travel marketing problems

11 min read

7 tourism marketing challenges and how to overcome them.

By: Susan Finch on May 10, 2021

The travel business is getting back on track as the United States recovers from the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic . 

In 2021, 88% of consumers planned to travel, and 39% said their next vacation would be at least a week, according to research from Expedia and HomeToGo.

So, while the industry comes back to life, travel companies will want to ensure they're top of mind for their target audiences.

How do you stand out in a crowded marketplace with so many travel choices?

The answer lies in how you market your offerings, from your Unique Selling Proposition (USP) all the way to your overarching brand strategy.

Here's an overview of seven travel and tourism marketing challenges and how to overcome them.

Types of Tourism Businesses and Their Marketing Challenges

Here are the main challenges for tourism businesses. We'll go over proposed solutions to these challenges in the following section.

Accommodations

Key challenges: catering to niche groups.

Hotels, resorts, and vacation communities catering to small, niche groups need channels to market themselves accordingly.

For example, Travel and Leisure's top-rated Maui resort  Hotel Wailea offers an oasis from beach-crowded hotels.

As an adult-only resort, the hotel needed to focus on catering to a niche, adult-only crowd eager for a kid-free environment.

The hotel also wanted to find ways to engage guests and create an independent spirit to help brand the resort. This presented a challenge since Hawaii is typically known for family vacations.

Transportation

Key challenges: enhancing the customer experience.

Airlines aren’t exactly known for focusing on passenger comfort - in fact, their profitability has largely been at the peril of passenger comfort.

But when revenues are determined by how many flights and seats they can fill, adding more seats is often the answer to increasing profits.

Not to mention the added concerns around flying following the COVID-19 pandemic.

Airlines have a challenge of finding tourism marketing solutions to earn new customers while finding new ways to create comfort and enhance the passenger experience.

Retail Travel Agents

Key challenges: too many choices.

Today’s travelers have endless options for researching, planning, and booking travel, from online booking engines to travel blogs.

And although reports show Millennials are relying on travel agents in record numbers, there is still an issue of wading through the endless choices among both travel agents, as well as online resources.

Millennials are seeking experiential travel that transforms the way they take a vacation, making it difficult for agents to convey those experiences.

Tour Operators

Key challenges: market shifts.

More users aren’t just looking for on-site WiFi and amenities in their transportation options; they want the customer experience to start online.

According to an interview with James River Transportation in LCT Magazine , only 5% of their charter bus tour and operation sales came from the Internet 10 years ago.

But at the moment, 60% of their reservation requests are either quotes that get converted or requested through online sales, which is an enormous increase.

But it's not just current travelers seeking a user experience that starts with a first online touch point. Tour operators also see a rapid shift in the long-term tour market as fewer Millennials and Generation X individuals take tours.

Shopping Centers and Retail / Souvenir Shops

Key challenges: off-season slump.

Retail centers and souvenir shops located within tourist destinations face the challenge of dipping sales and foot traffic during tourism slumps.

And the shopping slump extends beyond tourist destinations.

Retail giant Burberry attributed a recent wave of disappointing sales to a drop in tourist spending. Smaller shops and souvenir shops face Burberry’s fate at the end of every tourist season if they don't strategize and put a travel and tourism marketing plan in place.

Restaurants

Key challenges: staying top of mind.

A well-foot-trafficked area in a tourist destination already has a built-in presence and ability to stay on top of mind.

But restaurants and eateries struggling to stay current in a sea of food options or that are off the beaten path are tasked with a daunting feat.

Aside from continuous discounts and promotions, restaurants must look towards innovative tourism marketing solutions to attract a steady flow of customers.

Museums, Temples, Gardens, and Theme parks

Key challenges: attracting changing demographic.

Major attractions like museums , temples, gardens, and theme parks often cater to a small, focused crowd.

Disney initially catered to families and small children.

Museums and temples traditionally attract history and culture enthusiasts, and gardens are often reserves for nature lovers.

Key attraction sites lose sales and relevancy in a flooded marketplace without the ability to broaden the focus and attract broader demographics.

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Travel and tourism marketing solutions.

Fortunately, there are solutions to these marketing problems . Follow these guidelines to ensure your travel brand can overcome whatever challenges are thrown your way.

Problem 1: Catering to a small, niche crowd while engaging guests

Solution: create an independent voice and brand.

Hotel Wailea faced the challenge of catering to adult-only travelers and creating an independent, unique spirit.

To captivate an audience looking for a unique, kid-free experience they couldn't get at other luxury Hawaiian resorts; the hotel cultivated a beach safari that included exploring exotic beaches and driving a vintage Porsche.

They also engaged the LGBTQ community during Pride Week celebrations, and Hearst Bay Area developed a custom brand story to target an ideal, kid-free clientele.

The brand avoided the white glove tradition associated with luxury brands to focus on developing a bold, independent brand. Management also encouraged employees to engage with their guests and express their own unique personalities.

The blend of unique experiences with a decidedly down-to-earth and personable approach by the staff paid off. A four-day travel and tourism marketing campaign by Hearst Bay Area helped Hotel Wailea generate a 367% ROI through hotel room bookings.

Problem 2: Increase profits while focusing on the customer

Solution: enhance customer experience.

Finding ways to enhance the customer experience presents big challenges with travel marketing for companies like airlines. But the industry also needs to fill more seats and potentially decrease perks and amenities to earn more profit.

It takes more than just offering a rotating menu of snacks or increasing ticket costs to get more legroom and increase comfort.

More airlines are turning towards social media campaigns to raise brand awareness. But instead of focusing on comfort as the customer experience, the industry relies on travel and tourism marketing to showcase innovative stories.

Kayak ran video ads in Instagram Stories  and found that combining ad formats drove a 5X increase in conversions.  

Problem 3: Attracting customers in a crowded marketplace

Solution: create amazing travel experiences.

Too many choices in a crowded marketplace may offer endless variety and price points for travelers but make it difficult for the travel industry to attract new customers.

However, companies can look towards the trend of Millennials craving experiential travel to curate memorable experiences.

But, once you design that "off-the-beaten-path" experience, how do you market it to an audience?

Using "fam trips" to social media influencers can target a niche audience and broaden brand awareness and showcase those unique experiences.

Kayaking champion and British sensation Mr. Ben Brown produces video blogs, or vlogs, that earn over 200,000 views each. Aligning with the right influencer can showcase your travel experience and continue earning views long after the campaign is over.

Problem 4: Increase Sales Beyond Tourist Season

Solution: leverage contextual marketing.

Theme parks and attractions have figured out how to reinvent their offering during the off-season. Botanical Gardens and Zoos design nighttime light displays and events to attract customers in colder months.

However, retail shops and souvenir stands struggle to provide those same experiences to attract the sales needed to thrive.

Instead of waiting it out until the next booming travel season, shops can look to moving their items to an online store and reinvent themselves.

Instead of just offering beach-themed souvenirs at a resort in Hawaii, the online shop can brand itself as a Hawaiian craft and homeware store selling island accents.

Building a contextual marketing campaign can also help create a personal connection with your audience.

Essentially, contextual marketing is all about understanding one's audience and using the right message at the right time to connect with them.

What we communicate, whether in our personal lives or professional interactions, is only relevant to our audience when they understand the context of the message. Without context, the meaning is lost.

An example of contextual marketing in practice would be how Cotopaxi , an outdoor sports store, demonstrates its purpose of creating "gear for good" - a mission its audience cares about.

Their homepage speaks directly to their visitors about their mission and purpose, and they've even incorporated several elements into their navigation bar that help to reiterate their position. Cotopaxi doesn't just want you to shop at their store.

They also want you to participate in their "Questival" (an adventure-themed race), and they want you to see that they are a certified B Corp who has even started a foundation that aims to alleviate poverty. 

Their strategy of weaving relevant imagery, carefully considered copy, and strong, purpose-driven branding throughout their website makes individuals feel as though they are part of a tribe.

Clearly, this company knows its audience, and they have done a phenomenal job of bringing context to its marketing efforts. 

Problem 5: Staying Relevant and Top of Mind

Solution: widen your digital footprint.

Restaurants and eateries face the challenge of constantly staying on top of the minds of locals and travelers looking for new experiences. Look to Taco Bell to take an innovative, digital lesson.

The fast-food restaurant monitors social media complaints to improve their service, study what menu items prove the most popular on Instagram, and partner with micro-influencers with a broad reach.

Pizza Hut skyrocketed its sales by relying on algorithms and GPS tracking to increase its sales.

Customers know when to expect their pizza before placing an order and use GPS location tracking for delivery drivers so they can find out how close their pizza is.

However, just like the local souvenir shop, brick-and-mortar restaurants should also embrace organic and paid search to stay at the top of search engine rankings and earn customers looking for a place to stop and eat.

Better yet, restaurants should empower their happiest customers to leave Facebook, Google, and Yelp reviews to build social proof and audience trust.

Problem 6: Competing in a Rapidly Shifting Marketplace

Solution: broaden demographics.

Attractions catering to particular demographic face challenges as that audience’s interests change and mature.

For example, Disney’s various theme parks cater to a young, awestruck crowd. Their focus on creating magical childhood memories kicked off in 1955; however, they didn’t just wait for each generation to age out of their theme park fun.

Instead, Disney evolved into multiple theme parks and experiences, from the Epcot Wine Festival to Disney after-hours entertainment, shopping, and fine dining.

The National Museum of American History in Washington D.C. also broadened its offerings to attract a broader demographic.

Instead of just catering to history buffs, their Spark!Lab and Wegmans Wonderplace offer a kid-centric exhibition for ages 0 to 6, including an interactive play kitchen and a tugboat.

Gathering testimonials from your broadened demographic can help refocus your offerings. Working with locals who fit your desired demographic also promotes your brand in the ever-evolving tourism landscape.  

Tourism Marketing Challenges: Key Takeaways

Marketing for travel brands requires more than a "set it and forget it" mentality.

Studying the challenges along the way and applying innovative solutions can help you achieve your desired brand promotion results..

The main takeaways here are:

• Create a Unique Selling Proposition (USP): Standing-out in a crowded marketplace requires a Unique Selling Proposition to attract travelers. In the case of Hotel Wailea, they focused on adult-only offerings and audiences and encouraged their staff to engage and interact.
• Create Amazing Travel Experiences: Today’s travelers want experiences, not just vacation destinations. Whether you’re offering a Porsche tour through the countryside or an off-the-beaten-path kayaking tour, working with influencers to create custom videos and images can help showcase your experiences.
• Strengthen Your Marketing Strategy by Combining Techniques: Whether you’re working with local influencers, amplifying your SEO efforts, or designing new travel experiences, you can strengthen your marketing efforts by using an integrated, multi-channel approach.
• Know Your Audience:  Companies who don't know who their personas are cannot be helped by marketing. You may think that just because your business serves a regional audience, you don't need to niche down any harder, but that is simply not true. Figure out who you are as a brand by deeply understanding who you serve, and go all in on speaking directly to only those people.

Have questions about how you can overcome your specific travel or hospitality marketing challenges? Please reach out. We are always happy to talk shop with you!

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6 Marketing Challenges in the Travel Industry Today

If it seems like everyone around you has been feeling the adventure itch lately, they’re in good company: More than 90% of Americans are planning to travel this year, with nearly one in three intending to venture abroad. After the total number of trips taken by US travelers decreased by 33% in 2020 , that number has steadily increased and is forecast to continue to grow in the coming years. And, spending in the travel industry reflects this trend. Despite economic uncertainty and the lasting impacts of the pandemic, the travel industry is returning to pre-pandemic levels and experiencing steady growth.

Still, airlines, hotels, restaurants, and other travel businesses across the world are facing unique challenges. From shifting consumer habits to rapidly evolving technologies, there’s a lot for travel marketing teams to juggle. Below, we outline six marketing challenges in the travel industry today as well as the strategies teams can use to address them. Ready? Let’s dive in.

1. Price is top-of-mind

Inflation peaked in June 2022 , and while the costs of consumer goods were skyrocketing, so too were travel expenses. In fact, they were increasing even more . As a result, vacationers in 2022 identified price as the most important consideration when selecting their travel providers. With prices remaining higher today than pre-pandemic, most travelers will continue to look at the price tag first, and everything else second.

To address this, travel marketers can lean into messaging that emphasizes low rates and highlights value. For example, ads should draw attention to discounts and bundling whenever possible. Loyalty programs should also be front-and center, with 72% of travelers reporting that a great loyalty program improves their opinion of a travel brand. By crafting ads that highlight value and low rates, travel marketers can speak directly to the factors that are most relevant to consumers.

2. Consumer habits are shifting

From the explosion of remote work, to the renewed focus on health and sustainability, to increased digital engagement, to a heightened sense of budget-consciousness, many of the shifts in consumer behavior that took hold during the first couple of years of the pandemic are still with us today. And while they’ve impacted all industries, they’ve had an outsized impact on travel and tourism.

For example, thanks to the number of people who now work from home, a new audience segment has emerged: bleisure travelers , or people who travel for a combination of business and leisure. This new category of travelers is substantial, and on track to overtake the category of traditional business travelers. And of course, the same marketing strategies that work for people traveling exclusively for either business or pleasure won’t be as effective with this new group.

Marketing teams must commit to tracking shifts like these and adjusting their strategies accordingly. This could be by leveraging a customer relationship management (CRM) platform to collect, organize, and research customer data; using machine learning technology to analyze first-party data and identify patterns, trends, and other insights; or by investing in a researcher (or team of researchers) to organize and dig into existing data so it can be used effectively. Regardless of which method(s) they use, marketers must consider the unique wants and needs of these new and emerging groups and adapt their campaigns to meet those needs.

Which leads us to our next challenge…       

3. There’s a heightened demand for personalization

While personalization in digital marketing has become a must-have for all industries, it’s particularly impactful for travel and tourism brands. In fact, 86% of travelers say they’re looking for personalization during their travel experiences and interactions. And personalization isn’t just a trend on the marketing side—businesses are leaning into it to improve product and service experiences as well.

Delta Airlines, for instance,  uses personalization technology to deliver personalized in-flight entertainment, onboard amenities, and more to customers. Hilton also leverages customer data—specifically, data obtained through their HHonors loyalty program—to provide a more intimate and individualized customer experience.

Marketers should personalize the experiences they curate for consumers to complement personalization on the product and services side. For example, a hotel brand might craft one variation of ad creative that emphasizes amenities that would appeal to families, and another that’s geared toward solo travelers. Or, a tourism company that offers immersive local experiences might target audiences 21+ with creative that features alcoholic beverages.    

Capturing audience information and leveraging it, however, are two different things entirely. Brands need systems to both collect this data and connect it to their CRM platforms to create personalized advertising experiences. The challenge? Many marketing teams today use a variety of point solutions to navigate the complexity of the digital media landscape. And, as a result, many travel marketing teams struggle with poor data quality and a lack of data consolidation .

There are a variety of ways to address this, from upping your team’s number of data analysts, to investing in tech like universal reporting system s and customer data platforms (CDPs) . Marketing teams with robust and secure systems for gathering, storing, and making the most of customer data will be well-positioned to create meaningful and personalized campaigns.

4. Marketing teams need to connect with travelers at every step of their journey

Remember when we mentioned that consumer habits are shifting? One of the reasons that travel marketers need to keep a pulse on these shifts is so they can connect with their target audiences throughout their entire customer journey. By first identifying key shifts in consumer behavior, travel brands can ensure that audiences are seeing the right messages at the right time.

