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March 26, 2021
2 min read

Gift Voucher Sales Soar With COVID

The shift towards digital offerings has picked up pace, with digital and e-voucher sales growing on a calendar year basis.

Accor gift voucher sales increased by 88%
December 2020 v December 2019*

Echoing the trends witnessed across consumer industries more broadly, COVID resulted in an added focus on digital channels and offerings across the gift voucher sector in 2020.

With nationwide lockdowns, restrictions and more, 2020 was an incredibly difficult year in the tourism and hospitality industry.

We analysed several Accor properties gift voucher sales for the calendar year of 2020, and compared the data to total sales for the calendar year 2019, with surprising results;

  • Fairmont Resort & Spa Blue Mountains MGallery by Sofitel
    +26.78%
  • Pullman Palm Cove Sea Temple Resort & Spa
    +51.02%

We note that these percentages are total gift voucher sales and include offline or onsite gift vouchers, meaning, the increase in digital and e-voucher sales is not as a result of people shifting to digital vouchers over physical gift cards or paper.

Who’s buying?
With international boarders closed, and state boarders closed for the majority of 2020, who’s buying?

The giftee is largely in Australia (predominately the state in which the property is located).

The giftor has been global.

Why are they buying?
There are many reasons and occasions, such as birthday gifts, anniversaries, Mother’s Day and more.

Being a reputable, well-known brand also adds security and assurance that the property will still be open when it comes time to claiming the voucher.

Key takeaway
Despite the global pandemic, gift vouchers for Accor properties are in demand now more than ever.

Benefits of digital/e-vouchers

  • Easy way to receive money now for goods and services to be used at a later date.
  • 60% of all Accor gift vouchers are never actually claimed (current case with all properties overall).
  • Website is Mobile First, developed on Magento and is an owned asset of the property.
  • Online has a greater uptake and conversion, and has a 24/7 shop front, versus having to phone or email. Credit card details over email also raises security concerns.
  • Online eliminates internal staff time, postage, and handling.

*Combined Accor gift voucher sales (all sales) for Accor gift voucher websites developed by OmniHyper® only.

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Testimonials

Carla Jordan

Marketing Manager, Perth, Western Australia Australia
To date I’ve worked with OmniHyper to build two hotel e-commerce gift voucher websites – and will soon be embarking on a third! These websites are not just a fantastic additional revenue stream for our hotels, they also streamline efficiencies in our business for both our busy guest-facing team members on the ground and our finance departments. And of course making the purchasing process simpler and far more secure for our guests has seen revenue from gift voucher sales increase exponentially. The only feedback I have had from our hotel teams is that they wish they had switched to an online solution sooner!
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Mark Mewburn

Director of Marketing, Queensland & Northern Territory Australia
I’ve worked with Michael and the OmniHyper team on a number of projects - Search Engine Optimisation for hotel microsites, E-commerce website builds, and website builds for hotels and tourism products. Each project has contributed significantly to hotel digital marketing results whether it be revenue production or increasing visibility in search engine results pages and driving traffic to hotel websites. It’s been a true collaboration to get the best results and OmniHyper have become an extension to the team providing expert advice and digital solutions for the business.
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Tricia Cornelius

Regional Director of Sales & Marketing, Queensland & Northern Territory Australia
100% support this partnership, my only clear advice is to understand what OmniHyper will do for the business, you will not see the result as an instant fix, it takes up to 6 months to deliver on Google, it is a very complex back engine partnership, and the results in the world of sales are not tangible and it is hard to define the ROI in the first 6 months. Google takes patience and time as Google does not want you to be on Page one in an organic space without paying for it, and patience is something we in hotels do not have a lot off. Understand what the long-term goal is and work with OmniHyper collectively and you will get your ROI in redirecting direct business from 3rd party channels, also really good for MICE opportunity. For me as your aware, this is a no brainer and something I am much defined about, we have 8 hotels in the region working in this partnership and we do see the results come through. Over to you, Warm Regards Tricia.
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