Brands should pay close attention to the music scene this summer as consumers flock to faraway festivals. That’s according to new data from lastminute.com that points to ‘festravel’ – travelling abroad to a music festival – as one of this year’s biggest trends.

The firm looked at 2015, 2016 and 2017 booking data from the UK, France, Italy and Spain, including data for both flights and hotels. It also commissioned OnePoll to conduct a survey of 2,000 UK consumers in April 2017, and a further 6,000 consumers across Spain, Italy and France.

It found that almost half (47%) of Brits would travel abroad for a music festival, and this intention is increasingly being put into practice.

Booking data from the group shows that the number of Europeans flying out to Croatia around the time of Ultra Festival shot up by a third (33%) in 2016, compared to 2015, with Ypsigrock Festival in Italy experiencing an equal boost in popularity.

And lastminute.com says brands should take advantage of the growing window of opportunity to engage these festival tourists with helpful and inspiring content, as the data reveals that ‘festravel’ preparations are beginning earlier each year. Music lovers travelling to Budapest ahead of Sziget Festival booked their trips an average of 45 days in advance last year – up from 32 in 2015 – while those heading to Berlin just before Lollapalooza in 2016 booked 47 days ahead of time, up from 33 the year before.

It’s not just other countries that stand to benefit from this festival trade. The number of Europeans arriving in London spiked five days before Glastonbury kicked off last month, up 110% compared to the previous two days – presenting UK retailers with a lucrative opportunity to cash in on last minute party purchases. And with a staggering 400% more people are set to arrive the day before Lovebox kicks off in July, compared to five days before, retailers have another chance to be part of the festival action.

“As festivals become a staple ingredient for the perfect summer break, festival-goers are looking to brands for inspiration for everything they need to make their trip special and successful – from tents to travel insurance,” says Alessandra Di Lorenzo, Chief Commercial Officer, Media and Partnerships, at lastminute.com group. “Brands that fail to factor this unique audience into their online campaigns risk missing out on a big category of summer spend.”

With the festival season well underway, lastminute.com group’s media business, The Travel People, has launched a new music lovers targeting tool. This will allow brands to target and engage users who possess a love for music and travel, both on and offsite, right across Europe.

Di Lorenzo adds: “Our rich data means we know not just where people like to go, but what they love to do when they get there too. We want to help our brand partners to delve deeper than demographics and target by passion, engaging their audiences with content that will complement their experience. That’s why we’ve launched our music lovers targeting tool – and festival-goers are just one audience segment that brands can use it to reach.”

The new tool is linked to a new brand partnership lastminute.com group recently launched with digital music service Spotify to explore how music makes you travel. As part of the campaign, this year lastminute.com is an official sponsor for Sziget Festival, Budapest (9^th – 16^th August 2017), and Lollapalooza, Berlin (3^rd – 6^th August). It will be selling tickets and packages for the festivals to help people experience travel through music, available at lastminute.com/deals/festivals/sziget.html.

Yannic Pluymackers, Chief Marketing Officer at lastminute.com group, added: “Music is such an integral part of travel – it inspires us to visit new places, influences our experiences in those places and creates memories long after leaving a place. Our #MusicMakesYouTravel campaign aligns our brand with experiences like festivals, so we can help more people discover the world through the music they love.”