What might this look like in practice? Well, a brand focused on vacation air travelers might focus on Instagram and Facebook to build awareness of their products and services, since these travelers often look for inspiration on social media. By leveraging an omnichannel advertising platform, teams could then retarget these prospective travelers via paid search or native ads as they move from awareness towards consideration and purchasing.

Or, a travel company targeting road trippers might focus on connected TV (CTV) and other digital video channels during early stages of the customer journey, as well as roadside digital out-of-home (DOOH) billboards, since these travelers watch a lot of online videos and spend a significant amount of time on the road. With retargeting, advertising teams can then place additional, personalized ads across digital channels like audio (for the drivers listening to their favorite music and podcasts) and social media (for the passengers posting photo dumps of their travels) to move these customers further down the funnel. By both leaning into current consumer trends and thinking holistically about their path to purchase, travel brands can make meaningful connections with travelers throughout their individual journeys.

5. Brands must keep up with new technologies to stay relevant 

Technology is constantly evolving. Consider the fact that, back in 2010, hotel and airline apps were just getting started, yet now they are an integral part of most travelers’ experiences. For travel marketers, there is a constant need to keep up with the latest innovations to ensure great experiences for target audiences and current customers.  

First and foremost, travel companies need to ensure their customer-facing technology ensures a great experience. When traveling (or planning for travel), many customers look for flexibility and efficiency in the booking process. And, in 2022, nearly twice as many travelers chose to book directly with a provider online than through an online travel aggregator. For brands, this means that leaning into innovations in technology will help with both garnering new customers and retaining existing ones. At the very least, your digital presence must ensure a good customer experience: When prospective customers see an ad for your company but encounter overly-complex or faulty tech when they click on it (i.e., their click brings them to a “page not found” error on your website or to a hard-to-navigate app), that experience can have negative impacts on conversions, not to mention customer loyalty.

Additionally, travel companies should take advantage of emerging technologies to maintain a competitive edge. One prominent example of a new(er) technology that travel businesses can embrace is dynamic pricing. Airlines and hotels can use factors such as time of year, day of the week, and corporate versus leisure travelers to estimate the right price point to drive conversions. Using technology backed by artificial intelligence, it’s possible to make these adjustments based on daily changes in market demand. Some pricing engines have the power to update fares as often as every 15 seconds, and businesses are starting to see the huge difference this makes in bookings. 

Though this new technology can result in significant benefits for travel companies, it can also present distinct challenges. To use dynamic pricing requires much more than just investing in the tech: Businesses must also rework their data management processes, including integrating CRM and revenue analytics. And, this can be made even more difficult if customer data is messy or has not been consolidated to a single interface—another reason why it’s so important for travel and tourism brands to prioritize data quality and consolidation.  

6. Sustainability is of increasing importance to travelers 

In the wake of the pandemic, more and more travelers are looking for environmentally sustainable travel options. This can prove to be both a challenge and an opportunity for travel brands and companies. In 2022, these were some of the top sustainability practices vacationers expected from travel providers:

• Reducing plastic waste
• Reducing food waste
• Reducing pollution
• Reducing water waste
• Reducing carbon emissions

And while it’s true that marketing teams may not have much say in their company’s larger sustainability initiatives, there are ways they can prioritize the environment through their advertising practices.     

First and foremost, marketing teams should avoid greenwashing at all costs. Making sustainability claims that your brand can’t back up is inauthentic and diminishes consumer trust in your company. And, these damages often extend beyond tarnishing a brand’s reputation: Making false or misleading claims can negatively impact customers’ experiences with the products or services you provide.

Additionally, there are strategies that digital advertising teams can use to help minimize their carbon footprint . One such strategy is to focus on attention metrics and eliminate impressions below a certain threshold. Since anywhere from 30% to 40% of online ads are “ not ultimately viewed by consumers ,” focusing on attention metrics can help advertisers reduce unnecessary emissions from these unseen (or sparsely viewed) ads. Another way that teams can help reduce their carbon emissions by streamlining their internal processes to reduce the amount of computing power needed for a typical campaign workflow. Rather than using many point solutions, consolidating to a single, automated platform for every step of the campaign can help advertising teams further minimize their environmental impact (and make their lives simpler, to boot!).

By leaning into sustainability, even in ways that may not be immediately apparent to consumers, travel and tourism brands can back up authentic statements about their commitment to the environment—and in doing so, match their consumers’ values.

Marketing Challenges in The Travel Industry: Next Steps

It’s clear that travel and tourism marketers are facing a variety of demands. To meet the needs of today’s travelers, they need to be flexible and intentional, consider the entire customer journey, lean into personalization, emphasize their value in an authentic way, and adapt to innovations in technology. It’s a lot, but hey—so is making all the arrangements for a memorable getaway!   —

Speaking of innovations in technology, advertising automation is a powerful tool for simplifying the campaign process and improving performance. It consolidates disparate point solutions into a single platform, empowers teams to make data-driven decisions through a comprehensive analytics dashboard, and allows for a simplified billing and reconciliation process.

Interested in learning more about how advertising automation can help travel brands reduce manual labor and spend more time meeting the complexities of today? Check out our guide, Meeting the Moment with Advertising Automation , for everything you need to know.

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5 Mega Challenges Facing the Global Travel and Tourism Industry

The global travel and tourism industry sits smack in the eye of a perfect storm. On the one hand, demand is up. Planes are packed. Our wanderlust is lustier than ever. On the other hand, rising inflation, lagging infrastructure, geopolitical uncertainty, staffing shortages, and COVID’s lingering impact have all converged into the stuff of nightmares — for travelers and the travel industry alike.

As researchers and advisors to global tourism boards and brands across the travel and tourism ecosystem, we are seeing some of these challenges hit certain players harder than others. On the bright side, recovery is on the horizon. But some geographies and industry sectors will face steeper challenges as five major headwinds converge upon them. We’re seeing opportunities for brands to get ahead of the storm and put the wind at their back.

These are the top five challenges facing the travel and tourism industry today, along with our perspective on navigating the way forward.

Travel Insight #1: Inflation means trade-offs and discretionary travel may lose out

Just when tourism was on the rebound, rising inflation came nipping at the heels of a travel boom. Escalent’s forthcoming 2022 Holiday Shopping & Travel Study revealed only 42% of consumers feel confident they’ll achieve their 2022 holiday travel plans (down 24 percentage points from 2021), and 49% of consumers are uncertain their holiday plans will be achieved (up 23 percentage points from 2021).

For the travel and tourism industry, inflation is a huge concern since it drives up product prices and affects consumers’ willingness to spend on discretionary travel. According to Euromonitor, 63% of travel executives said inflation was having a moderate to extensive impact on their businesses. Subsequently, over half of global travel companies acted in kind, by raising all or some of their prices. This was even higher in the Americas, where 59% of the companies raised all or some of their prices. Meanwhile, 44% of businesses accepted that they would suffer from having a lower profit margin by absorbing the inflationary costs rather than passing them on to their consumers to limit impact on their travel plans.

During inflationary times, it is common to see brands cut back on their marketing and advertising spend. While this reduces costs short term, it can be a setback to building long-term brand trust. In times of uncertainty, consumers tend to gravitate towards certainty, something a trusted brand can confer. And a destination is a brand. The more trust you can build amid uncertainty, the better.

Travel Insight #2: The ripple effects of geopolitical disruption

Geopolitical instability is also a key concern for the travel and tourism industry. The outlook for global travel and tourism for inbound spending is expected to be at 45% of 2019 levels, according to Euromonitor’s travel forecast model. The war in Ukraine is estimated to have caused a $7 billion decline in global inbound tourism, while Russian outbound tourism has all but collapsed under economic sanctions, airspace closures and flight bans. The loss of big-spending Russian visitors will impact travel destinations globally, but especially in Europe, the Caribbean and Turkey.

What happens when your high-value source market can’t travel? The ripple effects of geopolitical disruption are felt across regional clusters, forcing travel and tourism entities to rethink their source markets and reset their tourism marketing and targeting strategy.

Travel Insight #3: The travel and tourism infrastructure is in trouble

The pent-up travel demand is causing additional strain on the existing infrastructure, particularly for the airline sector. Problems with safety protocols and compliance with new national and international health standards are predicted to be made worse by capacity constraints when the industry recovers. This is expected to result in (even) longer lines, (more) crowded terminals and operational bottlenecks.

Social distancing measures have been lifted in many countries, including the US. But measures are still in place in many airports around the world, thus reducing airport capacity. Airports that operated close to their saturation capacity before the COVID crisis can expect to reach their maximum saturation capacity at just 60%–75% of their pre-COVID peaks.

According to ACI World, as air transport demand recovers, passenger demand will put more pressure on existing airport infrastructures. This may have socio-economic consequences, if not addressed in time. If long-term capacity constraints are not addressed through capital investments, it is estimated to lead to a reduction of up to 5.1 billion passengers globally, by 2040. For every million passengers that airports cannot accommodate due to airport capacity constraints in 2040, there would be 10,500 fewer jobs and 346 million USD less in GDP contribution from the industry.

Airports are often the “first impression” of a destination. A traveler’s airport experience sets the stage for the rest of the journey. When greeted with chaos and delays, even the most intrepid traveler can sour on the experience. Recently the US has made modest steps towards infrastructure improvement, including the Infrastructure Investment Act passed in November 2021, which includes spending for airports. While its impact will not be immediately felt, many travel associations have applauded the passing of this long overdue legislation.

Travel Insight #4: There’s no quick fix for the staffing shortage

If you’ve stepped foot in an airport this summer, you already know. The travel industry is facing a severe staffing challenge, particularly for customer-facing roles at hotels and airlines. Industry CEOs acknowledge that they are struggling to add staff to meet demand.

Airlines, in particular, are struggling to fill staffing requirements. Boeing’s 2021 Pilot and Technician Outlook voices concern that many airline workers who were furloughed during COVID may have left the industry permanently. The commercial airline industry needs 612,000 new pilots, 626,000 new maintenance technicians and 886,000 new cabin crew members over the next 20 years. Hotels and hospitality are also struggling, making it harder to deliver on guests’ expectations. Many hotels are shifting housekeeping services to a by-request-only model and some are cutting back on food and beverage amenities, including room service and restaurants.

What’s the precautionary tale to take away from this staffing mess? It can take decades to build brand trust, and one canceled flight, one bad stay, to destroy it. How people experience your brand — no matter if it’s in the best of times or the worst of times — stays with them. Travelers expect consistency from major brands. It will take time and investment for many airline and hospitality brands to rebuild trust in the quality and consistency of their brand experience.

Travel Insight #5: COVID is with us for the long haul

COVID travel restrictions are still impacting many elements of world tourism, with countries like China continuing to impose stringent restrictions and quarantines on visitors as well as Chinese outbound travelers.

In Asia Pacific, 83% of travel businesses report that ongoing COVID restrictions continue to have a moderate to extensive impact. This compares with 59% in Western Europe, according to Euromonitor. Although less, compared to 2021 levels, COVID concerns among travelers persist. Ongoing concerns, including new variants, affect the travel decisions of 55% of travelers, according to another recent study. Travelers are planning their trips cautiously, and nearly 70% are avoiding certain destinations, with 56% preferring close destinations and 56% avoiding crowded places.

Just as sanctions have grounded Russian travelers, COVID restrictions are keeping Chinese travelers homebound. Popular destinations for Chinese tourists such as Japan, Thailand, Singapore and Australia continue losing out on billions in tourism revenue. And countries with strict quarantine requirements like Japan continue to struggle. Between June 10 and July 10 this year, Japan hosted only 1,500 international tourists, according to data from Japan’s Immigration Services Agency. That’s down 95% from the same period in 2019. Who wants to spend half their holiday in quarantine? Destinations like Japan have focused on promoting domestic travel, but with COVID with us for the long haul, doubling down on domestic travel marketing and promotions is not a sustainable strategy.

Turn disruption into opportunity with tourism industry research and consulting

Escalent specializes in travel and tourism market research, traveler behavior, tourism investment strategy and consultative support across the travel and tourism ecosystem. Learn more about our Travel & Tourism practice and let us help you ride out the storm and go forth with confidence.

SOURCES CITED

(forthcoming) Escalent 2022 Holiday Shopping and Travel Study Please contact us if you would like to be notified when the report is available. View press release .

Voice of the Industry: Travel Survey, Facing New Challenges, Euromonitor, May 2022

Travel: Quarterly Statement Q1 2022, Euromonitor, May 2022

Holiday Barometer among Europeans, North Americans, Asians & Oceanians, Ipsos, June 2022

Japan is open to travel. So why aren’t tourists coming back? CNN, July 31, 2022

Deloitte travel outlook, The winding path to recovery 2022

Half of US Hospitality Workers Won’t Return in Job Crunch, Bloomberg, July 2021

Staff Shortages: World Travel & Tourism Council Travel Survey, May 2022

Related Industry: Travel & Tourism

Related Solution: Brand Positioning , Customer Experience Management , Market Assessment

Related Expertise: Secondary Research

Vivek leads Escalent’s Travel & Tourism practice where he works with tourism boards, airlines, hotels and hospitality brands across the globe, including in China, Africa, Southeast Asia, and the Middle East. A featured thought leader at global travel and tourism forums such as ITB, TTRA, and PCMA, his expertise spans the Travel & Tourism value chain. Vivek is an experienced business executive with expertise in various business elements including operations, business development and P&L management. A seasoned insights leader, he advises clients on market assessment  and entry strategy, market sizing and growth strategies. An engineer by training, he holds an MBA in Strategy & Marketing from the Indian Institute of Management. Vivek has a keen interest in human psychology and believes that a transparent, win-all proposition is the key to creating a sustainable people-centric business.

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Top 8 Challenges Affecting the Digital Travel Industry, Right Now

There is a huge variety of challenges that the digital travel industry is having to find solutions to. These challenges call for different responses from the various companies involved, all of which must ultimately serve to improve customer experiences.

Here are the top eight challenges affecting the travel industry right now, and some of the solutions that are being proposed to overcome them.

1. Brand Differentiation

Whether it's a seat on a plane, a room in a hotel, or a car rental, there are many companies out there all selling the exact same product. Companies are now having to find different ways of marketing their particular brand, products, and services to make themselves stand out from their competitors.

Many up-and-coming travel companies and OTAs are building their brands within a particular niche - honeymoon and destination weddings, for example, or adventure holidays, or as region/destination-specific specialists. In doing so, they avoid becoming "all-in-one" travel shops - Jacks of all trades but masters of none. By focusing on one niche or just a few related niches, these brands create differentiation in their marketing efforts, which become more effective as there is less competition.

As David Angotti , Co-Founder of SmokyMountains.com puts it : "While national websites like HomeAway and Airbnb deliver exceptional booking experiences and raise overall industry awareness, the hyper-relevant nature of geo-targeted niche sites is better equipped to deliver additional demand for specific localized markets. For example, high-quality video content that highlights a destination, combined with paid amplification through Facebook, can raise awareness for a specific market. This delivers additional demand and visitors that likely would not have visited the region in absence of this marketing approach. Smaller, niche websites excel at geo-local strategies like this. In addition to increased demand, the niche website increases the overall distribution health of a brand through channel and lead diversification."

2. Budgeting

In the constantly evolving world of technology, along with customer expectations changing faster than it's possible for companies to keep up with, budgeting becomes a very important factor in keeping up with trends.

Companies are being forced to use their budgets in smarter ways and advertise their business through different means.

One way they're doing this is with social media platforms, through which brands are able to promote themselves and connect with their audiences for little or no financial outlay. By taking advantage of the marketing opportunities social media provides, brands can effectively market their products and services in a more cost-efficient manner.

