Tapping into new travel trends & partnerships to maximise customer loyalty and engagement

Introduction

Travel brands have had to accommodate themselves to an increasingly transactional online environment, with falling brand loyalty among customers, and the competition only ever a few clicks away. Especially given recent disruptions to the industry, partnerships are emerging as a critical avenue to refresh the customer experience, develop brand loyalty, and attract new customers and new revenues streams. We’ll discuss what makes partnerships so important, how they can be used to improve multiple aspects of business performance simultaneously, and the challenges and risks that must be addressed for partnerships to become an effective part of a brand’s value proposition.

Better Together

Partnerships and collaborations can offer many benefits. Brands are increasingly using technology to enhance their marketing and outreach and improve the pre-trip customer experience, including through customised offers, targeted upsells, as well as by driving customers to mobile to enable more continuous, direct customer interactions. Some brands are even using emerging technologies such as AR and VR as an opportunity to further enhance customer experience. Cathay Pacific has created a Virtual Hub, where pilots can log on and participate in flight simulations from anywhere in the world with an internet connection, and where customers can see relevant information about the training and experience of pilots, helping to improve transparency, especially among nervous flyers. During the pandemic, leading ecommerce travel platform KKday used personalised video tours in Thailand, and interactions in a simulated environment to allow customers to virtually experience their favourite destinations.

Brands are also increasingly seeking to build brand loyalty through personalised experiences driven by data insights, especially in the premium segment. This can require building or acquiring whole new capabilities in data and analysis. Blessy Townes, Head of Digital Marketing and Branding at Discovery Hospitality, a Philippines hotel and resort operator, commented, “I think if hoteliers if are really serious about moving into big data, we should treat it as a pillar…one of the challenges in hospitality is we have a lot of systems and technologies that don’t necessarily talk to each other, so [we want] someone who can put all these things together and provide actionable insights and give us a bigger picture on what the customer is about, so we can use that data to provide personalised experiences to the guests.

Leverage your partners for next level loyalty

There are several major attractions for travel brands seeking to pursue a partner-driven strategy. We will look at each briefly below.

1. Increased traveller satisfaction

Since customer satisfaction is one of the primary drivers of customer loyalty in travel. Brand partners can expand the range of offering through which to maximise their customer’s wellbeing, sense of value, and enjoyment of their travels. Joy Qian, Associate Director, eCommerce Consumer Platform at Klook, commented “The change after Covid is to go to personalisation for sure, but more to focus on customer retention.”

2. Increased value proposition

By affiliating with high quality brand partners who reflect their values, travel brands can form and reform customer perceptions about their own brand, potentially allowing them to shift customer expectations, and even change minds in a customer segment who might have already formed an opinion of them. 

3. Cross-promotion

This is perhaps most obvious way brand partnerships can add direct value – by providing access to a new swathe of customers, expanding the potential market. This can save time and money that would otherwise have been spent promoting the brand. If your partner has been chosen well, many of these customers may be broadly aligned with your brand values.

4. Differentiation

Increasingly, partners are being leveraged to create differentiated experiences not available elsewhere. KKday worked with partners to bring together an exceptional experience of a rural homestay at a farmhouse in Akita, Japan, and experience the farmer’s life – even working on the rice paddies. Pinky Lee, Vice President at KKday, said, “People are willing to pay more, so they have higher expectations, and they are looking for something unique and special”.

5. Improved customer experience

Travellers are often willing to pay for convenience, meaning partnerships can add value by providing a bundled service that goes beyond the sum of their parts. Brands can use their partnerships to broaden their range of offerings and streamline delivery, creating a seamless customer experience. KKday worked with tour providers and activity partners to reinvent and repackage existing products and co-create new products. By using APIs to ensure data connectivity they enabled customers to book all the transportation for their trip-of-a-lifetime (Japan by Bus or Europe by Rail) in just a few clicks, even when customers booked last minute, and using a wide range of languages and currencies.

6. Better brand reputation

By finding appropriate partners far beyond the travel industry, travel brands may gain access to customers who would otherwise be difficult to reach using traditional marketing methods. Equally, by partnering with companies in adjacent parts of the travel industry, it is possible to gain direct exposure to customers who could be already spending money with competitors, potentially even via a referral from a partner brand the customer already trusts – a great opportunity to make a pitch. However, it is important to understand partners’ alignment with your brand’s mission, values and...