Case Study: Enriching Captify's Travel Insights

Captify is the largest holder of onsite search data outside the major tech platforms, giving it a uniquely deep read on what people are searching for. For its annual travel report, the team wanted to go further than search terms alone and understand the behavior and motivations behind them, which is where Gener8's Consumer Browsing dataset and bespoke survey capability came in.

The Challenge

Travel brands are increasingly seeking data-driven strategies to stay competitive. With the resurgence of international travel post-pandemic and shifting consumer behavior, Captify's research needed to answer three questions at once: how traveler preferences are shifting across demographics, how consumers are changing the way they research and book trips, and how emerging pressures, from anti-tourism sentiment to cost-of-living squeezes, are reshaping destination choice. To answer them properly, Captify set out to combine its own Search Intelligence with consumer behavioural data from Gener8 and Forward, lastminute.com's media division.

Gener8's Research Contribution

Two pieces of Gener8's methodology, connected together through one user ID, did the heavy lifting. First, validated behavior respondent screening: we used the Consumer Browsing dataset to identify people who had genuinely made summer and winter holiday research journeys over the previous twelve months, so the resulting panel reflected real travel intent rather than self-reported interest, reducing survey bias. Second, a bespoke travel-centric survey was fielded to that validated cohort, collecting 758 responses and surfacing concrete trends in booking factor considerations and booking windows.

The integration of Gener8's multi-source datasets with Captify's Search Intelligence represents a significant advance in the accuracy of travel market research, together providing unparalleled insight into the motivations and behaviors driving consumer decisions in the travel sector.

The Result

"Combining Gener8's data and survey capabilities with our Search Intelligence and network partner data, we were able to gain a more innovative and comprehensive understanding of audience motivations and the end-to-end purchase journey, whilst mitigating the usual risks of survey and incentivisation bias," said Sam Coates, Head of Insight at Captify. Anchoring the survey in verified browsing behavior meant the final report reflected what travelers actually do, not just what they say they'll do.

How Can I Access This Data?

We used Gener8's Demographics and Consumer Browsing datasets, alongside a bespoke travel-centric survey, to help Captify uncover deep insights into UK travel behaviors. Get in touch to see how the same approach can enrich your own research.