People are ready to explore. Travel has not only bounced back — it’s thriving. In 2024, international tourism officially returned to pre-pandemic levels, and the demand for travel continues to surge. In fact, travel ranks as the top discretionary expense people are most excited to spend on, ahead of dining out and entertainment.
But as the industry moves beyond recovery, the big question looms: What’s next? While overall travel spending is strong, competition is also fierce. Travelers today have more choices than ever, and travel companies need to think about how they can innovate in this space to attract more customers and inspire loyalty in existing ones.
Technological innovation has unlocked new possibilities where personalization takes center stage as a tool for customer acquisition and retention. The brands that will see the biggest returns are those that are agile enough to deliver a fully personalized guest experience, from personalized travel marketing all the way to sales and service delivery.
Below, we’ll explore how personalization is changing the travel sector and some of the ways brands can personalize their interactions with potential and existing customers.
How the Personalized Guest Experience Is Changing Travel
Personalization is no longer just “nice to have.” It’s a key approach to taking your business into the future. Today’s travelers expect brands to recognize their individual preferences, anticipate their needs and deliver seamless experiences at every touchpoint. Just take a look at these numbers:
- 87% of consumers are more likely to do business with travel brands offering personalized experiences.
- 64% would rather purchase a product from a brand that knows them.
- 61% are willing to spend more with companies if they offer a more personalized customer experience.
Innovative brands are already meeting these demands. For instance, in 2022, the world’s first-ever PARALLEL REALITY™ experience went live at the Detroit Metropolitan Airport.
Launched by Delta Air Lines, the immersive experience invites up to 100 Delta flyers to scan their boarding passes and see their personalized itineraries — all at the same time on a single screen. No more having to scan rows and rows of flights. This game-changing technology streamlined airport navigation and elevated the traveling experience for Delta’s customers.
Meanwhile, in the cruise industry, Royal Caribbean set sail into a new era of guest engagement. Using customer data and analytics, the company created a personalization engine that gives guests control over their experience via a mobile app. The app learns from passenger behavior as soon as they board, offering tailored recommendations and automating services like food orders and activity booking.
It’s these kinds of frictionless, high-touch experiences that keep travelers coming back. As technology advances, one thing is clear: Companies that embrace personalization — from booking to boarding and beyond — will propel the travel industry forward.
How To Build a Personalized Guest Experience
There’s no doubt that the way we think about travel is changing dramatically. Long gone are the days when planning, booking and going on your trip were isolated, unrelated events. Today’s travelers expect a frictionless, personalized journey that starts the moment they begin planning that next trip.
“Suppliers are embracing innovation and experimentation like never before and are becoming increasingly fixated on the entire guest journey. The old silos of planning, booking, experiencing and sharing are converging into a seamless continuum of activities.”
– Chris Hemmeter, Managing Director at Thayer Ventures
A personalized guest experience is a must for attracting and retaining customers. So how can you benefit from this new trend and ensure customer satisfaction every step of the way?
Lean Into Personalization
The increased time we spend online has meant that our purchasing behavior and the way we discover products and services have changed as well. One-size-fits-all no longer cuts it. With so many things vying for our attention, brands need to think about the ways in which they can make their offers more attractive and relevant, even before someone becomes a customer.
Carly Whiteford, strategy director at OMD EMEA, emphasizes the importance of personalized marketing in travel.
“Over the past few years, travel marketing has been leaning into personalization, dynamic creative and bringing in real-time and relevant offers for people’s interests,” she explains. “It’s so interesting how that trend has been happening for the past few years, but now it’s just going to be accelerated.”
She also emphasizes the growing demand for personalized services, such as having someone curate every aspect of a trip, from flights and transfers to accommodations. With advancements in technology, including artificial intelligence, this level of service will likely shift from being a luxury travel experience to an expected one.
“People pay a lot of money at the moment for a personalized travel experience, but that’s going to become completely democratized,” Whiteford says.
Consider how Celebrity Cruises implemented this idea. This Personalized Video builds on past guest experiences, making the offer much more relevant and attractive. Because the customer previously sailed with the brand in New Zealand and showed “a love for adventure,” Celebrity Cruises now invites them to the Galapagos.
Even the airfare information is tailored to the recipient, including their departure airport. When customers feel that their preferences are truly understood and catered to, it builds the kind of trust and loyalty that leads to stronger relationships and higher retention rates.
Beyond personalized offers, here are some other ideas you might consider:
- Upgrade opportunity reminders. Reach out to customers when there are premium options available that match their past preferences
- Invites to special events. Whether virtual or in-person, sending exclusive invites to events they’d be interested in makes guests feel valued.
- Cross-selling related destinations. If a customer enjoyed a recent trip, suggest new destinations or travel packages that align with their past behavior.
- Updates on their rewards. Keep guests informed about their reward points and suggest ways they can redeem them for an upgraded experience.
- Itinerary updates. Send timely notifications about departure details and news about their destination.
- Personalized recommendations. Present exclusive offers for activities that are specific to their upcoming trip.
Pro tip: Need some more inspiration? Check out how Japan Airlines upgraded its first-class CX with pre-flight Personalized Videos.
Harness the Power of Your Loyalty Programs
One of the biggest assets travel and hospitality brands have is their loyalty programs. In the U.S., 90% of adults belong to at least one loyalty program. Even more, 64% agree that loyalty programs influence where they make purchases, demonstrating just how powerful they can be.
