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Travel Agents Failing to Engage
Customers
on the Day-of-Travel and In-Trip
|
Travel Providers
Miss Major Opportunity to Increase User Touch Points and
Build Customer
Loyalty, According to New FlightView Survey
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Boston,
MA – June 2014 / Newsmaker Alert / Online travel agents (OTAs) and
meta-search providers are missing a major opportunity to drive more customer
loyalty and stickiness by failing to engage with customers when they travel,
according to a new FlightView
survey of 2,066 travelers.
“OTAs
and third-party travel providers have been trying to figure out how to
increase usage and maximize customer engagement,” said Mike Benjamin, CEO
of FlightView.
“One solution is proactively providing better, more actionable information
and capabilities. More than 85 percent of the travelers we surveyed said
they would return to the provider that they purchased their ticket from
if they were offered more valuable information during their trip.”
According
to FlightView’s survey, proactive itinerary and flight updates are no longer
a nice-to-have for travelers. In fact, today, 87 percent of travelers expect
updates on the status of their flight sent directly to their phone on the
day they travel, and nearly 50 percent want travel providers to go one
step further and alert the relevant parties affected by their itinerary
changes:
-
47%
want their hotel notified
-
46%
want updates sent to family and friends
-
38%
want ground transportation alerted
“The most
stressful part of traveling is the lack of transparency into flight delays,
cancellations and itinerary changes – and the potential for those changes
to impact a vacation or business trip,” said Benjamin. “Today, very few
travel providers are delivering the amount of information and alerts that
their customers crave.”
OTAs,
Meta-Search Engines and Airlines Compete for Web Traffic, Sales
The
competition for search volume, direct sales and referral traffic is intense;
varying consumer preferences make it challenging for OTAs and meta-search
engines to differentiate based on their core offerings – search and booking.
The variety in search preference is underscored in the survey results:
36 percent of travelers prefer going directly to the airline, 29 percent
prefer OTAs and 22 percent prefer meta-search engines. Individually, Kayak
and Expedia are the most popular travel websites for ‘first searches’,
followed by Travelocity and Orbitz.
According
to respondents, several factors play into what makes travelers prefer one
provider over another:
-
50%
said the sites ease-of-use
-
41%
said the way flights are sorted and presented
-
30%
said the accuracy of flight information
-
29%
said the extra, relevant data provided, such as on-time ratings, visibility
into fees and price predictions
While
meta-search companies are successful when travelers use their service to
search for tickets and then book through an airline, for OTAs, the priority
is travel bookings. And not surprisingly, FlightView’s survey found that
today, less than 30 percent of flights are booked with OTAs. Many travelers,
however, expressed an overall willingness to book more often through third-party
providers in the future. In fact, according to FlightView’s survey:
-
46%
of travelers said they’d be more willing to book with an OTA if they were
assured that they would automatically be re-booked on another flight if
their original flight was cancelled.
-
42%
said they’d be more likely to book if OTAs made it easier to manage their
itineraries (on mobile or Web) on the day they travel.
-
37%
said that better discounts on hotels and car rentals would make them more
likely to buy from an OTA.
“Travelers
have more options for how they search and where they book than ever before,”
said Benjamin. “While price is always a crucial factor, the site-to-site
difference is rarely substantial. The best way to keep users coming back
and attract more customers is to provide the best user experience, information,
and updates possible– before, during and after the trip.”
For
the full survey findings, get a complimentary copy of FlightView’s new
report – Building
Loyalty and Maximizing Engagement with the Connected Traveler – here.
FlightView’s survey was conducted in April of 2014.
About
FlightView
FlightView
is the recognized provider of the most accurate, real-time flight information
solutions for the aviation and travel industries. FlightView’s Dispatch
and FVXML products help aviation and travel professionals achieve superior
customer service with actionable real-time information. FlightView’s information
displays can be seen at airport terminals and on the Web sites of the largest
major airports, airline and travel companies. FlightView’s software services
and solutions are relied upon by the US government, the world’s largest
airlines, airports, aviation and travel professionals, ground transportation
companies and news outlets. Founded in 1981, and headquartered in Boston,
Massachusetts, FlightView has more than 20 years of experience in building
and supporting mission critical systems for the FAA and the Volpe Center.
To access real-time flight information online, visit FlightView
Flight Tracker or FlightView
Mobile Flight Tracker.
Contact:
FlightView
Katherine
Wellman
617-787-4200
www.flightview.com |