As a popular industry among young people, social media provides a great opportunity for travel brands to connect with target customers where they are, promote their products and services, and gain organic traffic to their websites - all without having to lay out a lot of money.

3. Multichannel Attribution

Multichannel attribution refers to the process of determining which marketing channels lead to conversions and sales, and giving each channel an appropriate amount of budget and attention accordingly.

Having a clear idea of which marketing channels are driving sales means companies can better allocate their marketing efforts. This then helps the business increase its efficiency of spending by only investing time and money into the channels which are driving growth.

Additionally, when a business knows its market and customer demographics, it can engage accordingly and optimize content to fit each platform for specific groups. This again increases the efficiency of a company's budget as it's able to witness higher engagement on these platforms and focus on enhancing the customer experience.

One company doing this particularly well is Marriott International , which created a culinary challenge and associated hashtag which trended on Twitter and Instagram. By using multichannel attribution to identify the best platforms on which to run the contest, the hotel brand was able to reach a diverse range of people, ultimately gaining a much wider audience.

4. Customer security

With the EU's General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) now in force, customer security and privacy are becoming ever more important. While targeted ads and personalized marketing are massively popular and effective ways of advertising, travel companies need to be careful about what type of information they're using to personalize the ads directed at potential customers.

With ever-changing technologies, including voice, AR, and VR, keeping up with customer security is becoming a much more difficult job. New threats are forcing businesses to have to use new technologies and software in order to protect their customers' data.

If a business is taking the appropriate steps to ensure customers are secure on its site, it encourages repeat business and helps to drive revenue. When a site is secure, not only is a company improving customer experience, but it's also building trust in the eyes of its audience. This provides customers with the peace of mind that their information is being treated with the respect it deserves, and that the company itself is responsible and stable in its position within the digital travel market.

Many customers have stated they would have no problem booking with another brand or company if certain conditions, including price, schedule, or locations, were preferable.

This indicates that customer loyalty is a rarity, with customers having no ties to the company that they are choosing to travel with. Price comparison sites compound this problem by making it simpler than ever for customers to shop around for the best deal. It's also more unusual now for travelers to book their entire vacation in a single package, with innovative platforms such as Airbnb and Kayak providing a much easier booking experience to book flights, hotels, etc. separately.

Loyalty programs are something that many travel companies are setting up to ensure customers keep coming back. Hilton , for example, offers fitness classes in return for loyalty points for its guests. This encourages its customers to return to its hotels to build their loyalty points up.

6. Inspiration

Inspiration for trips and holidays can come from anywhere. Travel companies need to be ready to seize onto this inspiration when it occurs - or even create it themselves - and convert it into sales.

This is why you'll often find travel companies posting beautiful images of travel locations on their social media accounts. These images are designed to spark inspiration in those who view them, and then (hopefully) encourage and inspire holiday bookings.

Platforms such as TripTuner can help generate this inspiration in an audience. TripTuner describes itself as a "travel inspiration engine" and uses powerful artificial intelligence software to help travelers discover new vacation opportunities based on their travel history, searches, and interests. TripTuner also uses data to offer customized and personalized advertisements in order to further inspire customers.

7. Marketing Automation/Segmenting/Messaging Strategies

Many marketing departments must perform repetitive tasks like sending emails, posting to social media, and other mundane actions. However, marketing automation technology can take care of these tasks, leaving marketers free to focus on developing new strategies and interacting directly with their audiences.

Segmenting seeks to divide a broad consumer or business market into sub-groups of customers - known as segments - which are based on some type of shared characteristic/s. These groups are also usually subdivided into further groups of existing customers and potential customers. Segmentation helps marketers deliver the right information to the right people at the right time - by not sending top-of-the-funnel content to those in the middle, for example.

Brand messaging is the language and phrasing that appears on a company's website and other advertising materials. It covers everything from the fonts and images used on marketing materials to the type of music played on advertisements. Brand messaging ultimately informs audiences whether a product or service is aimed at them and can make the difference between success and failure.

The most important thing about brand messaging is that it's consistent across all channels. Your brand should have one identity and one voice, so you need to make sure all those responsible for putting out brand messages are savvy to this fact and have the necessary guidelines and training to make it happen.

8. Social Media

Travel brands are looking at how social media can be used for (almost) free advertising and to create organic buzz around their offerings.

Social media is massively influential to younger generations in particular, with many only using products and services they see advertised on their favorite platforms. Not only this, but they are living lifestyles in accordance with the trends they see on social media, with travel being a massive influencer in this regard. Instagram is a particularly useful social media platform for the travel industry as it allows brands to use hashtags to encourage people to share their travel experiences and create organic content as a result.

Social media is also being used to form relationships and enable communication between businesses and their customers, provide excellent customer service, and encourage loyalty. Being able to communicate with a company using a platform such as Facebook Messenger is, for most people, preferable to sitting on hold on the phone.

Final Thoughts

The challenges facing travel companies are forcing them to come up with new, creative solutions to combat them.

However, those companies which are willing to meet these challenges head-on will see customer experience improve across the board. In turn, this will encourage not only repeat business from those customers who have booked with them previously but inspire new customers to come on board as well.

The various challenges facing digital travel marketers will be hot topics at Digital Travel Connect US 2019 , taking place this October at the Rancho Bernardo Inn, San Diego, CA.

Download the agenda today for more information and insights.

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Travel Marketing 101: Everything You Need to Know

People are ready to travel. Where, when, and how varies as much as the individual. Passion, timing, and budgets lead the way. A smart media strategy, combined with evocative storytelling, will transport consumers to your destination.

• What is Travel Marketing?
• Top Travel Industry Trends

Essential Travel and Tourism Marketing Strategies

• — Video Marketing
• — Virtual Reality Experiences
• — Augmented Reality
• — Increase Search Visibility
• — Content Marketing & Native Ads
• — Digital Audio
• — Personalized Messaging
• Big Data in the Travel Industry

Get Started with Travel Marketing Today

What is travel marketing and why is it i mportant.

• The Travel & Tourism market is projected to reach $54 billion in 2023.
• Revenue is expected to show an annual growth rate from 2027 of 4.41%, resulting in a projected market value of over one billion by 2027. 74% of this will be generated by online sales. 

It's clear why travel marketing is important. Having a data-driven travel marketing strategy makes all the difference in overall business performance. It promotes travel services to new markets, strengthens awareness of one's brand, and increases the rates of both conversions and sales.

Just as travelers— for business or pleasure—have priorities and purpose in mind, so too should travel and tourism brands. What distinguishes your hotel from the others? What’s unique about your location? Who are your primary targets and how are you going to make their experience exemplary to earn their affinity? It all starts with defining your audience personas, crafting your brand, and knowing your KPIs.

Top Travel Industry Trends (2022–2025)

Again, how and where we travel varies, just as much as the destinations themselves. Below are just a few ways people are traveling. Understanding who is traveling where—and why—will inform strategies and personalization.

• Travelers Go it Alone : 25% of all American millennials plan to travel by themselves each year.
• Travelers Crave Local Experiences : The “experience economy” is huge in the travel industry. Consumers crave authentic experiences that distance them from mainstream tourism.
• Going Virtual : For consumers who want to sample and learn about different places without leaving their homes, there’s the alternative of booking a private tour and activity with locals around the world virtually, and viewing in the metaverse.
• Bucket List Travel: Always wanted to see an Emperor Penguin? There’s a cruise for that. Interested in seeing the beaches of Normandy? There’s a personal tour guide for that. Chances are the journey for these experiences starts with a recommendation from a friend and a good old-fashioned Google search to get the lay of the land.
• Business and Leisure Travel : Working remotely can mean Italy as much as Hoboken. The concept of being location-independent— traveling and working remotely— has become a new mainstay post-pandemic. In turn, digital nomads are searching for locations and deals on where to work and play.
• Sustainable Travel : Most U.S. travelers believe there aren’t enough options when it comes to sustainable travel. Nearly 70% of travelers say they are more likely to book accommodations if they know the property is planet-friendly .

Travel Industry Trends Resources: Generational Marketing 2024 Marketing Trends and Predictions

One of the best travel marketing tips to keep in mind is that most customers are not really paying for products or services in their minds. They are paying for experiences . As with nearly all businesses, technology presents the travel industry with seemingly endless opportunities to connect with customers. Below are just a few way brands are getting noticed:

Video Marketing

In the travel industry, videos have long been an indispensable marketing tool. They show off destinations and hospitality businesses in their full glory. Travel marketers that lean into video creation—and that doesn’t have to equal big budget productions—will forge connections with target audiences. Digital video is an amazing way for brands to educate, elicit emotion, and tell compelling stories.

Virtual Reality Experiences—The Metaverse and You:

It’s the ultimate test vacation. The metaverse can transport you just about anywhere and no passport is required. Like what you see? Post an offer and start planning. While still in the early stages, the tourism industry is already making the jump in the virtual reality (VR) world. Over the past few years, museums have introduced more creative ways to interact with exhibits and some have even taken consumers on pub crawls. Thomas Cook , a pioneer in the travel and tourism industry for more than 170 years, is using 360 VR films so travelers can test the waters of Sharm-el-Sheikh in Egypt and more. And if you’re trying to reach Gen Z, they’re here and they’re ready to go places.

Augmented Reality Enhances Real-World Settings

AR, or augmented reality, differs slightly from virtual reality. AR uses apps and overlays to create an experience and show additions to a particular setting. Travel companies can use this to advantage by using AR to transport and showcase their offerings.

Increase Search Visibility and See Bookings Soar

It’s easy to take the importance of a focused SEO strategy for granted with so many other options vying for your attention, but that would be a mistake­. Not having a mindful search strategy as a key tenet in your media strategy would be like not seeing the Eiffel Tower when in Paris. A well-rounded SEO strategy facilitates direct bookings, drives site engagement, and increases overall cost-effectiveness.

Do it right, and you’ll see your Google rankings increase. Getting your brand name on the first page of results is the holy grail to success when 94% of search starts with a search engine and more than 25% click the first result that comes up.

While you may already spend on SEO, it's a good idea to have an SEO check-in from time to time to make sure you’re targeting the right folks and doing so the way they want you to.

Content Marketing and Native Advertising

Few things combine time and place to greater effect than native advertising. It’s the ultimate storytelling device, empowering marketers to say exactly what they want to say and where. A good magazine ad or digital native advertising piece will take the shape of an article—for example, by showcasing a vineyard in Napa on the cover of Travel + Leisure or a video highlighting the beaches of Mexico within a surfing site. The creative will transport viewers, and hopefully a nicely placed call-to-action leads to a website that will give audiences more of the information they seek.

A few native advertising tips:

• Create content that encourages the reader to act
• Know how you’re going to measure results: what is it that you want user to do after they read your article or play your video?
• Try to be original. If you are one of several players trying to host destination weddings, why should they pick you? Are you offering a special incentive code?
• Be authentic. Be real. Native content is storytelling, not overt advertising. It isn't directly selling, per se, but rather sparking ideas.
• Find a fit: Be mindful of where you’re running your creative and complement the space. It’s a curated audience you’re being seen in, so make the most of it.

For many, the first step to a journey is “hey Siri,” "ok Google," or “Alexa,” so it’s little surprise that increasingly travelers (and potential travelers) are turning to devices to book hotels or flights, and learn more about excursions and dining experiences. Markers can optimize content to capitalize on voice searches.

Personalized Messaging Enhances Customer Experience

The goal of effective advertising is to personalize messaging so it's as relevant and beneficial to the recipient as possible. If a travel brand is targeting a young family, it makes sense to highlight the activities for minors. If trying to become a bachelor or bachelorette destination, it may make sense to include in your ad the customized experiences available to enhance their stay (and perhaps a discount code). Leading with a customer-centric perspective distinguishes brands, creates affinity, and earns loyalty.

Data Draws the Big Picture: Big Data in the Travel Industry

The importance of data analytics to drive performance and ROI cannot be overstated and data visualization platforms play an important role in this. They—quite literally—provide a big picture of how all elements in any particular ad campaign are performing. Operators, in turn, can use this information to see what creative is performing strongest, and which platforms are driving the most visit to optimize performance.

Gathering the data enables travel and tourism entities to discern data sets and maximize budgets. Data visualization platforms, such as MNI’s industry-praised Optics , gives advertisers the ability to evaluate key metrics and optimize ROI.

• Engagement rate: How are people engaging with your content? Are they commenting, saving, and sharing, or merely scrolling past? If you have a million followers but only 1,000 interact with your marketing, that is not a great return on your effort.
• Targeting/Retargeting: Are your ads reaching new audiences and are you using data to re-engage potential leads or customers who leave your website without converting? Retargeting ads are designed to help advertisers reach visitors who do not convert right away. These campaigns are effective because they allow advertisers to target engaged customers with a highly relevant ad. Retargeting delivers strong results for increased awareness, website traffic, and conversion rate.
• Putting it all together: Let the picture of what you see tell you where you want to go, where you should be spending more, what ads you should optimize. For the effort that your business is putting into collecting and maintaining a database, you should be able to obtain an equal or greater amount of value from the insights it gathers. 

Attitudes to travel are a moving target. Whether traveling for business or leisure, going by air or train or car, the desire to travel is real. Telling your target audience how you will be providing value and keeping them safe is essential. Step #1, know your audience. Step #2, connect with them. Step #3, embrace a multi-channel strategy. To do this, it’s incumbent to keep up to date with the very latest travel marketing strategies and to partner with those that do it best.

7 travel marketing trends for 2022

So where should we focus our priorities for the upcoming years? Here are seven trends that I believe will shape our marketing as we move forward.

1. TRAVELER EXPECTATIONS HAVE CHANGED

One of the biggest consequences stemming from this pandemic is how it changed our needs and wants when it comes to travel. In fact, many studies found that low prices were no longer the number one consideration when it came to decision-making in purchasing travel. In a recent article, I shared  what travelers expect in 2021  and we see a clear shift from traditional views, with flexible booking conditions and sanitary measures now coming in at #1 and #2 in terms of importance for travelers.

How is your hotel, restaurant or attraction conveying this on your website? On your social media posts? Are you addressing these concerns with a dedicated tab on your website menu or with information in your regular newsletter? Integrating these aspects in your ongoing communications will be key.

Nature of travel is changing, too

2022 will mark the return of the international traveler, finall. But your organization should also pay attention to evolving behaviors in the travel landscape that were clearly shaped from this recent pandeminc. For example the working travelers, or digital nomads. If these travelers were marginal a couple of years ago, we can expect more and more leisure travelers mixing some business into the equation.

Just like business travelers will also add a few days onto their trip since technologies make it easier than ever to have meetings by the poolside or in a wifi-enabled room. Is your brand ready for this new reality and how are you communicating it across your digital touchpoints?

2. THE EVOLUTION OF LOYALTY PROGRAMS

Loyalty programs have been around for ever, and were able to move the needle (somewhat) of retention mostly with customers in the airline industry, where they were born originally. Hotel loyalty programs are a dime a dozen, and too many of these programs have failed to have distinctive features or get customers to increase their spend. For bigger chain hotels and resorts that can scale offers, loyalty programs still provide value but this is less the case for independent hotels and smaller players.

Now, we are also seeing subscription-based approaches such as  TripAdvisor  with its Plus program. And more recently,  Expedia  revamped and unified the loyalty programs within its portfolio of brands (Expedia, Hotels.com, Orbitz, Vrbo, etc.) in order to better position itself against competition such as Booking.com’s Genius Loyalty program. The new program will span flights, hotels, vacation rentals, car rentals, cruises, and activities.

