Travellers shun brand loyalty – study
Travellers are abandoning their favoured brands and shopping around more than ever before, a new study has found.
According to Deloitte’s ‘A Restoration in Loyalty’ survey, the results of which were released this week, the travel industry has experienced a steep decline in consumer loyalty. Only 8% of survey respondents indicated they always stay at the same brand of hotel, while just 14% always fly on the same airline.
“It is clear that travel brands need to up their game if they want to drive genuine loyalty among consumers,” said Adam Weissenberg, vice chairman of Deloitte. “With heightened competition and eroding customer loyalty, hotels and airlines, now, more than ever, need to focus on enhancing and personalising the consumer experience.”
The study highlighted the declining importance of company loyalty schemes. Respondents to the Deloitte survey did not place much importance in such programmes when making travel decisions. For hotels, loyalty schemes were the 20th most importance factor out of 26 for influencing the traveller, while airline FFPs ranked 19th out of 26 decision-making factors. Only 55% said they consider loyalty programmes of high importance when choosing airlines, dropping to 45% when choosing hotels.
Rubbing salt into the wound, most respondents said they thought grocery stores had more innovative and rewarding loyalty programmes than airlines or hotels.
Predictably in the current economic climate, value-for-money ranked as one of the most important factors when booking hotels and flights. For hotels, value-for-money, comfort and location were the biggest considerations, while punctuality, safety and value-for-money were the most important factors when choosing an airline. Almost two thirds (61%) of respondents said oil prices had some effect on their travel plans.
“Travel brands need to be more innovative and clear in communicating their product and service offerings,” said Weissenberg. “For example, Deloitte’s research showed that while earning and redeeming points are the most important attributes for choosing hotel and airline loyalty programmes, travel brands should focus on enhancing the customer experience, making rewards personally meaningful, encouraging loyalty with unexpected rewards if they want to boost consumer engagement, and ultimately building long-term customer relationships.”
The Deloitte survey polled 4,000 hotel and airline customers.