Travel insights that turn journeys into growth
Travel is back and more complex than ever. Demand is volatile. Expectations are rising. Distribution is fragmented. And every stakeholder—from destinations to airlines to hotels—is competing for share of wallet and share of heart. Success now requires more than tracking metrics. It demands a deep understanding of traveler motivations, emotional drivers, competitive dynamics and market-level nuance. All translated into clear strategies that improve occupancy, length of stay, traveler loyalty and spend.
A Strategic Market Research Partner for the Full Travel & Tourism Ecosystem
Escalent is built for the complexity of travel and tourism. For more than 20 years, we’ve worked across the entire ecosystem—from tourism boards and convention bureaus to airlines, hotel groups, transportation providers and travel trade partners.
We don’t treat travel like FMCG. We treat it as the emotionally driven experience economy it is. Our teams combine deep travel and tourism industry and sector expertise, advanced analytics and high-engagement consulting to define ambition, prioritize markets and segments, sharpen positioning and translate insight into impact. The result: clearer decisions, aligned stakeholders and measurable growth across global travel markets.
Tourism Boards & Destination Organizations
Tourism boards and destination organizations carry national ambition on their shoulders, balancing visitor growth, economic impact and destination reputation. We help research leaders cut through complexity with clear market prioritization, sharp segmentation and route-to-market strategy rooted in real traveler behavior. From leisure travel to MICE, we connect positioning to infrastructure planning, tourism investment decisions and measurable outcomes so strategy drives sustainable visitation, visitor spend and long-term competitiveness.
Airlines
Airlines operate in a high-stakes world of network optimization, load factors and loyalty economics. We help airline insights teams anticipate demand, refine route and fleet strategy, and design experiences that keep travelers returning. Customer experience is central—shaping perceptions from booking to post-trip engagement. From cabin innovation and digital experience to sustainability strategy, we connect traveler expectations to commercial performance, driving retention, advocacy and customer lifetime value.
Hospitality
Hotels compete for both share of stay and share of wallet. We help hospitality strategy teams sharpen brand positioning, segment high-value guest segments and optimize pricing and revenue strategy. Our work strengthens guest loyalty, enhances digital distribution and refines experience design—ensuring properties don’t just fill rooms, but build repeat visitation, advocacy and premium positioning in an increasingly transparent and choice-rich marketplace.
Transportation & OEMs
From rail and ground transport to mobility innovators and OEMs, last-mile transportation performance shapes the entire traveler journey. We help insights teams design safer, smarter, more seamless mobility experiences while navigating regulatory complexity and operational pressures. Our expertise spans product innovation, ecosystem partnerships and supply chain strategy to translate traveler needs and system data into solutions that enhance connectivity and efficiency.
Travel Trade
OTAs, travel agents, tour operators and DMCs sit at the commercial crossroads of travel ecosystem. In a fragmented, fast-digitizing landscape, we help trade leaders understand shifting traveler behavior, pricing dynamics and supplier relationships. Our work sharpens competitive positioning, commission strategy and partnership models, ensuring trade organizations remain indispensable intermediaries delivering value to both travelers and travel suppliers alike.
The toughest challenges travel researchers face today
Fragmented Traveler Journeys
The traveler journey spans destinations, airlines, hotels, trade partners, attractions and last-mile transport, each generating siloed data. Connecting these touchpoints into one coherent view is difficult, yet essential for improving customer experience, loyalty and commercial performance across the travel ecosystem.
Volatile Demand Patterns
Geopolitics, economic pressure and fast-shifting expectations make airline demand forecasting and hotel occupancy planning increasingly unpredictable. Today’s travelers know they have many choices across business and leisure. Decision makers must anticipate which segments will return, which markets will soften and how to protect loyalty, repeat bookings and customer lifetime value in a fiercely competitive landscape.
From Insight to Activation
For airlines and hotels, insights must translate into fuller planes, higher occupancy and stronger traveler loyalty. For tourism boards/destinations, insights should drive increased visitor arrivals. Yet research too often ends in slides. Commercial, network, revenue and CX teams need clear priorities that improve retention, repeat bookings, ancillary spend and NPS—turning traveler understanding into revenue-driving impact.
Market Intelligence for Modern Travel Brands
-
We help travel and tourism leaders define ambition, prioritize opportunity and activate growth. Our solutions span market sizing and prioritization, segmentation, demand forecasting, brand positioning, competitive intelligence, experience and journey design, loyalty optimization, trade and channel strategy, and MICE strategy. Every engagement connects strategic choices to measurable KPIs—occupancy rates, load factors, length of stay, visitor spend, traveler satisfaction and brand advocacy.
Show me more
-
Our expertise spans the full travel and tourism ecosystem: destinations and ministries, airlines and aviation networks, hospitality portfolios, last-mile transportation providers, travel trade and distribution platforms and end-experience providers. We understand the commercial realities, stakeholder dynamics and data complexities unique to each. With deep market-level intelligence across global regions, we deliver recommendations that are globally aligned yet locally actionable.
Show me more
-
Our AI capabilities accelerate and sharpen every stage of insight generation and activation for travel and tourism sector. We integrate advanced analytics, predictive modeling, demand simulation and AI-powered segmentation to uncover emerging opportunity faster. Synthetic data and intelligent automation enhance speed and flexibility, while preserving rigor. The outcome is smarter foresight, stronger scenarios and clearer decision-making—delivered with the credibility you expect and the agility modern travel brands require.
Show me more
Learn from our clients’ success in a Travel & Tourism case study
Defining the 'size of the prize' in wellness tourism
An ROI-based partnership portfolio for an evolving travel environment
A comprehensive framework for prioritizing opportunities and scenario planning
Helping a DMO drive tourism with holistic brand tracking
Explore our thinking on Travel & Tourism
Show All
From AI-driven personalization to sustainability and experience-led travel, shifting traveler perceptions are reshaping the future of tourism. Read this blog to understand how brands and destinations must evolve with technology, sustainability, and experience design to build relevance, resilience, and long-term value in an increasingly volatile environment.
Discover how the right insights can help brand managers strategically minimize negative bias and capitalize on positive bias to build stronger brand preference and consumer loyalty
While synthetic data and AI-driven insights offer powerful capabilities, the human touch remains irreplaceable for capturing the emotional depth and individuality crucial to meaningful consumer insights.
Read the latest news from Escalent
Show All
March 12, 2025
Escalent launches a comprehensive behavioral science model powered by AI that produces better behavior change strategies faster.
April 12, 2023
Top data analytics and advisory firm Escalent announces it has acquired C Space and Hall & Partners.
October 18, 2022
Escalent's Tech TrustBuilder is a scientifically-validated framework that measures trust in technology to help brands build bonds with people
