A recent EyeforTravel report finds that over half of marketing professionals report limited visibility of their customers as they move across devices and touchpoints

Attribution continues to be an issue for the travel and tourism industry as travellers hop from device-to-device and across websites throughout the journey, according to EyeforTravel’s State of Data and Analytics in Travel Report. Of the marketing professionals surveyed, 54.3% report that they could either track users to a limited degree (24.5%), just on their own domains (16%) or not at all (13.8%).

It’s not all doom and gloom, however, with some companies reporting that they can track users in some detail. A quarter of respondents say they can track users across most devices and touchpoints, and a further 20.7% across touchpoints but not devices. This illustrates that the cross-device behaviour that has become so prevalent in travel is the main challenge today.

Attribution is expected to be a major focus for travel brands over the medium-term. Says Alex Hadwick, Head of Research at EyeforTravel: “Our consumer research shows that travellers are increasing their usage of mobile, especially in Asia-Pacific markets, but huge numbers of switch devices during their journey.”

The research also finds that globally, people are more likely to spend on a desktop than on any other device.

As Hadwick points out, “personalisation is the primary stated goal of the industry, so brands will need to be able to track users more effectively as they switch across sites but particularly across devices if they want to truly understand the journey.”

...just 30.9% [of travel data professionals] are gathering geo-spatial and geographic data

Another interesting finding in the report was that of the 450 travel data professionals surveyed, just 30.9% are gathering geo-spatial and geographic data, and 30.6% are looking at mobile app data for insights into customers. This further supports the need for the industry to expand its efforts into multichannel data gathering. Investment into systems and skills to do this is likely; the report notes that three-quarters of respondents expect their departments to receive budget increases in 2017, versus 4% who expect a decrease.

Click here to download the full report. Or to learn the best data and revenue management strategies directly, why not attend an upcoming EyeforTravel event