For travel & hospitality brands, a booking is just the first step. Today’s travelers expect more than just a transaction. They seek seamless, personalized experiences across every stage of the journey. From pre-trip inspiration to real-time updates, and personalized post-travel engagement, every step of the journey shapes customer satisfaction and loyalty.
Brands that deliver personalization across the full journey can increase customer satisfaction, unlock new ancillary revenue streams and drive long-term growth. Achieving this at scale requires the right CMS platform to power the website and other digital channels, enabling real-time, data driven AI-powered personalization, and tailored messaging at every touchpoint.
Personalization: the growth engine for travel & hospitality
Personalization is no longer just a nice-to-have enhancement -it’s central for driving revenue and loyalty in Travel & Hospitality. Whether it is helping travelers choose the right destination, offering a seat upgrade at checkout, or sending a follow-up post trip, getting personalization right turns every interaction into an opportunity to delight customers and unlock growth.
In a study done by Amadeus, personalization is viewed as a key driver of commercial value for hoteliers with 85% feeling it could deliver in excess of 5% in incremental value. When done right and scaled effectively, personalization in Travel & Hospitality not only enhances experiences but also drives commercial value.
Our own research as part of the Websites 2025 report revealed that 92% of marketers across industries identified personalized experiences as vital for their websites’ success.
Travelers today aren’t just looking for deals. They want brands to know what they need, help them in the decision-making process, and make their entire journey easier.
Every stage of the traveller journey presents an opportunity to personalize experiences. For example:
- During trip planning, personalized content and suggestions can help travelers discover the right destination and customize their itinerary.
- During booking, tailored upsell offers like baggage, seat selection, priority check in, room upgrade can increase order value.
- During trip or stay, relevant real-time updates and offers, such as region-specific digital signage updates, access to lounge during delays, activity suggestions & discounts upon check-in, can all enhance the experience and unlock ancillary revenue.
- Post trip/stay, personalized loyalty offers, future trip recommendations that can help strengthen long term relationships and encourage future bookings. A well-run loyalty program is especially important for today’s GenZ travellers with 58% reporting to use such programs compared to 49.9% of travelers overall.
Findings from our DX Vision 2024 report showed marketing leaders in Travel & Hospitality were nearly twice as likely to report personalization excellence compared with leaders in financial services.
The emergence of artificial intelligence solutions has enabled Travel & Hospitality brands to scale their personalization efforts seamlessly. As of 2024, the top generative AI applications in travel include digital assistance during booking at 53%, recommendations for activities and venues at 48%, and content generation at 47%.
For Travel & Hospitality brands, AI-powered personalization is no longer an experiment. It is the foundation for driving growth and shaping the future of customer experience.
The role of CMS in fuelling personalization at scale
Delivering personalization across the Travel & Hospitality customer journey is only possible with the right technology in place. Websites play a central role in this, powering dynamic, real-time experiences right from the planning stage to post trip engagement. A modern CMS acts as the backbone of these personalized experiences, enabling brands to efficiently create and manage content across channels, deliver tailored suggestions and offers, and provide timely update to travelers at every stage of their journey.
While Travel & Hospitality is better than other industries in terms of personalizing customer experience, many brands still struggle to scale personalization efforts, partly because their legacy CMS platforms are not built for dynamic personalization efforts. Scaling personalization requires a CMS platform that is flexible, integrates with AI tools, and can adapt to traveler needs in real time.
Our Websites 2025 report, surveying marketers across different industries, found that only 32% believe their CMS platforms effectively support personalization, and only 13% feel confident that their CMS can scale and integrate seamlessly with new technologies.
A modern CMS enables Travel & Hospitality brands to:
- Personalize content in real time: Adjust offers and messaging based on user behaviour, booking history, and real-time events, like weather issues, delays or cancellations.
- Achieve Omnichannel consistency: Deliver personalized content across website, mobile app, email, and even in-trip touchpoints, like digital signage or push notifications.
- Integrate with various data sources seamlessly: Build a unified traveller profile by connecting booking data, loyalty programs and website behaviour, enabling brands to deliver context driven recommendations and offers.
Consider the case of United Airlines, one of the leading airlines in the world. By modernizing their website platform with Sitecore XM Cloud, United Airlines created a unified traveler experience. This resulted in an 82% improvement in customer experience, with personalized content delivery across all touchpoints, including 1,800 digital signages in airports that drive over 35 million traveler interactions annually.
With traveller expectations continuing to rise, brands that embrace modern CMS platforms built for personalization and AI integration will be best positioned to deliver the seamless, revenue-driving experiences today’s travellers demand.
Personalization as the path to growth
Personalization is the key to unlocking sustainable growth in travel and hospitality. Brands that deliver tailored experiences across every stage of the traveller journey right from inspiration to booking, through to in-trip updates and post-trip engagement will increase satisfaction, drive ancillary revenue, and build long-term customer relationships.
Achieving this at scale requires a future-ready CMS platform that powers real-time content, unifies traveler data, and seamlessly integrates with martech tools and AI-powered solutions.