We can expect more movement on this front, as hotels, restaurants and other hospitality providers will want to maintain their appeal within the broad loyalty and reward programs universe. This is also a key tactic to preserve the direct booking channel alive and kicking (see next point).

3. DIRECT BOOKINGS WILL PREVAIL, BUT LESS

For years now, hotels have been striving to get customers to book directly on their own website, where costs are low, rather than through brand.com or third parties like Expedia or Booking, where commission levels are steep. With more or less success.

This pandemic has brought in a rare opportunity, making domestic travel a must and only option. When booking locally, travelers feel less of a need to search on OTA platforms and are more confident about dealing directly with travel providers. Thus, direct bookings percentages when through the roof in 2020… but a bit less so in 2021, according to preliminary data from various reports.

In 2022, we can expect a shift back to reservations going to brand.com and, to a lesser extent, back to OTA catering more to an international clientele in general. Direct bookings will remain strong, but won’t stay at levels seen in 2020.

4. TIKTOK NOW A MAINSTREAM PLATFORM

It was almost two years ago when I posted an article stating  Why TikTok matters for travel brands . Now, more than ever, travel and hospitality need to pay attention. Here are a few reasons why:

• TikTok now has more than 1 billion active users (MAU)
• It has been among the most downloaded mobile apps worldwide for over 6 consecutive quarters
• The average user spends over 52 minutes per day on the platform
• TikTok gets the highest levels of engagement per post of any social media
• The fastest growing segment of users are 25-39 year-old

That last bit of information is perhaps the most crucial one. Whenever I talk to brands about the possibility of TikTok, the classic rebuttal I get is that “ it’s for young teenagers only “. That might have been true in its earlier stages, but less so today. Content is more varied than it once was, with tutorials, cooking recipes, movie critics, travel recommendations, and so much more.

Don’t get me wrong, TikTok IS a platform that caters very well to a younger audience, because of it’s very nature and features: music, dancing, trends, pranks, etc. But as it grew in the past two years, so did its userbase. It would therefore be a critical mistake to dismiss it as possibility for your marketing mix in the coming year.

Going mainstream

One last point about TikTok. Late September, it held its first ever TikTok World Event during which many new features were shared for both content creators AND brands wishing to invest on the platform. Advertising is becoming more fluid and accessible, while longer videos are now possible. All in all, we are dealing with a platform reaching a maturity level that has Facebook (and Instagram) shaking and reacting… so it will be interesting to see how this battles unfolds!

5. INSTAGRAM AS THE GO-TO SOCIAL MEDIA

If there is anything the past couple of weeks have shown us, one thing is clear: Facebook is no longer the key social platform for storytelling. It remains a necessary evil, with its Events, Groups, Messenger, Marketplace and other useful features. But as younger audiences continue to flock away from Facebook, there is one silver lining that remains: Instagram.

Case in point, last year SocialBakers evaluated how top Fortune 50 companies were dealing with their presence on Facebook and Instagram. As we can see in the chart above, comparing Q1 2019 with Q1 2020, audiences on Facebook shrank while those on Instagram increased. Interestingly, this increase occured even though brands were posting less, as we can see in the middle column. But to me, the most interesting finding comes from the third column, where we see total interactions, or engagement. Facebook already had dismal engagement levels, and it continues on shrinking while Instagram continues to see robust interaction.

Stories work well on Instagram, less so on Facebook. Reels are working relatively well on Instagram, even though they don’t match TikTok posts, which they clealy emulate. Reels are just arriving on Facebook, but I suspect they will do just like stories, which means not much. AR lens are useful and plentiful on Instagram, less so on Facebook.

Can you see a pattern, here?

Brands must stick with Facebook. For now.

Having said that, I am not saying travel brands should ditch Facebook just yet. Facebook has become a  de facto  outpost for customer service, recruiting, content sharing and overall communication with your community. A dynamic page means better ad campaign performance across the Facebook landscape, which includes Instagram, Messenger and Whatsapp. And there are many brands out there that still do a stellar job at creating quality content, which results in great reach and engagement levels.

But as the recent seven hours shutdown showed, it’s dangerous to put all your eggs in the same (Facebook) basket. Thus, having a diversified approach online is key.

6. NEWSLETTERS AND EMAIL MARKETING MAKE A COME BACK

For the past 20 years now, I have been hearing that email is dead, or that newsletters don’t work “as well as they used to”. Really? In a world where social media algorithms block off up to 95% of the content you post on your pages, one-to-one communication like emails, SMS and newsletters are more pertinent than ever.

If you read the points #3 and #4 above, you will also see a cause and effect correlation here. That is, with travel brands pushing more direct reservations and increasing efforts for retention and loyalty, having an email strategy in place is fundamental to fostering that relationship. This also means having automated processes prior to, during and after a stay, including invitations to leave a review after the experience on key platforms, i.e. Google, TripAdvisor, Facebook, etc.

7. WEBSITE SEO MORE IMPORTANT THAN EVER

According to a Google survey from December 2020, searches for “available near me” grew globally by more than 100% since 2019. In 2021, these searches are up another 60% according to SearchEngineLand. What’s even more interesting is when we dig further to see which were the top categories for these searches over a given period of time.

The top categories for those searches were:

• Entertainment (56%)
• Banking (50%)
• Apparel (41%)
• Personal Care (38%)

These are all categories deeply rooted in the travel experience, as we seek places to eat, things to do and stuff to buy whenever we are in a new destination for leisure or business. So how is your website ranking whenever travelers search with keywords that should lead to your brand?

Your website should not only be mobile optimized, in fact in many cases it should be properly be designed with mobile-first in mind.

Read also:  Understanding the difference between mobile-first, adaptive and responsive design

More importantly, you will want to make sure you claim and manage your  Google My Business  profile. This will ensure you complete all relevant details with regards to your opening hours, amenities and services, photos and videos. This is also where you can manage and respond to reviews, since this has become an important facet for your online reputation.

BONUS: HR MARKETING TO HELP LABOR SHORTAGES

Last but not least, I thought I would mention the fact that all these marketing strategies and tactics are fine and swell in normal times. Or rather, in times when operations are growing smoothly as they should coming out of a worldwide pandemic. Truth is, however, there is a major issue that has been looming over the industry for the past 3-4 years and that is now exacerbated to unseen levels: the shortage of labor.

Earlier this summer, I shared  5 ways to mitigate shortage of labor in Hospitality  and one of the tactics was actually to have a proper HR Marketing strategy in place. Well, I suspect we will be seeing lots more of this integration in 2022, where human ressources will work closely with marketing and communications to convey the employer brand vision, mission and values on social networks and other digital outposts.

Labor shortage will be a problem for the next decade, and marketing alone will not solve it. But a strong and creative digital presence can certainly contribute to a stronger employer brand which, in turn, will help with recruiting and maintaining workforce stability.

First posted on federicgonzalo.com

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Destination Marketing Outlook 2022

Executive summary, grave impact of the pandemic on tourism, survey methodology, the pre-covid setup, negative impact on traveler volume and revenue for majority dmos  .

• Funding cuts - Recovery funds come to aid

Declining staffing levels 

Marketing strategy underwent an overhaul, dmo roles accentuated further, movers and shakers, increase in revenue, funding sources come to a full circle, staffing levels to stabilize, marketing trends, dmo roles on the backburner come to the forefront , related reports.

• State of Travel 2023: Travel in 250 Charts July 2023
• Sustainability in Travel 2021: Quantifying Tourism Emissions for Destinations June 2021
• EU Traveler Profile and Key Statistics: The Impact of COVID-19 January 2021
• U.S. Travel Tracker December 2020: Further Slip January 2021

Report Overview

DMOs hold a special position in the tourism industry. They can be envisaged to be at the helm of the industry in a sense that they bridge all relevant stakeholders and act as a central communication channel with access to enormous data of both the stakeholders and the consumers.

The last two years have proven to be an extremely challenging time for DMOs. The entire industry was being put on hold, and DMOs had an additional unprecedented responsibility to their audience: encouraging people to travel less and even avoid traveling.

  Skift Research conducted its Destination Marketing 2022 survey in December 2021 to know how Covid impacted the working of Destination Marketing Organizations (DMOs). In addition, we interviewed executives from seven key DMOs to get additional insights from the ground.

Through our survey findings and industry discussions we aim to assess how DMOs reacted to and dealt with the pandemic and make sense of what the future holds and how DMOs will shape up in 2022. These findings will be particularly useful for DMOs to gain peer insights, executive interviews and Skift analysis that can help them optimize their own strategies and for other travel industry stakeholders to push their DMOs to work in the right direction.

What You'll Learn From This Report

• The pre-Covid setup of DMOs
• Impact of Covid on DMO operations
• DMO responses to Covid in shifting roles, priorities and marketing strategies
• Recovery aid and timeline
• Marketing spends, channels and priorities for 2022
• Emerging trends in destination management for long-term recovery

Executives Interviewed

• Chang Chee Pey, Assistant Chief Executive, Singapore Tourism Board Marketing Group
• Chris Heywood, EVP, Global Communications, NYC & Company
• HE Saood Abdulaziz Al Hosani, Undersecretary of the Department of Culture and Tourism, Abu Dhabi
• John De Fries, CEO, Hawaii Tourism Authority
• Nina Zantout, Head of Strategy and Deputy Director Destination Management & Corporate Development, visitBerlin
• Robert Dougan, Executive General Manager of Strategy and Research, Tourism Australia
• Representatives of the Azerbaijan tourism Board

The pandemic has revealed a lot about tourism and the way it is managed in destinations worldwide. From Venice to Virginia Beach, the first half of 2020 has highlighted the importance of tourism on a destination’s economy, and in some places exposed where its strategy might be unsustainable in the long term.

The scope of work for Destination Management Organizations (DMOs) broadened massively to keep up with the changing trends and patterns owing to the pandemic. In this report we examine the pre-Covid setup of DMOs, how DMOs evolved during the pandemic and how they make sense of what the future holds. 

We conducted a survey in December 2021 of about 100 professionals from destination management organizations (including Convention Visitors Bureau) globally to analyze the functioning of DMOs across five key facets: funding, revenue, expenses, staffing levels, and marketing. For each of the facets we have assessed the trend from the pre-Covid to the post-Covid phase.

We found that funding, revenue and expenses are expected to increase in 2022 compared to the last two years, in line with the macro travel recovery trend. However, at this point it is crucial for DMOs to diversify their funding and revenue sources along with allocating their expenses in a targeted manner. Staffing levels are expected to more or less reach 2019 levels in 2022. Digital marketing is expected to remain the dominant marketing channel going forward, although marketing approaches like partnership marketing, cross-DMO collaborations and community marketing are expected to show better results in the near future.

As DMOs continue to find their footing in the new travel landscape, DMO functions are expected to broaden even more with increased emphasis on sustainability initiatives, airport route development, and stakeholder engagement. 

Furthermore, we interviewed executives from seven key DMOs. Through our survey and discussions with industry stakeholders we gauged the recovery timeline of the traveler volume and discussed the pace of recovery by origin and purpose. Consensus is that full recovery is expected only after 2024.

The overall goal of the report is to highlight the lessons learned through battling the crisis and the fundamental areas that can contribute to a sustainable recovery and growth.

The Covid outbreak caused a global travel collapse since mid-March 2020, with cross-border travel taking the gravest hit. The arrivals of international tourists showed a sharp decline of 73% in 2020. Between January and September 2021, worldwide international tourist arrivals were 20% lower compared to 2020 and 76% below the pre-pandemic levels.

The last quarter of 2021 was expected to see a travel boom owing to the holiday season, but the emergence of the Omicron variant in early December is resulting in countries re-imposing more extensive travel restrictions and making the future uncertain yet again.

The only thing certain is that the pace of recovery will remain slow and uneven across world regions due to varying degrees of mobility restrictions, vaccination rates, and traveler confidence. 

Exhibit 1: International tourist arrivals decreased sharply in 2020 and 2021 as compared to 2019

Given this dire decrease in international travel, many destinations have focused on domestic and nearby markets to make up for the loss. However, for a considerable number of countries, revenue from international tourism contributes significantly to their GDP and revival of international tourism is crucial for their tourism industry.

As per UNWTO , the impact of Covid on tourism could result in more than $4 trillion loss to the global economy. In our annual outlook for the travel industry, Skift Research created 2022 global forecasts for all major travel sectors. Revenue of these sectors are expected to reach 2019 levels by 2024 at the earliest.

Exhibit 2: Revenue of major travel sectors is expected to reach 2019 levels by 2024 at the earliest.

Skift Research’s Destination Marketing 2022 survey was conducted in December 2021 to examine how Covid impacted the roles and priorities of DMOs and what destination organizations are doing to prepare for changes post pandemic. The total sample size is ~100, representing DMOs across different regions and levels of management. The charts below display the demographics of the survey sample and their represented organizations.

Exhibit 3: Demographics of the survey sample and their represented organizations

In ordinary times, the role of a DMO is to generate demand for tourism from key source markets by building their destinations’ brands and raising traveler awareness about their respective destination offerings.

With the travel industry enjoying nearly a decade of unfettered growth, DMOs had been increasingly taking on additional roles. Skift Megatrends 2019 discussed how progressive DMOs were already developing new partnerships with local organizations to improve the destination experience, based on trends reshaping consumer expectations in the global visitor economy. So much so, that many destination leaders started calling themselves DMMOs – Destination Marketing and Management Organizations.

Our survey data confirmed these expanded responsibilities. According to our data, 75% of respondents said their organizations were responsible for stakeholder engagement in 2019 while 80% of them said that their organizations were focusing on tourism research and data in 2019, along with concentrating on their core job of destination branding and marketing. 

Exhibit 4: Destination tourism marketing and branding remained the core DMO functions pre-Covid

As regards to funding, DMOs usually raised funds via public channels but they could also be funded privately. Among public channels, the most common way for DMOs to secure funding is via hotel occupancy tax and therefore local governments. In addition, DMOs could accrue government grants, membership dues, advertising revenue, marketplace revenue and other forms of public & private funding.

Our survey results validated that hotel transient tax was the dominant funding source pre-Covid while state/city government funding and private firm partnerships/sponsorships were ranked as the other major sources of funding. 

Exhibit 5: Hotel transient tax was the dominant funding source for DMOs pre-Covid

More than half of the survey respondents said that their organizations focused more on domestic tourism pre-Covid and around 37% said that business travel was a major component of overall tourism to their destination before Covid hit. It should be noted that our survey sample majorly consists of regional and local level DMOs and hence their focus might be skewed more towards domestic tourism. 

Exhibit 6: Based on the survey responses, domestic tourism and business travel were the focus areas for DMOs pre-Covid 

Even before the pandemic hit, DMOs were evolved enough to be using a wide range of marketing channels. Our survey results showed that more than 85% of the respondents said that their organizations were using almost all relevant channels. 

Exhibit 7: DMOs used a wide range of marketing channels in the pre-Covid phase

Digital marketing channels like content marketing, social media marketing and search engine optimization were marked as ‘very effective’ marketing channels pre-Covid. 

Exhibit 8: Digital marketing was the most effective form of marketing pre-Covid

Evolution of the DMO Landscape with the Advent of Covid 

The pandemic broadened the role that DMOs can play in dealing with a crisis and recovering from it. Chris Heywood, EVP, Global Communications at NYC & Company told Skift: “It has been such a change. Role of DMO has shifted. DMO became a mouthpiece to deliver real time information to our leaders and to our members. We were indispensable during the crisis.”

