Travel & Tourism Insights | Market Research Company

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

Solutions

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
Expertise

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
AI

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

Success Stories
Guiding tourism marketing strategy & market sizing: A destination marketing case study
Defining the 'size of the prize' in wellness tourism
Show Me More
Success Stories
Optimizing ROI by evaluating trade partnerships: A destination marketing case study
An ROI-based partnership portfolio for an evolving travel environment
Show Me More
Success Stories
Government agency boosts tourism through a market opportunity assessment
A comprehensive framework for prioritizing opportunities and scenario planning
Show Me More
Success Stories
Monitoring the equity of a nation’s brand
Helping a DMO drive tourism with holistic brand tracking
Show Me More

Explore our thinking on Travel & Tourism

Show All

Blog
Interview With an Expert: What Will Define the Future of Travel and Tourism in 2026 and Beyond?
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.
Blog
Horns and Halos: Controlling Bias and Harnessing Preference
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
Blog
Don’t Be Fooled by Synthetic Data for Market Research: Why Insights from Real People Are the Key to Authentic Brand Building
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.

Key Questions

1. How can tourism boards and destination marketing organizations adapt to more value-conscious and experience-driven travelers?

Travel demand remains strong, but travelers are becoming more selective—prioritizing value, meaningful experiences and off-peak or alternative destinations.

For tourism boards and destination marketing organizations, this means moving beyond broad awareness campaigns toward precision targeting, audience segmentation and experience-led positioning. Understanding why travelers choose certain destinations—and how perceptions shift across segments—is critical to influencing demand.

Insight-led strategies help DMOs identify high-value audiences, refine messaging and align destination narratives with evolving traveler expectations, ensuring more effective and measurable marketing investments.

2. How are airlines and hospitality brands converging to create more integrated travel experiences?

Airlines and hospitality providers are increasingly competing—and collaborating—around the end-to-end traveler experience, not just individual services. As travelers expect seamless journeys, brands are extending beyond their traditional roles to influence the full travel lifecycle.

This shift is driven by rising demand for personalization, premium experiences and bundled offerings that combine flights, stays and in-destination services.

Research and customer journey insights help organizations understand where expectations break down, how travelers evaluate combined experiences and how to design more cohesive, differentiated offerings across the travel ecosystem.

3. What role do transportation providers and OEMs play in shaping the future of travel experiences?

Transportation providers and OEMs are no longer just enabling travel—they are becoming central to how travel experiences are perceived and differentiated. From in-journey comfort to connected digital experiences, mobility is now a key part of the overall brand experience.

As expectations shift toward personalization, sustainability and seamless connectivity, OEMs and transport providers need deeper insight into passenger behavior, preferences and unmet needs.

Research-led insights help these organizations design experiences that go beyond efficiency—enhancing comfort, engagement and brand perception across every stage of the journey.

4. How can travel trade organizations better respond to changing traveler behavior and distribution models?

The travel trade landscape is evolving rapidly with the rise of digital platforms, AI-driven planning tools and shifting booking behaviors. Travelers are increasingly using multiple channels—including social media and AI—to research and plan trips, reshaping how demand is captured and converted.

For travel trade organizations, this creates both complexity and opportunity. Understanding how travelers move across channels, what influences decision-making and where conversion barriers exist is critical.

Insight-driven strategies enable travel trade partners to optimize distribution, strengthen partnerships and adapt to emerging booking behaviors—ensuring they remain relevant in a more fragmented and technology-driven ecosystem.

Read the latest news from Escalent