Summary:

• The tourism industry’s return to form has invigorated travel and banking brands alike in terms of business prospects.
• However, netting high-value prospects will require nuanced individual interactions with every customer.
• Collaborative card offerings can prove to be an ace in the hole here, with the right strategy and technology.

The resurgence of tourism dominated headlines in 2022. However, production shortages resulted in bottlenecks at airports worldwide, while inflationary pressures led to dramatic price hikes for flights and travel services.

Stepping into 2023, however, consumers don’t seem deterred. According to a recent survey, 61% of surveyed customers believe travel loyalty programs are helping them save money and get more value from travels. The survey also reveals that digital wallet adoption is much higher amongst companies with travel booking capabilities (70%) than those without them (45%).

This is great news for travel and banking brands. Given growing consumer usage of digital payments, they stand to benefit significantly from potential alliances centered around travel credit cards and their functions.

Brands from both travel and banking sectors can develop co-branded card portfolios to drive traveler engagement across the lifecycle, through a dedicated strategy.

Identify and acquire high-value prospects

Brands can identify the ideal prospect for a credit card via travel rewards. They can locate an ideal prospect profile by unifying customer data from different cards to examine spending patterns, market distribution, and other relevant attributes. These insights will play a pivotal role in guiding the brands in refining the audience into a relevant segment. For instance:

• Tammy, a 35-year-old mid-career woman, is looking up travel recommendations now that she has some disposable income to spare.
• She’s particularly interested in options with enticing discounts and perks.
• Bank A and Travel Company B, now in a partnership, identifies Tammy as an ideal lead for their new travel credit card, attempting to acquire her with travel points and complimentary packages.
• By dissecting centralized customer data, they are able to deduce her channel preferences and deliver omnichannel communications to nudge her towards conversion.
• Persuaded by the ample benefits and tailored interactions, Tammy sends in her application.

Follow through with customer onboarding

The story doesn’t end at acquisition. Customer onboarding is the next mountain to conquer, especially for financial organizations. Over 85% of customers that begin onboarding on one channel didn’t finish it after switching to another, according to a Marketforce survey. The hurdle of successful onboarding, along with other hassles, has resulted in a staggering 45% abandonment rate of credit card applications.

The key solution is to continuously engage the customer, guiding them through evolving communications that expedite the card adoption process. With unified data and machine learning, brands will be able to optimize the onboarding journey in real time to minimize customer abandonment midway.

• Weeks after her application being approved, Tammy still hasn’t activated the card.
• Bank A detects and utilizes its marketing technologies to trigger reminder communications to Tammy.
• This encourages her to activate the card to earn rewards.

When engaging thousands, or even millions, of potential customers at once, such automated processes will significantly boost the brands’ likelihood of successful conversion at scale.

Increase value with AI-driven cross-selling and upselling

Many travel and hospitality brands are often tasked with increasing up-sell conversions and membership upgrades. By using predictive insights, they can trigger tailored cross/upselling campaigns to audiences based on their browsing patterns, content consumption, and other data.

Tammy’s financial and travel needs will evolve over the course of her life. It is the job of Bank A and Travel Company B to monitor these changes, continuously update Tammy’s profile, and deliver personalized cross/upselling communications without infringing upon her privacy.

Protect top-of-wallet customers and ensure loyalty retention

It is imperative for brands to maintain valuable long-term relationships with their customers.

As fintech disruptors cement their market presence, banking brands are facing the risk of losing their top-of-wallet status in the eyes of the customer. The loss could be devastating, cutting off the entire downstream of financial transactions from the customer’s journey with the brand.

This is why achieving a 360° view of the customer (in our example, Tammy) matters. Through an in-depth understanding of her demographic details and anticipating her evolving needs, the brands can keep her engaged, deepening their relationship with communications, experiences, and offers.

Conclusion

Travel companies and banking institutions can capitalize on the tourism industry’s resurgence with collaborative card offerings. Though it is only one strategy among many others, such an alliance, enabled by the right technology and customer intelligence, will set the brands apart from competition and pave the way for lasting revenue.