Travel Industry: What Do Your Emails Tell You About Your Audience?

What was the last travel email campaign you sent like? Was it about a dreamy summer escape with an eye-catching template? Was it a last-minute deal with a subject line that got you a beautiful open rate because it was just the right mix of urgency and intrigue? Or did the body of your email describe a brand-new resort you just added to your hotel portfolio?

Whatever it was, it gave you a plethora of data from travelers interested in your brand. But what happens next?

Diving into email metrics often means checking out which destinations drove more clicks, or whether this subject line was more successful than the previous one.

But your travel email campaigns are more than a one-off deal—they’re a source of traveler preferences, booking patterns and behaviors.

If studying the hidden layers of your email marketing campaigns is not your strongest suit, fret not. We’re going to take a deep dive to uncover powerful insights through three core sources:

• Your reports that explain your bottom line
• The custom fields you can use to tailor every email to each traveler
• The A/B testing tool that leaves nothing to chance

So, let’s refine your travel email strategy and maximize your bookings.

Campaign reports: The destinations that sell

Understanding who is booking and why can be crucial when you’re planning your next travel email marketing campaign.

When you analyze your email campaign’s reports, you understand recipient activity, opens, clicks, or even the different devices potential travelers use to view your email campaigns.

Your campaign’s reports can also show you behaviors that drive revenue by analyzing how a recipient engages with each destination and campaign.

Sounds complicated? Let’s break it down with a real-world example.

Imagine you’re a travel agency with global destinations running a “Summer Getaway” campaign. You see great metrics at first—your open rates are strong, your CTR is great, but you just don’t have the revenue you imagined.

So, you go into the click on your campaign and go to your report dashboard to see a complete breakdown of your campaign:

• Your performance overview, which can show you a summary of your latest campaign’s statistics.
• Your A/B performance overview, which pinpoints how your A/B testing campaign performed.
• Your “track recipient activity” section, which shows how each recipient interacted with your campaign.
• Your “track link clicks” section, which shows how many times a link in your newsletter has been clicked.
• Your “track email clients and devices” section, where you can make sense of the different browsers and devices your recipients use to open your emails.
• Your “track activity by location” section, which can give you insights into the parts of the world where your campaign was more popular.

Checking these numbers can give you a lot of information. But sometimes, you just need to dig a little deeper. So, here’s what you can do.

You can create your own custom report through the “Custom Reports” tab and select any widget that makes sense for your cause. In our example, we’re selecting the “Best performing day and time” to refine the campaign even further.

The results? Let’s assume that most bookings happened over the weekend. And let’s imagine your report shows Saturday morning was the best time for bookings, but you sent your campaign on a Thursday afternoon.

That means that you likely missed out on conversions from travelers who needed to research the destination and make the most out of their vacation.

But thanks to your custom report, now you know that your campaigns will capture thorough travelers on a Saturday morning.

Let’s get even more granular. Now, we’re going to pick the “Top Locations Map” widget and compare open rates where your travelers reside. If you created a “Europe Only” campaign and Australia is among your top locations, there’s a chance that you missed out on conversions from travelers who are looking for something closer to home.

Next time, you’ll know how to create offers for destinations in the southern hemisphere. Or even better, come up with specials for your European destinations that are lucrative enough for travelers down under to go ahead with.

Custom fields: Tailor your emails to the next level

Think like a traveler. Would you read and click through a message that listed all available destinations and accommodation types? Or would you prefer an email that only shows your bucket list destinations?

If your answer is the latter, then you probably need to learn more about Moosend’s custom fields.

A custom field captures information from subscribers as they subscribe to your list, allowing you to learn more than their first name.

When you create an email list or when subscribers sign up to a newsletter, the default fields are Email, Name, and Mobile. Sometimes, you might want to add fields to receive more information about your subscribers. Moosend’s custom fields offer a way for you to gather more in-depth information for new subscribers, like a specific date—birthdays, for example, or anniversaries—or where they are located and where they prefer to travel.

You can use custom fields on a mailing list as personalization tags inside your email campaigns and as criteria by which you can segment your email list. This means you can easily combine the data about the reaction your subscribers have to your newsletters (for example, opens, link clicks) with the data you collect from custom fields, such as subscribers’ age and location.

Usually, you can collect such information by adding custom fields to a simple form. When people subscribe to your newsletter or sign up to book a trip, ask them a few questions like their birthday or favorite destination to get to know them better.

