Inside the 2026 Intelligent Growth Report: Defining High-Fidelity Travel + Hospitality Brands

In travel and hospitality, category leaders have a problem that won’t show up in satisfaction surveys. They’re winning the moment but losing the relationship. Our 2026 Intelligent Growth Report measured nearly 24,000 consumers against hundreds of global brands across 30 industries, including travel and hospitality, and the pattern throughout the category is consistent:

Brands score well on in-the-moment attributes that make trips easy, but noticeably worse on the over-time attributes that make the brand matter.

Part of the challenge is the current level of disruption across all industries, brought on by 30 global macro-shifts — including political, economic, environmental, social, cultural, technological and scientific drivers of change. To thrive within this disruption, brands need to understand the impact of these shifts on performance over time and, most crucially, in the moment.

We’ve built a framework, called M+ Brand Fidelity™, to do exactly this by measuring six key attributes that drive both emotional and practical connections between brands and customers. These attributes are:

In the moment:

• • User-friendly: The brand meets my needs easily and reliably.

  • Accessible: The brand is always there when I need it.

  • Personal: The brand understands my unique needs.

Over time:

• • Dependable: The brand consistently provides a good experience.

  • Meaningful: The brand plays a significant role in my life.

  • Salient: When I have a need in their category, this is the brand I turn to.

In what follows, we’ll describe what the M+ Brand Fidelity framework reveals about brand performance in travel and hospitality.

M+ Brand Fidelity Strengths + Gaps in Travel + Hospitality

A breakdown of the M+ Brand Fidelity scores for leading brands in travel and hospitality reveals a number of trends, strengths and opportunities.

M+ Brand Fidelity Scores in Travel + Hospitality

The scores above range from 0 – 100, and the lighter colored squares in the graph reflect lower scores, revealing an obvious gap in the Meaningful column. This suggests unrealized opportunities for brands to provide meaningful and salient experiences over time. But it also recognizes that category leaders are engaging with customers especially well through in-the-moment drivers like being personal, accessible and user-friendly.

Understanding Macro-Shifts in Travel + Hospitality

These opportunities are contingent on brands being able to adapt to macro-shifts in the market. In travel and hospitality, these shifts include the emergence of an experience economy, expectations of personalization, the impact of inflation/consumer uncertainty and the rise of convenience culture.

These shifts are driving demand for experiences that feel more intentional than transactional, creating meaning and helping travelers deepen connections. The Intelligent Growth Report offers the following insights into the category.

The future of travel + hospitality will be:

Restorative

In a culture defined by acceleration, burnout and digital saturation, travel can provide a much-needed reset. Travelers increasingly value brands that are consistent, low-friction and dependable, and that support wellness and renewal by offering fresh, reinvigorating experiences.

Brand Fidelity attributes

• User-friendly

• Dependable

• Meaningful

• Accessible 

Category leadership example: Hyatt is redefining luxury as the freedom to slow down, offering well-being focused programs and properties.

Intentional

Travel can be less about escape and more about alignment. Sustainability concerns, economic uncertainty and increasing expectations for personalized experiences are inspiring travelers to make more deliberate, purpose-led choices.

Brand Fidelity attributes

• Personal

• Meaningful

• Accessible

Category leadership example: Booking.com helps travelers align trips with personal budgets and priorities rather than standardized itineraries.

Grounded

Travelers don’t want to just “check off” destinations; they’re seeking depth. This includes experiences rooted in local culture, connection and community. Grounded travel prioritizes presence over performance and replaces “tourist” encounters with authentic experiences.

Brand Fidelity attributes

• Meaningful

• Personal

• Dependable

Category leadership example: Four Seasons grounds its global footprint in the local context with regionally rooted design, cuisine and cultural programming.

Unique

Social media has flattened and standardized a lot of travel aesthetics, making distinctiveness a highly sought-after commodity. Travelers want trips they can weave into their personal narratives, so they’re looking for places and experiences that feel rich in character and emotionally resonant.

Brand Fidelity attributes

• Meaningful

• Salient

• Personal

Category leadership example: Turo offers access to distinctive, owner-provided vehicles that make transportation into a memorable, story-worthy part of the trip.

Communal

Travel can facilitate connections and belonging. Increased loneliness, economic pressures and dispersed relationships make shared travel experiences designed around togetherness especially valuable.

Brand Fidelity attributes

• Salient

• Dependable

• Accessible

Category leadership example: Ritz-Carlton designs experiences around shared rituals like communal dining and curated group activities.

Opportunities for Deeper, More Meaningful Experiences

Travel and hospitality brands have already responded to these macro-shifts in powerful ways. The Intelligent Growth Report reveals existing strengths, as well as opportunities for deeper connections and improved brand performance.

Brands are already:

Providing Restorative Experiences
Based on consistently high M+ Brand Fidelity scores in the Dependable and User-Friendly attributes, category strengths include the delivery of consistent and reliable service. Travel and hospitality perform well where brands deliver dependable, low-friction experiences that generate rest, comfort and confidence.

Enabling Intentional Travel
Travelers are now able to make more deliberate choices, aligning their values with their travel experiences. This is reflected in relatively high scores in the Personal and Accessible attributes, both powered by improvements in digital platforms and flexible offerings.

Brands have greater opportunities to:

Offer Grounded Experiences
Many brands struggle to offer local authenticity at scale. Without deep cultural integration, experiences risk feeling generic or interchangeable.

Build Communal Moments
There’s an increasing demand for shared travel, but many category offerings are only optimized for individual transactions, not collective experiences. This limits opportunities for deeper loyalty — and for the meaning that emerges from shared moments.

Create Unique Experiences
Even leading brands consistently underperform in the M+ Brand Fidelity categories of Meaningful and Salient. Only a handful of brands currently offer emotional differentiation. Not delivering distinctive experiences weakens long-term loyalty.

Why M+ Brand Fidelity Matters

Adapting to macro-shifts in markets requires an understanding of what’s working, what’s not and what’s left to explore. M+ Brand Fidelity offers insights into all of these — and is a better predictor of brand performance than traditional brand and CX metrics.

Customers are twice as likely to advocate for, try the new products of and pay premium prices for brands with High Fidelity scores. High Fidelity brands also deliver 2.5x stronger profitability and revenue growth compared to Low Fidelity brands and are three times more likely to be seen as highly differentiated relative to their competitors.

For travel and hospitality brands, this framework can measure existing performance and provide insights into creating more meaningful, restorative and valuable experiences for their customers.

To learn more, you can download the full 2026 Intelligent Growth Report. Or, if you have questions about the ways Material and M+ Brand Fidelity can help your brand build stronger and more profitable relationships, reach out.