Creating an airport experience travellers love
How can a better airport journey improve customer loyalty?
New research on the airport journey from Collinson, global leader in loyalty and benefits, highlights the importance of providing a seamless and enjoyable journey to travellers in order to forge deeper customer loyalty, improved engagement and increased spend at the airport.
Collinson said that its research shows that traveller satisfaction should be a paramount concern for airports, travel and travel-focused businesses and brands, because happy travellers are more engaged and more likely to spend at the airport. It said that the entire airport ecosystem needs to be focused on delivering a positive airport experience because there is a direct correlation between enjoyment and spend.
Traveller satisfaction should be a paramount concern for airports, travel and travel-focused businesses and brands
The company surveyed 6,667 people across 11 countries in the Americas, EMEA and APAC. It found that travellers today are more satisfied with the airport experience – in 2018, 50 per cent of travellers said that the airport was a pleasant part of their journey, and this increased to 63 per cent in 2019. In 2018, 23 per cent of travellers said that they considered the airport as something to be ‘endured’, while just one year later this fell to 14 per cent.
Collinson said that this uptick in customer satisfaction is testament to novel improvements in the travel ecosystem: “The upsurge in traveller satisfaction year-on-year is great news for the industry and speaks volumes to the innovative, customer-centric solutions now emerging across the airport and travel ecosystem.”
In terms of who enjoys the airport experience, Collinson found that 67 per cent of travellers aged 18 to 34 are satisfied, compared to just 57 per cent aged 55 and above. It also found that travellers in Asia and the Middle East enjoy the airport experience significantly more than travellers in western markets like the US and Europe. Indeed, 74 per cent of travellers across markets like India, China and the UAE enjoy the airport experience, compared with 48 per cent across markets like the US, UK and Germany.
Collinson said that the research points to three key areas that airports and businesses in the airport ecosystem can focus on to improve the traveller experience and grow revenues: know your customer; focus on convenience, time saving and incentivisation; and create an ecosystem of happy moments. It said that traveller satisfaction with airports is improving, but there is still a significant gap between passengers’ ideal experience and what airports deliver, but this will improve with time, research and awareness.
“We know what travellers want, and we’re pushing the boundaries to help our customers offer them the most efficient, enjoyable and stress-free journey possible. In other words – a journey they can love,” said Christopher Evans, Joint CEO, Collinson.
The whitepaper can be downloaded here.