How Banks and Loyalty Platforms Are Using Travel Experiences to Increase Engagement and Revenue

Travel rewards have started to feel like the obvious loyalty perk for brands that want something practical, a little emotional, and, honestly, easy to get excited about.

Because customers are not just comparing points versus cashback anymore. They’re comparing what those benefits actually turn into. And there’s a big difference between “5,000 points” and “that afternoon you spent on a food tour that you still talk about.”

For banks and other financial brands, that shift opens a door. Everyday spending can connect to travel and lifestyle moments that feel memorable, not mechanical.

The tricky part is the operational side of it. How do banks and loyalty platforms offer great experiences at scale without accidentally signing up to run a travel company?

How travel loyalty programs offer tours and activities through APIs, white label marketplaces, and embedded booking

For banks, credit card issuers, fintechs, and loyalty platforms, rewards have moved beyond the usual menu of points, cashback, and discounts.

People still like those things, sure, but more and more, customers expect rewards to feel useful, personal, and connected to experiences they would genuinely choose for themselves.

That’s why travel experiences are showing up as a more strategic piece of loyalty. Tours, attractions, local activities, events, and lifestyle experiences give financial brands a way to turn ordinary purchases into something that feels like a payoff.

Not in a vague way, either. In specific, “I can picture it” ways, like:

• A museum ticket in Paris
• A food tour in Rome
• A sports event in New York
• A family activity during a holiday

So the question isn’t whether customers value travel rewards. They pretty clearly do.

The real question is how banks and loyalty platforms can deliver those experiences at scale, while staying in their lane, meaning they enable travel rather than operate it.

Loyalty is shifting from transactions to experiences

Most traditional loyalty programs were built around accumulation.

You earned points, waited until you hit a threshold, and then redeemed for something big, flights, hotels, gift cards, merchandise. That model still works, and it’s not going away overnight, but it’s under pressure.

Consumers have more choices than ever, and financial institutions aren’t only competing with other banks now, they’re also being compared to:

• Fintech apps that make rewards feel instant
• Digital wallets that simplify payments and perks
• Retailers with aggressive member programs
• Airlines and hotels with mature loyalty ecosystems
• Subscription-based lifestyle platforms that bundle “perks” into a monthly fee

In other words, loyalty is no longer just a math problem, it’s a user experience problem, and maybe even a relevance problem.

Why the loyalty model is under pressure

Some recent research lines up with what brands are seeing in the market.

Deloitte’s 2026 Consumer Loyalty  shows that loyalty programs remain a meaningful lever for brands competing on value. The survey found that while price, value, and quality remain the top drivers of loyalty, loyalty programs follow close behind. It also found that 72% of consumers say loyalty programs make them more likely to spend with their preferred brand, while 56% increase their spending because of the program.

And that’s really the heart of it, if rewards are hard to use, or feel generic, people stop caring. If they’re simple, relevant, and tied to experiences customers genuinely want, they tend to feel worth sticking around for.

For banks, this matters because loyalty is no longer just a marketing function, it is a retention strategy, a customer engagement engine, and, increasingly, a revenue channel.

Why Travel Experiences are Attractive to Banks

Travel has always been one of the strongest emotional categories in rewards.

People may forget a generic discount, but they remember a trip, an attraction, or an activity they experienced with family or friends.

That emotional pull is one reason travel rewards continue to matter.

Barclays US Consumer Bank’s 2026 Travel Rewards and Loyalty Report shows that rewards are increasingly tied to affordability, control, and confidence in travel planning. In the report, 86% of respondents said they enjoy finding ways to maximize the value of their travel budget, 71% said getting “a great deal” is very important when planning a vacation, and 76% said they would be more likely to select upgrades if they could use points or miles instead of money.

Why Customers are Open to Travel Through Non-Travel Brands

Consumers are increasingly comfortable booking travel through non-travel brands.

In Mastercard’s 2025 interview with Expedia Group, Expedia Group’s Mindy Rehse states that 80% of people are interested in booking travel through non-travel loyalty programs. The same interview also discusses Mastercard’s Travel with Rewards program, which lets customers use credit card points to book travel. This creates a clear opening for financial brands.

The trend is also showing up in new 2026 launches: Morrisons launched Morrisons Travel in partnership with Expedia Group, giving customers a way to book hotels, flights, car hire, tours, and activities while earning More Card points.

A bank does not need to operate an airline or hotel chain to become part of the travel journey, it can embed travel and lifestyle content into its existing digital ecosystem and give customers more ways to earn, redeem, and engage.

The Operational Problem Behind Experience Rewards

Offering travel experiences sounds simple from the customer’s perspective, in practice, it is complex.

