According to a recent census conducted by COLLOQUY, membership in airline loyalty programs in the U.S. is 277.4 million, hotel programs is 161.8 million and car rental and cruise programs is 10.7 million. Financial services loyalty programs outpace second place airline programs by 144.6 million. And retail memberships claim 39 percent of the membership pie while travel and hospitality rank second at 31 percent. In the last census taken in 2007, travel and hospitality came in at number one.

Airline frequent flyer programs continue to grow and are up nine percent since COLLOQUY’s last census in 2007 and, “Generation X and Millennial business travelers continue to join airline programs at a rate that currently outpaces the exodus of retirement-age Boomers,” says the COLLOQUY report. And, “… airline mileage sales are still so lucrative for many airlines–in some cases, the airline makes more money selling miles than they do flying planes–that it’s hard to imagine these programs scaling back any time soon.”

Hotel program memberships are up 26 percent since 2007 and according to COLLOQUY, “Hotels are arguably the most retention-oriented industry we profile–the Hotels know that 80 percent of RevPAR (Revenue per Available Room) comes from 20 percent of their customers, and there is no better vehicle for building relationships with these customers than the loyalty program.”