Marketing and Media

The global digital payments ecosystem is undergoing a rapid and monumental shift; smart travel brands should stay on top of the shifts in how we pay for goods and services. Peer-to-peer payment platforms, digital wallets, and cryptocurrencies may have been a thing of science fiction just years ago. Yet, many of the data points now clearly suggest otherwise.

Like all media, travel media is constantly reinventing itself to adapt to new technologies and changing consumer behaviors. We talk to leaders in the field and look at external threats and opportunities as represented by Facebook, mobile, and advertising.

TripAdvisor has managed to insert itself into just about every segment of travel. Like an octopus, its tentacles reach wide from accommodations to restaurant reviews.

Traveler demand for, and use of, Internet connection services is soaring, creating a dilemma for travel brands that must walk a precarious tightrope between charging for access and risking customer anger over unreliable free service. How are travel brands coping with these challenges, and what future innovations in connection services might transform the industry?

Why are brands like Apple, Disney and Nike are among the world’s most valuable? Because they’re able to embody a lifestyle, offering consumers access to an emotional connection that goes well beyond their product offering. As more travel companies look to redefine their offerings around the lifestyle brand concept, often with limited resources to do so, what strategies will they use to grow and thrive?

As content marketing has established itself as an important tool in the travel industry, brands are investing more time and money in creating articles, video and interactive content across all channels, in order to better reach customers.

Hotel loyalty programs are facing a period of dramatic change, driven by recent devaluations of member points and picky travelers that are less loyal than ever. What strategies are hotel brands using to adapt and thrive in this changing loyalty landscape?

Millennial travelers represent a lucrative source of spending for travel brands but also a confusing web of contradictory habits than can be difficult to unravel. What deeper insights are really driving millennial travel habits, and how are marketers adapting their strategies to cater this surging age group?

An in-depth look at how companies in the travel and hospitality industries can leverage mobile applications to better serve their customers and grow their businesses.

Weighing in at three times the size of our standard reports, this expanded trends report offers exclusive insight into new Google travel products launched on November 19, 2015, as well as exclusive interviews conducted at Google's headquarters in Mountain View, California this fall. In addition, it includes industry analyst notes that are otherwise only available to clients and banks.

The travel industry is looking closely at how hotels tackle the project of closing the conversion loop more often — generating higher returns — by paying attention to how reviews can augment direct-channel bookings and how online reputation management can impact marketing and operations best practices, online and onsite.

Social media plays an increasingly central role in the customer service efforts of hospitality brands, requiring a hotels and airlines to respond more quickly, personally and publicly to customer issues. Successful brands have embraced social care, not just to solve problems, but to elevate the travel experience.