04 Jul
2019

Awareness of ABTA reaches 80% following Travel with Confidence campaign

New independent research finds a growth in awareness of the ABTA badge during the peak holiday booking period and ranks ABTA as the most trusted travel organisation in the UK.

Independent consultancy Arkenford carried out research with over 1,000 consumers in March 2019. The study looked at people’s awareness and understanding of ABTA, as well as people’s trust in the organisation compared to travel companies and other associations and trustmarks.

The findings reveal that four in five people (80%) are aware of the ABTA brand, an increase of 6% since August 2018. Spontaneous awareness – the ability to recall the brand when asked to think about travel organisations they are aware of – is much higher than any other travel association/trust scheme.

As well as being aware of ABTA, there is much greater familiarity with the organisation compared with other travel schemes - 61% of people say that they know at least a little bit about ABTA – more than any other travel association or trust mark.

The research also asked respondents to rank organisations on a confidence scale of 1 to 4, where 1 is a ranking of most confidence and 4 least confidence.  ABTA was ranked no.1 by 42% of respondents. No other travel scheme or company came close to this ranking for confidence – only 9% of people ranked Trustpilot in category 1, and 11% ranked ATOL in category1, for example. 

The high level of trust is likely reflected in the fact that 88% of people have a positive feeling as a result of seeing the ABTA badge, with the most common feeling being reassurance (57%) and protection (56%). Furthermore, 59% of respondents said they were more likely to book a holiday with a company displaying the ABTA badge, showing how strongly trust supports buying behaviour.

Victoria Bacon, Director of Brand and Business Development at ABTA – The Travel Association said:

“Gaining people’s trust in your brand and business is much harder to achieve than it once was. This new independent research shows that ABTA is clearly ranked the UK’s most trusted travel organisation. It also tells us that not every travel badge is the same – high recognition does not necessarily equate to high trust.

“This is a really powerful tool for our Members to use in their marketing as the ABTA badge offers a compelling trust proposition for their customers, complementing their own brands.”
 

For further information, contact:

020 3117 0596 or press@abta.co.uk

Out of Hours: contact the duty press officer 020 3693 0183

Web: www.abta.com

Twitter: @ABTAtravel


About ABTA

ABTA has been a trusted travel brand for over 65 years. Our purpose is to help our Members to grow their businesses successfully and sustainably, and to help their customers travel with confidence.

The ABTA brand stands for support, protection and expertise. This means consumers have confidence in ABTA and a strong trust in ABTA Members. These qualities are core to us as they ensure that holidaymakers remain confident in the holiday products that they buy from our Members.

We help our Members and their customers navigate through today's changing travel landscape by raising standards in the industry; offering schemes of financial protection; providing an independent complaints resolution service should something go wrong; giving guidance on issues from sustainability to health and safety and by presenting a united voice to government to ensure the industry and the public get a fair deal.

ABTA has around 1,200 Members, with a combined annual UK turnover of £38 billion. For more details about what we do, what being an ABTA Member means and how we help the British public travel with confidence visit www.abta.com.