While executives from Amadeus, Booking.com and Hyatt said that experiences have always been at the heart of travel, the process of how they’re sold is evolving.
In a panel at Phocuswright Europe this week, Mariya Donat, director of digital content strategy for Europe, Africa and the Middle East at Hyatt Hotels Corporation, Neha Jindal, managing director of attractions at Booking.com and director of Amadeus Discover Nicolas Martiquet sat down to discuss experiences—which may very well be “the biggest battleground” in travel.
According to Donat, for Hyatt, experiences aren’t add-ons but rather a “driver of emotional connection with our customers,” allowing brand differentiation, extending guests’ length of stay and bolstering loyalty.
Jindal echoed this, noting that attractions and experiences are how travelers build memories—and when travelers associate fond memories with a certain brand, they want to come back and book again.
“Experience drives loyalty, and loyalty drives profitability,” Jindal said.
But while inspiration for these tours and activities was once largely offline—found through movies or while flipping through photos of a friend's trip, as Jindal suggested—today, consumers are discovering travel through social media.
“Attractions are still very much at the center of that inspiration and planning and booking, but Instagram and TikTok has replaced that movie scene or friend, and then your online booking solutions have replaced that brick-and-mortar tour operator, and travel has become a lot more accessible,” Jindal said.
But this is likely to change again, Martiquet said, as search engine optimization will become less important and the focus shifts to optimizing for large language model optimization and artificial intelligence (AI).
At the same time, companies are using AI to provide personalized recommendations and address the issue of choice, providing travelers with diverse options without overwhelming them.
During the panel discussion, Martiquet, Donat and Jindal also commented on their selling strategies, the challenges they face and how they’re leveraging machine learning.
Watch the full conversation with Luuc Elzinga, founder and president of Tiqets, in the video below:
Experiences - Travel's Biggest Battleground?