Heywood further discussed: “During a typical year, we will be doing all sorts of sales & marketing activity in a particular destination, with Covid our infrastructure changed, 50% of staff was laid off, budget cuts, we lost significant funds from our private revenues, and we disbanded our international network. In the interim we were focussing on revitalising the city by engaging our own New Yorkers and now since international tourism is expected to open up we have a different set of challenges.”

Below we have highlighted the changes that occurred in the DMO industry as a result of the pandemic. 

When asked how Covid has impacted the traveler volume in their destinations, 77% of the respondents said that the traveler volume decreased.

About 70% of the respondents asserted that the revenue of their DMO decreased in 2020 as compared to 2019 with 16% saying that the decrease in revenue was more than 50%. However, the revenue situation slightly improved in 2021, with 60% of them saying that their organization’s revenue in 2021 would be above the 2019 level.

Expenses showed a similar trend of decreasing aggressively in 2020 followed by a slight increase in 2021. However, the severity of decrease in revenue in 2020 was higher  in 2020 as compared to 2021. For example, 16% of the respondents said that the revenue of their organizations decreased by more than 50% while 10% said that the expenses decreased more than 50%. This shows that in this phase DMOs were still trying to gauge the situation and streamline their expenses accordingly. 

On the other hand, in 2021 the revenue decrease is behind expense decrease indicating that destinations were cautious of overspending given the abrupt travel recovery. 

Exhibit 9: Revenue and expenses of DMOs decreased in 2020 in line with the diminishing travel demand before slightly increasing in 2021

Interestingly, 21% of the respondents said that the traveller volume to their destination increased during the pandemic. We went on to ask the reasons for the increase in traveler volume in these destinations and found that destinations which offer places to practice social distancing outperformed during the pandemic. Also, according to the respondents, the right marketing promotions, emphasis on health and safety and the surge in domestic travel due to international travel restrictions boosted traveler volumes in these destinations.

A good example of a destination which witnessed an increase in traveler volume by pulling the right strings at the right time is Abu Dhabi. HE Saood Abdulaziz Al Hosani, Undersecretary of the Department of Culture and Tourism – Abu Dhabi , shared with Skift, “​​Despite the pandemic, the UAE recorded a 55% hotel occupancy rate in 2020 when other hotels in the Middle East recorded just 43% occupancy. The pandemic created new opportunities for domestic tourism, with a surge in demand recorded over the past year contributing $11 billion (AED 41 billion) to the national economy. The majority of Abu Dhabi’s successful steer through the pandemic was due to the government’s continued commitment to the community’s and visitors’ health and safety. DCT Abu Dhabi’s Go Safe certification programme was crucial in demonstrating our commitment to public safety and responsible tourism and we were able to instill confidence and trust in its citizens, residents and tourists.”

Funding cuts – Recovery funds come to aid

54% of the respondents stated that their organization did not receive the same level of funding starting March 2020 till date compared to 2019. Survey results suggest that with the advent of Covid, advertising revenue, hotel transient tax, membership fees and sponsorships from private firms were pulled back to a great extent while government funding at a city/state and federal level became important financing sources for DMOs. 

John De Fries, CEO, Hawaii Tourism Authority, told Skift: “Until Full Year 2021-2022, HTA was funded by a dedicated portion of the Transient Accommodations Tax (TAT) charged by the state on hotel rooms and other short-term lodging. Every dollar invested in HTA returned $20 in state tax revenues. In their 2021 session, state legislators needed to balance the many needs of Hawaii’s residents with lower tax revenue projected from our heavily tourism-dependent economy. HTA’s budget was cut from $76 million to $60 million, and the dedicated funding from the TAT was removed.”

Exhibit 10: Government funding sources gained importance during Covid

With the hotel demand and occupancy rates tanked, DMOs became completely cash strapped. However, tourism is a major contributor to world economies and DMOs play a crucial part in developing and promoting tourism. Hence, to keep the show running most of the DMOs gained access to recovery funds to ensure that they can continue to provide critical business support and start to prepare for recovery.

Sixty percent of the respondents of our survey said that their DMO received recovery funds. 55% of the funds received came from the Federal government. The second biggest source was the State/Province government followed by the City/Municipal government.  

In 2020, 62 million travel jobs were lost, representing a drop of 19%, leaving just 272 million employed across the sector globally, compared to 334 million in 2019.

Destinations were no exception to this drastic workforce reduction. Forty percent of our surveyed respondents said that their organizations laid off employees in the first six months of 2020 and 28% said they furloughed employees during this time period. Survey results suggest that around a quarter of employees were laid off and furloughed.

In addition, 20% of surveyed organizations reduced the working hours and salaries of their employees. Although 17% say that DMOs hired new staff during the first six months of 2020, the number of employees actually hired is negligible. 27% of the DMOs in our sample managed to keep their staff size the same as in 2019.

Exhibit 11: Considerable share of employees in the DMO industry were laid off during the first six months of 2020

Marketing spend decreased

Marketing remained the foremost function of DMOs. Seventy-two percent of the respondents said that the marketing spends decreased in 2020 and the number for 2021, while better, was still at 54%. 

The decrease in marketing spends in 2020 can be attributed to budget cuts overall but also insignificant travel demand. As Heywood from NYC & Company said, “When the pandemic started, we had nothing to market as people could not come.” As the situation got slightly better in 2021, DMOs started launching campaigns to lure travelers and ensure visitation as soon as travel restrictions were eased.

Exhibit 12: Marketing spend decreased in 2020 before slightly improving in 2021

Increased focus on domestic tourism

With wide spread restrictions on cross-border travel up until the recent few months, 65% of the respondents said that their organization focused more on domestic tourism during Covid as compared to 52% before Covid hit (refer exhibit 6). 

For example, Chang Chee Pey, Assistant Chief Executive, Singapore Tourism Board commented: “Our marketing strategies had to evolve to target a new domestic audience. STB launched the SingapoRediscovers domestic campaign in July 2020 to encourage locals to explore different sides of the country and in December 2020, STB launched complimentary SingapoRediscovers Voucher Scheme that provided Singaporeans with $100 worth of tourism credits as an incentive to support local tourism businesses.”

Representatives from the Azerbaijan Tourism Board further solidified the importance of domestic tourism during the pandemic, they told Skift: “During the pandemic, one of the main roles added to ATB’s functions was the promotion of domestic tourism, creating accessible tourism products for locals, putting them into a domestic tourism platform and communicating them to relevant target audiences. Acting as a hub for industry partners, including tour guides, accommodation providers, tour agencies and operators, has become a new role too to support the human capital within the industry.”

Offline marketing channels take a back seat; Innovative marketing campaigns became crucial

Survey results reflected that while digital channels like social media marketing and search engine optimization continued to be the top most marketing channels, community building, email and influencer marketing got a few extra points in terms of their efficiency during the pandemic.

On the other hand, publicity events and offline advertising channels were proven to be ineffective marketing channels during Covid given the restrictions on holding gatherings and the risk of virus transmission.

Chee Pey at the Singapore Tourism Board told Skift, “During the pandemic, digital channels were critical ones that allowed us to engage with our target audience when we were unable to do so physically. We expect this to continue going forward.” 

Exhibit 13: Digital marketing remained an impactful marketing channel during Covid

60% of the respondents of our survey said that their DMOs’ marketing message changed when the destination started witnessing signs of recovery from Covid based on changes in traveller preferences.

Slight recovery marked the beginning of in-the-moment marketing campaigns. For example, in January 2021 NYC and Company tweaked its very famous NYC Restaurant Week event to NYC Restaurant Week To Go. This simple change to make the most of the situation was a win-win allowing customers to enjoy favourite restaurants while staying at home at a bargain price, and allowing restaurants, many for the first time, to make takeout/delivery a revenue stream to help get through the winter months.

In the initial stage of Covid, in particular, DMOs around the world needed to encourage people to stop travelling. Even for destinations that bounced back faster thanks to a larger domestic travel market, the marketing focus needed to be on responsible and safe travel. According to our survey, 84% of the respondents said that their organization reviewed its primary roles and responsibilities as a result of the pandemic and 58% said that their organization changed its primary roles and responsibilities.

Stakeholder engagement, integrating locals, focus on sustainable tourism development and revisiting target markets and segments were the top few changes being reviewed at DMOs.

Other than the areas mentioned in the chart below, respondents highlighted that their organization’s main focus has been on transparent, timely communication, and brand positioning. Additionally, DMOs have been re-evaluating their membership models and made a shift from marketing members to marketing the entire destination.

Exhibit 14: In line with the changing industry landscape, DMOs reviewed and changed their focus areas

Recovery Timeline

Forty percent of the respondents expect travel to reach pre-pandemic levels in 2023 while ~30% feel recovery might happen in 2024 or later. As per the survey results, recovery in 2022 seems a far-fetched possibility.

Exhibit 15: Recovery in 2022 seems a like a bleak possibility

As far as the pace of recovery by purpose is concerned, 93% of the respondents believe that business travel to their destination will recover slower than leisure travel. However, Robert Dougan, Executive General Manager of Strategy and Research, Tourism Australia told Skift, “Business demand is not as dire as it was expected to be. Leisure will definitely recover before business but the gap might be narrower.” 

NYC & Company shared with us the expected timelines for recovery of travel volume by origin and purpose wherein domestic demand is expected to surpass 2019 levels in 2023 and international will breakeven in 2025. Similarly, leisure travel is expected to recover sooner in 2023 and business will follow in 2025.

  Exhibit 16: Domestic demand and leisure travel is expected to recover faster as compared to international and business travel respectively

As per the survey, DMOs feel that they themselves are leading the way and spearheading the recovery initiatives, while they see hotels as leading industry stakeholder in spearheading recovery on the ground. 

Exhibit 17: DMOs themselves are leading the recovery initiatives

What will 2022 Look Like for DMOs?

Our survey results indicate that the respondents are bullish on the fact that their organizations’ revenue will increase in 2022 as compared to 2019, with 60% expecting their revenue to increase in 2021 and 75% expecting their revenue to increase in 2022 considering 2019 revenue as the baseline. However, half of them believe that the increase will be less than 20%, indicating that the traveler volume is expected to recover only partially in 2022, quite so in line with the recovery timeline suggested by our survey results (refer exhibit 15)

Note that the survey was conducted in December 2021 and does not take into account the impact of the Omicron variant. The recovery might be further suppressed if destinations levy travel restrictions again.

Nina Zantout, Head of Strategy and Deputy Director Destination Management & Corporate Development, visitBerlin confirmed that full recovery in 2022 is a bleak possibility, “visitBerlin receives public funds for its tasks in Destination Management and Marketing and generates its own revenues through product sales. ~55% of our budget is own revenues. We received additional funding out of the recovery fund from the City of Berlin for the tourism sector in 2020 and 2021 in order to intensify the Berlin marketing, initiate new campaigns and to support the industry with tourism know-how. We do not expect to reach the same budget in 2022 as in 2019.”

On the expense side, it is notable that the expected increase in expense is exactly in line with revenue expectation, pointing towards the increased confidence of DMOs in handling the ever-changing Covid situation as compared to the situation in 2021 where expense increase was behind revenue increase and destinations were cautious of overspending (refer exhibit 9).

As far as expense allocation is concerned, DMOs are being nimble and are using their resources judiciously to get quick returns. Dougan from tourism Australia stated, “There are two major shifts in budget allocation. One, we have increased investment in the industry. And second, in the short term a higher ratio towards partnerships and conversions – we want to get people in the country as soon as possible once borders reopen.”

Exhibit 18: DMO expenses are expected to increase in line with increase in revenue in 2022

Most organizations believe the Covid-induced funding changes are transient and once we put the pandemic behind us, their funding sources and amounts will be back to pre-Covid level or continue to grow. Among all the surveyed respondents, 80% said they expect their organizations to get more funding post-Covid compared to 2019.

Respondents expect hotel transient tax to return back as the leading source of funding post-Covid. Advertising revenue and membership fees which were not contributing substantially before Covid are expected to become significant funding sources going forward.

However, 73% of them agreed with the statement “My organization will seek to develop new sources of funding”, indicating changes in the original balance of funding sources. Heavy reliance on hotel tax related funding is being contested in the industry and many industry experts believe that the hotel bed tax should no longer be the sole source of funding for their activities. 

Lebawit Lily Girma, Global Tourism Reporter at Skift discussed the funding crisis at destinations in her recent article. Kristen Jarnagin, CEO of Discover Long Island is quoted in the article saying: “I personally think the industry long-term needs to diversify beyond just hotels because of what we’re going through right now and, just like any other corporation would in America, you would look at any funding stream you had to be successful, and that’s exactly what we should do.”

Forty percent of the respondents also said that their organization expects to receive recovery funds in the future with the major source expected to be the Federal government, suggesting that DMOs will not be all out of the woods as yet and will still need outside support in 2022. 

Exhibit 19: Hotel transient tax is expected to become the dominant source of funding post-Covid

In 2021, as the demand for travel began to strengthen in line with the easing of restrictions and the recovering domestic market, the labor supply in the travel sector was unable to match the rising labor demand, particularly during the second half of 2021. Many countries, especially the U.S. and some European countries, showed significant staff shortages, with employment demand starting to outstrip the available labor supply.

Our survey results represent the same trend in late 2021, with 60% of the respondents saying that their organizations hired new staff while only 25% of them were successful in taking the number of staff back to 2019 levels. 

According to World Travel & Tourism Council’s latest economic projections from October 2021, travel sector’s employment is set to rise by 0.7% in 2021, representing 2 million jobs, followed by an 18% increase in 2022 to reach 324 million jobs – only 10 million below 2019 levels. Considering that DMOs will follow the overall industry trend, staff levels are expected to stabilize in 2022. 

Exhibit 20: Staffing levels in DMOs is expected to stabilize to a certain degree in 2022

Marketing spend to increase moderately 

77% of the survey respondents believe that marketing spends will increase in 2022, with around half of them saying that the increase will be less than 25% indicating that DMOs’ marketing budgets will remain tight and they should define their marketing focus and allocate resources carefully. 

Marketing priorities adjusted

Building brand and destination awareness was rated as the most important marketing priority for 2022. Chee Pey at the Singapore Tourism Board commented, “The most significant shift in STB’s marketing was from driving visitor arrivals and spend, to retaining destination mindshare globally. Our priority is to make Singapore the destination of choice, as consumers prepare to travel again.”

The priority next in line is to pursue a yield-driven marketing approach by building optimal data and analytics capacity. With limited funding and resources to channel, DMOs have realised the importance of taking a highly targeted approach. Heywood at NYC and Company told Skift, “We have to be very nimble in what channel to use, following the opportunities we are presented with, for example, we have shifted our resources from the Chinese market – we are simply doing a very targeted marketing. We will fish where the fish are.”

One of the major lessons for DMOs during Covid has been to diversify their revenue streams (42% of the respondents said that their organizations started to identify new revenue streams after Covid hit – refer exhibit 14). Over-reliance on a few markets has significantly challenged their revenue base and operations during the crisis. Hence, acquiring new customers, rated as a top marketing priority by the survey respondents, ought to be a crucial strategy in the years to come.

Retaining existing customers, ensuring repeat visitation, building return on investment measurement methods and generating revenue remain other marketing priorities for 2022.

Exhibit 21: DMOs look to adjust their marketing priorities in 2022

International tourism regains importance

Twenty-seven percent of the survey respondents said that their organizations will focus more on international tourism as recovery begins as opposed to 9% of them saying that their organizations’ focus was international tourism during Covid. 

