The willingness of audiences to travel globally has provided a major opportunity for travel experts Expedia.
Addressing the International Sports Convention’s Brand at Sponsorship Summit at Unilever House in London today, Expedia’s Liseli Sitali expanded on plans for future growth in both the football and music sectors.
The Expedia Group’s Director of Football and Music partnerships told over 100 industry experts that partnerships help keep their customers “locked in”.
“We did research with 250,000 customers and found that food, music and sport were the three main reasons why people wanted to travel”.
“Music and sports tourism is projected to grow by 18% year on year. We also found that 75% of fans prefer to book with travel brands that partner with their favourite music or sports property”.
LIseli offered three key reasons why Expedia use partnerships:
*Building the Brand.
* Drive engagement through frequent contact.
* Generate revenue.
Interestingly, Expedia have found that customers coming to them through Arsenal football club, are twice as valuable to Expedia when following the women’s teams, than the men’s teams of those partner clubs.
Their partnership with Liverpool captain Virgil Van Dijk has driven a 99% increase in new audience, highlighting the value of partnerships with sport.
