Are Millennial Travelers Loyal?

In an age when digital-savvy millennials in the United States are starting to enter the working world and are often on the go for business, it’s interesting to examine their loyalty when it comes to corporate travel. It is now a big question for marketers and travel managers, who must re-examine their previous approaches to advertising and loyalty programs. Travel brands are becoming increasingly popular among this audience, using a healthy mix of attainable, flexible rewards, ongoing guest feedback and traditional hospitality to win them over and gain their business. It has been found that once a millennial traveler picks a preferred brand, he or she tends to stick with that brand for a long time to come.

According to a hotel loyalty survey by Deloitte, 45% of millennials in the United States belonged to none or just one loyalty program during Q1 2014, indicating a huge opportunity for travel loyalty marketing professionals to up the ante when it comes to engaging younger travelers. Deloitte also found that approximately 75% of millennial business travels would stay with a preferred and valued hotel loyalty program even if for some reason they lost all of their status and points. These participants also demonstrated that they would spend an extra $41 per evening, on average, simply to stay at a hotel in their favored program. The right rewards and perks are key to millennial audiences, as younger travelers enjoy accessible rewards, including merchandise, gift cards and hotel upgrades. Younger travelers prefer this to harder to earn rewards such as free airline tickets. Easy-to-earn rewards resonate with the millennial audience.

SOURCE: http://www.emarketer.com/Article/How-Loyal-Millennial-Travelers/1011625/1