SPECIAL REPORT Juliet Dennis reports from the launch of Aito Travel Insights 2025 in London
Members advised to nudge up NPS to achieve growth
A
ito members have been told there is a “big opportunity” for growth if they can nudge
up their Net Promoter Scores (NPS) by a few percentage points. Speaking on a panel debate at The
Royal Geographic Society in London at the launch of the 11th Aito Travel Insights report for 2025, operators were urged to capture and analyse NPS data to expand their customer database and boost repeat business. The report surveyed nearly 14,000
customers of 37 tour operators, travel agencies and tourist board partners in The Specialist Travel Association (Aito) and was carried out by customer data and insights
PICTURE: Liz Finlayson/Vervate Detractors are
useful. They will tell you everything, like where you are going wrong
company Spike at the end of last year. Director Jon Walton said: “NPS has such a strong correlation to repeat purchases and growth. If you are not capturing it you should be. For a lot of investors, it’s one of the top five statistics they look at.” The average NPS score in the
report across all Aito companies was 67.1, up from 64.8 in 2024 and down on 2023’s 69.3. Any score over 50 is seen as good and 70 excellent.
Consumers see sustainable credentials as priority over firms’ carbon footprint
The importance of a company’s carbon footprint is the lowest it has been in three years, but sustainable credentials remain important, according to consumers surveyed in the Aito Travel Insights 2025 report. The percentage of
customers who agreed a specialist travel firm’s carbon footprint was important was 33%, slightly lower than in 2024 (37%) and 2023 (38%). In total, however, 80% of respondents still ranked a company’s sustainable credentials as important, consistent with the past two years. The number who believed travel was
10 6 FEBRUARY 2025
‘always and often’ a force for good also remained high at 75%. Aito operators said sustainable
travel could be a hard sell. Kirker Holidays managing director Ted Wake (pictured) said the cost of rail travel and the extra time required for journeys meant it was hard to encourage clients to go by train. “It’s a stretch to persuade people to spend £1,000 more and
go for an additional day,” he said. Sara Zimmerman, non-executive
director of escorted tours specialist Travel Department, stressed the importance of educating clients on what responsible travel means.
Customers who give lower
scores of between zero and six are known as ‘detractors’ and could give negative reports about a company, while ‘passives’ score seven or eight and might be booking with other firms. ‘Promoters’, meanwhile, score nine or 10 and promote a business to family and friends. Across the survey’s respondents,
there were 72% promoters, 23% passives and 5% detractors for Aito businesses. Walton said that moving lower-
scoring clients, such as ‘passives’, to higher-scoring ‘promoters’ could make a big difference.
“This is a big opportunity. If you
can move your NPS score by three percentage points you can move your repeat purchase score by three percentage points,” he noted. As well as incentivising
‘promoters’ to refer a company, he urged firms to find out why ‘passives’ were not scoring more highly and win back detractors. “Find out what the problems are,” he said. Sam Clark, managing director
of Aito operator Experience Travel Group, agreed: “Detractors are useful. They will tell you everything; these people can give you key bits about where you are going wrong.”
Failure to get repeat bookings may cost tour operators £500,000 each
Specialist tour operators could be missing out on an average of £500,000 in revenue each because clients only book with them once, according to customer data and insights company Spike. In the 11th Aito Travel Insights report, 32% of respondents said
they were one-time bookers. But Spike director Jon Walton said its own independent analysis of 30 specialist operators, not all Aito, revealed a higher figure only booked once. “When we do the data analysis we see an average of 70% [one-time bookers] – which terrifies investors.” According to the same data, only 13% of first-time bookers will rebook
the next year. “It’s another terrifying statistic,” Walton said. “You only need to switch that by a few percentage points. We reckon across 30 specialists, they are leaving around £500,000 each on the table. That’s £500,000 of booking revenue per operator in year one from [missed] repeat purchases and referrals. If you can get clients to book with you a second time, they are infinitely more likely to book a third or fourth time and refer you to friends or family.”
Above: Travel Insights report Left: Jon Walton, Spike
travelweekly.co.uk
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