Price Deals Challenge Loyalty for Vacation Buyers

As many countries enter the vacationing season, this week our series will focus on travel, with a special focus on the attitudes and behaviors of Vacation Buyers.

When researching destinations and travel companies, Vacation Buyers have a huge variety of choice at their disposal. For such a big purchase, moving customers along the purchase journey can be a lengthy process for brands and marketers. There’s a great deal of research and price comparison – over 60% say they like to seek an expert opinion before buying, too.

Vacation Buyers’ attitudes suggest that travel brands need to cover the default bases on deal-driven communication rather than just highlighting the experience on offer. Although over 60% say that they tend to stick to the brands they like, a notably bigger proportion (78%) agree that they try to find the best deals for the products they buy, showing that customers may drop a brand they are loyal to for the price offering of another very quickly. Interestingly, it’s not just lower income earners who seek out the best holiday deals either, the top 25% income group are actually more likely than the lowest to agree with this (81% vs. 71%).

That said, there is still potential here to turn the one-time-deal purchasers into loyalists. High income groups tend to be the most loyal, but they also find it important to get value for their money. Travel marketers need to stick to a robust pricing strategy as an entry point for discovery and loyalty for all customer groups. If done well, they can count on new customers to spread the word and advocate the brand online: they’re 44% more likely than average to be posting opinions about travel online each month.

Tomorrow we explore further the purchase journey of Vacation Buyers, focusing on the impact of social media recommendations.

Vacation Buyers are internet users aged 16-64 who are planning to buy a vacation abroad or at home in the next 6 months.