NB: These are extracts from a whitepaper report produced by ADARA
ADARA has identified, through data driven research, that marketers should challenge how they target Elite Travelers.
Contrary to the industry’s view, the Elite Traveler conducts a higher number of searches prior to booking flights and hotels compared to non-Elite Travelers (94% vs 76%, respectively) and has a much wider booking window as a consequence.
ADARA has also found that the Elite Traveler will also drop luxury to secure the right location for their needs. As a result, if targeted correctly, an Elite Traveler will be receptive to deals, packages and paid for upgrades.
ADARA is able to provide marketers with this unique insight into an elusive yet valuable audience through its proprietary technology and unique data set.
An Elite Traveler is identified as those that have purchased a business or first class airline ticket and/or have stayed at a luxury hotel in the past six months. On average they travel twice as much as non-Elite Travelers with a high average daily rate spend for hotels compared to non-Elite Travelers. This makes the target group extremely valuable to marketers.
Travel industry assumptions of the target group are that they have existing knowledge of flight routes and are less price-sensitive, therefore requiring a shorter timeline for the booking period and making them harder to reach.
However, ADARA’s data analysis shows this is not necessarily the case. This report shows that the Elite Traveler is receptive to relevant marketing and actually have a longer search window than previously assumed.
Having strong creative that talks to this audience and their dynamics will improve marketers’ engagement with this hard to reach audience group.
What makes an Elite Traveler
- Elite Travelers make up 10% of the travel market
- Gender – They are predominantly male (70%) in comparison to Non-Elite Travelers (53%)
- Up in the Air – On average, they take 8.6 flights and 6.4 hotel stays annually, which is nearly double compared to 3.4 and 3.6 respectively among Non-Elite Travelers
- Bigger spenders – their average daily rate (ADR) for hotels is $212 vs. $174 among Non-Elite Travelers
Key Takeaways
- Elite Travelers are reachable, they will engage and spend more time searching for deals and locations prior to booking than Non-Elite Travelers
- Elite Travelers conduct more searches prior to booking than Non-Elite Travelers, both for flights and hotels
- Elite Travelers will book second-tier hotels if luxury options are not available, despite luxury usually being their first choice, location is key
- Elite Travelers research flights three to four weeks before they depart, giving marketers a large window of opportunity to engage with them. Additionally, they tend to search for flights separately from hotels, so can be enticed by luxury package deals
- Elite Travelers venture far and wide with Asia and the Middle East both proving popular destinations
- Elite Travelers are not unreachable, and are open to price plans and deals
Download the full whitepaper report at: Adara
