Holiday Season Travel Trends: What Loyalty Platforms Need to Know

With the holiday season fast approaching, travel demand will be on overdrive, and loyalty programs need to ensure their offerings and member engagement are in full swing. The upcoming holiday season is the perfect opportunity for loyalty programs to increase member engagement, travel benefit and reward redemption, and member loyalty.

Below, we will look into some of the most important trends shaping this year's holiday season travel and explore how loyalty platforms can utilize these changes to create great value for their members.

1. Increased Demand for Travel:

Notwithstanding global economic uncertainties, travel demand is impressively rebounding. In a recent survey, 54% of American adults said they plan to travel this holiday season, a far cry from the number recorded last year.

This increase in one-way and round trips underlines the pent-up demand of people wanting to be with their loved ones or explore new places after pandemic restrictions and economic challenges.

This, in turn, can be a goldmine to divert members to utilize their points for travel purposes or make travel bookings on partner platforms. Special travel-related privileges, like discounts on hotel stays and car rentals and the addition of ancillaries for flights, might make travel much easier and more accessible.

This will enhance your members’ experience and brand loyalty since the rewards match current needs.??

2. Value-for-Money Travel

Today's travelers value deals and discounts to help them save on their travels. In one study, 42% of travelers said they would travel more if loyalty programs provided them with better discounts, while 32% of this percentage intend to travel more if they can have more points that can be used against travel expenses.

This value-focused behavior indicates how critical loyalty programs are to delivering meaningful rewards to meet these expectations.

Loyalty platforms must communicate value through personalized travel rewards, such as granting more points for booking or offering discounts for early booking.

Other related services can be provided, including flexible redemption, which would make the member feel like they were obtaining a better bang for their buck and, therefore, traveling more often.

3. Extended Booking Windows

Another highlight of this year's trends is the elongation of booking windows. The surveys indicate that 57% of travelers now plan and make reservations for holiday trips more than two months in advance. This longer lead time gives loyalty programs more time to engage their members before travel and offer travel-related promotions.

Loyalty platforms can create early-bird promotions to take advantage of this trend, offering extra points or discounts for those who book their holiday travel early.

This longer timeframe also allows the loyalty programs to send periodic reminders, personalized offers, and special promotions tailored for the traveler's upcoming holiday plans, with greater chances that members might engage and start redeeming.

4. Personalized Offers and Promotions

Personalization will be a cornerstone in customer satisfaction, especially regarding loyalty programs in travel. During the holiday, members seek unique offers that meet their tastes and preferences.?

The personalization of loyalty programs not only improves customer satisfaction but also deepens a traveler's relationship with the brand. This encourages customers to return for more and nurtures their loyalty over the long run, especially during high-traffic travel seasons like the holidays.

Whether one travels in style in luxury hotels or on a low budget, loyalty programs can increase the pace with personal offers that resonate with members' travel trends.

Loyalty platforms can use analytics to profile members based on travel behaviors and preferences and push targeted promotions. For example, they can offer exclusive offers for holiday-themed deals, personalized destination recommendations, or give bonus points for travel bookings made during the festive season to make each member's experience unique. This makes the loyalty program more relevant to their lives, increasing satisfaction and retention.

5. Leveraging Technology

Loyalty platforms should invest in advanced technologies, such as a private label travel platform or APIs that seamlessly integrate into their current ecosystem, like Custom Travel Solutions.

These integrations can not only offer a broad inventory to members but also enable the analysis of big sets of customer data to extract useful insights about patterns of travel, spending habits, and preferences.

With this information, loyalty programs can execute very effective campaigns that resonate with every member. For example, AI-driven algorithms can automatically trigger real-time offers based on user behavior: send travel deals for the most frequently visited destinations or suggest hotel packages to customers who had their points redeemed for accommodations previously.?

By analyzing consumers' past interactions or preferences, these loyalty programs can serve members in the best possible way, even before the member realizes he or she needs anything.?

The loyalty platforms could increase member engagement and drive more bookings by offering a more personalized, efficient experience.

6. Flexibility in Rewards:

There are always some uncertainties in the travel and tour operations sector, and members will look for security when booking their holidays or travel.?

In response to these uncertainties, flexibility, and peace of mind will play a key role in maintaining customer loyalty. Offering adaptable redemption options, such as the ability to cancel or modify bookings without penalties, can significantly reduce travelers' risk.?

Loyalty platforms will need to offer different incentives, including eliminating any penalties or booking requirements so that customers can use their rewards, allowing flexible periods for redemption vouchers, or at least allowing seasonal redemption periods and issuing no expiry of points during such peak periods.

Loyalty platforms can help customers gain trust and reduce the anxiety of making bookings during crises by providing them with more options for arranging their travel plans.?

7. Travel Provider Partnerships

Loyalty platforms may also explore ties with airlines, hotels, and travel agents to add value to their reward travel options. Loyalty programs will be able to use these successful travel brands to leverage and offer their members holiday travel deals, holidays at discounted rates, or holidays on packages.

Such members may include those who travel and look forward to incentives like booking bonus points through partner airlines or perks such as free checked-in luggage or getting boarded first. Such partnerships benefit the loyalty platform and enhance the member's trust astronomically.

Of course, the best option is to leverage the strong partnerships that a private label platform provider already has with these suppliers and integrate these benefits and services into your ecosystem without spending time creating one-to-one relationships with them.?

Conclusion

Now, more than ever is the right time to leverage the power of travel for your loyalty program and its member base. Travel demand is the highest in the last quarter of any year due to the holiday season, and your members will appreciate being able to redeem their points or rewards to offset some of their holiday travel expenses.?

If you want to quickly integrate a comprehensive inventory of travel benefits and services into your loyalty program, you can book a demo with our specialists now.?