Now let’s see that in action.

Example: You’re a travel agency specializing in romantic getaways. You launch a campaign promoting a “Couples Retreat” deal for your smaller resorts with one-bedroom double-bed accommodations.

What makes sense is to create an “Anniversary” custom field for your campaign:

That way, your campaign will be ready for a special anniversary message with a personalized offer for specific accommodation types and hotels. Take it a step further with a voucher—not something too big or costly. Perhaps a complementary spa treatment or a romantic dinner in the hotel’s restaurant will do the trick.

The extra touch will make your email campaign more relevant, and you’ll see an increase in engagement and conversions.

You can go through the same process for any campaign you deem necessary. This feature is designed to help you hyper-personalize your campaigns quickly without compromising quality.

Through this feature, you can personalize every aspect of your emails. Go from a generic “[First Name], check out our new hotels” to a “[First Name], our new resort to [Destination Name] is waiting for you.”

But custom fields are not a part of your subject line alone. You can add them to your email’s body copy and show relevant destinations and accommodation or activity recommendations to each part of your email list.

Imagine you run a travel agency or a site that offers vacation packages, and you’ve collected info on the types of destinations your subscribers are interested in. Sarah likes beaches, James prefers mountains, Nick is into urban destinations, and Jessica goes for adventure travel.

Your next campaign’s objective is to promote your “Spring Gateways.” And, naturally, you want each person to see a destination that fits their travel style. Why not add a custom field for an image that changes dynamically?

The process is simple. Just create a custom field called “Image” or “travelimage”. Anything that would help you remember what this custom field does would do, really. In the custom field, add a link to an image that reflects each subscriber’s preferred destination:

• Sarah loves beach vacations. Add an image of a sandy beach with turquoise water and palm trees.
• James prefers mountain retreats. Add an image of a cozy cabin in the Alps.
• Nick enjoys urban destinations. Opt for an image of a bustling city square and interesting little cafés.
• Jessica is into adventure travel. Why not include an image of a hiking destination—perhaps in Patagonia?

Using a custom field like this will help you craft one email and have the content change dynamically. Everyone gets a “Spring Getaways” email, but Sarah sees a beach, James sees a mountain lodge, Nick sees a lively city and Jessica the adventure of a lifetime. The message feels personally relevant, and it’s more likely they’ll click to learn more or book a trip.

Using custom fields can help you refine your future campaigns by showing travelers their top picks and destinations they’d love to explore. All because of data.

A/B testing: Find what makes their mind wander

Most marketers have run an A/B test at some point. As one of the most common—and surefire—ways to understand what hooks audiences, A/B testing can truly benefit your travel email marketing campaigns, so long as it’s done correctly.

You can test anything with A/B testing, from subject lines to preview text, sender names, body copy. No element of your email campaign is too big or too small for that.

For example, test subject lines like:

“Escape to Paradise” vs. “Your dream vacation awaits”

The results can reveal what your audience responds better to. In our case, you’ll see whether your travelers prefer aspirational messaging or direct invitations.

But let’s go beyond subject lines. Why not test your sender name?

You can send your travel email campaigns from an [email protected] address or from a [email protected] address. See which travelers respond better to, to determine whether they prefer a more professional—albeit faceless—or a more personal approach to their email correspondence.

Ready to kick it up a notch? Test your body copy, CTA buttons, or even your email’s overall design. Just keep in mind to change one core element each time. This will help you pinpoint exactly what worked and what didn’t.

So, for your body copy, switch between “Escape to a tropical Paradise” and “See our newest tropical destination” to determine whether your recipients prefer vivid storytelling elements in their email copy or sentences that can be taken at face value.

For your CTA, experiment between “Book now” or “I want to book” to see if imperatives work better.

A/B testing’s biggest benefit isn’t that it can apply to all aspects of your travel campaigns. It’s the fact that it can show you that phrases, colors, or storytelling you were sure would work might not be what your recipients really need, to get them to book their vacations through you.

Take your audience on a journey

Metrics like email opens and click-through rates only tell part of the story. By tapping into deeper insights through reports, custom fields, and A/B testing, you can transform your travel email campaigns into data-driven, high-converting experiences.

Just analyze your data and understand how travelers interact with your emails. Personalize your approach. And watch your bookings soar.