It's been a rough ride for the travel industry in 2020, bringing changes we never anticipated.
Travelport's own data indicates that globally, shopping and booking lead times have shortened, with the purchase decision happening far quicker. And, price is no longer the primary influencing factor, with safety measures in place across the various touchpoints of the journey taking precedence.
This has driven huge changes in targeting, paid media strategy, and how fares are displayed and filtered.
On top of this, OTAs must continue to focus on improving the online purchasing process. This includes developing capabilities that allow them to provide travelers with personalized shopping and booking experiences.
Today’s travelers expect their online buying experience to match what they get from best-in-class retailers like Amazon or Netflix. Both of these businesses have developed their data gathering and machine-learning processes to personalize the buying experience, creating more value for their customers and keeping them coming back for more.
To help OTAs overcome these challenges, Travelport has launched a new report detailing tactics OTAs can use to improve conversions in the era of COVID-19, and to futureproof their businesses.
Here is a summary of the report:
1. Assure as well as inspire
Booking a trip is no longer about just inspiring the traveler to get away. Now, OTAs need to also consider how they will assure people that they will be safe.
Traveler concerns are two-fold. They want to know whether they will be safe on their trip, and if there is enough flexibility to protect them from financial loss in case they can't travel as planned. Travelport's own research has shown that, to consider making a booking, travelers want to see enhanced cleaning measures onboard flights (71%), in hotels (73%), and in car rental (72%) — while 64% said that flexible or refundable tickets are very important factors.
But, for OTAs, what's even more interesting — is that travelers are now more likely to book through an agent than before the pandemic. This is a vast majority when including those who said they were as likely to book through an agent as before.
Of those showing a renewed interest in booking through an agent, 65% said this is because agents can provide them with information about the safety measures in place.
2. Be accessible and add a human touch
We know that travelers are turning to agents because they trust them to provide enhanced safety information. Given this added need for reassurance, OTAs must focus on offering a more human touch.
Recent research shows that 65% of consumers feel comfortable handling an issue without a human agent. Adding online chat functions to your website, run either by employees or using artificial intelligence (AI), will empower travelers to find answers to their questions around safety measures, and flexibility in change/cancellation policies — while adding a heightened sense of personal interaction.
3. Simplify the decision to book
In addition to the complexities caused by COVID-19, older frustrations — such as identifying the right fare for their trip — remain a challenge. Research carried out in June 2020 has shown that 50% or more of airline passengers from the U.S., U.K., Germany, Spain and China spend more time than desired using digital channels to book flights.
Hotels are only marginally better. And with industry changes like NDC still a priority for airlines, OTAs need to improve their retailing experience to be able to compete with airlines' direct websites.
OTAs have one big advantage over airlines — they can offer huge time savings if they allow the booker to see and compare different airline offers through one shop window. The advancement of NDC will help enhance the buying experience through dynamic offers. But for OTAs to benefit from these, they need to be able to capture more information from the consumer, such as their loyalty card details and service preferences.
By capturing this information, OTAs will be able to display a tailored offering to a persona or persona group — creating a more personalized buying experience. The traveler can compare offers that include their own preferred trip attributes (such as increased leg room, seat selection, and priority boarding) plus engender loyalty with targeted bundles that add value at a favorable cost.
4. Build a loyal customer base
Speaking of loyalty — traditionally the travel industry has used such schemes to grow a base of repeat customers. Although 91% of OTAs already have some form of loyalty scheme, these alone are not enough. Travelport's research found that 73% of travelers want to book their trip end-to-end in the same place, while 70% also believe a good mobile experience would improve their loyalty to an OTA. So how else can OTAs build a loyal customer base?
Post-trip, OTAs should ask customers for feedback to better understand their preferences and then use the data gathered to tailor future deals and offers to that customer. Research has shown that 70% of passengers want personalized offers, but fewer than 20% receive them.
This is a missed revenue opportunity for OTAs, as passengers are likely to pay on average 11% more for offers that match their interests.
And don’t forget the value of feedback in the form of ratings, reviews, and recommendations. This user-generated content is especially important on social channels where an increasing numbers of travelers — including 90% of Generation Z — are spending their travel-purchasing time. The more we as an industry can show travelers safely enjoying their trips, the more likely it is we will encourage others to do the same.
Read our guide on How OTAs can boost consumer confidence and maximize revenues in recovery for more information on:
- the steps your agency can take to improve conversions across every stage of the customer journey
- how describing the experience will help assure travelers
- the future of air retailing for OTAs