埃森哲：真正值得的旅行奖励

Loyalty programs that reward travelers—and travel companies Travel companies give hundreds ofmillions of dollars back to travelers inloyalty rewards and dividends everyyear—the highest loyalty dividend ofall consumer industries. But are travelplayers getting the maximum returnon their investment? Could they bespending less on new loyalty programsthat travelers value more? Old pioneers, new patterns The travel industry has long been the gold standard in loyalty. Travel companieshave some of the oldest and largest loyalty programs, and other industries haveemulated their approaches. These strategies have primarily been designed aroundhigh-volume customers. In the case of travel, it’s business travelers who travel oftenenough to reach the high thresholds needed to qualify for status. This model workedsuccessfully for years. The pandemic changed everything. The travel andtourism market lost nearly $4.5 trillion, driven inpart by a 61% drop in business travel spending in2020.1 Business and leisure travel segments arerecovering slowly. Global leisure travel spendingoutpaced business spending in 2021 with 80% oftotal spend.2While some forecasts project a returnto 2019 levels by 2024,3projections vary as to themakeup of business versus leisure travel in yearsto come. Leisure travelers have different desires andbehaviors. They don’t travel as often to reachhigh loyalty status and don’t earn enough pointsto redeem for large experiences. And no matterwhen it returns, business travel won’t look thesame. Many road warriors—once the perfecttarget for travel loyalty programs—aren’t roadwarriors anymore. Some who still travel do so onlyoccasionally. Others have become digital nomadsor bleisure travelers. Racking up points for perkssimply isn’t as achievable. Breaking the mold,building new value With the dynamics of the travel industry socomplex, no one can be fully certain of the future.What is certain is that the stagnant loyalty programparadigms that served the industry for years aren’tas relevant now. At the same time, new entrantsare innovating loyalty, offering travelers differentoptions and influencing their expectations forloyalty offerings. Who travelers are, how theytravel—and what they want fromtravel companies—has changeddramatically. And it’s likely tochange more over time. It’s time to break the mold on loyalty programsdesigned for yesterday’s travelers and design forthe new. “New” travelers will be different fromwho was traveling two years ago. Flexibility is animperative because traveler makeup inevitablyevolves.Transforming loyalty programs shouldfocus on ensuring that loyalty investments translateinto value for travelers—and the business. Figure 1: Profitable loyalty programs balanceperceived value to the traveler and cost to thebusiness Where profitable loyaltybegins The new realityTightening the pursestrings, but still traveling Building perceived value for travelers is criticalto creating profitable loyalty programs for travelcompanies. The more travel companies can widenthe gap between consumer perceived value andcost to the business, the better they can monetizeloyalty programs. We call this gap the perceivedvalue differential (Figure 1). The bigger it is, themore of a win-win the loyalty program is fortravelers and travel companies. High inflation rates and geopolitical conflictshave contributed to a drop in consumerconfidence since the start of 2022. Althoughconsumers are rethinking saving andspending, many would sacrifice spend ongoods to travel, according to Accentureresearch.4 But how can travel companies assess the perceivedvalue of their loyalty programs to travelers? Oneway is to measure the loyalty dividend, an objective,quantitative indicator of how travelers perceiverewards value. The calculation is straightforward.By dividing the retail value of the reward by theamount that travelers spend to achieve it, travelcompanies can pinpoint the loyalty dividend(Figure 2). •2 in 3consumers are likely to get backto pre-pandemic travel levels regardlessof whether they are feeling budgetarypressures.5 Figure 2: The loyalty dividend measures howtravelers perceive the value of a loyalty program •66%of consumers without squeezedbudgets and 59% with budget limitationshave booked a trip for the next year.6 From a program structure perspective, redemptionvalue and earn qualification drive the loyaltydividend. Tiered programs have a base loyaltydividend range and reflect rewards achieved at thelowest and highest tiers. •55%of consumers say they would reducepurchases of luxury items or postponepurchases of non-essential householdgoods and electronics to travel for leisure.7 Source: Accenture analysis To put it into perspective, let’s imagine that Priyais booking flights and comparing options. Pricesare the same for two flights, so she looks a littledeeper. Airline A offers members 10,000 miles forevery flight booked. This costs Priya approximately$500. If she chooses this flight, she can