Tours and activities are one of the most fragmented categories in travel. Inventory can come from many different sources, including:

• Local operators
• Ticketing platforms
• Attraction providers
• Global marketplaces
• Regional aggregators
• Event suppliers

Each source may have different booking rules, cancellation policies, voucher formats, languages, currencies, pricing structures, availability feeds, and customer support requirements.

For a bank or loyalty program, managing this directly is rarely practical.

Why Banks Cannot Operate Like Travel Companies

A financial institution may have millions of cardholders and strict requirements around uptime, compliance, payments, user experience, localization, and customer support. It cannot afford broken booking flows, inaccurate availability, unclear refund policies, or a customer journey that feels disconnected from the brand.

That is why the key question is not simply “how do travel loyalty programs offer tours and activities?” The real question is how they do it without adding operational complexity.

APIs and Marketplaces are Becoming the Bridge

The modern answer is infrastructure.

Instead of building a travel experiences business from scratch, banks and loyalty platforms can work with API providers, marketplace partners, and white-label platforms that already connect to tours, activities, attractions, and events.

Marketplace Access, API Connectivity, and Infrastructure Models

Not every travel experience provider solves the same problem.

Some providers focus on marketplace access. Others focus on attraction ticketing, API connectivity, white-label storefronts, or broader infrastructure that helps brands embed experiences inside their own customer journeys.

That distinction matters for banks and loyalty platforms because they are not usually trying to become travel operators. They need a reliable way to offer tours, activities, attractions, events, and lifestyle experiences without taking on the operational burden of managing suppliers directly.

How Different Providers Approach the Market

GetYourGuide focuses on marketplace access and API connectivity.

Its API documentation highlights automatic availability and pricing updates, automatic booking processing, and voucher barcode or QR code support. For brands that want access to a recognized tours and activities marketplace, this kind of connectivity can be useful.

Tiqets is more focused on attractions, museums, and ticketed experiences.

Its Distributor API documentation covers product catalogue data, availability and pricing, booking flows, cancellations, webhooks, and notifications for partner integrations. This makes Tiqets especially relevant for platforms that want to offer attraction tickets and museum-style inventory.

Musement, part of TUI Group, offers API, white-label, referral link, and widget options for partners that want to sell activities from the Musement catalog.

TUI Musement has also expanded distribution through a TravelExchange API integration covering more than 750 multi-day tours across over 30 countries, with real-time availability, up-to-date pricing, and instant booking confirmation.

Holibob takes a more API-centric approach.

Its GraphQL API allows authorized partners to query products and availability and create or confirm bookings. This can work well for travel brands and developer-led teams that want API-based access to experience commerce.

Bridgify takes a broader infrastructure approach.

It brings fragmented supply together through a single integration, combining a unified API, white-label marketplace capabilities, and AI-powered personalization and conversational AI capabilities, into one B2B2C experiences layer. That makes it different from providers that mainly offer access to one marketplace, one catalog, or one ticketing category.

For banks, loyalty programs, fintechs, travel brands, digital wallets, and enterprise digital platforms, Bridgify is especially relevant when the goal is to embed experiences inside the partner’s own customer journey rather than sending users into a separate consumer marketplace.

This matters because banks and loyalty platforms typically do not want to manage fragmented supplier relationships, multiple integrations, and ongoing inventory complexity just to offer experiences. Bridgify’s model is built to remove that operational burden through a single infrastructure layer.

Why the Difference Matters

These models show how the market is evolving.

Banks no longer need to negotiate with hundreds of individual suppliers to offer travel experiences. They can connect to distribution layers that make inventory easier to access, book, personalize, and manage.

The right fit depends on the business goal:

• A brand that wants attraction tickets may look at a ticketing-focused API.
• A platform that wants access to a known consumer marketplace may choose a marketplace API.
• A travel agency or OTA may prefer a catalog or B2B distribution model.
• A bank, loyalty program, or fintech that wants an embedded experience layer may need API access, white-label delivery, supply aggregation, and personalization working together.

That is where Bridgify’s model stands out in this comparison. It is not only an inventory source or a booking API. It is designed as an infrastructure layer for brands that want to offer travel and lifestyle experiences inside their own ecosystem.

Comparing Travel Experience Infrastructure Options

Not every travel experience solution works the same way.

Some providers focus on access to their own marketplace inventory. Others offer API connectivity, attraction ticketing, white-label storefronts, or broader infrastructure for brands that want to embed experiences inside their own customer journeys.

For banks and loyalty platforms, the right choice depends on what they need most:

• Speed-to-market
• Inventory breadth
• Brand control
• Personalization
• API flexibility
• A fully embedded customer experience

This comparison above shows why the market is not only about who has experiences inventory.

The bigger question is how that inventory is delivered, branded, personalized, and connected to the customer journey.

