One of the hottest holiday gift items this year is shaping up to be travel gift cards. The latest company to jump on this bandwagon is travel app Hopper, which announced at the beginning of November that they’re offering gift cards that can be used towards flights, hotels, rental cars, and rental homes purchased through its app, with card amounts starting at $25. You can even use one to top off your gas tank.
Hopper joins the travel and experiences company Get Your Guide, a marketplace for tours, excursions and outings of all kinds. Get Your Guide offers gift cards that can be used for travel experiences ranging from sightseeing tours to cooking classes.
“Gift cards provide a great opportunity to allow recipients to get the gift they want,” said Jordan Hirschfeld, Director of Prepaid at Javelin Strategy & Research. “In our Prepaid Holiday Preview report, we highlight that recipients and givers both enjoy the benefits of gift cards, and this would be especially true to help with travel. It’s unlikely that a giver would directly buy a plane ticket or an on-site experience, but a gift card to offset those costs or provides a more meaningful opportunity and a treasured gift.”
A Growing Market
The market for such cards is potentially significant. A recent study from Get Your Guide reported that 92% of Millennials and Gen Z would prefer to receive the gift of travel or an experience like a concert or sporting event, as opposed to material goods.
And this group is desperate to travel: In a separate study conducted by Credit Karma, 50% of Gen Z respondents said that to cover the costs of travel, they have sacrificed on things like dining out and meal delivery. Some 47% have cut back on shopping for clothing and electronics, while 35% say they plan to take on an additional job, and 19% say they’re willing to give up necessities to pay for travel. This cohort has shown that travel gift cards are right in their sweet spot.
