In the US, smartphone users get an average of 46 push notifications a day. 

Those one-line messages that pop up regularly are surprisingly effective. Push notifications have an average click rate of just over 10%, and boost app engagement by an impressive 88%. Push notifications for travel users may have an even greater impact, as they are specifically targeting travelers (or wannabe travelers) on their smartphones, while they are on the go and poised to engage.

On the downside, push notifications can be annoying and intrusive if they are not done right. Push notifications that are clickbait-y, wrongly timed, irrelevant to the user, or if there are just too many of them – all these are a turn-off, and marketers in every industry, including travel, should avoid them.

Let’s take a look at how travel brands can use push notifications to their advantage and gain the attention of audiences in travel apps.

Push Your Travel Brand and Boost Your Business

In 2023, more than 850 million people used a travel app.

Travelers are enthusiastic and deeply interested in details, so it’s not surprising that travel apps tend to have high usage and engagement rates. According to Google, 58% of travel apps are used monthly.

This gives travel marketers ample opportunity to leverage push notifications in the right way and achieve a goal, whether it be:

• Increasing user engagement
• Generating conversions/bookings
• Enhancing customer retention
• Driving adoption of new app features
• Promoting travel advertising campaigns or deals
• Providing travel alerts and updates

Successful push notification campaigns require planning and strategizing well in advance. A well-crafted push notification campaign will have just the right amount of stickiness to engage users or subscribers and convince them to return to the app, without turning them off with spammy messages.

Different target audiences and business goals will demand different approaches to push notifications. Keep reading to discover the 5 types of push notification you can use for your travel app subscribers:

1. Push Notifications for New Customers

Make your new customers feel extra special by nurturing them instantly. Create a personalized campaign that creates upselling opportunities. For instance, if they have booked travel tickets to Bali, you can offer cheap deals on hotel bookings. Or you can provide them with a limited period offer coupon code on their next purchase.

Keep the push to a nudge; don’t be too aggressive. New customers can be skeptical. They don’t yet know your brand or product very well. You want to encourage them to come back but do it gently. Nurture them with offers they find interesting and compelling – something hard to resist.

2. Push Notifications for Cart Abandonment

Cart abandonment in the travel industry is high, around 80%. It’s a serious issue that cannot be ignored by owners of travel portals or businesses.

Cart abandonment can occur for many reasons:

• There is no true intent to purchase.
• The customer is still undecided.
• The customer is comparing prices and deals on different travel apps.
• The checkout process is too complicated. 

Some of these are out of your control. However, you can use push notifications to help the customer overcome barriers to purchasing, For example, send a personalized push notification to entice them to return to the app. A strong Call to Action encouraging them to complete the booking can do wonders. Offer additional discounts during checkout. Create a sense of urgency. You can do all this with push notifications.

3. Push Notifications for Travel Deals

Promote seasonal offerings with dedicated push notifications. For example, in the pre-summer booking season, push summer vacation packages to your prospects. Similarly, before a holiday like Christmas or Thanksgiving, you can offer limited-time discounts on certain hotel packages and flights. Track users’ buying behavior. Say a user purchases regular tickets from Dubai to London on a particular airline every three months. You can push a discount on the same deal to cement their repeat purchases with you.

4. Push Notifications for Reminders

Once your user has booked the ticket, send reminders at regular intervals before the travel date. Users appreciate these gentle reminders, as they are helpful, relevant, and show that you care – you don’t want them to miss their booking or make a mistake at the last moment! These small post-purchase gestures go a long way to building customer loyalty and trust.

5. Push Notifications for Travel Plans

Keep your customers engaged with notifications even after their purchase. If they are traveling to a certain destination, you can provide current information about the weather or important local customs that they must know. This way, you keep them coming back to your app. It might not always be for a purchase, however, you are engaging them with useful information that keeps your brand at the forefront of their mind, and encourages them to return.

Final Call

The more you engage your users with relevant, helpful information, the more they will keep using your app. Provide excellent 24/7 customer service (or as close to 24/7 as you can!), make sure your app interface is user-friendly, and your checkout gateway is not complicated. Then, strengthen your offering via timely, useful push notifications that entice customers to keep using your app for all their travel needs.