The travel industry is seeing a boom as enthusiasm appears to be at its highest in the past two years. Jim Lawson, CEO of advertising data firm AdTheorent, joined Cheddar News with survey insight on the seemingly positive trends to expect for summer revenge travel despite record inflation and economic concerns for consumers. "Even though we're in an odd macroeconomic environment, the sentiment to get back out on the road and travel is really quite strong," he said.

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Summer of Revenge: Travelers Making Up for Lost Time Despite Inflation

jim Lawson Ceo of Ad Aaron, thank you so much for joining us this morning. What are your key takeaways from this report on summer travel. Thank you for having me on. Um, yeah, I mean, I think what you're seeing is a recognition on the part of the public that it's now free to move about the country. You're free to move about the country. And I think the pent up interest and desire to get out and travel and see people and see friends is really reflected in the data of our research report. We're a data driven advertising company. We often do surveys of consumers to get a sense for consumer sentiment. Um, so that we can better serve our hotel and travel and tourism customers. And the enthusiasm for travel is, is notable and uh, you know, even though we're in an odd macroeconomic environment, the sentiment to get back out on the road and travel is, is really quite quite strong. Yeah, you mentioned the enthusiasm for travel. How impressive and surprising is this given the fact that a lot of consumers are facing higher inflation for just about everything. As we mentioned, including gas prices. It's obviously a big factor. I mean interestingly enough in our report, 79% of those surveyed indicated an interest in a micro cation, which is less than four days. Um 69% expressed interest in what was referred to as second city travel, lesser known destinations. Um 67% ancestry ancestry travel to kind of check check out your family history. Um, and then 67% interested in cash, free travel. Um I would like to figure out how to do that frankly but um there are definitely other ways to to travel um where you can have a more economical approach but the intensity of the interest to get back out and to see the world is really quite strong and notable. It's really interesting because you touched on some of the different travel styles that are emerging right now and none of these quite sound like you know, bawling out when it comes to travel. And my thinking was you know, if I'm gonna be spending more, I might as well splurge potentially internationally with some of these covid restrictions in terms of testing being taken down how long do you think these new travel styles of you know the micro vacation sticking around to second cities? How long do you think these travel styles will stay? And do you think they're just you know, small trends for now or for the duration of maybe the next year or so? I think we're seeing a general enthusiasm, whether it's international travel or as you said the big the big stuff I was interested in the in the other data points because I thought they were they were timely given some of the current circumstances but I agree with you, I think that the enthusiasm is actually broader than that it is including you know european trips and some of the rules have changed in terms of the testing required and some of the concerns and I think, I think everyone expected a post covid euphoria um that would include a lot of travel and a lot of enthusiasm from consumers. It's been it's been tempered a bit I think by the economy, but I don't think that it's been tempered out of existence and I think that that that post covid um euphoria, if you will, is making people get, get back out and and travel and see old friends and see family again. What do you think this new data from here? It means for advertisers out there who are looking to target potential travelers moving forward. It's a huge opportunity for advertisers who are able to effectively target consumers. Um in our research we discovered, for example, different types of innovative creative that are likely to drive consumer actions, 360° videos, for example, 81% of the respondents said they would likely take action from this type of immersive and interactive, 360 video experience, for example, a video of you literally in a hotel room and you can turn your phone and and look around the hotel or look around the facility or predictive Creative where the creative itself has dynamic elements that can be customized for the user, whether it's the content or the color and then like four way swipe units where you can swipe up for one piece of information down for another, different types of engaging experiences. But what our research confirmed is that it is a huge opportunity for advertisers who can use data effectively. And we believe that the post I. D. World really necessitates a data driven machine learning statistical approach to programmatic digital advertising rather than just chasing people around based on their I. D. S. And their cookies. And that that method we're seeing consumer sentiment backlash on that jim Lawson ceo of that there and thank you so much for joining us, appreciate that exclusive.