Travel Intent Data

What is Travel Intent Data?

Travel intent data is a kind of consumer intent data which relates specifically to a consumer’s likelihood to book a holiday or travel away from home. It allows marketers at businesses in the travel, tourism and hospitality industry to build audience segments and target the consumers displaying the highest intent to travel.

How is Travel Intent Data collected?

Travel intent data providers gather intent signals from consumers based on their online and offline behavior. When an intenet user engages with an ad for a holiday or foreign hotel, this corresponds to a degree of travel intent, so this impression is recorded and the user is placed into an audience segment amongst other ‘interested’ consumers. Even stronger intent signals can be gathered from mobile devices using cookies on travel websites like TripAdvisor, Expedia and Skyscanner. When a users searches these sites for flights or hotels, this information is recorded, and the user is placed into an even higher intent segment. Other intent signals can come from online or offline transactions whenever consumers buy travel-related products, such as luggage or travel guides.

What are the attributes of Travel Intent Data?

Travel intent datasets can have the following attributes:
Historical travel intent data- Information about consumers’ previous trips, which suggests where they may re-visit or travel to next.
Predictive travel intent data - Forecasts where a consuumer will travel next based on their travel history, as well as behavioral and demographic information.
Spend - How much a consumer spends on travel in a given period, for example every 12 months. This data can be quantitative, represented by an actual numerical figure tracking consumer spend, or qualitative, meaning the consumer’s travel is described as either ‘luxury’, ‘mid-range’, or ‘budget’.
Type - Is the consumer’s travel national, international, or on a cruise?
Reason - This refers the to traveller’s motivation, for example for vacation or for work.

What is Travel Intent Data used for?

Travel intent data is used by marketers across the travel, tourism and hospitality industry for various strategies, including:
Targeted advertising - Marketers can build highly-personalized campaigns based on an audience segment’s historical travel information and spending track record.
Audience re-targeting - Marketers can serve both online and offline ads via programmatic pop-ups and targeted emails if a consumer has displayed a suitable level of intent to travel, but didn’t end up making a purchase, so that they’re encouraged to make a purchase second time round.
Audience segmentation - To use their campaign and outreach resources effectively, advertisers can segment audiences according to the attributes we looked at earlier. This way, they only target consumers in the ‘high-intent’ segments, meaning their ads have the strongest likelihood of driving up conversions.
Pricing strategies - Marketers don’t only have to create ad campaigns, but are also responsible for creating price points which suit the current market. Travel intent data shows exactly how much customers are willing to spend, meaning marketers can offer deals customized to each segment’s specific budget.

How can a user assess the quality of Travel Intent Data?

With travel intent data, it’s important to buy from a travel intent data provider with sufficient historical coverage. Without this, your understanding of your target audience’s previous behaviour will be skewed and travel intent analytics become less reliable. For a travel intent dataset to be worth the investment, it should cover a large range of consumers. Because holidays and international travel are expensive commodities, the sales journey can be very long, even with targeted ads. So, with a range of consumers to choose from, travel businesses can ensure that they don’t put all of their eggs in one basket, and maintain a constant flow of sales.