Creating a personalized purchasing customer experience is crucial to attract and retain travelers, according to a new report.
The report, which was commissioned by Amadeus and written by Frost & Sullivan, offers practical advice for airlines and other travel providers seeking to develop strategies that will create a more rewarding journey for emerging traveler segments.
Airlines and other travel providers will need to harness the wealth of data and social media information now available to create bespoke ‘purchasing experiences’ that cater to individual needs, the report says.
Titled, “Future Traveller Tribes 2030: Building a more rewarding journey,” the report outlines precisely how airlines and their complementary service providers can better serve traveler needs in the future through more effective merchandising strategies, explaining also how the traveler journey itself will change by 2030 thanks to better use of traveler data, new technologies, and a widening range of sales channels.
“The first phase of our Future Traveller Tribes study identified who travel providers will need to cater to in the future; this report provides airlines and their complementary service partners with practical advice about how they can prepare for and cater to emerging traveler segments at each of the nine stages of the traveler journey,” said Robert Sinclair-Barnes, Strategic Marketing Director, Airline IT, Amadeus. “Ultimately, understanding traveler motivations and the evolution of purchasing behaviors will equip airlines and other providers to build a more rewarding and connected traveler journey for tomorrow’s travelers.”
New sales channels will emerge in tandem, and can be divided into ‘inspiration’ channels (smartphone, tablet, virtual reality headset), which offer more immersive experiences and will be used as discovery tools, according to the report; and ‘information’ channels (smartwatch, augmented reality glasses, and service robots), which will focus on short-form content and purchasing.
As a result, data will become the most important resource available to airlines, giving the competitive advantage to those that can most effectively collect and use it.
“As travel providers devise strategies to become customer experience providers, it’s essential that they consider how to build purchasing experiences that meet the needs of future traveler groups,” said Lawrence Lundy, Principal ICT Consultant, Frost & Sullivan. “Social Capital Seekers, as just one example, will seek inspiration for travel from their social media networks and will expect a very high degree of personalization from providers. They’ll be open to new services at any stage of their journey, readily trading their data to receive priority treatment, and comfortable with new technologies such as service robots or augmented reality applications.”