Marriott Bonvoy Loyalty Trends Shift Toward Wellness

SINGAPORE, May 25, 2026: Marriott Bonvoy has released its Loyalty Trends Report 2026, covering eight markets across Asia Pacific excluding China, and found that travellers across the region are demanding a fundamental shift in how hotel loyalty programs work, moving away from uniform points accumulation toward adaptive ecosystems built around individual travel passions, cultural behaviours and everyday spending value.

The report, based on a Kantar survey of 1,731 travellers across Australia, India, Indonesia, Japan, Singapore, South Korea, Thailand and Vietnam, found that 89% of APEC travellers participate in at least one loyalty program. Yet despite near-universal participation, hotels that fail to align their reward offerings with the specific travel priorities and earning preferences of their markets risk losing engagement to more responsive competitors.

Marriott Bonvoy loyalty trends report identifies food and dining as the top engagement driver

Of the five travel priorities the Marriott Bonvoy report identified across APEC, Food and Dining, Nature and Sightseeing, Shopping, Cultural Immersion, and Recharge and Disconnect, Food and Dining emerged as the dominant force shaping loyalty engagement. Sixty-three per cent of APEC travellers cited culinary experiences as a priority when planning trips, making it the category most likely to influence how guests earn and redeem loyalty points.

The finding has direct commercial implications for hotel operators. Travellers who prioritise food experiences are more likely to spend on hotel food and beverage outlets, driving ancillary revenue alongside room occupancy. Hotel loyalty programs that offer dining-specific earning and redemption pathways, points for restaurant spend, food-linked reward tiers, chef experience redemptions are better positioned to capture and retain this segment than programs that limit point-earning to room bookings alone.

Wellness travellers show the highest on-property spend potential

The report identified "Recharge and Disconnect" travellers, those who treat hotel stays as wellness and recovery experiences, as the segment with the greatest on-property spending potential across the APEC region. This group showed a higher propensity to spend on accommodation upgrades, spa and wellness services, in-hotel dining and relaxation-focused experiences, turning the hotel itself into the primary destination rather than a transit point between external activities.

For hotel operators, the wellness segment represents both an occupancy driver and a high-value ancillary revenue source. Programs that actively reward spa usage, in-room dining, pool access and wellness amenity engagement have greater capacity to convert this traveller type into loyal, high-frequency guests.

Hotel loyalty programs lead the APEC regional landscape

Despite competition from airline miles, retail cashback schemes and food delivery platforms, hotel loyalty programs retain a commanding position across the region. The report found 66% participation in hotel loyalty programs across APEC — ahead of all other loyalty categories. The majority of enrolled members maintain their hotel program membership for more than two years, indicating sustained engagement well beyond a single-trip trial.

Everyday earning emerged as the most valued loyalty feature across the survey base. The ability to accumulate points through daily spending, via co-branded credit cards, retail partnerships, food delivery integrations and travel services, has shifted from a differentiating feature to a baseline expectation for loyal travellers. Redemption preferences split broadly between immediate rewards such as F&B upgrades and room enhancements, and longer-term aspirational benefits including complimentary stays and exclusive experiences.

Three distinct loyalty mindsets define APEC hotel markets

One of the report's most commercially actionable findings is its mapping of three distinct loyalty mindsets across APEC markets, each requiring a different program design approach.

Loyalty Strategists, found primarily in Japan and South Korea, approach hotel loyalty programs with discipline and consistency. They prioritise structured earning, predictable point accumulation and practical reward redemptions, favouring programs with clear, reliable value over aspirational but unpredictable benefits.

Value Optimisers in Singapore, Australia and Thailand focus on extracting visible, tangible savings from their loyalty membership. Room upgrades, flexible travel benefits and immediate cost reductions are the rewards that drive their engagement. This group is particularly sensitive to whether the program delivers measurable value with each booking.

Experience Seekers, the mindset cluster that includes India, Indonesia and Vietnam, are driven by exclusivity, access to unique experiences, partner benefits, status recognition and memorable rewards. This group is more likely to seek big-ticket redemptions, exclusive access and programs that signal a higher level of belonging rather than purely functional savings.

India ranks second in APEC loyalty participation with highest big-ticket redemption intent

India stood out as one of the most loyalty-engaged markets in the survey. Ninety-three per cent of Indian travellers surveyed participate in at least one loyalty program, the second highest participation rate across all eight APEC markets covered. Indian travellers also showed the highest tendency among surveyed markets to redeem points for big-ticket rewards, consistent with the Experience Seeker mindset attributed to the India, Indonesia and Vietnam cluster.

The report noted that Indian travellers show above-average engagement with bank transfer-based point earning, reflecting the deep integration of hotel loyalty programs with co-branded credit card ecosystems in the Indian market. This pattern positions hotel-bank loyalty partnerships as a particularly effective retention tool for Indian guests across the Marriott International portfolio and the broader hospitality market.

Marriott Bonvoy says programs must become adaptive ecosystems

John Toomey, area vice president for Marriott International in the APEC region, said the findings reinforce that a one-size-fits-all approach to hotel loyalty no longer serves the diversity of traveller expectations across Asia Pacific.

"Hotel loyalty programs must evolve into adaptive ecosystems that grow alongside travellers' changing lifestyles and preferences," Toomey said. He added that understanding local consumer behaviours and travel passions is essential to building the kind of loyalty that drives long-term guest relationships rather than transactional point accumulation alone.

The report's findings arrive at a time when hotel chains globally are under competitive pressure from short-term rental platforms, OTA-driven booking behaviour and AI-powered travel discovery tools that shift guest attention away from brand-specific booking pathways. A loyalty program that generates habitual direct booking behaviour, particularly one reinforced through everyday co-branded earning, represents a structural advantage for hotel brands navigating that environment.