Insights from the Travel Tech Essentialist Subscriber Survey

Preferred sources for news and insights, companies, roles, job titles

I conducted a survey to better understand the professional landscape and informational preferences of Travel Tech Essentialist subscribers. The survey aimed to gather insights into the subscribers' companies, roles, job titles, and preferred sources for news and insights. This analysis reflects on these findings.

Demographic Overview

The survey had 118 respondents from 29 different countries. 30% of respondents were from the US, followed by Spain and the UK with 13% each. 49% of respondents reside in Europe, followed by the Americas (39%), and the rest of the world (12%).

Types of Companies

The majority of respondents (51%) work in startups or scaleups.

Job Title

40% of respondents are Founders or Co-Founders, and 23% hold C-suite positions.

Primary Functional Roles Within Organizations

The focus on sales, product, and marketing reflects the heavy startup/scaleup representation (50%) among the respondents. The Strategy role aligns with the large representation of founders among respondents (40%) , who naturally have overarching responsibility over their companies' strategy.

Preferred Sources for News and Insights

The survey aimed to identify the preferred sources of news and insights that most significantly inform the professional activities and decision-making processes of the respondents. It's important to note the potential bias in this survey, as the audience was exclusively subscribers of the Travel Tech Essentialist newsletter. This could introduce a favorable bias toward Travel Tech Essentialist, since participants are already engaged with the content.

Participants were requested to rank their top five sources in order of preference, starting with their top choice. Out of the 118 respondents, 124 distinct sources of information and insights were cited. Four sources stood out, being mentioned over 25 times each: Travel Tech Essentialist (61 mentions), Skift (30 mentions), Phocuswright (29 mentions), and LinkedIn (26 mentions). Twitter was the fifth most frequently mentioned source, albeit with a significantly lower count of 9 mentions, followed by the Financial Times with 8 and the New York Times with 7.

Travel Tech Essentialist received the highest number of mentions (61) and was also the most commonly cited as the preferred source, with 27 respondents ranking it at the top of their list.

Skift and Phocuswright were next, with total mentions of 30 and 29, respectively. Skift was the most frequently mentioned as the second choice (13 times), followed by Phocuswright (10 times).

LinkedIn, with a total of 26 mentions, closely trailed behind Skift and Phocuswright. Interestingly, LinkedIn was cited as the top source by 11 respondents, surpassing both Skift and Phocuswright in this regard. The mentions of LinkedIn and Twitter highlight a trend among travel professionals towards seeking information directly from entrepreneurs, executives, and brands, thereby circumventing traditional third-party interpretations and filters.

Here are the sources mentioned 5 or more times:

I’m aware that these insights come only 118 respondents, but as Paul Graham says, it’s better to get the ❤️ from 100 people, than the 👍 from 1 million. Seeing your trust and preference for what Travel Tech Essentialist is doing is very motivating and appreciated. It drives me to keep delivering the concrete and high-signal insights you count on to make informed decisions.

To seek a broader range of perspectives, I invite subscribers to complete the 2 minute subscriber survey here. A larger set of data could unveil additional insights, which I promise to share.

Efforts to extend this survey through media and industry influencers have yielded modest results, with under 40 responses from non-subscribers. If you can help by sharing the non-subscriber survey (same questions, but a different link) with a wider audience, it would greatly enhance our collective understanding and insights into the preferences of travel professionals.

I am glad to see that the principles that guide Travel Tech Essentialist seem to be resonating with you. Thank you for being on this journey and, as always, please reach out if I can be of any help.

If you’re not yet a Travel Tech Essentialist subscriber, you can do so here (for free):