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Consumers Share Their Favourite Travel Brands, But Worry About Trusting Them

Aspire Executive Lounges, Swissport's global airport hospitality brand, has joined the British Institute of Hospitality, the world’s leading and award-winning membership body for hospitality professionals. Aspire Executive Lounges becomes the first business partner from the airport lounge hospitality sector to join the Institute of Hospitality. Aspire Executive Lounges, the fast-growing Swiss brand in the airport hospitality business, has joined the British Institute of Hospitality (IoH), the world’s leading membership body for professionals working and studying in the hospitality leisure and tourism industry. Aspire Executive Lounges is the first business from the airport lounge sector to become a member of IoH. The collaboration will foster an exchange of expertise and insights: IoH will benefit from Aspire's expertise in airport hospitality, while Aspire, by sharing its wealth of experience with IoH members, can extend its professional network to the hotel and catering sectors and hospitality management schools. “Our vision for Aspire Executive Lounges is clear and simple: We want to deliver a guest experience that is similar to what our guests are used to from their preferred hotels, meeting the needs and exceeding the expectations of today’s travelers,” says David Collyer, Global Vice President of Executive Lounges at Swissport International AG. “We strive to deliver an unparalleled experience and set a benchmark that transcends our industry, redefining excellence across the hospitality sector. The Institute of Hospitality is a great network to exchange insights and experiences, and to learn from others in the hospitality sector, which will help us bring our vision to life.” Robert Richardson, CEO of the Institute of Hospitality: “Our aspiration at the Institute of Hospitality has been to develop and grow our membership, the number of countries we operate in, and the number of hospitality sectors represented within our organization. With that in mind, it is a natural partnership for us to welcome Aspire into our family, and to learn from their teams, who serve travelers with passion and dedication. As two organizations with similar values, we look forward to collaborating in promoting high levels of excellence within our profession.” With over 30 years of experience, Aspire Executive Lounges is Europe’s largest brand in the airport lounges sector. In 2023, Swissport welcomed more than five million customers worldwide at over 69 lounges in 20 countries. The airport hospitality brand recently opened new lounges at Toronto City Airport in Canada, and Helsinki-Vantaa Airport in Finland. Aspire Executive Lounges recently created a new lounge concept in partnership with the airline alliance oneworld. The first oneworld branded lounge was launched at Incheon Airport in Seoul, Korea, in December 2023. Aspire Executive Lounges is owned by Swissport International AG, the global leader in aviation services, serving airlines at 286 airports in 44 countries across 6 continents
Written by Amy

DMA research reveals top 10 travel brands, as consumers place value for money at the top of their wishlists

Consumers favour established brands and online travel booking sites, according to the latest Customer Engagement: Travel report released today by the DMA.

When asked to name their favourite travel brand, Thomson was most mentioned, followed by Booking.com and Thomas Cook. However, consumers also mentioned over 70 different brands, highlighting the wide range of brands engaging UK consumers.

According to the research, conducted by the DMA and Foresight Factory, with partners Emarsys, Epsilon, Feefo and Wiraya, what consumers want more from travel brands is value for money (59%), convenience (58%) and good customer service (58%).

The top reasons consumers remained loyal to brands in the sector repeat similar themes of good service experience (53%) and good deals (40%), with the addition of a good loyalty or a rewards scheme (40%) to the top three.

Scott Logie, Chair of the DMA Customer Engagement Committee and MD at REaD Group Insight, said: “It’s particularly interesting to see the range of options favoured by customers. When people were asked to name their favourite companies to use for travel, the sheer volume of travel brands mentioned was somewhat surprising. From household names to local travel agents, as well as the new online intermediaries. As individuals we want choice, but we also want to ensure our holidays are hassle free, so we go with companies we trust – even if that is the small local travel agent.”

 

  All
consumers
16-34
year olds
35-54
year olds
55+
year olds
1. Thomson Booking.com Thomson Thomson
2. Booking.com Thomson Expedia Booking.com
3. Thomas Cook Thomas Cook Booking.com Thomas Cook
4. Expedia Expedia Thomas Cook British Airways
5. British Airways British Airways British Airways Expedia
6. Trivago Trivago Trivago EasyJet
7. EasyJet EasyJet EasyJet Virgin
8. Virgin First Choice Jet2 Jet2
9. Jet2 Virgin Virgin Trivago
10. TripAdvisor Emirates Skyscanner TripAdvisor

Steve Ledgerwood, Managing Director UK at Emarsys, said: “Travel really is a hard sector to gain loyalty in, especially with so many brands in the space – each with a unique voice as to why the consumer should choose them. So stand out, be different, show your customer you understand them and cleverly upsell while helping them benefit from a targeted end-to-end experience.”

Trust in travel brands

Rachel Aldighieri, MD at the DMA, said: “Holiday travel is both an exciting and stressful experience, with the chance for distrust and caution to arise in the customer’s mind. Brands that can empathise with customers’ needs at whatever stage of their holiday journey and create communications that reflect their needs will have the potential to build stronger relationships in the long run.”

Within the travel sector hotel and accommodation brands are most trusted (65%) followed by airlines (55%) and online travel booking/price comparison sites (54%). However, this compares to 73% of consumers saying they trust supermarkets to do business fairly. This was further highlighted, with 37% saying it’s important they feel airlines are “not lying to them”, but only half that proportion (18%) say airlines actually deliver on this.

Stephanie D’Sa, Head of Strategy & Insights at Epsilon, said: “Authentic brand communications and values will strengthen trust in the sector, with honesty always being the best policy to make customers more willing to consistently engage. A customer-centric approach won’t restrict your vision in achieving loyalty nirvana.”

Matt West, CMO at Feefo, said: “Trust is so critical to the travel business that successful companies such as Booking.com realise they must offer a platform that verifies reviews and presents them in a readily accessible but unvarnished format. It is no longer acceptable to plaster your website with phoney reviews praising your business. As the industry evolves further, authenticated reviews are going to be the touchstone for trust and transparency in the minds of increasing numbers of potential customers who can smell a rat when it comes to reviews that are fake or filtered.”

New engagement opportunities

Over half of consumers (52%) are willing to use a chatbot to help with pre-travel or booking questions, such as asking an airline for flight details. Once in the airport, 51% of consumers would also be open to sharing their data in order to receive mobile alerts about boarding directions and timings when in an airport.

Augmented and virtual reality presents a new potential channel for travel brands to engage customers too, with more than half (53%) interested in using a virtual reality headset to see a hotel room they are considering staying in. In addition, 44% would like to use augmented reality to get information about the sites or attractions they visit.

Sam Madden, Commercial Director at Wiraya, said: “If you take anything from this report it should be the clear opportunity brands now have to take significant market share if they realise the issues at hand, and understand the need to focus on service and engagement rather than price. For these businesses it’s time to take advantage of the latest technology to stay one step ahead of the competition.”

To read more about the DMA’s Customer Engagement research into the Travel sector, including the full report, visit: https://dma.org.uk/customer-engagement

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Amy