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E-mail is a big factor in the travel industry’s recovery

April 27, 2003 |

Travel advertising e-mail messages that are welcomed rather than spurned appear to be one unanticipated outgrowth of the most profound change in travel-buying behavior.

According to Mr. Harteveldt, the principal travel analyst at Forrester Research, airlines, hotels and other travel suppliers have discovered something remarkable about frequent travelers, who tend to be people who are also high users of the Internet (and subscribers to broadband Internet services). We actually want to get e-mail messages from these companies.

E-mail is proving to be “the most immediate vehicle you have to reach out to customers, to segment and communicate with customers in a relevant, compelling and timely manner,” Mr. Harteveldt told industry suppliers at the Travel Commerce conference in New York earlier this month.

“The e-mail-engaged traveler,” said Mr. Harteveldt, doesn’t much like pop-up ads or big ad displays that eat up the whole screen. These travelers want marketing information, not jive. They are, he said, people who book a lot of travel online and who “like receiving e-mail” about travel offers. The lesson to suppliers: “E-mail is no longer an acquisition tool; it is a retention tool, too, to facilitate your relationship with your customer,” he said.

Get the full story at The New York Times

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