Loyalty has long been the engine of the travel industry, but what earns repeat business and drives longstanding customer retention is rapidly changing. While points and perks remain important, today’s travellers increasingly expect brands to recognise their preferences, anticipate their needs and deliver personalised experiences at every stage of the journey.
New research from the Australian Loyalty Association, combined with insights from Nexxen, CM.OSX and Amperity, suggests the future of travel loyalty will belong to brands that combine compelling rewards with AI-powered personalisation built on unified customer data.
Loyalty remains a powerful travel currency
According to data from the Australian Loyalty Association, airline loyalty programs continue to rank among the top three categories in which Australians are members, highlighting their enduring importance to consumers. Yet despite strong participation, the research suggests significant room for growth.
While many travellers have a preferred airline brand, loyalty is far from universal. The ALA found that only just over one-third of travel spending is currently earning rewards, indicating airlines have considerable opportunity to increase engagement and encourage members to consolidate more of their travel with a single program.
The importance of loyalty extends well beyond flights. The research found loyalty programs are becoming increasingly influential in discretionary travel purchases such as hotels and car hire, with 64% of consumers saying these programs have become more important in their buying decisions. Gen Z is leading participation across these categories, signalling that younger travellers increasingly expect loyalty benefits across their entire travel experience rather than from airlines alone.
Sarah Richardson, CEO at Australian Loyalty Association (above) says over the past two decades of her career, she has worked closely with travel brands, helping them design loyalty and engagement strategies that drive measurable value.
“One of the things that became clear early on is that loyalty is far more than points and rewards. When done well, it becomes a strategic growth lever that influences customer behaviour, strengthens relationships and drives long-term profitability,” she says.
“Customers increasingly expect value beyond discounts, and programs are evolving to offer experiences, partnerships, recognition and convenience, not just transactional rewards. At the same time, technology and data are enabling far more sophisticated levels of personalisation. Martech platforms, AI and predictive analytics are helping brands move from broad segmentation to genuinely contextual engagement.”
The modern traveller is more likely to be female, but travel expectations are diverse across demographics
Understanding what motivates travellers is becoming just as important as rewarding them.
Audience intelligence from Nexxen shows travel preferences differ significantly by demographic, highlighting why one-size-fits-all loyalty programs are becoming less effective. Nexxen Discovery, a proprietary research tool provides content consumption insights across screens and unique targetting tactics to reach audiences across platforms, helping customers plan effective campaign activations and deliver performance. It found
travel interest is broad-based with the strongest demand among 25–44-year-olds and meaningful representation among 55+ travellers. The ‘modern Australian traveller’ is more likely to be female at 52% versus male at 48% and aged 25-34 (at 28%)
Online travel research peaks at 8am and 5pm–11pm, with strongest activity mid-week (Tuesday–Thursday). Meanwhile travel decisions are shaped by advisory, passport and government travel sites, alongside airline and destination platforms. Travel planning is desktop-led, with lower engagement across video and mobile during decision-making.
These insights reinforce a growing reality for marketers: travellers aren’t simply looking for more rewards, they’re looking for experiences that reflect their interests, travel style and stage of life.
AI is becoming the competitive advantage
Delivering that level of relevance at scale is increasingly becoming an AI challenge. Amperity’s State of AI in Travel report, found AI adoption is accelerating across the industry, with 41% of hotel and airline companies using AI daily or several times each week, while a further 19% use it weekly. However, one in five organisations are still not using AI at all, leaving them vulnerable as competitors invest in more intelligent customer experiences.
“The travel industry is having its AI moment,” says Bel Lloyd (below), Customer Success Lead at Amperity.
“Hotels and airlines face increasing pressure to balance rising guest expectations with tight operating margins. Every interaction matters. Whether it’s the booking page that anticipates a traveller’s needs, the in-trip message that solves a problem before it escalates, or the loyalty offer that provides genuine value. These moments dictate whether a guest stays loyal or books elsewhere.”
The data challenge holding travel brands back
Despite growing investment, many travel organisations continue to struggle to scale AI.
According to Amperity’s research, the biggest barriers are the high cost of AI tools (41.3%), limited technical expertise (36.4%), and fragmented technology systems that prevent customer data from being connected (32.6%).
Lloyd says these obstacles explain why many AI initiatives remain stuck behind the scenes rather than transforming customer experiences.
“The true potential of AI emerges only when it’s powered by accurate, unified customer data. It’s a critical foundation for travel brands to personalise at scale, make smarter decisions in real time and deepen customer loyalty.”
