Forrester Blogs › Category: travel

In Canada, Mobile Initiatives Show A Positive Impact On ROI

Posted by Julie Ask on the eBusiness & Channel Strategy Professionals Blog on January 18, 2013

Julie Ask

Last week, we had the opportunity to have a conversation with one of the world’s, and certainly Canada’s, largest premier coalition loyalty programs, the AIR MILES Reward Program. It has penetrated two-thirds of Canadian households, with 10 million active Collector accounts in Canada. AIR MILES is also deeply entrenched in the mobile landscape, having launched the first coalition loyalty program app of its kind in Canada for mobile and tablet, which has since had more than 800,000 downloads. Here are a few nuggets from what we learned about Canada’s increasingly sophisticated mobile landscape:

  • Immediacy reigns. The most used feature in the application is real-time updates. Mobile phone users pull out their phone throughout the day to access real-time and geo-specific updates on deals and offers at nearby participating retailers. Activity shows that the habit influences the consumer’s decision about where to shop and drives in-store sales.   
  • iOS users are the most active by far. Compared to Android and RIM users, iOS users are by far the most active on their mobile phones. More than 80% of the downloads are from an iPhone with that group being most active.
  • Mobile engagement drives ROI. When it comes to mobile,any engagement level is positive. This loyalty program found that when users engage with the mobile app, their in-store spend increases anywhere between 5% and 21%.
Read more

Categories:

The Data Digest: US Leisure Hotel Travelers

Posted by Reineke Reitsma on the Data Insights Professionals Blog on January 18, 2013

  • 171 Recommendations
Reineke Reitsma

I was in the US this week, visiting our headquarters in Cambridge, and the topic of loyalty cards and loyalty programs came up. I live in the Netherlands, and although there are plenty of loyalty programs to subscribe to, the benefits aren’t any way near what you get from loyalty programs in the US. Because of that, I normally base my travel choices more on convenience and price than on the hotel chain or airline. But our North American Technographics® Travel And Auto Online Benchmark Recontact Survey, Q3 2012 (US) shows that this is different for US travelers.

US hotel travelers clearly see the benefit of subscribing to a loyalty program for the hotels they visit regularly. In fact, our data shows that about 40% of US online leisure hotel travelers belong to at least one hotel loyalty program. And those who belong to a hotel loyalty program are 10 percentage points more likely to recommend a hotel than leisure hotel travelers who are not part of a loyalty program.

However, the majority of leisure travelers who belong to a loyalty program are Gen X; younger travelers account for only a quarter of current loyalty program subscribers. Hoteliers who want to benefit from social sharing and recommendations should tap the potential of their loyal younger customers in particular.

Categories:

The Holiday Shopping Season Hasn’t Ended Yet: The Chinese New Year Is Coming To Town

Posted by Samantha Jaddou on the Customer Experience Professionals Blog on December 28, 2012

Samantha Jaddou

We have just celebrated Christmas, but I’m increasingly looking forward to the Chinese New Year as this will be my first time spending the Chinese New Year in China in 12 years!  

Reading the reports on how much US consumers spent this year during the holiday month made me reflect on what Chinese consumers do during their single most important holiday of the year — and how they spend their money. While the Chinese New Year is traditionally about celebrating the New Year with friends and family, in recent years an increasing number of people have chosen the unconventional route and used this time to visit other countries. According to Ctrip.com (quoted by Sina Finance), more than 50% of the packages to the US, Middle East and Africa, and Australia were booked two months before the Chinese New Year. And wherever Chinese travelers go, they shop: If you’ve ever seen a Chinese travel group’s itinerary, you will know that a couple of stops at a shopping mall or an outlet are usually incorporated into the plan.

Read more

Categories:

Shoulder Surfing The Friendly Skies

Posted by Rick Holland on the Security & Risk Professionals Blog on December 16, 2012

Rick Holland

FAIL at 30,000ish feet 

When you fly nearly every week, you can get pretty bored on a plane.  When I am sick of working, playing games, or watching movies, my latest distraction is checking out laptop screens. Sometimes I'm curious what movie you are watching but other times I am interested in what type of confidential company information you are displaying for the world to see.  In the past few weeks I have seen the following types of information on my fellow flyer's screens:

  • End of year/end of quarter sales numbers
  • Disciplinary emails regarding employee peformance
  • Pre launch marketing information (which I presumed to be under embargo)
  • Competitive displacement information

Most of the time I suggest that my fellow traveler invest in a privacy screen, and most of the time they are receptive to the suggestion.  It really is astounding how many people don't spend the approximate $30 on one.  If your company doesn't issue them, I suggest you work to change that stance. World readable aren't the permissions you want on your laptop screen, time for chmod (UNIX joke).

Categories:

The Data Digest: Smartphone Owners’ Smart Travel Management

Posted by Reineke Reitsma on the Data Insights Professionals Blog on August 12, 2011

  • 379 Recommendations
Reineke Reitsma

Do you remember the last trip that you took? In this season, chances are that it was only last week or last month. As much as we love to travel, ideally for leisure, we are often overwhelmed by all the planning and coordination that are involved in the process — flights, car rentals, lodging, just to begin with. And if you are truly a planner, you want to add the places to dine, events to attend, and attractions to stop by to the itinerary.

