63% of travelers don't want to engage airlines, hotels via social media

The Deloitte study, "A Restoration in Loyalty", focuses on the decline of loyalty among today's pragmatic travelers, citing that only 8% always stay at the same brand of hotel and just 14% always fly with the same airline.

It reveals that "while earning and redeeming points are the most important attributes for choosing hotel and airline loyalty programs, travel brands should focus on enhancing the customer experience, making rewards personally meaningful, encouraging loyalty with unexpected rewards if they want to boost consumer engagement, and ultimately building long-term customer relationships."

As well as other interesting loyalty and loyalty scheme findings, the study also touches on the use of, and attitudes towards, mobile and social media among travelers and travel bookers.

Deloitte found that the majority of consumers continue to use, and prefer, traditional online methods of interaction with a travel brand. Their desire for a secure and easy purchase process, discounts by email and up-to-date travel news means 61% of consumers use hotel websites most frequently and 59% use airline websites the most.

In fact, the research found that 63% of respondents don't want to interact with a travel brand via social media, and 44% never visit travel-related social media or review sites.

Mobile is also shunned by travelers - a whopping 80% have never downloaded a hotel or airline app to their mobile device.

Tags: airline, consumer attitudes, hotel, mobile, research, review sites, social media, travel marketing, website