Despite the surge in domestic tourism during Covid, DMOs are bent towards investing in international tourism as that is where the major chunk of tourism revenue comes from. Heywood from NYC & Company told Skift, “In New York, 50% of our spending comes from international travel. Currently domestic is important – it is 80% of the volume right now, however, getting back international is crucial for the industry. It is basically a concentric recovery where the focus was first on hyperlocal, then on local/regional, followed by domestic and then international markets.”

Exhibit 22: International tourism is expected to regain importance once recovery begins

Business tourism starts to regain importance

When asked about the focus of their organization’s calendar events for 2022, 46% of the respondents said that the organization will focus both on leisure and business tourism, signifying that despite of an expected lag in the recovery of business tourism, DMOs are willing to dedicate their time and resources in reinvigorating business demand. 

Exhibit 23: DMOs aim to focus both on leisure and business segments in 2022

Through our discussions with DMOs like NYC & Company, STB and Azerbaijan Tourism Board, we recognise that they are already pushing campaigns and promotions focusing on business tourism revival.

Marketing messages to be modified

83% of the survey respondents believe that marketing messages will have to be changed once their destination has fully recovered from the impact of Covid.

Attractiveness of the facets/offerings of the destination will also change in line with evolved traveler preferences. Results suggested that outdoor recreation and cultural heritage become key products to be marketed post Covid. In addition, undoubtedly, health related protocols and safety standards are bound to become important factors to attract tourists in 2022. 

Under its It’s Time for New York City campaign, NYC & Company shows how they used the culture and heritage facet to invite visitors right when the U.S. international borders were reopening. Right before the start of the holiday season, the DMO invited locals and visitors to enjoy holiday traditions and cultural experiences across the five boroughs, many of which are in person for the first time in two years.

Keeping the need for health and safety, destinations are opening their borders cautiously. As Chee Pey at the Singapore Tourism Board told Skift: “In recent months, Singapore launched Vaccinated Travel Lane (VTLs) with over 20 markets, allowing fully vaccinated travellers to travel without quarantine after closely monitoring source markets and ascertaining travel demand. STB also partnered with ClassPass to jointly promote Singapore’s wellness offerings and enhance the city’s attractiveness as an urban wellness destination.”

Other facets which are set to become very important once destinations recover from the pandemic are accommodations and food & beverage outlets.

Exhibit 24: Attractiveness of destination offerings is expected to change in line with changing traveler preferences

However, the post-Covid phase will bring its own share of struggles for the DMOs. In order to eliminate the risk of virus transmission yet again, DMOs will have to be extra careful in which source markets to target and when. Heywood at NYC & Company discussed, “Now international has reopened. It is getting much better – we need to understand that the vaccination situation is different in each country and everyone might not be able to follow the requirements to enter our country.”

Marketing channels to maintain balance but few innovative approaches expected to transpire

In the near term, digital marketing channels are expected to maintain their supremacy as post advent of the pandemic. However, partnership marketing, community building, and cross-DMO collaborations are expected to gain importance in the coming years as compared to the pre-Covid setup (refer exhibit 13). 

Partnership marketing to pick up

Eighty-six percent of the survey respondents said that their organization is actively partnering with tourism stakeholders, like airlines and hotels, to work towards the common goal of bringing back travelers. The results further suggest that 84% of the respondents believe that partnership with hotels turn out to be the most fruitful and efficient. 

It is important to mention that based on the survey results, we believe that DMOs have a natural tendency to favour hotels over other travel partners (later in the report we will see that DMOs vote eco-conscious products and services of hotels as the most attractive tourist offering). This bias can be attributed to the fact that hotel transient tax was a major funding source pre-Covid and the trend is expected to continue and hotels are much more closely tied with the local economy that destinations represent than other travel segments (refer exhibit 19).

Exhibit 25: DMOs believe that partnership with hotels turn out to be the most fruitful and efficient

NYC & Company’s It’s Time for New York City tourism campaign that we mentioned earlier is a good example of partnership marketing. As part of this campaign, the DMO formed a partnership with British Airways with billboards installed in the UK to promote eight daily flights to Gotham.

They also collaborated with Virgin Atlantic along with British Airways, and hosted an event to commemorate the opening of U.S. borders to vaccinated travellers with the aim of creating a buzz and attracting more British travellers. Heywood from NYC & Company in an interaction with PR Week said, “The thing that equates to success is having the power of partnership and having different people bring their strengths to the table was what really propelled this event from being something that could have just been a run-of-the-mill reception to something that garnered a lot of media attention.”

Similarly, Tourism Australia launched the National Experience Content Initiative, a new $12 million media creation program aimed at supporting tourism businesses across the country in their recovery and driving increased visitation by helping them to better market their experiences and attractions.

Cross-DMO collaborations on the rise

About 60% of the respondents said that their organization is exploring cross-DMO collaborations to rationalize costs and standardize basic functions. 

Destinations Put Aside Old Rivalries With New Combined Marketing , a recent article by Skift, talks about how the new ‘friends not rivals’ approach to marketing destinations might just get more traction from today’s changed traveler.

One good example to showcase such partnerships is the #ThroughMyWindow campaign put together by the Los Angeles Tourism & Convention Board, NYC & Company and San Francisco Travel in April 2020. Through this campaign the DMOs encouraged those who live in their cities to share their views with the hashtag #LAThroughMyWindow, #NYCThroughMyWindow, and #SFThroughMyWindow. The idea was to provide a virtual window into each other’s  cities, a sign of unity and support.

However, we believe that this is an interim strategy, as navigating joint messaging amid varied target markets across destinations will be a challenging task once they have fully recovered from the pandemic. 

Community engagement to grow

Around 90% of the survey respondents said that their organization has started focusing more on building local/community partnerships.

Over the last few years, destination marketing has broadened and shifted to a more cohesive community outlook. Locals have a direct influence on the visitor experience, from being welcoming, sharing their culture, creating safe and secure environments, to spreading positive stories about the destination. On top of that, destination organizations have increasingly realized that bringing in tourism should be integrated into building local community and culture and improving the quality of life for the local residents. 

Denaye Hinds, managing director of JustaTaad , a sustainability consultancy firm and a board member for the Center for Responsible Travel , during the Skift Destination and Sustainability Summit held in July 2021 discussed: “Tourism starts before getting on the plane and taking that trip, and getting that responsible message across to future visitors is where the opportunity also lies as far as including communities in marketing messaging.”

A recent article by Skift, Lebawit Lily Girma mentions, “As tourism returned, doubts lingered as to whether tourism boards would keep prioritizing their residents and continue to market to them. At Skift Global Forum, leaders of California and Florida tourism indicated that the shift was here to stay, and that they would continue to market to their insiders as local marketing campaigns had been well received with pent up desire from locals to explore their backyard and support their homegrown businesses.” 

DMOs will continue to find their footing in the new travel landscape. The chart below shows how some of the DMO functions are expected to broaden massively to keep up with the changing trends and patterns owing to the pandemic. 

Exhibit 26: DMOs continue to find their footing in the new travel landscape

Increased emphasis on Sustainability initiatives

In the post-Covid world, we found that sustainability initiatives are at the top of destination professionals’ minds. While only 34% stated their organizations worked on sustainability initiatives in 2019, 74% said their organizations will work on them post-Covid. 

Eighty-three percent of the respondents feel that there is a need to provide eco-conscious travel options given the focus on climate change and sustainability issues post Covid. And among the travel products offered by various travel providers, destination professionals believe eco-conscious products and services offered by hotels and food & beverage outlets will be the most attractive to travelers. 

Exhibit 27: Destination professionals believe eco-conscious products and services offered by hotels will be the most attractive to travelers

Furthermore, 50% of the respondents said that their organization started working on developing methods and advocating for regulations that can prevent over-tourism and/or managing its negative multi-facet effects for the purposes of advanced sustainable development as a result of Covid. As one respondent shared, “Emphasis will be on sustainable practices with dispersal of tourists so that the threshold hold capacity of a tourist destination does not cross its limit.”

However, industry experts believe that although sustainability practices are being included in their strategic agenda on a theoretical basis, for now it has been put on the backburner as the need of the hour is to get tourism going by any means possible. Dougan from Tourism Australia commented, “Undoubtedly, sustainability and tourism go hand in hand, however, currently we need cash in the industry to survive and to remain competitive. Labour shortage and the ability to service demand are the things the industry should be much worried about.” 

Airport route development and overall stakeholder engagement resurge as key DMO functions

While only 25% said that their organization focused on airport route development in 2019, 40% said that their organization will focus on it going forward. 

Dougan at Tourism Australia, told Skift: “We will have to focus on more support areas – from our core function of marketing to a much higher degree of aviation engagement, distribution engagement, industry engagement as well. We have set up programs to help the industry become more competitive, to help industry stakeholders do the right marketing. We also have been very active in talking to airlines in keeping them informed of what is happening in Australia. Trade and Aviation are crucial to keep it going.”

Increased emphasis on economic development, and crisis management is expected to continue. Over and above the functions mentioned in the chart above, respondents listed policy development, political advocacy, increased accessibility with round the clock communication options for visitors and residents as other functions that are expected to become important post Covid.

Heavy investment in Data

Tourism research and data was already of significant importance to DMOs before the pandemic, with 80% respondents mentioning it as a key function of their organization. In the post-pandemic phase, 90% of the respondents voted it as a key function. As we have already mentioned above, budget restraints due to Covid have made it essential for DMOs to take a more targeted approach with respect to internal business practices and their overall strategy to efficiently utilise the budgets available. As Heywood at NYC and Company said, “We are as good as our data.”

Survey results show that Google and social media analytics are used ubiquitously by DMOs. At the same time, internal data sources from stakeholders and the government are also being used to make informed decisions.

The Roadmap for Tourism’s Reimagining and Recovery document published by NYC & Company in July 2020 shows how they track essential data to define their success metrics. A few of the metrics tracked by them are measuring changes in search terms, site traffic, social media engagement, social listening, custom/proprietary traveler sentiment surveys. The DMO even tracks indices like the performance of hotels, shopping trends and regional mobility.

Exhibit 28: Google and social media analytics are used ubiquitously by DMOs along with direct stakeholder data sources

To conclude, the overall objective of creating demand, boosting visitor numbers and spending will require all facets of the DMOs to function in perfect harmony in 2022. We believe that 2022 will be a pivotal year of laying the groundwork for the DMOs to build back better in a real sense. Identification of new revenue and funding opportunities, streamlined internal operations, implementation of performance measurement metrics, use of sophisticated data and analytics and targeted marketing along with significant focus on health & safety, sustainability, partnerships and community building are some of the interesting changes that the DMO landscape will entail in 2022. 

We’ve received many uplifting comments from our surveyed destination management professionals that echo the above message. We will end the report with messages from a couple of respondents that capture the essence of the work that many DMOs are planning to do: 

“In 2022, we will focus more on the health and safety aspects of our industry partners – and promote the Safe Travel Stamp and all businesses that are certified. We will also feature the outdoor attractions more than we have in the past. We will also focus more on the sustainability message across all markets – travel trade, business events and leisure. We will ensure that all of our messaging demonstrates that our destination is welcoming and inclusive to all.” 

“Our offer will develop considering the wants and needs of our target groups putting them in accord with those of our residents and stakeholders. We aim to become a safe and friendly destination for them offering a better quality of life, products and services, making our destination a nice and interactive place for all our long or short-stay residents and visitors. In addition to the safety messaging, we’re talking about increasing awareness around sustainability and environmentally friendly ways to travel.”

“More than ever we’ve seen the importance of being nimble so will be much more flexible with our messaging and advertising placement. There will be new customers’ needs to be answered in our marketing communication, it will focus more on safe travelling, health information, new digital services – and we will continue to be a home-away-from-home and will welcome visitors to take part in the locals‘ life.”

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12 Travel Marketing Strategies To Help You Out-Market Your Competitors in 2023

Kyle Morley

January 26, 2023

The world of travel has evolved, especially after the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. Travelers are valuing their time off more and researching more heavily before making travel decisions. Additionally, brands are competing to drive bookings and increase revenue to make up for the large losses the industry took in 2020. 

Utilizing new and unique marketing strategies can help travel brands separate themselves from the competition, reach new audiences, and increase bookings. Take a look at our top 12 marketing strategies that can help travel brands stand out and out-market their competitors. 

What Is The State of the Travel Marketing Industry in 2023? 

The travel industry took a huge hit in 2020 with the emergence of the global COVID-19 pandemic. Both domestic and international travel stopped almost overnight, leaving the travel and tourism industry with little-to-no business. However, over the past three years, the industry has steadily increased to semi-regular rates, though still slightly lower than 2019. 

According to the International Air Transport Association , global air travel is expected to make a full recovery by 2024. Additionally, the IATA expects domestic air travel to increase by 3% in 2023 compared to pre-pandemic levels in 2019. With that being said, many travel companies are looking to dedicate time and resources to out-marketing their top competitors and return business to pre-pandemic levels. 

12 Travel Marketing Strategies For 2023

Using a combination of tried-and-true marketing strategies and unique ideas will offer a fresh foundation for travel destinations to attract new tourists and increase bookings. In 2023, the way consumers make travel decisions has changes. People are valuing sustainable travel options and relying heavily on social media and video content to make their travel decisions. 

Luckily, we’ve compiled a list of 12 key marketing strategies and tips to help travel companies increase bookings and drive consumers to their destination. 

1. Create A Seamless Website Experience 

All of your marketing channels will be driving traffic to the same place – your website. If the user experience is lacking, it could drive away potential customers or have them book a stay with a separate OTA. 

As direct bookings become increasingly important for travel companies, a seamless user experience on the website is of the utmost importance. A travel website should showcase all of the best things about the destination to really show consumers what their vacation will be like. Additionally, users should be able to seamlessly book travel experiences directly from the site. 

2. Publish Blog Content on a Regular Basis

Blog content is a great way to capture the attention of untapped audiences and focus on search engine optimization. By creating content that targets highly searched keywords in the travel space and keywords specific to your destination, brands can dominate the search engine results page. 

Not only does long-form editorial content help put a brand in front of new audiences, it also showcases the beauty of your travel destination. Consumers want to learn a lot about a destination before traveling there. According to TripAdvisor , consumers will spend an average of four weeks researching their travel destination. With blog content, brands can create a high quality resource for consumers to turn to throughout their research process.  

3. Lean On Your Customer Reviews

Consumers are spending more on travel now than ever before. According to the ASTA , 40% of consumers are spending more on travel now than they did before the pandemic in 2019. However, consumers also want to be sure that their money is being spent in the right place. 

Traveler reviews are some of the most valuable pieces of content that brands can use in advertising. Sites like TripAdvisor and Yelp are growing increasingly popular and can make or break a travel destination. By showcasing positive experiences that other travelers have had, brands can increase social proof and gain trust with new customers. 

4. Upgrade Your Social Media Game

Social media is an integral part of any marketing strategy for 2023 and beyond. With the growing popularity of platforms like TikTok and Instagram, travel companies can leverage their social media following to increase bookings and drive traffic to other marketing channels. Regularly posting content and engaging with your audience is incredibly valuable for companies in the travel industry. 

Influencers are also a key part of a social media marketing strategy. Utilizing influencer content allows you to reach completely new audiences and showcase the best parts about your brand and vacation destination. If you are looking to increase your reach with photo and video content, social media marketing is the best way to do so.

5. Rely On Data for Key Insights

Data is everywhere – you just need to know how to track it properly. Between websites, social media, online advertisements, and more, there is an abundance of consumer data that can be used to optimize your marketing strategy. 

