth (22 per cent) of 25-34s enjoy attending live events, which is the same as the over 55s (22 per cent).
Priority Pass’s research found that holidays focusing on cultural activities, in particular, are valued across the board regionally: 36 per cent of 18-24s, 34 per cent of 25-34s, 38 per cent of 35-44s, and 37 per cent of 45-54s say going on a cultural holiday abroad is their favourite activity, compared to 45 per cent of over-55-year-olds, which is the highest percentage across the surveyed age groups.
According to the results, 25-34s were most likely to enjoy an international city break (28 per cent), and nearly a quarter of 18-24s (24 per cent) and a fifth of over-55s (18 per cent) were fond of them too. Almost a fifth (18 per cent) of people enjoy travelling alone and this was reflected in spending, with people splashing out an average of US$1,200 a year on solo travel. This was a third more than what they spend on luxury items, which rung up an average of US$900 annually.
