A Brief Look at the Online Behavior of Travel Consumers

This sponsored content was created in collaboration with a Skift partner.

As the travel industry becomes increasingly infatuated with personalization, it’s become all too clear that consumers are not one-dimensional beings. Smart marketing leaders are diving deeper than surface-level segmentation of their customer-base, peeling back layer after layer to reveal the complex nature of the modern consumer. Now that most marketers are beginning to get a handle on big data, the next step is to dig deeper.

In June 2016, Epsilon, a provider of data-driven marketing services, evaluated 1.1 million internet users to determine the online browsing preferences of different traveler types, highlighted below:

Recreational travelers, defined as consumers who frequently travel and book travel accommodations, are 25x more likely to download memory improvement apps. They’re also 6.6x more likely to visit websites about running and jogging.

Business travelers, defined by consumers who have visited sites related to travel, airlines, rental cars, and hotels in the last 30 days, are 9x more likely to download gaming apps and 6x more likely to download weather apps.

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Some of the most interesting and surprising statistics came from the segment of consumers in the market for rental cars. The data shows that the segment of consumers who have visited rental car sites and clicked or converted for a rental car-related campaign are 67 percent female, compared to 33 percent male. Of this group, 32 percent have recently moved and 33 percent have recently had a baby.

According to the data, the consumer-base browsing sites related to hotels or online booking sites are also overwhelmingly female at 68 percent. This group is 8.5x more likely to download reading apps and 7x more likely to download gaming apps.

Putting Data to Action
As travelers continue to add more mobile devices to their arsenal, there is no shortage of data to be gained. The challenge and opportunity for travel marketers moving forward is learning how to synthesize this information and personalize content to customers in a way that’s contextually relevant. Travel marketers creating data strategies that strive to understand the nuances of customers at the individual level are future-proofing their organizations and staying top of mind for travel consumers, whose expectations that a company will cater to their needs will only continue to grow.

This content was created collaboratively between Epsilon and Skift’s SkiftX content studio. Earlier this year, Epsilon and Adobe partnered with Skift to create the 2017 Digital Transformation Report. Download the full report for free here.