Travel companies can track user behavior, see where high-converting consumers are coming from, and see what marketing strategies are currently working. Using this data to further improve and optimize your marketing efforts will provide unbeatable insights and deliver quality results. However, you need to be confident that the data you are using is trustworthy and accurate.

6. Don’t Underestimate the Power of Remarketing

Remarketing is a powerful tool that can help direct audiences to your travel website or destination. A customer journey, especially in the travel space, can include tons of different searches and websites. 

Remarketing may prove to be one of the most valuable tools in your marketing toolbelt. When consumers are more familiar with your brand, they may be more receptive to advertisements. Additionally, consumers may be more likely to convert after visiting your website more than once. 

7. Improve Your Mobile User Experience

With the advancement of smartphone technology, consumers are starting to rely heavily on the mobile experience instead of a desktop experience. Travel brands need to shift their focus to the user experience from a mobile standpoint. Whether that means a quality mobile app or website experience can vary from brand to brand.

According to a study performed by SalesCycle , 44% of travelers will book their vacations online. Additionally, those booking on a mobile app or mobile site have a lower cart abandonment rate compared to those on desktop. Mobile consumers are becoming more and more valuable as the travel industry evolves. It is important to ensure that your brand has a seamless booking experience for both desktop and mobile users.

8. Utilize Email Marketing Campaigns

Email marketing is one of the oldest marketing strategies in the book. It continues to be a helpful tool for travel marketers to increase bookings, get more eyes on their destination, and actively engage with their audiences. 

If you have an email list of consumers, you should be utilizing it! And, if you don’t, you should start building one. Including a simple spot on your website for users to input their email address and some basic personal information will allow you to organically grow your list and engage with your audience organically. 

9. Use Video To Enhance The User Experience

As consumers are changing the way they research for a big vacation or small weekend trip, video is becoming more and more popular. Users like to feel like they’ve traveled to a destination before they have even left their house. Video is a great way to market your destination as highly desirable and fun. 

Travel brands can either create their own video content, use consumer created content, or rely on influencers to create video content for them. Each type of content will provide it’s own unique benefit from a marketing perspective. 

Branded video content created internally will be a great way for travel companies to interact with their existing audiences. These can actively be promoted on social media accounts, through email, and on the brand’s website. User generated content will appear the most organic and allow you to interact with your consumers’ networks. Influencer marketing videos may not be as organic as user generated content, but it will reach the widest audience. 

10. Introduce New Technology To Your Marketing Strategies

New technologies in the travel industry are constantly evolving and are a great way to revitalize your marketing efforts. While AI Chatbots have been popular in the industry to assist with online bookings and answer quick questions from customers, the technology has majorly evolved since then. Outside of automated FAQ responses, AI can really have an impact on travel marketing.

There are AI technologies out there that can make personalized travel recommendations for tourists, can interact with consumers via voice throughout their vacation, track and trace baggage via image, and more. With so many new, AI-driven technologies emerging in the travel industry, it is important for brands to stay ahead of the curve to ultimately create an ideal travel experience. 

11. Engage With Local Audiences Too

Local audiences may not seem that important to the travel industry, but they can be an additional untapped audience to target with marketing campaigns. While you may think that locals are familiar with the travel and tourism destinations in their area, you may be surprised to see how many have not visited. 

Not only an this help you encourage repeat visits to your location, it can also help unlock untapped audiences. Successfully marketing towards locals may seem like a difficult task, as they likely try to avoid the tourist areas of their home. However, offering discounts to locals may help encourage increased attendance and may help your local marketing campaigns gain traction.  

12. Tell A Story with Your Destination

Consumers want to travel to a destination with a unique identity and a clear story attached to it. In order to have a successful travel marketing campaign, travel brands need to do more than just showcase their beautiful destinations. 

Every destination will have a unique identity and a unique story attached that can really help consumers picture themselves vacationing there. Whether marketers decide to lean into their destination’s rich culture and history, beautiful, calm scenery, or booming cities, a unique story will help travelers make their decisions easier. 

Refresh Your Marketing Strategy with From the Future’s New Travel Marketing Platform™

Travel marketing can be a complicated undertaking. With that being said, it is important for travel companies to rely on expert marketers to help them understand what strategies are best for their brand. 

At From the Future, we have over a decade of travel marketing experience and have used our expertise to change the way you see marketing. With our Travel Marketing Platform™ , marketers can access brand new audiences and tell their unique story. Get in touch with one of our specialists to see how the Travel Marketing Platform™ can revitalize your marketing strategies. 

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The trouble with travel distribution

A decade after the Internet spurred airlines, hotels, and other travel players to sell directly to customers, the sector’s ecosystem is fracturing. Companies are abandoning the systems that are supposed to provide consumers with one-stop shops to book flights, accommodations, and other services. Lawsuits are being filed. And the very people whose interests should be paramount—customers—are being caught in the cross fire. That’s giving newcomers a chance to swoop into a sector that today boasts annual online sales of almost $100 billion, around a third of all global e-commerce activity.

This turbulence isn’t a bad thing: the travel sector has reached the next phase in its evolution, and some creative destruction is necessary. In fact, companies are already investing billions of dollars in the next wave of travel e-commerce, from revamping Web sites to changing the technology infrastructure. Consolidation is also creating opportunities that didn’t exist before. But the critical question is whether the sector’s players can find a sustainable path forward before new rivals blaze the trail for them. To name just two candidates: Google recently paid $700 million for ITA Software, whose algorithms form the backbone of 65 percent of flight sales by carriers, while Apple has filed a series of patents for a mobile-device application called iTravel.

The bottom line is that travel suppliers, aggregators, and service providers each need to define the sector’s next wave quickly. We suggest that industry incumbents move away from a model focused almost exclusively on reducing channel costs and toward one that seeks to maximize returns by best serving customer needs. And the incumbents must understand that the customer experience not only begins before the time of sale—and even before the time of search—but also extends well after purchase and travel. The changes we recommend don’t require reinventing the wheel: many solutions already exist, but the sector’s myopic focus on costs rather than returns prevents their implementation. Balanced business models that give all value-adding players a seat at the table are what’s needed.

A troubled history

For a long time, suppliers in the travel sector regarded themselves as service providers and let distributors handle the technology-intensive process of actually selling airline seats or hotel rooms. The airlines facilitated this approach in the 1960s by creating global distribution systems such as Apollo and Sabre—used by travel agents to search inventory across the world—only to spin them off in the late 1990s, when cash got tight and valuations looked rich.

As with many other sectors, the Internet’s arrival changed everything. Online travel booking took off as aggregator sites, such as Expedia, began to give consumers a one-stop shop, in return demanding commissions that forced airlines and hotel operators to rethink their hands-off strategy. US airlines responded by creating a rival online travel agency, Orbitz, but their return to the distribution business was short lived: as financial pressures on the airlines’ core business continued to build, they spun off Orbitz. Recognizing the low-cost direct sales model offered by the Web, the airlines set about redirecting shoppers from aggregators’ sites to their own.

American Airlines (AA), for example, withdrew inventory from Orbitz in late 2010; in solidarity with Orbitz, Expedia fired back by removing AA’s listings (the airline is now back on both sites). Enterprise Rent-A-Car also left Orbitz, citing high costs, while US Airways piled onto AA’s disputes by filing suit against Sabre on antitrust grounds. Such disputes are common whenever industries confront the problem of who owns the content and who owns the customer: cable television companies, for example, regularly battle networks over channel-access issues, and insurers have created their own Internet portals to combat the brokers’ entrenched power.

The travel sector’s problem, however, is that the underlying model is fracturing. Traditional travel agencies now tend to tailor their services to business travelers, rather than provide options and products for a broad set of customer segments. Suppliers are making huge investments to lure customers to their direct channels, inadvertently reducing return on investment (ROI) by lifting costs with little immediate increase in revenue. Online aggregators are not only pushing suppliers out and undermining their one-stop-shop proposition, but also digging their heels into a format that emphasizes price as the primary product differentiator. Fundamentally, and most damagingly, consumers increasingly find that they don’t have what they really want: all travel options at their disposal in one place. If this problem persists, they will become more willing to consider superior alternatives.

The path ahead

So what should be done? We have identified four imperatives for travel companies: making customers the strategic focus, using data to understand them, serving them better through partnerships, and providing the best end-to-end experience to promote both sales and ongoing loyalty.

1. Focus on customers, not channels

The travel sector’s approach for two decades has been to push customers toward lower-cost yet more uniform distribution channels. We believe this is the wrong response to a growing mandate for product differentiation: while some customers value price above all else, that attitude is far from universal. Travelers differ in clear ways when it comes to their requirements—both in their traveling needs (which inform product design) and their shopping needs 1 1. For more on this topic, see Carmen Nobel, “Clay Christensen’s milkshake marketing,” Harvard Business School Working Knowledge , February 14, 2011. (which inform merchandising design and are relevant for distribution). Suppliers should shift from a business-to-business, channel-centric approach to a decidedly customer-centric one: the overarching goal should be to win customers, not to fight a zero-sum game with intermediaries (for more on how to win customers, see the below interactive exhibit, “Understanding travel’s core customers”).

In an ideal world, suppliers would tailor services to each individual. Reality makes that goal almost impossible to achieve, but travel companies can and should craft focused solutions for a range of broad customer segments. Price-driven leisure travelers, for instance, are drawn to transparency and comparability above all else, shopping at an average of three to four Web sites before making a purchase. So why don’t airlines, hotels, and car-rental companies bring price comparability to their own sites? This is exactly the model adopted by US insurance companies that quote competitors’ prices alongside their own. While there is some risk of customer defection—especially among price-focused travelers—that’s mitigated by the fact that this approach helps earn customer trust and draws valuable insights (about consumer preferences and behavior) that enable more effective merchandising.

Customers in another segment—unmanaged business travelers—are too small to justify the expensive services of large travel-management companies. However, less costly and more efficient technologies make it easier to service this “long tail” of corporate travelers, and suppliers and travel-management companies alike recognize the potential ROI of moving them to online channels. Unmanaged business travelers seek less expensive versions of the services received by larger accounts, such as expense-management tools, profile management, and company loyalty programs. Meeting this demand will be complicated, but in industries such as banking and telecommunications we see a potential answer by combining a customized product offering with a different sales model. Consortiums and partnerships are likely to be the key to success—for example, imagine deploying a sales force to sell airline product bundles to small- and medium-sized businesses, empowered by the latest external advances in tracking and reporting tools.

A channel-based mind-set limits the willingness of players, particularly suppliers, to make such moves. Instead, they tend to focus on market share targets for channels (and attempt to achieve these targets with initiatives such as Web site overhauls), without considering what it takes to shift preferences by consumer segment. New capabilities, not cosmetic changes, are what are really needed. Focusing on customer-based ROI rather than on channel targets forces executives to ask themselves how much they are going to invest—in which capabilities and targeting which customer shopping needs—to produce which results.

2. Win in the era of ‘big data’

Travel companies have access to mind-boggling customer data: everything from basic personal information to preferred airline seats, in-flight-entertainment preferences, meals at hotels, and credit card usage. They have the means to paint detailed pictures to drive marketing initiatives that more deeply engage customers, yet few—if any—of them truly maximize the potential of the data at their disposal. There’s no doubt that the synthesis of sales, pricing and revenue management, loyalty, and IT required to deliver on data’s promises is daunting. But there’s equally no doubt that companies from outside the travel sector specifically tooled to make the most of data are going to figure things out, enter the market, and try to steal customers.

Amazon.com, for example, became the thorn in the side of every bookseller—and, eventually, every retailer—by mining data to craft individualized customer experiences full of conversion-ready streams of recommendations. Amazon is notably absent from travel, at least for now. Google, however, has tens of billions of dollars in cash reserves and hundreds of employees whose job description is data mining. And its acquisition of ITA, a critical airfare search provider, already allows Google to provide users with instant travel itineraries and links to purchase (to see it in action, simply Google “NYC to LAX”).

Meanwhile, suppliers are moving slowly. British Airways recently announced that it would equip flight attendants with iPads rather than paper manifests. This provides a way to capture and use unprecedented levels of customer data, but this capability is only a small step forward—in many ways, incumbents remain squarely on the back foot in the emerging era of big data. It’s not too late: suppliers have a wealth of information and resources they could use to test new ideas. But they need to ask themselves which data they could be collecting, which existing data are not being mobilized, and which capabilities they should be building (or partnering to acquire) to compete on the big data battlefront. 2 2. For more on how data, customization, and experimentation will be a new hallmark of competition, see Brad Brown, Michael Chui, and James Manyika, “ Are you ready for the era of ‘big data’? ,” mckinseyquarterly.com, October 2011.

3. Unlock the power of partnerships

Imagine if you could type (or speak) the following instruction into your smartphone: “Book my usual flights from Dallas to New York, out Monday and back Wednesday, usual hotel, rental car”—and quickly receive an itinerary compliant with your corporate travel policies. What would it take to achieve that? We see far too many travel companies seeking to undertake local, discrete tasks well and not simultaneously thinking broadly about the kinds of solutions that really engage and stimulate customers. Considering a customer’s mind-set and thinking more creatively about products and services should be a priority, and that may require working with, as well as against, competitors. One good example of this approach is the recently launched hotel search and booking site, RoomKey.com, founded by Marriott International, Hilton Worldwide, Hyatt Corporation, InterContinental Hotels Group, Choice Hotels International, and Wyndham Hotel Group.

In the world of consumer packaged goods, we’ve seen such partnerships take off: retailers and manufacturers now share unprecedented levels of information across their supply chains, enabling far more effective merchandising decisions and physical-distribution and logistics outcomes. Yet the most public dispute in travel—among AA, Expedia, and Orbitz—is the equivalent of a consumer-packaged-goods company pulling its products from a retailer’s shelves: it benefits no one.

Our point here is twofold. First, creating new technologies is not necessarily the answer to all the challenges in travel today; indeed, the technical capacity to deliver what consumers need arguably exists already, dispersed in pockets across a dysfunctional ecosystem. Second, the potential of partnerships—lateral (supplier–supplier), vertical (supplier–aggregator–provider), or with companies beyond the travel sector—remains to be unlocked. Succeeding here may be more about identifying companies with similar interests and synergistic capabilities than about throwing new money and new technology after problems rooted in structural issues of coordination.

4. Master the entire customer experience

Selling a product isn’t the beginning of a company’s relationship with customers; that starts when they first become aware of its brand. Equally, the relationship doesn’t end at the point of sale, because every interaction with customers is an opportunity to foster their loyalty or lose their future business. 3 3. For more on how consumers make purchasing decisions, see David Court, Dave Elzinga, Susan Mulder, and Ole Jørgen Vetvik, “ The consumer decision journey ,” mckinseyquarterly.com, June 2009. Customer solutions in the travel industry often span multiple players, providing each with an opportunity to showcase its strengths and make a case for becoming a traveler’s favorite. Some companies are actively seeking to forge tighter bonds with customers: for example, KLM Royal Dutch Airlines will soon launch a service that allows its passengers use their Facebook or LinkedIn profiles to choose seatmates on upcoming flights. Malaysia Airlines is releasing a Facebook service that lets travelers check if friends are on their same flight or headed to their same destination. Like British Airways’ use of the iPad, these innovations deploy technology to shape the customer experience , not just to conduct booking and customer service transactions.

A critical prerequisite for influencing the customer experience is the dissolution of organizational barriers—not only budgets and planning processes but also ownership of information—to gain a comprehensive view of the customer journey. There should be a single customer databank, not separate ones for information on loyalty, transactions, and pricing. And to make the customer-centric approach a reality, unprecedented levels of coordination among multiple business units (including those responsible for loyalty programs, pricing, sales, marketing, and information technology) are also required. Far too few companies in the travel sector have taken the steps needed to achieve this level of unification.