That said, more than half of these memberships are inactive. Most loyalty programs today are rigid and don’t use their data to speak to the needs of each customer. Without leveraging this data, travel businesses miss out on the opportunity to create a tailored experience that inspires loyalty.
The good news? Loyalty programs offer an excellent opportunity to meet and exceed customer expectations via personalization.
With the personal data your customer has shared, you can discover their travel preferences for destination, accommodation type, time of year for travel and more. You can then use this data to create personalized content that wows your top customers. Maybe it helps them learn something about themselves or inspires them to take their next trip, as you can see with the video below for Delta’s loyalty club members.
Year-in-review campaigns like this one are a great way to remind travelers of their travel experiences with you. By highlighting their most memorable moments from the past year, such as destinations visited or miles flown, you create an emotional connection that reminds them why they love their brand.
Better yet, these kinds of campaigns are incredibly shareable, driving up visibility and reach on social media while also organically building social proof. Ultimately, by actively engaging your loyalty members with tailored experiences and exclusive offers, you turn a passive program into an active, thriving community.
Delight Customers With Personalized Videos
As you can see from the examples above, adding video to the equation takes the personalized guest experience to the next level. Whether it’s for pre-travel communications, interactions during their stay or following up afterward, video adds a layer of engagement that static content simply can’t match.
Video is the No. 1 most consumed content type on the internet, and it’s far less intrusive than yet another boring promotional email. When it’s personalized, video is even more engaging and fun.
This makes it a perfect fit for travel brands. For an industry focused on providing memorable experiences, Personalized Videos allow brands to turn routine communications into tailor-made and unforgettable interactions.
With the latest video technology, you can even infuse real-time data into your video so the video updates in real time with whatever you need — current flight times, weather, pricing and more. This means that travelers are always getting the most up-to-date information and an experience that’s responsive to their current context.
We know that video personalization works. With data-driven, guest-centric videos, hospitality brands have increased CTR by 8x and revenue by 5x. Why? Because the content they’re sharing is unique to that person. It’s relevant, engaging and actionable in a way a generic message or even personalized text can’t be.
Take, for example, Kensington Tours, a brand that prides itself on curating travel experiences “personally tailored to your needs and desires.” In their video, they addressed the viewer by name, referenced the tour they’re going on and provided their personal destination expert’s contact information. That last element was even made interactive, allowing the viewer to click and call their expert directly.
This Next Generation Video — video that goes beyond traditional expectations by being personalized, interactive and more — was the ideal solution for a company committed to delivering custom travel experiences.
Creating Next Gen Video is now easier than ever, thanks to AI. With AI-powered solutions, travel brands can now effortlessly create scalable, high-quality videos for each of their customers, all while reducing production time and costs. For instance, Lucas, our AI video creator, can generate anywhere from one to one million fully editable videos.
The best part? The uses of video are unlimited. It can continue to add value throughout the entire guest experience.
Picture this: You check in to your hotel and get a Personalized Video sent to your phone. The video welcomes you by name and shares recommendations on food, attractions and local transportation based on your past preferences. You can even click through the video and order your favorite meal via room service or book a tour for the next day. Then after your stay, you get a customized showreel showing the highlights of the trip.
Wouldn’t that be a customer experience you’d never forget? By weaving video into every step of the customer journey, brands can create a smooth, unforgettable experience that keeps customers engaged and delighted long after they’ve left.
Review your omnichannel strategy
A McKinsey study has found that the average customer shifts about 50 times between channels — tablet, smartphone or laptop — before making a booking, resulting in as many as 100 pre-booking touchpoints.
In this reality, quality products and services are no longer enough. Instead, having an integrated omnichannel strategy where the customer experience is seamless and personalized is just as important, if not more.
Post on
To meet modern travelers where they are, businesses need to make sure that every interaction feels connected and intuitive. You need to review all the possible touchpoints your customers have with your brand and see if they’re all aligned to deliver the same level of personalization.
Is there a mobile app they can download to browse and buy products? What if they used an app to research your products and then went onto your website to make a purchase? Is your tech stack integrated enough to use data across platforms and deliver personalized experiences regardless of where your customers are?
One of the perks of video is its ability to fit seamlessly into an omnichannel approach. Video can be deployed on so many channels: email, SMS, MMS, in-app and more. No matter how a customer prefers to interact, video adapts to meet them where they are. In fact, we’ve seen great success with this omnichannel approach:
- 20% conversion rate for an airline offer
- 68% increase in sales
- 19x amplification on social media
With video, you can bridge the gaps between channels and ensure that every interaction feels relevant and engaging. That’s what transforms a transactional experience into a truly connected, customer-first journey.
Welcome to the Future
Both customer expectations and stiff competition make personalized guest experiences the future of travel. But that future is already here. To keep their edge on the market, today’s leading brands are using data, video, interactive digital channels and more to deliver a unique experience for each traveler at every stage of their trip.
At Idomoo, our Next Generation Video Platform is transforming the way hospitality and travel brands connect with their customers. Whether it’s a pre-trip welcome video, recommendations during a stay or a post-trip highlight reel, we make it easy to generate Personalized Interactive Videos at scale — videos that make every one of your customers feel seen, valued and engaged.
Ready to create a personalized guest experience throughout your traveler’s journey — before, during and after their trip? Book a free demo today and discover how you can transform your guest experience with the power of Next Gen Video.
