How Loyalty Creates Belonging and Growth - From Transactions to Communities

In tourism and experience-driven industries, relying on transactional loyalty (points, discounts, repeat purchase) is no longer enough. Travelers move, explore, and shift loyalties easily. To create lasting connections, brands must evolve: from loyalty to belovedness, where community, identity, and shared purpose fuel engagement and growth.

In this article, we’ll explore how to build a community-centric loyalty model, highlight successful cases, and show how PERS enables this shift from transactional loyalty to belonging-based brand advocacy.

In 2024, 70% of consumers say they're more loyal to brands that build community around shared values. Belonging has become the new retention strategy, people seek identity, not transactions.

Why “Beloved” Is the Next Level After Loyalty

The Limits of Transactional Loyalty

• Discount fatigue leads to diminishing returns over time

• Loyalty becomes commoditized and interchangeable

• Emotional connection is often missing

What Does “Beloved” Mean?

Being beloved means your brand lives in the minds and hearts of your customers. Not just a place to buy again, but a place to belong.

• Emotional foundation: shared values, storytelling, identity

• Functional reciprocity: members give and receive data, advocacy, status

• Technological scalability: systems that track, automate, and grow community dynamics

This shift opens a powerful space where loyalty becomes both a retention and an acquisition engine.

The Architecture of a Beloved Loyalty System

To build a program that drives true brand affinity, it must be structured across three interdependent layers:

Three Real-World Examples of Community-Driven Loyalty in experience industry

Image from visitflanders.com

1. Visit Flanders Micro‑Communities for Deeper Engagement: Visit Flanders created passion-based micro‑communities (cycling lovers, heritage explorers, foodies) allowing travelers to earn digital credits for completing themed routes and activities. These credits unlocked exclusive local offers. Result: Over 40% increase in partner retention and deeper visitor engagement within the same trip cycle.

2. Marriott Bonvoy Moments: Marriott invited loyalty members to use points for experiences such as concerts, culinary events, and cultural moments. This added an emotional layer to loyalty beyond room bookings. Result: Higher customer retention and 2.5x greater annual spend per member.

3. SXSW (Austin) “The Extended Festival” : One cultural event built a digital platform connecting attendees, artists, and local partners. Members earned credits for engaging before, during, and after the event. Result: Post-event engagement stayed at 60%, extending the brand connection months beyond the festival itself.

How PERS Supports the Shift from Loyalty to Belonging

1. API-first, modular, multi-channel integration: PERS integrates into existing systems like CRMs, booking engines, and POS, enabling loyalty to be embedded across every touchpoint.

2. Behavioral & action-based triggers: Loyalty is not limited to purchases. Brands can reward content sharing, QR activations, in-person attendance, and other behaviors that build community.

3. Traceability & analytics: Every action and reward is tracked. Brands access real-time data on what drives engagement and conversion, making loyalty measurable and optimizable.

4. Scalable community & partner ecosystems: New partners and experiences can be onboarded flexibly, growing the loyalty ecosystem and offering members more ways to engage.

Watch full Webinar How Loyalty Creates Belonging and Growth - From Transactions to Communities - Loyalty Strategies by Angela Bustillos

How to Start: Four Strategic Questions to Ask

1. What shared space or purpose will unite your community?

   Define the emotional and narrative foundations.

2. What behaviors do you want to reward, beyond transactions?
   Consider participation, content creation, advocacy, and co-creation.

3. Are your rewards reinforcing community, or just discounting?
   Design access-based, experience-based, or recognition-based rewards.

4. Is your tech stack ready to scale and measure loyalty?
   Ensure integration, modularity, and insight capabilities.

As a starting point, map your current metrics (customer lifetime value, repeat rate, engagement) and evaluate how a community-driven loyalty strategy could improve them.

Ready to Shift from Transactions to Belonging?

Discover how PERS helps brands build communities, reduce CAC, and turn satisfied customers into active promoters through a loyalty system designed for long-term growth.

Book a Demo Let’s build your community loyalty system together.

Book a Demo Let’s build your community loyalty system together.

• What is PERS and how does it work?

  PERS is a SaaS loyalty and rewards platform that transforms every customer interaction (online or offline) into measurable engagement.

  Through API-first integration with CRMs, PMS, IoT, booking engines, and more, brands can launch gamified campaigns and reward actions with points, tokens, or digital collectibles

• What industries can use PERS?

  PERS is designed for the Tourism and Experience economy, but its modular SaaS structure makes it adaptable to many industries. Our main verticals are:

  • Hospitality → hotels, eco-resorts, colivings (increase direct bookings, reduce OTA dependency).

  • Retail & Lifestyle → connect online & offline shopping, turn buyers into brand communities.

  • Museums & Education → attract new audiences, gamify visits, measure cultural impact.

  • Events & Festivals → build long-term community loyalty beyond the event date.

  • Tourism & DMOs → strengthen partner ecosystems, track sustainable tourism, boost repeated visits.

  • Leisure & Activities → tours, experiences, theme parks and attractions (engagement before, during, after the visit).

  PERS adapts to any organization that needs measurable loyalty, stronger engagement, and sustainability-driven campaigns