Kate Harden-England1

📍 The travel industry is rebounding post-pandemic but faces high living costs impacting holidaymakers' budgets. Travel brands are advised to focus on personalized experiences over deals and promotions, leveraging consumer data to inform campaigns and enhance the customer journey. Collaborations, like an airline partnering with a luxury retail brand, can optimize re-targeting and enhance in-flight experiences. The first-party data held by travel companies is invaluable for understanding consumer behavior and facilitating data collaboration, enabling personalization and supporting media planning. Privacy concerns are addressed with privacy-by-design technologies and enhanced data clean rooms, allowing safe and effective data sharing. Travel marketers are encouraged to prioritize first-party data collection and collaboration to drive brand loyalty, customer engagement, and new revenue streams.

💰 In the UK, 69% of holidaymakers overspend on pre-holiday expenses, averaging £265. Main expenditures include new clothes (68% spend £121 on average) and travel insurance (60% purchase at £89 average). Beauty treatments also feature, with 40% getting a haircut (£44 average) and 20% opting for mani/pedis (£65 average). Overspending leads 22% to cut back on activities like dining out (38%) and excursions (25%). To cope, 35% use savings and 8% borrow money. Starling Bank's research highlights the impact of pre-holiday costs on budgets and enjoyment.