For financial institutions, this distinction matters because an experience program is not just another product catalog. It needs to fit into existing loyalty flows, redemption mechanics, digital banking apps, cardholder benefits, and customer engagement strategies.

Where White-Label Marketplaces Fit In

For some financial institutions, an API is enough.

They may already have a strong product team, a mobile app, a rewards engine, and a custom checkout experience. In that case, the priority is access to reliable inventory and flexible integration.

For others, a white-label marketplace may be the faster route.

What a White-Label Marketplace Gives the Customer

A white-label marketplace lets a bank or loyalty platform launch a branded travel experiences storefront without building every component internally.

The customer remains inside a familiar brand environment, while the underlying technology handles the key parts of the booking journey, such as:

• Search
• Product details
• Booking
• Checkout
• Vouchers
• Sometimes cancellations or post-booking flows

This is especially relevant for financial institutions that want speed-to-market but do not want to dedicate large engineering teams to a non-core travel build.

Where a Unified Infrastructure Layer Fits

For financial brands, the goal is not to become a tourism company.

The goal is to give customers access to relevant travel and lifestyle experiences in a way that supports engagement, retention, and monetization.

A unified infrastructure layer can help because it reduces supplier complexity while connecting supply, booking flows, branded delivery, and personalization in one model. For banks, loyalty platforms, fintechs, and travel brands, that can reduce the need to manage supplier relationships, inventory updates, content standardization, and backend infrastructure directly.

This is especially useful when experiences need to sit inside an existing customer journey, such as a banking app, rewards portal, cardholder benefit, digital wallet, or travel platform.

How Embedded Experiences Create Revenue Opportunities

Travel experiences can create value for banks and loyalty platforms in several ways.

The first is redemption.

Customers can use points, cashback, vouchers, or other rewards toward activities they actually want. This can make a loyalty program feel more aspirational than a static catalog of products or generic gift cards.

The second is transaction growth.

If customers associate a card, wallet, or loyalty app with valuable travel benefits, they have more reason to keep using it before, during, and after a trip.

The third is ancillary revenue.

Experiences can become a new commercial category inside the customer journey. A bank may earn from bookings, margins, commissions, card usage, loyalty redemption flows, or partner-funded offers, depending on the commercial structure.

The fourth is data-driven engagement.

When customers browse, save, or book experiences, the platform gains more context about travel intent, preferences, destination behavior, and lifestyle interests.

Why Experiences Create More Meaningful Digital Touchpoints

This is why experiences are increasingly relevant beyond traditional travel companies.

For a bank, the travel journey is not just a redemption opportunity, it is a way to create more frequent and meaningful digital touchpoints.

Personalization Is Becoming the Next Advantage

Simply adding inventory is not enough, a customer visiting London does not need to see hundreds of undifferentiated activities.

A family with children, a solo business traveler, and a couple celebrating an anniversary may all be looking at the same destination, but they need very different recommendations.

This is where personalization becomes critical.

From Passive Catalogs to Active Engagement

For banks and loyalty platforms, personalization can turn an experience marketplace from a passive catalog into an active engagement tool.

Instead of asking customers to search through long lists, platforms can guide them toward relevant activities based on context. That kind of discovery experience may become especially important as AI assistants, conversational search, and embedded commerce continue to reshape customer expectations.

The Executive Decision: Build, Partner, or Embed

For leaders at banks and loyalty platforms, the decision usually comes down to three options.

Option 1: They can build directly, which offers control but requires supplier contracts, technology development, inventory management, support infrastructure, and ongoing maintenance.

Option 2: They can partner with a marketplace or affiliate provider, which can be faster but may offer less control over branding, customer experience, payment flows, or inventory scope.

Option 3: Or they can embed a dedicated infrastructure layer through an API or white-label marketplace, which can balance speed, scale, and brand control.

How to Choose the Right Model

The right path depends on the institution’s strategy. A premium card issuer may prioritize curated high-value experiences whereas a digital wallet may want broad global coverage and fast activation. A loyalty platform may need flexible earn-and-redeem mechanics and a bank with millions of users may need enterprise-grade reliability, localization, and support.

What matters is choosing a model that fits the business outcome, not just the technology requirement.

The Bottom Line

Travel experiences are becoming a practical way for banks and loyalty platforms to make rewards more relevant, more personal, and more commercially valuable.

The demand is already there.

Consumers continue to rely on travel rewards, and many are open to booking travel through non-travel loyalty programs.

The missing piece is infrastructure: the ability to offer tours, activities, attractions, events, and lifestyle experiences without taking on the burden of operating a travel business. APIs, white-label marketplaces, and embedded booking platforms are helping close that gap.

For financial institutions, the opportunity is clear. The next generation of loyalty will not be defined only by how many points a customer earns, it will be defined by what those points, benefits, and digital journeys help the customer experience.