The recession is taking a toll on travel industry loyalty marketing and rewards programs, according to Colloquy research on U.S. consumer attitudes and perceptions.
ravel programs have seen a 31.2% decline in active participation since 2007, which means the general population actively participated in 1.5 travel-related loyalty programs in 2009 compared to 2.18 programs in 2007, when the research was last completed.
The travel-specific results indicate that customers are consolidating their spend with fewer hotels and fewer airlines as the travel-whenever-you-want-for-business "bubble" has burst, and consumers are no longer able to earn elite status in multiple programs.
But there is an upside. Travel marketers can take advantage of this situation to lock consolidating former frequent travelers into their particular program, says Colloquy Editorial Director Rick Ferguson, who co-authored a white paper with Kelly Hlavinka, based on the research. Those marketers will emerge in a stronger competitive position when the economy recovers and travel ramps back up, he says.
"As business travelers are traveling less for the short term, marketers can really focus on these customers and focus on the retention of these fliers," Ferguson tells Marketing Daily. "It requires smart analysis of their customer data base to know which customers are worth spending the extra effort to try to retain."
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