The grey gap year

Having worked on many myself, I do love a good research story – but add in a coined phrase as well and it's even better.

Yesterday, Thomas Cook released a research story on the “Grey Gap Year”. The 'new' news  of  the research is that young travellers are inspiring their parents to take “grey gap year” trips with 40% of over-50s intending to take a travelling experience once retired.  Add to this that Thomas Cook have credibility as a brand to talk about new travel trends and its the perfect blend to secure coverage.

It helped that the story was picked up by the Press Association but it received huge pick up in both national travel and vertical travel titles.

Thomas Cook didn't attribute their quote, but the 'spokesperson' did receive a lot of coverage and the press release gains extra weight with an additional quote from Projects Abroad who can support this trend with their own experiences.

Combined with what looks like a Sunday for Monday sell-in from the pr team, this research contains all of the elements of a successful research campaign.

Key stats from the research:

• 44 per cent of over-50s said they were jealous of the amount of travelling youngsters
• 10 per cent of travellers over 50 visit countries their children had recommended following gap year adventures

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