Why you need to act fast if you want to maximise your winter travel bookings

If you want to secure your share of this year’s winter travel bookings, then you need to get your campaign running quickly, according to data from ADARA’s travel partners. 

This year has already been unlike any other, so it’s no surprise to discover that consumers’ travel booking behaviour is unlike any other year. 

The three biggest travel booking trends this year

Here are the three biggest travel booking trends you need to know this year:

  1. The most popular booking dates for domestic bookings travellers are the last two weeks of December.
  2. Short-term bookings are at an all-time high – 39% of all travellers are booking within 15 days of searching.
  3. Higher net worth travellers are more likely to book flights, whereas lower net worth travellers are more likely to book domestic hotels. 

The travel booking window has narrowed to 15 days

To give a full picture of just how much the travel booking window has shrunk right now, here’s the full set of data from ADARA:

What does this mean for you?

With such a short window between search and booking, you need to ensure you have a full lifecycle programmatic campaign ready to go as soon as possible. 

Your campaign needs to work hard within a short timeframe, and use dynamic creative to ensure you’re delivering the exact messaging they need to see for their stage in the consideration process. 

You don’t have time to wait and catch travellers a second time. Miss your one shot and they’ve booked with a competitor. 

You also need to ensure that your messaging fits the mindset and intentions of each group – and understands what kind of travel they might be in the market for, why and what they need to hear to book. 

Again, this requires intelligent dynamic creative that works across the full customer lifecycle. According to ADARA’s data, messaging that focuses on safety, reassurance and welcoming will resonate the strongest during these challenging times.

If you’d love to know more about how we can use data insights to plan an intelligent, full lifecycle programmatic campaign with dynamic creative, then get in touch