Over the last 10 years, Harris Interactive has become one of the leading players in providing research solutions for our clients in the travel and tourism industry. Identifying the characteristics of the average traveller, understanding the motivation for travel and choice of transport mode; the visitor experience and exploring potential opportunities for commercial development and growth, are all key to providing a solid foundation for our clients’ business strategy.

The last decade has witnessed a great deal of change in modes of transport, with the UK leading the way in Europe with innovative privatisation of rail and bus services. The corollary of this is that operators have become much more customer focused and research has taken a prominent role in guiding the development and implementation of leading edge marketing and customer service strategies. During this exciting time Harris Interactive has played a major role in helping a series of Train Operating Companies better understand how all the elements of their service contribute to the customer experience and how information and communications are vital in helping to shape and maintain their brand.

Public Transport is enjoying a huge boom in demand as a result of record investment and (despite some major setbacks) huge improvements in service delivery, as well as modal shifts due to road congestion.

In such a market environment, having advisors who really know the transport business and can apply a set of leading edge research tools to solve client issues is essential in driving business forward. We understand the difficulties of measuring customer satisfaction at the point of delivery; of researching price in a complex (partly subsidised) market where social benefit is often a key component; and of cutting through to the essence of what really matters to customers in terms of service improvements.

We undertake a collaborative research approach which enables us to work closely with our clients at all stages of the research programme; from consideration of the initial brief in order to understand the business objectives and rationale for research to help identify the appropriate methodology; to questionnaire development and data collection to ensure the main issues are being addressed in the most effective way; and to reporting and analysis to gain commercial and competitive insight to the issues uncovered. Alongside this, we have dedicated project teams with experience in a number of data collection approaches coupled with utilising our expertise in innovative advanced analytical tools.

Examples of Travel & Tourism research projects undertaken by Harris Interactive:

• Customer satisfaction
• Market segmentation
• Usage and awareness
• Destination choice and motivations
• Visitor experience
• Marketing and communications
• Market sizing
• Pricing

For more information on transport, travel and tourism market research contact us at info-uk@harrisinteractive.com or call +44 (0)161 615 2300.