Trends in travel loyalty often mirror those shaping the broader travel industry. As 2025 gets underway, experiential travel emerges as the standout trend, growing in both scale and significance.
Skift’s State of Travel 2024 report projects that the experiential travel market will exceed $3.1 trillion this year. The report also finds that almost three-quarters of travelers (74%) view experiences as having a moderate to massive impact on shaping their trips, a trend driven mainly by Millennials and Gen Z, 79% of whom prioritize the quality of their travel experience over its cost.
Experiential travel occupies a unique place in the broader travel ecosystem and within travel loyalty programs. For casual and mass affluent travelers, it serves as an aspiration goal while delivering exclusivity and novelty for high and ultra-high net worth segments. The challenge for travel loyalty programs lies in proffering a diverse enough range of experiential options that resonate and inspire each of these distinct groups.
Some programs, like Marriott Bonvoy with its Moments initiative, have staked their success on experiences. However, most travel loyalty programs still rely on a more traditional approach to experiential rewards, offering standard tours and activities that fall short of meeting the growing consumer appetite for immersive and unique travel experiences.
In 2025, loyalty programs across industries–-from credit card rewards programs to frequent guest and flier programs–-will work to close that gap. In a new travel era defined by experiences, this is the only winning strategy.
Experiential Content Emerges as the Key to Differentiation
What makes Bonvoy Moments a standout example of experiential travel is its breadth, variety, and inventive approach to experiential offerings. Transactional value is ubiquitous—every points-based loyalty program allows members to redeem points for hotel stays or room upgrades. What keeps members loyal and engaged is offering access to exclusive, compelling experiences that go beyond the expected.
Expect many travel loyalty programs in 2025 to emulate the Moments model and include more options that diverge from standard travel rewards, like VIP access to events or combinations of traditional activities (an art gallery tour with a wine tasting, for example). Integrating these options into their rewards frameworks, combined with the quality of experiences offered, will determine how effectively those programs differentiate themselves.
Experiential Rewards Will Move Beyond Baseline Activities
For a growing segment of travelers, the entire trip is the experience, and rewards portfolios will evolve to better cater to this segment. Travel loyalty programs must prioritize two critical member groups: Millennials and Gen Z, who represent future growth, and the high-net-worth individuals who drive the bulk of spending. Both cohorts are making experiences integral to every stage of their trip planning.
A joint Skift-Marriott report highlights this trend, showing that 61% of travelers, including 78% of 25–34-year-olds, have engaged in or plan to engage in heritage travel, defined as a trip to explore their family’s ancestry or history. Another 67% have embarked on “bravecations,” trips centered on adventurous or unconventional activities. Wellness, cultural immersion, and sustainable travel continue to reshape travel behaviors, becoming more common as whole-trip, experience-centric travel options.
Traditional activities like guided tours and theme parks no longer satisfy the depth of experience sought by today’s travelers and loyalty members; in 2025, expect to see travel loyalty programs go well beyond these traditional offerings to redefine what it means to engage and inspire their members.
Buy or Build? Neither. Travel Loyalty is Built on Strategic Partnerships
In 2025, loyalty programs will play to their strengths while recognizing their limitations to deliver more engaging experiences. The largest brands can invest in comprehensive travel booking solutions to gain access to a rich portfolio of travel options, including coveted experiences. Similarly, large, well-resourced companies can develop robust programs and rewards portfolios internally. But do they want to? The fact is, for the majority of companies, forging strategic partnerships will be the most effective way to offer compelling experiential content and satisfy members’ growing appetites for enriching travel experiences.
For most brands with a travel loyalty program, the priority in 2025 will be securing a partner that can flawlessly integrate with existing systems while providing a curated inventory of experiential travel rewards tailored to their key member segments.
A Renewed Focus on Earning
This new age of experiences is not limited to the redemption of travel rewards. While consumers want to redeem their loyalty points for experiential rewards—our Tipping Point travel loyalty studies show that lifestyle options that complement travel consistently top loyalty members’ redemption preferences—the broader appetite for experiential travel also presents opportunities on the earning side. By offering experiences as direct purchase options that allow members to earn points, travel loyalty programs can further capitalize on the growing demand for experiential travel.
In 2025, expect more travel loyalty programs to adopt this dual strategy, expanding their redemption options and improving direct booking opportunities for experiential travel by offering earning bonuses or other incentives.
Uniqueness over Exclusivity
Even though “exclusive” is often used in loyalty program marketing, delivering true exclusivity in rewards or status is rarely feasible. Yet the allure of exclusivity remains a powerful motivator for consumers. How will travel loyalty programs create a sense of exclusivity without the operational and financial burdens of providing genuinely exclusive rewards?
In 2025, travel loyalty programs will shift their focus from exclusivity to uniqueness. This can be achieved by bundling distinct experiential components, strategically sourcing experiences from suppliers who agree not to make those same experiences available to competitors, and tailoring the experiences to align with individual members’ personalized preferences. Access to advanced technology or collaboration with the right loyalty technology partner will be critical in enabling programs to deliver “uniqueness” in their experiential reward offerings.
In the age of experiences, brands across all industries are angling to provide customers with distinctive interactions and “just-for-me" moments. Travel loyalty programs are no exception. Transactional rewards have become commonplace, leaving members clamoring for experiential options. To stand out and compete more effectively in this new landscape, travel loyalty programs must lean into experiential content, expand beyond basic baseline activities, forge strategic partnerships to diversify experiences that appeal to key member segments, and embrace uniqueness over exclusivity.
In 2025, programs that master these five areas won’t just stand out—they’ll redefine loyalty in travel, turning it from a transactional exchange into a journey members can’t wait to embark on.
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