Personalization in Travel and Tourism - Thematic Intelligence

Personalization in Travel and Tourism - Thematic Intelligence

Summary

Travel executives have increasingly realized that building more relevant and personalized customer experiences is critical because it helps differentiate their brands in an increasingly competitive market. From hotels to booking sites to social media, executives and CEOs are thinking about the ways personalization can help them reach, and sell to, customers more effectively. To achieve true personalization, travel operators must engage their audience from multiple touch points, using data gathered from all possible sources. This typically involves investing in new technologies such as artificial intelligence and machine learning and overhauling legacy systems, in essence undergoing a ‘digital transformation’.

This thematic research report takes an in-depth look at personalization. Firstly, the players section identifies some of the leading companies in personalization and categorizes their position in the value chain. After a thematic briefing, a trends section is then provided which describes both industry and consumer trends. An industry analysis is then provided which delves into online travel retail sales growth and forecasts along with an in-depth look at consumer trends and preferences. In addition, use cases of the leading companies within the personalization theme are described and analyzed. Following this is a mergers and acquisitions section which features personalization partnerships. After a timeline which tells the story of the development of personalization in tourism and beyond, a value chain analysis is provided which looks at how personalization can be incorporated at each stage of the traveler journey. Finally, the leading companies in the personalization theme are outlined, along with their competitive position and sector scorecards are delivered, showing how the different companies in each tourism sector compare in the theme of personalization.

“The travel and tourism industry is highly fragmented, with a range of players supplying individual parts of holidays as well as packaged holidays. To meet the ever-changing and more demanding consumer today, personalization is a theme at the forefront of the entire travel and tourism ecosystem as an integrated element within customer relationship management. Leaders within the theme of personalization have been recognized through how they curate personalized experiences for their customers and the extent of investment into technologies including -artificial intelligence, Big Data, internet of things, cloud technologies and 5G.

The experiential travel trend, the long path to purchase, the abundance of choice, and rising consumer expectations - all of these become much bigger challenges for travel brands that reject personalization. As a result, the risk of being squeezed out of the marketplace and losing out on a share of the projected $1.8 trillion of forecasted online travel retail sales increases. With more choice open to consumers, travel brands face significant pressure to attract and retain customers. This means even more importance is placed on driving success from the company’s website and marketing channels.”

Key Highlights

Personalization plays an important role in increasing the attractiveness of online shopping of travel related products and services. These days technology is able to provide many opportunities for data gathering and implementation of personalization. This happened mainly because the birth of the internet and increased usage of the internet.

Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, online travel retail sales were growing at a phenomenal rate driven by both consumers and companies migrating to online platforms. In the decade from 2009 to 2019, global online travel sales increased by 266% from $368 billion in 2009 to $1.3 trillion in 2019. The expansive growth of online travel has revolutionized the tourism sector and as tourists more heavily rely on online channels to make their travel decisions and purchases, this has given travel and tourism companies greater customer data to collect, process and analyze in order to deliver personalized products and services. Amid COVID-19 related travel restrictions, online travel retail sales naturally declined by 58.5% YoY in 2020 to $588.1 billion. According to GlobalData forecasts global online travel retail sales will experience rapid recovery as more travelers look to make their purchases online. By 2025, online travel retail sales are forecast to reach $1.8 trillion. With more travelers using online resources and channels to make their travel decisions, this will continue the expansion of personalization as a major theme within the travel and tourism sector.

The rapid and healthy growth of online travel retail sales pre-COVID-19-and the growth forecast to 2025-has been supported by a myriad of factors, such as increased digitalization, greater mobile phone usage, and an increase in internet users worldwide. Moreover, the growth of online travel has largely happened at the expense of in-store travel agents. Alongside this, GlobalData’s Q4 2021 Consumer Survey reveals that 24% of global respondents used an OTA the last time they booked a holiday, the most popular option. This was true across most age groups, including -Gen Z (15%), millennials (23%), Gen X (26%), and boomers (24%). However, the Silent Generation respondents gravitated towards booking directly with lodging providers (23%), more so than OTAs (18%).

Feeling unique and like the brand is catering to your personal taste is what today’s travelers demand. Nevertheless, travelers in different generations and locations have distinct preferences which will affect the expected brand interactions, preferences, and the data that users opt to be monitored. Gen Z (25%) and Millennials (27%) are the most open to, and the most influenced by, products/services that are tailored to their needs and personality, as revealed by GlobalData’s Q3 2022 Consumer Survey. This falls to just 18% for the Silent Generation.

Scope

• This report provides an overview of personalization.
• It identifies the need for personalization to engage with travelers and succeed in a highly fragmented and saturated marketplace.
• This report provides a detailed industry analysis of personalization, discussing how it is being utilized across the travel and tourism value chain.
• We highlight travel and tourism companies that are leading in the personalization theme, such as Accor SA, Carnival Corporation, Best Western Hotel and Resorts, Trip.com Group, Expedia Group, Airbnb, Hilton and easyJet.

• Understand the impact of personalization on the tourism industry, using use cases to help you understand how you can adapt and understand this theme.
• Assess the strategies that companies are adopting to succeed in personalization.
• Discover companies that are leading in the space.
• To view real-world trends created by integrating personalization across the travel & tourism space and throughout the traveler journey.
• GlobalData’s thematic research ecosystem is a single, integrated global research platform that provides an easy-to-use framework for tracking all themes across all companies in all sectors. It has a proven track record of identifying the important themes early, enabling companies to make the right investments ahead of the competition, and secure that all-important competitive advantage.