Travel Loyalty News

A Friday earnings call helped analysts quantify the potential of Tripadvisor's new direct-to-consumer subscription product. New numbers for the company as a whole were also hopeful. But wary hotel chains, resentful online travel agencies, and raging virus variants still pose risks.

In this Skift Loyalty and Subscription Summit video, Chris Anderson, Professor at Cornell University, and Geoffrey Ryskamp, Global Head of Hospitality, Travel & Leisure at Medallia, discuss findings from new research and offer tips on how to leverage post-stay engagement as part of the customer retention cycle.

In this Skift Loyalty and Subscription Summit video, we hear from Jeanne Jones, vice president of Community and Customer marketing at Amperity, and Elliott Pesut, director of marketing at Alaska Airlines, to learn more about how they’re thinking about loyalty and customer data as air travel comes back to life in a post-vaccine world.

In this Skift Summit video we hear from Ramya Murali, principal at Deloitte Consulting LLP, about how loyalty programs in the travel industry are evolving in response to the business shifts caused by the Covid-19 pandemic.

The pandemic has proven the resilience of loyalty programs. But it has also suggested the need for travel brands to supplement their loyalty programs with subscription-based products that address complementary needs.

There may be momentum behind the travel industry's recovery, but plenty of uncertainty is still ahead. Now is not the time to drive customers away with sneaky, overnight devaluing of loyalty points.

Naysayers might say subscriptions don't work in the travel space, but proponents say it's about execution. The keys to being successful are adaptability with the changing times, customer needs, and authentic relationship building — easier said than done, of course.

The likes of Alibaba, Grab, and Rakuten have billions of members. If hotels can tap into a just fraction of their users, and convert them to their own loyalty schemes, they'll be mighty happy.

Access, curation, and creating value for both consumers and suppliers are critical to the success of Tripadvisor's new subscription product, says a top executive. The company's still working out the kinks with Tripadvisor Plus, but the early word is promising.

The rise of the experience economy means that travel is interlinked with mental and physical wellbeing across a multitude of verticals. New research from Collinson uncovers how leisure and business travelers are feeling about a return to travel and underscores the need for cross-sector brands to come together to help bring the industry back.