Luckily, we are in the technology-centric era. We have websites, software, and devices that help us make life easier. Two companies that I recently came across, TripIt and Traxo, are designed to take care of travelers’ concerns. Much like TripIt, Traxo aims to simplifying travelers' lives by aggregating all of their travel information in one place, but it does so in a more elegant auto-pull manner versus an email push one. Traxo users just need to link their travel accounts to Traxo via a one-time, upfront process, and then Traxo automatically detects all of their trips, miles, and points and intelligently combines them into a single travel dashboard. It also allows members to share experiences with friends and possibly discover where they might have an overlapping trip with another.

But what makes this really interesting is that these services are available for smartphones. In his recent Forrester report “Why Smartphones Will Become One Of Travel’s Two Most Important Touchpoints”, my colleague Henry Harteveldt points out that “travelers are up to three times more likely than all US adults to have a smartphone.” 

Read more

Categories:

The Data Digest: Why Travelers Befriend A Brand

Posted by Reineke Reitsma on the Data Insights Professionals Blog on October 22, 2010

Reineke Reitsma

Social media has forever changed the way travelers interact with each other and companies — and its use is still growing. Forrester Technographics® data shows that 26 million more US online leisure travelers use social media in 2010 than in 2008. In fact, leisure travelers are really connected to travel companies beyond booking: A high 41% of US online leisure travelers have become travel social fans (TSFs) by friending, following, or becoming fans of a travel company or destination on a social networking site like Facebook, YouTube, Flickr, or Twitter. But why do they do this?

As the data shows, discounts are a powerful motivator. One in three friends, follows, or fans travel companies and destinations to learn about the seller's offers and discounts. As a result, smart travel organizations will start using social networking sites as extensions of their Web sites for travel deals. Travelocity, for example, has a 'roaming gnome' on its Facebook page that offers and promotes the company’s "Deals Toolkit." JetBlue Airways has a dedicated Twitter account, @JetBlueCheeps, to push special deals. Who will follow with the holiday season coming up?

Categories:

The Data Digest: What Makes Leisure Travelers Feel Valued?

Posted by Reineke Reitsma on the Data Insights Professionals Blog on June 18, 2010

Reineke Reitsma

The recent recession has changed consumers' mindsets. They are more careful and prudent about how they spend their money on everything, including travel. But can price drive loyalty? What makes consumers feel valued? Forrester's Technographics® research shows that price and transparency of costs are indeed very important elements for travel companies to make their clients feel special, but these are followed by support statements like “Make me confident that any arising issues will be fixed.”

To increase loyalty and make consumers feel valued, travel companies should see beyond deals and extend their focus to include support. In a recent report on this topic 'Why Travel eBusiness Misses The Mark By Only Emphasizing Price' my colleague Henry Harteveldt gives an example of how a travel seller can use the recent Icelandic volcanic eruption to show affected customers they care, by offering them a special deal when they log into their account.

As Henry says, travel sellers must remember that they don't own the traveler; they earn the opportunity to serve the traveler from one purchase to the next. Fail and the traveler will consider your competitor — and price will likely provide the motivation to switch.

Categories:

How Do You Keep Mass Influencers Engaged? An Example from TripAdvisor

Posted by Augie Ray on the Marketing Leadership Professionals Blog on March 7, 2010

In the Forrester report, Tapping The Entire Online Peer Influence Pyramid, we introduced the Mass Influencer, a category of online influencer comprised of people who create most of the peer impressions about about brands in social channels.  Although just 16 percent of the online population, Mass Influencers create 80 percent of all peer impressions about products and services.

Read more

Categories:

Leveraging Architecture For Business Impact

Posted by Alex Cullen on the Enterprise Architecture Professionals Blog on February 1, 2010

  • 242 Recommendations
Alex Cullen

The Forrester Enterprise Architecture Forum 2010 North America (San Diego) is about two weeks away, and the EAF 2010 EMEA (London) is about five weeks away.

Read more

Categories:

Mobile Travel in Europe

Posted by Thomas Husson on the Marketing Leadership Professionals Blog on December 9, 2009

  • 285 Recommendations
Thomas Husson

ACCOR, the global hotel chain, just launched an iPhone application.

Accor This  is just one of the many examples of travel brands leveraging the mobile momentum. Airline companies have always been at the vanguard of integrating mobile into their strategies, but it looks like many other travel brands from hotel chains, airports, rail companies, car rental companies, and travel-related brands (from Lonely Planet to luxury brands) are now tapping into existing mobile opportunities and building mobile products that meet burgeoning customer demand.

Travel is indeed inherently mobile. Now that the promise of location-enhanced services is beginning to be fulfilled on mobile phones, travelers are starting to use their devices as personal travel assistants. More than 10% of European Internet travelers use their mobile phones to look up flight or train schedules. Frequent business travelers are the ideal target group, as they are more likely to be regular users of the mobile Internet and are more likely to spend while traveling. More than 30% of them are interested in booking train tickets or checking in for a flight via their mobile phones.

Read more

Categories:

Syndicate content