The modus operandi of the travel industry is to leverage promise and exploit curiosity, tapping in to an emotional fear-of-missing-out as it urges us to invest in experiences and exploration that could be in our reach.
Establishing this emotional connection with potential and existing customers is always important: it is a key driver for both product loyalty and brand advocacy.
It is also where travel metasearch can miss the point: it isn’t enough to just be about crude, commoditised, price-driven offerings – metasearch brands like ours can and should seek to inspire as well as inform.
Sometimes we describe the idealised user journey around our sites, and their engagement with our brands, in terms of a virtuous circle. Of course, the relationship between inspiration, personalisation and trust is interdependent, and no one aspect exists in complete isolation from the others. Although we could start at any point around the circle, let’s begin with inspiration.
One thing leads to another
Although the raison d’etre of our sites and platforms, at the most basic level, will always be to provide users with the means to efficiently search for an objective view on the cheapest flight or hotel over a given date, the need for us to offer more than pure utility has become increasingly keener as we seek to further grow our community of valuable repeat users.
We continually invest in creating and publishing the highest quality content, delivered through our official channels as well as in our carefully crafted personal communications, designed to inspire travellers about where to travel.
In addition, we also developed a number of interactive elements to further engage with our customers. For example: the momondo mood wheel and Trip Finder interactive tools designed to make the travel research and planning phase more emotional and more personal, and created to inspire curious travellers.
