Personalisation (you really can't get away from the word these days) comes in many forms, but sometimes the most simple application of it can potentially provide the biggest rewards.
So whilst travel brands figure out how they can slice and dice the mountains of data which is now captured about a customer over time, it is actually an external factor that has a huge influence on travel purchasing decisions.
From a leisure travel perspective, what the weather is likely to be in a destination is hugely important.
This is obvious - but how many travel brands go beyond just providing an online chart that will indicate if the average temperature and precipitation are likely to be best for the beach or for visiting museums?
And how many then tie that into their marketing and content strategy?
Probably very few.
Step forward DigitalMeteo, a ten-year-old data science organisation from Spain which is run by meteorologists and has a Big Data-led idea for the travel industry.
The company argues that, firstly, travel brands are missing out on ensuring their travellers are armed with the right information about the weather in a destination, but more importantly, how metrological data can then be used to target new customers through marketing and web content.
Furthermore, matching the weather patterns with the data from user profiles so companies have an opportunity to then have a relationship with the customer that arguably hits at the heart of the personalisation conundrum: relevancy.
So how does it work?
Speaking during the FITURTech event in Madrid, Spain, this week, DigitalMeteo CEO Emilio Rey (himself a meteorologist) and business development manager Fabian Gonzalez say they have analysed decades of weather patterns to create a predictive tool that plugs into a travel brand's back-end.
The platform then works in various ways:
If the weather on a given day is cold and wet in the user's location (checking the IP address), then content on a website will alter so that it features destinations and relevant images where the weather is more favourable.
Data can also be used to make alternative suggestions to a user when they enter dates and destinations for a trip, based on what the weather is likely to be.
Over time, with return customers, the system will be able to suggest destinations knowing that on a previous trip the user had a poor experience because of the weather.
The platform works both ways, as well - having the historic data of thousands of travellers has allowed the company to establish particular trends in trip behaviour.
For example, when it rains in Madrid, citizens are most likely to search for city breaks to Paris, Rome or elsewhere in Europe, but on warmer days they often search for beach destinations elsewhere in Spain.
Such efforts to understand and capitalise on weather patterns are probably even more important when it comes to a company's digital marketing strategy.
DigitalMeteo says that being able to quickly react to a weather situation (a typically grey, miserable day in London, for example), using customer email marketing, allows a company to target users with both relevant and timely offers for a trip.
The platform has been tested in recent months with an unnamed, major online travel agency in Spain, Gonzalez says, with further results and details about the partnership to be announced in a few months.
NB: Beach umbrella image via Shutterstock.
NB2: Disclosure - author's attendance in Madrid was supported by FITURTech.