Without clean customer profiles, AI risks producing irrelevant recommendations, poorly timed offers and inconsistent experiences that erode customer trust rather than strengthen it.
Alison McKinnon, Managing Director of CM.OSX believes the next generation of travel loyalty will be defined less by points programs and more by an organisation’s ability to orchestrate consistent, personalised experiences across every customer interaction.
“Consumers are not only comparing your airline or hotel with another airline or hotel, but they are comparing every experience with the best digital experience they’ve had anywhere,” she says.
“AI gives travel brands the opportunity to anticipate customer needs, personalise every interaction and operate at a scale that wasn’t previously possible. But, remember, AI doesn’t make organisations better. It scales whatever system already exists. If your marketing operating model is effective, AI accelerates growth. If it’s fragmented, AI simply magnifies the fragmentation. That’s why operating model redesign has become one of the biggest competitive priorities for enterprise marketing leaders.”
Shifting the conversation in travel from AI adoption to AI maturity
Alison (above) says the conversation is now shifting beyond AI adoption to AI maturity.
“Early AI investment was largely about productivity and experimentation. Now, the organisations creating long-term competitive advantage are redesigning governance, capability, workflows and measurement so AI becomes embedded in how marketing operates, rather than sitting alongside it,” she says.
She says that travel brands should strengthen every stage of the customer journey – from acquisition and loyalty to service and retention.
“But delivering those experiences consistently requires more than technology. It requires organisations to rethink how marketing, customer experience and loyalty teams work together to create value at scale,” she adds.
Why a unified customer foundation matters
For travel brands to optimise customer loyalty, it is important to go back to basics and remember hotels, airlines, and cruise lines deliver service-based value rather than physical products. As outlined in Amperity’s, ‘The AI Moment for Travel Has Arrived’, every touchpoint, whether before, during, and after a trip, has the power to strengthen (or weaken) a guest relationship. Things like a mistimed email, an irrelevant loyalty offer, or a frustrating check-in can undo months of brand-building.
“Now, AI is raising the stakes even further. AI integration directly determines revenue growth and long-term retention. Brands combining AI with unified customer profiles deliver highly personalised journeys, finding new revenue opportunities while deepening guest loyalty,” Lloyd says.
Who is getting it right?
Dubai-based carrier flydubai recently partnered with Amperity to unify customer data and enable real-time personalisation across the entire journey. This integration connects multiple touchpoints to build a complete understanding of traveller preferences. The platform provides a strong data foundation for their Modern Airline Retailing roadmap, and empowers flydubai’s teams to understand customer needs and deliver more relevant offers.
“The travel industry is investing heavily in AI, but investment alone isn’t enough. Without that foundation of unified data, AI models train on fragmented or duplicate data, leading to off-target personalisation and lost opportunities,” Bel adds.
“Overcoming these data fragmentation challenges is critical for effective AI deployment. Amperity resolves this through AI-powered identity resolution that connects every traveler touchpoint – from loyalty systems and reservation data to web activity and support interactions – into a single, privacy-compliant profile.”
Five immediate opportunities for AI
Rather than replacing human service, AI is increasingly enhancing it across the travel journey.
According to Amperity’s recent guide, The AI Moment for Travel Has Arrived, travel brands are already seeing measurable value in five key areas:
Smarter pricing and revenue management, using loyalty status, booking history and spending behaviour to personalise offers while protecting margins.
Personalised content generation, enabling marketers to create highly targeted loyalty communications and destination content for specific customer segments.
Proactive customer service, identifying issues such as payment failures or travel disruptions before they become complaints.
Offer optimisation, determining which rewards or upgrades are most likely to influence individual travellers instead of relying on blanket discounts.
Voice of Customer insights and AI-assisted service, analysing reviews, conversations and customer feedback while equipping frontline staff with richer customer context before every interaction.
The future of travel loyalty
Together, the findings from Nexxen, the Australian Loyalty Association, CM.OSX and Amperity point to a broader shift underway.
Loyalty programs remain highly valued, but travellers increasingly expect those programs to recognise who they are and deliver benefits that feel personally relevant.
Audience insights can reveal what motivates different traveller segments. Loyalty programs provide the mechanism for ongoing engagement. AI enables brands to respond in real time.
But none of these capabilities can deliver their full value without a unified view of the customer.
As travel brands compete for increasingly valuable repeat customers, the winners will be those that move beyond transactional rewards to create intelligent, personalised experiences that strengthen loyalty before, during and after every journey.