The days of mass tourism are behind us, as modern travellers demand more. In the age of social media, experiential travel is fast becoming the new normal, and travellers are shunning packaged tourism for authentic and unique offerings.
Loyalty in the experience era
In this hunt for more enriching travel experiences, consumers are looking beyond the brands they may have typically favoured, and even comparing multiple options where they previously would have been happy with just one. As such, merely offering rewards and points is no longer enough to drive loyalty. To survive and thrive in the experience era of travel, hospitality marketers need to rethink their loyalty strategies.
In the current travel landscape, one of the key aspects of attracting consumers, and locking them in, is personalisation. According to a report by Accenture, 91% of consumers are more likely to shop with brands who recognise, remember, and provide relevant offers and recommendations. This highlights the need for hospitality marketers to curate personalised travel experiences that are memorable and engaging, in order to create loyalty in an increasingly competitive market. Unfortunately, while brands understand the importance of personalisation, many still fall short when it comes to creating experiences that drive consumer engagement and differentiation. Accenture’s report found that nearly half of all consumers have left a business’ website simply because it was poorly curated.
So, how can hospitality brands address the personalisation challenge?
Writing the future playbook for hospitality marketing
As the pressure to offer personalised experiences increases, data can be a valuable tool in a hospitality marketer’s arsenal. With consumers embracing digital technologies, marketers now have access to data from a variety of platforms and devices, that can be used to offer curated offerings such as a romantic getaway or a special birthday trip. In fact, 83% of respondents in Accenture’s study were willing to share their data to enable a personalised experience.
However, the challenge lies in creating comprehensive traveller profiles from the first-party data available to most brands. In a world where travellers can have as many as 100 pre-booking touchpoints, hotels are more than just a place to stay, they are part of the larger travel ecosystem. As such, the data amassed by any one brand is often not enough to create a holistic view of the consumers’ preferences and path-to-purchase. This is where partnering with data-cooperatives like ADARA can help to fill in the gaps and deliver a personalised customer experience, that ties in seamlessly with the consumers’ overall travel journey. For instance, as online travel agents become more prevalent, hospitality brands can use relevant consumer data from across the booking funnel to curate rewards that can make direct booking more compelling.
Today, hospitality brands are facing growing competition from indirect channels and the stakes are higher than ever as consumers become more selective about where they take their business. In order to stay ahead of the curve and capture share-of-wallet, marketers need to not only utilise all the tools at their disposal but also partner with other industry players to gather critical intelligence. Through the use of comprehensive data sets to back their marketing strategies, hospitality brands can come up on top by making informed decisions and the best use of their resources.
Brandon Meyers is the Chief Revenue Officer at Adara.
