6 Brands Opting for a Personalized Travel Experience

Personalized travel experiences have turned into a necessity for the tourism industry. We've been able to confirm that customized experiences, whether they be online or in real life, lead to satisfied customers and more stable relationships with brands. Not only that; it's an increasingly urgent demand from consumers as we noted in our trends report:  69% of travelers will be more loyal to a provider that personalizes their experiences. 

There’s no doubt that personalization is increasing its degree of importance and we have a lot of room for improvement. According to a study from the Institute for Business Value, 68% of travelers see little or no competitive differentiation between one hotel chain or another. As I mentioned in a previous article, it’s different with airlines since 57% of consumers do detect significant differentiation strategies. Nonetheless, we need to keep working and continuing to make improvements. 

This time, I wanted to share some examples of some tourism brands that are already creating personalized experiences for their customers. We want these examples to inspire you to work on your actions to connect with your customers and develop a bond that lasts for a long time.  

Examples of personalization in tourism 

1. EasyJet

In honor of its 20th anniversary, EasyJet wanted to celebrate its history with each of its passengers that traveled on the airline. To do so, they gathered the data they had available on each of them to create individual stories about when they flew on the airline for the first time and where their next destination would be. 

They sent more than 12.4 million emails and achieved an open rate of more than 100% higher than the typical open rate, with 25% more clicks. This action highlights that using consumer data to create stories that have more resonance with people increases their loyalty to a brand. 

2. Hilton Hotels

The hotel chain created the Hilton Honors application to offer its guests a virtual guide that accompanies them during their stays. It provides suggestions, recommendations, activities, resolves doubts, and more. If the guest is looking for the hotel spa, the app helps them get there, and may even send them an exclusive deal on the way. 

Guests can also check in using the app, control the devices that are connected to their room, and use it as a key. Not only that; app users also collect points they can share with friends or redeem on Amazon. 

3.     KLM

Dutch airline KLM is one of the brands showing that personalized travel is possible. 

Although they're working on it in different areas, one of the most exciting actions they are carrying out is personalizing emails to continue impacting users that have abandoned their shopping cart. A straightforward operation like this one allows the user to resume the transaction where they left off and, for the company, is a new chance to acquire a passenger. 

To continue with this strategy, KLM took advantage of its 50th anniversary to launch a new edition of its magazine, but this time, in an interactive format. It invited reads to choose their top five destinations to win a trip. This action allowed their airline to gain a better knowledge of their users' interests as well as gather their personal information (name, email address, age, etc.) to track them and offer them personalized content subsequently.  

4.         Best Western

As we previously stated, hotels have a more significant challenge on their hands since consumers perceive lesser differentiation, and there is greater competition when it's time to make a reservation. That's why the Best Western chain has done an excellent job of sending personalized deals to its customers.

They used an email marketing campaign to get in touch with new and previous customers by sending them personalized promotions. They also implemented geographic segmentation to target them with specific discounts and relevant deals based on where they live. For those that were interested, they could directly book on their app. In this case, they instantly analyzed the device where the email was opened and automatically directed Apple users to the App Store and Android users to the Google Play store. 

The results were a resounding success: they increased the number of app downloads by 143% and experienced a 10% increase in the click-through rate.

5. Princess Cruises

Princess Cruises has implemented personalized travel using wearables with its Ocean Medallion. The Ocean Medallion is a coin-sized device that can be worn either as a wristband or necklace that allows passengers to interact with the cruise ship. The device works together with Ocean Compass, a digital experience portal that holds passengers’ personal information and preferences. 

The Ocean Medallion allows you to open your cabin’s door, move about the ship quickly, and to find out where the rest of your family is at any time. It does a lot more though; through its system, the crew can find out if there’s a passenger in the gym and if they need to replace water bottles, so they're hydrated or there are a lot of kids in the pool, and they need more supervision.  

6.         Delta Air Lines

Personalized experiences are equally important in both the digital world and in real life. That's why Delta Air Lines has decided to invest in improving the in-flight experience of their most loyal passengers. How? They've created a tool for their cabin crew that lets them access detailed information about passengers. They can find out if a passenger is a frequent flyer or is someone needing special assistance.

While the system is currently in the implementation phase, this action from Delta proves that the airline industry is conscious of the importance of offering a personalized in-flight experience.

5 Key Steps for Creating Personalized Experiences 

To wrap up, I wanted to gather what are, in my opinion, the steps you should take to create personalized experiences that have a real impact on the customer.  

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