and another thing…

I went to a workshop today about the future of tourism marketing in Queensland. The state body – whose name I won’t mention to avoid being picked up in their newscans – is moving to a “need oriented” market segmentation – identifying the desires of consumer subsets and marketing accordingly, and doing away with traditional demographic research.  

It made me think about what I want in a holiday – and why.

The following are five holidays I’d like to go on before I’m old… a lot of them are currently coffee focused.

1. I’d like to go to England to watch Premier League matches and visit the home town of awesome British bands like Radiohead and Muse.
2. I’d like to visit a coffee plantation in Africa or South America.
3. I’d like to go to Italy and drink Espresso in a little cafe in the middle of nowhere, and visit coffee machine making factories…
4. I’d like to go to Germany and drink German beer in German Beer Breweries.
5. I’d like to do a road trip around and through Australia.

Apparently I’m a “Social Fun Seeker” by market segment – the others are Active Explorers, Unwinders, Self Discoverers, Stylish Travellers, and Connectors.

I’d be interested to know how other people plan their holidays… most of our holidays now seem to be taken up with visiting family members in South East Queensland.

  
 

Comments

Lucy says:

Yo Nathan I just found your blog and thought I’d say hi :) Wow you must really like coffee!

Andrew says:

I’d love to do a road trip around Australia, and also around the US.. And I’m hoping that my career will pan out so that we get paid to travel around Europe!

Leah Maria says:

Well seeing as I personally haven’t really had the opportunity to plan a holiday, I can’t really say.

But I do know how my family planned holidays, and I intend on doing pretty much the same.

We have several different types of holidays.

The first is of course family-visiting holidays. (Which we actually don’t do much anymore). Visiting the south-east corner; our last two trips were for particular events; a funeral and a wedding.

The second is snow holidays. We’ve been to pretty much all the snowfields in Australia now, so anytime we go skiing again, it’ll be somewhere we’ve already visited. Always self-contained accomm within driving distance of (sometimes multiple) snowfields.

The third are short trips away; you know, like for Easter and other long weekends. Often camping in the bush, relaxing on a beach somewhere, etc.

The fourth are touring holidays; the longest! Usually 5-7 weeks. Obviously not something Andre and I are going to be able to do for a long time yet.
Choose somewhere we haven’t been in Aus, take the caravan and go. That’s pretty much how we do it. We don’t usually book anything in advance. (We did for Tasmania because we didn’t take the caravan and were advised accommodation there in Summer fills up quickly, and we visited in Summer).
Usually some research on the state(s) we’ll be visiting to find attractions we’re likely to want to visit, plan a general route (you know, as in whether to drive to WA via the top end or south coast :P) and we’re off. Very flexible time table, great way to do things when you have that sort of time.

In regards to where I’d like to go on holiday:
-Europe (history; culture; architecture)
-the Australian states again (with Andre/future family) not necessarily in one trip; seriously, too much to do in one trip unless you have 6 months to a year.
-South Africa (animals and scenery)