Time to cash in on changing trends

Sumit Prakash, Country Director, India and South Asia, Collinson, discusses how the emerging travel trends are influencing customer expectations and brand preferences, and what actions brands can take to better engage with their customers, aligned with the return of travel.

Hazel Jain

What are some of the key 2023 trends in (air) travel and how are these trends influencing customer expectations?

Travel is returning at speed. Collinson’s recent Global Traveller Sentiment Survey revealed that travellers globally plan to make 80 per cent of the trips that they did pre-pandemic and nearly 62 per cent of travellers are willing to cut back on non-essential retail purchases or forego their content streaming subscriptions and gym memberships to fund their travel. Fuelled by the pandemic and the digital acceleration that came with it, consumers’ expectations towards travel experiences have also evolved. Today, the modern traveller seeks out more sophisticated experiences; experiences that are seamless and integrated, personalised, adds value and enhances their status. As per our research, travellers are willing to pay for premium travel experiences that will enhance their journey – 47 per cent of respondents said they will pay for access to lounges, 43 per cent for an upgraded seat and 39 per cent, a direct flight.

Travellers in India have also revealed in a past survey that they feel safer at the airport if they are able to access the lounge and lounge access also enables them to feel valued as a customer. Other travel experiences, such as dining discounts, lifestyle and wellness benefits such as sleep pods and having access to a wellbeing and fitness app are also the experiences they value. This shift in traveller expectations brings new opportunities for businesses to re-engage and deepen their relationships with their customers and build life-long loyalty, especially through travel loyalty benefits such as airport lounge access through Priority Pass.

How can brands better engage with customers?

As travel goes from strength to strength after such a long and drawn-out period of uncertainty, financial services organisations have a significant opportunity to ensure a rich and relevant offering of rewards for their cardholders. The return of travel means big benefits are on the horizon for those that are ready to seize them. By enhancing your travel-related proposition, such as offering Priority Pass as a payment card benefit, you can stand out from the competition and acquire new customers, while at the same time, retain your loyal customer base and increase top-of-wallet and cross-border spend.

Additionally, by working collaboratively with brands in the travel ecosystem, financial services organisations can leverage the rich behavioural data to deliver hyper-personalised travel experiences to their customers. By using these insights, brands can then market to their customers as though they are a ‘segment of one’ (for example, as a parent, traveller, and business leader), rather than just another contact in a customer database. By curating experiences and touch points unique to every customer, brands can further deepen their relationships with their customers and, in turn, build life-long loyalty.

How important is it to have alternative revenue streams in these times?

There are opportunities for brands in the travel industry to open new revenue streams and pursue alternative ones, especially considering how travellers’ expectations are evolving. With travellers’ placing greater emphasis on the journey and the experience that comes along with it (as compared to just the final destination), it opens more touchpoints for brands to engage with travellers. However, for brands to be successful in delivering personalised, seamless and integrated interactions, they cannot do it alone. By adopting a collaborative eco-system, brands will be able to identify mutual customers, share anonymised data points and demonstrate a better understanding of their customers’ want and desire. This will enable brands to enrich their customers’ experience, build deeper relationships and forge life-long loyalty and, in turn, generate new and alternative revenue streams.