With the Omicron wave over and if all things go well, we might be at the threshold of a new age of travel. The tourism and hospitality industry, which took a severe knock due to the Omicron third wave, is witnessing a sharp revival with an increase in destination travel, wedding, and MICE (meetings, incentives, conferences, and exhibitions) bookings. Indian travelers are busy planning their next holiday or business trip bringing about a clear surge in demand and steady growth in bookings by almost 2x, week-on-week since February 01, 2022.
In order to meet the rising customer expectations, marketing technologies have to evolve at an incredible pace. The new-age customer has limited tolerance to all kinds of mass marketing content and expects hyper-personalized experiences. To this effect, brands are focusing on delivering an enhanced Customer Experience (CX) by adopting the latest Artificial Intelligence (AI) based personalized techniques. AI is radically redefining the customer service landscape. From automated messages to visual search, AI allows companies to better support their customers’ needs at more touchpoints along their journey. According to a report, AI in the tourism industry will cross the $1.2B mark by 2026 with a CAGR of more than 9.7%. While the usage of conversational AI in tourism started way before it started, the pandemic acted as a catalyst for the next wave in the travel industry.
Here are the top five techniques that AI is helping re-imagine travel marketing and delivering a personalized intent based on unique customer journey:
1. AI-powered chatbots and online customer service: Chatbots are easy to interact with and are available round the clock. They are easy to scale and cost-effective for the brand. AI-powered chatbots have become strategic to Enterprise Customer Experience (CX) strategies across industries. Chatbots equipped with Natural Language Processing (NLP) capabilities offer a better understanding of user intent and can be used across multiple use-cases. Context-awareness capabilities help users develop positive relationships with products and services and customers spend more time on websites and engage more through personalized content, translating into higher brand awareness and relevance.
2. Hyper-personalized retargeting campaigns: AI has brought about the phenomenon of hyper-personalization, which enables appealing and individualized interaction with customers. Hyper-personalized messages enhance customer experience by catering to each individual’s preferences based on behavior. A hyper-personalized campaign utilizes real-time data and user behavior to create the most effective automated, individualized communication strategies. Communication is targeted to customers segmented by conversion rate analysis, derived from services like Google AdWords. AI’s personalization marketing techniques offer many advantages for retargeting campaigns. It also assures marketing budgets are spent on viewers with a high possibility rate of making a booking.
3. Data-based tailored recommendations: With the advancement of custom-built algorithms and machine learning tools, recommendation engines have improved opportunities for cross-selling and up-selling. By collecting relevant data from a user’s recent searches, recommendation engines can be designed to offer suggestions based on the needs of the user. Intelligent recommendations like the size of the room they should opt for based on their budget etc. strikes the right chord, nudging the customers towards the transaction. The collected data can also be used to target customers through SMS, email, social media, and other channels as well as enhance the probability of bookings.
4. Social Media marketing to pick up steam: Social Media has become very popular and brands can design campaigns that are highly targeted to specific captive audiences. Moreover, brands can take steps to stay relevant to their audiences with greater visibility into user response to campaigns. Travel companies should make it their priority to attract millennials on their social media platforms as they increasingly form a large portion of the travel population.
5. Leveraging AI-powered emails: Today, forward-thinking brands build email strategies that augment human marketers with intelligent machines. Thanks to its powerful capabilities and personalization feature, AI can run acquisition, retention as well as retargeting campaigns. The most obvious way within the travel and tourism industry for personalization marketing is using targeted emails. For example- Netcore Cloud’s proprietary Email API and in-house AI engine leverage fast email delivery, and superior in boxing. A brand’s email must be distinctive, specific, and target-oriented to stand out from the clutter in the mailbox of your target audience. Repeated and common emails will not fetch the desired click-through rate. By integrating AI with your email marketing strategy, you can witness exceptional growth.
As customer demands increase, AI plays an important role in personalization which enhances customer experience. Human-based customization will not be able to scale enough to meet demands. However, implementing AI in tourism will cause a shift in traditional operating models. Brands must make sure that they offer convenient, simplified, and personalized travel experiences for the customer. AI marketing tools offer a compelling set of features to help travel brands shift from a static world towards an age in which every customer will be recognized for their unique and dynamic persona.
