The travel and tourism industry is a global powerhouse, generating over $11 trillion of revenue in 2024. Over 300 million people are employed within the wider tourism sector, which is about 1 in 10 jobs worldwide. The top destinations, and therefore the leaders in global tourism, are France, Spain, USA, Italy and Turkey. Air travel has bounced back from the pandemic with IATA estimating just under 5 billion origin to destination passenger journeys (i.e. ignoring any intermediate stops or plane changes) in 2025, about 10% higher than in 2019.
The recreation industry is more difficult to define, but sports are estimated to be worth around $417 billion a year, having grown at an average rate of around 5% annually since 2020, according to a report by Kearney, and other forms of recreation may collectively generate an additional $1 trillion or more each year. Competion between streaming platforms and traditional broadcasters for the rights to show sporting events is largely behind the growth in revenue, although the availability of more events to watch at home is also helping to create demand for tickets to attend sports in person.
In the UK, domestic and inbound tourism is estimated to contribute roughly £150 billion annually to economic output and supports around 2.4 million jobs, while outbound tourism is worth around £60 billion annually. The sport sector is said to contribute a further £53.6 billion in direct Gross Value Added and close to £100 billion in terms of total economic impact. While Britain is probably best known abroad for two men’s sports, the English Premier League (the most watched sports league in the World) and Formula 1 (seven out of ten F1 teams are headquartered in the UK), women’s sport in the UK is growing rapidly, with major tournaments such as the UEFA Women’s Euro 2025 finals and the Rugby World Cup seeing record-breaking audiences and brand investment.
FieldworkHub has supported a wide range of different projects in the travel, tourism and recreation industry, including within research conducted in airports and travel hubs, market research with tourists based in a number of different global markets and sports research involving football (soccer), tennis, basketball and ice hockey fans.
Focus groups allow participants to combine experiences and perspectives to explore ideas in depth. Commonly used during creative and conceptual development, they help you understand your customers’ needs, perceptions, and beliefs.
In-depth interviews (IDIs), where a moderator interviews a single respondent, can be conducted face-to-face, online, or over the phone. They are ideal for B2B research and for exploring delicate subjects with consumers and hard-to-reach groups.
Ethnographic research is a qualitative research method in which the researchers observe participants using a product or service, or carrying out other activities, in their own environment, typically at work or at home.
An online bulletin board (OBB) is an online forum for qualitative market research that enables participants to log into to carry out research tasks or reply to questions asked by a moderator at their own pace, typically over a period of a few days.
A market research online community (MROC) is similar to an online bulletin board (OBB). However, unlike an OBB, on online community may be used to serve multiple purposes, and the community may remain active for weeks, months or even years.
User experience (UX) testing is a qualitative research methodology which involves directly observing and interviewing a participant using a product or service. It is widely used for testing new versions of apps and websites before they are launched.
Customer experience (CX) testing evaluates how customers interact with a product, service, or digital platform. It helps identify usability issues and overall satisfaction to improve the customer journey and ensure a smooth and enjoyable experience.
A video survey is a type of unmoderated qualitative research in which survey takers respond to a series of instructions or questions by making short videos using their smartphone, either in ‘selfie’ mode or to record an activity.
Vox pop research involves making recordings of people, usually members of the public, responding to questions. These clips are often used in research to illustrate public opinion on widely known topics, brands, or products.
Online surveys are a cost-effective research method with great flexibility in design. Automated data handling allows the results to be available quickly and many online surveys can be completed on smartphones, helping to improve the response rate.
CATI (computer-assisted telephone interviewing) leverages technology to reach those who aren’t online. CATI interviews follow an electronic script with built in routing and type in the respondent’s answers to each question as the interview proceeds.
CAPI (computer-assisted personal interviewing) is a form of face-to-face interviewing where the interviewer reads the survey questions from a tablet device and inputs the respondent’s answers directly to the device.
Our client was developing a new digital service to simplify the process of applying for international travel visas and wanted to conduct in- depth interviews with people who had recently applied for a UK visa and travel agency employees who assisted their customers with applications.
An Italian football club was planning to relocate its stadium. We were asked to set up two focus groups, one with regular fans and one with ‘elite’ fans in more influential jobs to find out what they thought about the move and their views on three outline designs for the new stadium from different architects.
An airport operator wanted to run focus groups with international and luxury travellers in London, Paris and Shanghai to help it improve its retail offering. We recruited 65 respondents for two focus groups in each city, managed the viewing facility bookings and arranged moderators and simultaneous translators.
Our team completed a project for a global hotel chain, interested in exploring the experience and needs of individuals who stay in hotels for business or leisure trips and what influences their choice of hotel. We completed 16 interviews and 15 triads to collect insights about the factors that they take into account.
We designed, programmed and managed a survey to assist a UK-based online provider of travel insurance products find out how widely recognised their brand name was, what attributes they associated with the brand and what factors were important to respondents when selecting travel insurance.
A digital innovation agency developed a new platform to simplify the process of applying for business travel visas and wanted to test out user experience. FieldworkHub recruited UK passport holders applying for a business visa in the next two weeks and arranged for them to submit their application through the platform.
