How travel brands can drive retention in 2026

Event Overview:

Travel demand is booming. Global travel and tourism hit US$10.9 trillion in 2024 and is tracking towards $11.7 trillion for 2025. An estimated 500 million new travellers are entering the market over the next three years.

But behind the growth, travel brands are leaking revenue when customers are ready to book. Hidden blockers, operational gaps and outdated systems are causing abandonment before bookings complete. Hotels alone are projected to form a $455 billion global segment in 2025, yet operators struggle with inconsistencies across inventory, pricing, communication and on-property delivery.

This webinar shows you where customers are dropping out and how to fix it.

Where the System Breaks:

• Search and booking friction. Confusing filters, slow price updates, hidden fees, unclear cancellation rules and payment failures kill conversion before customers commit.
• Pre-arrival and check-in friction. Emails that don't match on-site information create anxiety about parking, luggage and extras. Queues, clunky check-in and identity mismatches turn arrival into a bottleneck.
• Post-stay friction. Disjointed feedback and no loyalty triggers mean brands lose the chance to get repeat bookings.
• What customers feel is the symptom. The real problems sit behind the scenes: legacy systems, fragmented workflows, manual operations, slow content governance, poor data across teams and vendors building inconsistent experiences.

Finding and Fixing the Blockers:
We'll introduce Friction Mapping®, a method that creates a single view of the customer journey across experience, operations and technology. You'll see where AI is already changing operations, from automated identity checks to predictive pricing and revenue updates.

Speakers from hotels, hospitality and travel tech will share how they've tackled revenue-management friction, identity verification challenges, design-system fragmentation, landing page bottlenecks and franchise consistency issues.

What You'll Get:

• Clarity on where your biggest conversion gains are and the operational causes behind the drop-off.
• Case studies from Hilton (Landing Page Builder 2.0) and Best Western (franchise consistency).
• A practical method for identifying friction points and a roadmap for strengthening retention while reducing costs ahead of 2026.

Who Should Attend:

Senior leaders in travel, hospitality, airlines, attractions and online booking platforms who are responsible for customer experience, product, operations, revenue and digital performance.