The digital revolution has upended business as usual in almost all industries, and travel is no exception. Consumers are empowered by information: they have near-instant access to their flight, hotel, and car-rental options; virtual price transparency; and the ability to play suppliers off against one another. The game is now about delivering a superior customer experience. If players can do that, the investment returns will follow.

Robert Carey is an associate principal in McKinsey’s Atlanta office, where David Kang is a consultant; Michael Zea is a principal in the Stamford office.

The authors wish to acknowledge the contributions of Andrew Curley, Alex Dichter, and Bryan Hancock to the development of this article.

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Plotting The Next Big Thing: 2024 Travel and Tourism Marketing Trends

By Hayley Corbett

January 6, 2024

2024 offers no shortage of events and trends to reshuffle the travel and tourism marketing landscape. 

From cutting-edge AI and shifting consumer priorities to major events directing tourist flows, this is undoubtedly a year of great change and opportunity. 

As travelers embrace new tools and trends post-pandemic, destination marketing organizations will need to keep pace and capitalize on emerging niches. 

Flexibility, innovation and insight set apart winners as always. 

What trends and tech should define marketing efforts this year? Let’s explore the pivotal changes that separate winning destinations in 2024’s decisive travel environment.

AI Goes Mainstream for Travel and Tourism Marketing in 2024

While just 17% of American travelers tapped AI tools for vacation planning over the past year, that figure is set to skyrocket in 2024. ChatGPT has dominated thus far, cited by 63% of AI-assisted travelers, but new platforms like TripAdvisor are entering the space. 

And with 50% of travelers now open to leveraging AI for future trips, an explosion in adoption looms. Though only 6% used generative tools like ChatGPT in 2023, Expedia forecasts mass acceptance incoming. 

Outside of the apps, Google’s Search Generative Experience (SGE) is also using AI to share travel planning by including AI-generated responses right into travelers’ search results. 

For destinations, the implications are immense — 2024 may see swaths of visitors arriving with AI-powered itineraries in hand. To capitalize on this seismic shift, DMOs must ensure prominence on AI platforms, craft specialized travel packages and position themselves as go-to local experts to shape data-driven recommendations. 

The AI-fueled travel surge is inevitable; early movers stand to welcome an influx.

Astrotourism: A Year of Rare Celestial Wonders

Astrotourism, a form of niche tourism centered around stargazing and astronomy, is poised to soar in 2024 as a leading travel trend. With several rare celestial events on the calendar, from vivid meteor showers to an exceptional northern lights display, 2024 marks a banner year for witnessing breathtaking sights in the night sky. 

• Total Solar Eclipse on April 8: The most monumental event is undoubtedly the total solar eclipse on April 8, with the Moon fully obscuring the Sun in a narrow path across parts of Mexico, the central U.S. and Canada. Total solar eclipses occur about every one to two years but are only visible from any given location about once every 400 years, offering a truly singular sight.
• Vibrant Meteor Showers: Several of 2024’s meteor showers may produce incredible shows, especially the Quadrantids in early January and the Perseids in mid-August. With limited moonlight, these have the potential for upwards of 60-100 vivid meteors per hour at peak, an awe-inspiring display.
• Extraordinary Northern Lights: Due to the approaching solar maximum in 2024-2025, scientists anticipate the best northern lights in years during the start of the decade, with their vibrant colors possibly visible farther south than usual under optimal dark sky conditions.

Destinations around the world are leveraging these astronomical phenomena and the rising popularity of astrotourism by offering specialized services such as expert-guided stargazing sessions, bespoke event packages and lavish accommodations tailored to sky-watching. From the salt flats of Botswana to the Adriatic coastline, stargazers can fulfill their celestial dreams in wilderness hideaways or at luxury beach resorts primed for astronomy. 

As travelers increasingly seek restorative, transformational trip experiences, destinations marketing their awe-inspiring night skies and astronomy-focused amenities can tap into this cosmic travel niche in 2024 and beyond.

Election Year Mutes 2024 Travel Spend

The 2024 presidential election cycle casts uncertainty for discretionary travel spend, with historical dips in election years. 

Domestic and international travel still rank as top priorities for high-income households, but shortened planning cycles point to last-minute bookings. DMOs can leverage flexible offers, emphasize value and keep messaging inspiring — yet sensitive — to the political climate. 

Promoting convenient weekend getaways, discounted shoulder season packages and easy full-refund booking can attract hesitant vacationers. While election distractions may mute 2024 travel initially, deploying strategic promotions as votes are counted can help destinations gain market share into 2025. 

Capturing wavering demand just before or after an election makes for savvy marketing.

Wellness Travel to Skyrocket

Fresh off 36% annual growth from 2020-2022, the thriving $651 billion wellness tourism industry is forecast to rapidly accelerate – projected to reach a soaring $1.4 trillion value by 2027. 

As personal health, self-care and mental health become indispensable to travelers planning 2024 getaways, quality sleep will take center stage. Destinations should highlight specialized programming like multi-day sleep optimization retreats, mindful meditation and partner with hospitality brands offering amenities to aid sleep health. Blackout shades, pillow menus and Sleep Concierges are just the start. 

Marketing efforts should also showcase nature excursions, yoga sessions, spa treatments and other local wellness offerings. Catering to this high-value niche with personalized, restorative experiences taps into its meteoric post-pandemic rise. 

With wellness tourism showing no signs of slowing its explosive expansion, destinations that promote transformative sleep and overall well-being are poised to gain happy, healthy visitors and significant revenue. Early movers stand to win big.

Gig Tripping Hits the Road 

Gig tripping, traveling specifically for concert tours and festivals, is skyrocketing thanks to major 2024 world tours like The Rolling Stones, Bruce Springsteen, Madonna and Bad Bunny. 

With 44% of US travelers willing to fly short-haul and 18% long-haul to see artists abroad according to Skyscanner , often for ticket savings, gig tripping has mass appeal. Destinations can create targeted campaigns spotlighting the exact performances, highlighting discounted accommodation and transport packages bundled with tickets. Tailored festival sponsorship opportunities also hold potential. 

Similar to the rise of bleisure travel , extending gig tripping beyond concerts to emphasize broader local music culture and unique destination amenities, could further attract ideal travelers. 

As tens of millions combine live shows with tourism in 2024, destinations leveraging their music scenes have a stage to draw substantial new visitors and revenue.

‘Dupes’ Drive a Sustainable Shift

The TikTok-famed concept of substitute “dupes” is steering 2024 travel away from over-visited hotspots and toward fresh discoveries. 

Expedia uncovered major flight search spikes for unexpected alternatives to popular destinations. These changes are signals of travelers moving from packed bucket-list locales to lesser-known gems offering similar amenities for less. 

• Taipei, Taiwan for Seoul, South Korea (+2,786%)
• Pattaya, Thailand for Bangkok, Thailand (+249%)
• Paros, Greece for Santorini, Greece (+193%)
• Curaçao for St. Martin (+185%)
• Perth, Australia for Sydney, Australia (+109%)

Dupe Destinations also aid sustainability by redirecting tourists from saturated destinations to places with capacity for more visitors. 

DMOs have a pivotal role to play by spotlighting their regions as affordable, crowd-free alternatives. Tailored marketing that draws parallels to beloved but maxed-out destinations, like emphasizing Pattaya’s vibrant culture or Paros’ azure waters, will entice tourists as it does in their related destinations. Packages pairing discounted flights with small distinctive hotels can also tap the trend. As “dupes” gain steam for underrated authenticity and value, destinations creatively positioned as the next hot-yet-hidden spot will win big. 

Capturing this wave early helps disadvantaged places by distributing travelers and dollars sustainably.

Foodies Hungry for Flavor

For many globetrotters, it’s the flavors that leave the most lasting memories. According to Amex, 81% eagerly anticipate trying local cuisine above all else when traveling . Culinary adventures satisfy more than just taste buds – they offer a tasty window into regional cultures.

Whether it’s slurping hand-pulled noodles in Shanghai, nibbling sweet French macarons by the Eiffel Tower, or gingerly biting into a scorching hot Carolina Reaper pepper grown by chiliheads in New Mexico, iconic bites crystallize a place in our minds.

Street markets promise adventure, chaos and discovery, too. Travelers can lose themselves amid Marrakesh’s Djemaa el Fna’s thrills or Seattle’s lively Pike Place Market sights and smells. From steaming skewers to towering fruit stacks, iconic markets can feed minds as well as stomachs.

In 2024, increasingly motivated by cuisine, 50% of U.S. travelers will select vacations based on iconic restaurants or food festivals alone. Destinations can spotlight signature dishes, interactive cooking classes, once-in-a-lifetime Michelin-starred dining and quirky food experiences to transform menus into travel brochures. Satisfying appetites for authentic flavor promises delicious returns.

Seize The Moment

As forces reshape travel in 2024, the key becomes responding strategically to ride this wave of change. 

By harnessing engaging content and innovative campaigns, spotlight the competitive edges that set your destination apart. Target emerging niches and embrace new technologies, not just to keep pace with shifting demands, but to redefine them. 

More than ever, position your DMO not just as the ‘go-to local experts,’ but as the heart of a collaborative network that pulsates with the passion and energy of your local community. This is more than adaptation; it’s about crafting the future of travel, one inspired step at a time.

Our team at Noble Studios lives at the intersection of creative digital performance marketing. We can help you gain an edge amid 2024’s pivotal developments. 

Let’s connect to craft tailored strategies for your destination to flourish today and tomorrow.

Hayley Corbett

Associate Director, Client Experience

Destination marketing is changing - get the inside scoop on the latest trends in AI, attribution modeling, sustainable t…

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Top 5 Challenges Confronting Tourism and the Travel Industry

When it comes to volatile industries, there are many that come to mind. The travel industry is definitely one of them. For starters, tourism is far from being immune to economic, political, and social shifts.

Now, it’s agreed upon that most of these factors are outside the control of tourism boards and travel companies. However, staying aware can help the travel industry become more proactive and develop adaptive strategies quickly.

Here are 5 key challenges that the travel industry is currently confronting and needs to address.

Globalisation

Globalisation is leading to the creation of uniform standards and protocols. However, the unique selling point (USP) of travel companies or destination marketing organizations (DMOs) lies in providing a rare and unique experience. The travel industry, therefore, works towards offering products that allow the average tourist or traveller to experience something they have never experienced before. Novelty is a much-needed element in today’s travel aspirations.

However, at the same time, localization is also important. Tourism boards and travel companies must know how to connect with foreign travellers. They must make use of  translation services  to create  multilingual websites , vital travel information, and essential signages that can guide tourists in the proper manner. Tourists must feel welcomed and at ease while they are away from home.

Tourism is one of the most taxed sectors. A simple glance at the taxes paid on airline tickets and hotel rooms gives an idea of how taxation can greatly affect tourism. Therefore, it’s necessary for the travel industry to offer competitively priced offerings in order to balance out the equation.

Governments must also come to the realization that tourists already contribute to the local economy via purchases, travel retail, and other tourism expenditures.

Travel Marketing

Travel marketing can sometimes be deemed by travellers or tourists as being inadequate, false, or exaggerated. In order to change this perception, marketing entities must work toward developing innovative marketing solutions to lure the new crop of travellers who are becoming more discerning and informed. In addition, technological disruptions and the influence of social media also mean that it’s a time of both opportunities and risks. Travel marketers must look to harness tech and creativity to find their way into tourists’ travel plans. On the other hand, they must also pay attention to localized content.

8 Tips to Boost Bookings for Your Travel Packages

The Importance of Translation in the Travel and Tourism Industry

Infrastructure

Tourism infrastructure in many locations is outdated and underdeveloped. Governments, tourism boards, and destination marketing organizations must work towards improving the current infrastructure with foresight. Future challenges must also be addressed in this area. Solutions could include faster immigration at airports, faster checkout processes in hotels, better public transportation, and interpreting solutions at airports, stations or ports.

Industry players must work towards establishing better security infrastructure for tourists and travellers. This can be achieved by working with local law enforcement, city councils, and local governments. Governments must work towards sourcing for more manpower and economic resources to boost security and vigilance without stifling the travel experience within the country.

Now, the big question is, can these challenges be overcome? Well, some of these challenges can become growth opportunities for travel companies, tourism boards, and destination marketing organizations. As for the others with external factors involved, it would be unthinkable for individual travel businesses to make significant changes. The travel industry as a whole must unite and be willing to negotiate and discuss its terms – sometimes with governments and unions. At the same time, it must also be willing to adapt to changing scenarios and trends.

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Marketing challenges in travel, tourism and hospitality industries of the European and Mediterranean regions

EuroMed Journal of Business

ISSN : 1450-2194

Article publication date: 7 September 2015

Sotiriadis, M. and Apostolakis, A. (2015), "Marketing challenges in travel, tourism and hospitality industries of the European and Mediterranean regions", EuroMed Journal of Business , Vol. 10 No. 3. https://doi.org/10.1108/EMJB-07-2015-0035

Emerald Group Publishing Limited

Article Type: Editorial From: EuroMed Journal of Business, Volume 10, Issue 3.

Modern marketing is a management orientation and a systematic process integrating the techniques used by managers to influence demand. Further, marketing is outward looking and proactive to the changing business environment, and customers’ or visitors’ needs, expectations and behaviour (Middleton et al. , 2009). It also constitutes a response to business conditions, especially amidst fierce competitive pressures that are now found to underpin the travel and tourism markets in almost all parts of the world. The importance of marketing orientation and approach and the need for improved marketing techniques has been well documented (see, for instance, McCabe, 2014; Morrison, 2013). It is quite clear that marketing is a proactive approach to business, conducted at best within a volatile market environment.

The European-Mediterranean region is an important destination in the globalized tourism market. During the last four decades, all Mediterranean destinations have experienced a rapid growth and, sometimes, over-expansion of tourism industries. Nowadays, these destinations have to address and overcome the challenges and threats resulting in the market developments and business environmental changes. Marketing in the fields of tourism, travel, hospitality and leisure industries is one of cutting edge and most challenging themes of recent years. Within the context of “Experience Economy” in general business environment and consumer behaviour in particular, the task of providing unforgettable tourism experiences to visitors and guests is the most critical priority for all tourism-related businesses and destination marketers (Sotiriadis, 2012).

That is why the EuroMed Journal of Business ( EMJB ) has decided to dedicate a special issue on this theme. The main aim of this Special Issue was to invite papers that provide insights and an enhanced understanding of the current state-of-art research in tourism-related industries in European and Mediterranean regions. This Special Issue focuses on the marketing responses to contemporary challenges and issues within the context of the current environment of fierce competition. It also focuses on the marketing strategies and practices that organizations develop in order to manage their way through the existing problems.

This Special Issue of the EMJB encompasses six papers, each one of them focusing on various marketing issues in the tourism and hospitality industries. The majority of the papers use case studies located in and across the Mediterranean. All six papers aim to put forward ideas and concepts that would help shed some light in the travel, tourism and hospitality fields of study. Each one of the papers provides a timely and topical application of contemporary marketing practices to readers and scholars in the area.

The selected papers in this Special Issue reflect the current discussion on some very up-to-date topics. In particular, the study “Preferring green and rejecting ‘unethical’ hotels”, by Tilikidou and Delistavrou, focuses on the classification of ethical tourists in the hospitality industry in Greece, while subsequently frame the market of green or ethical hotel customer guests and identify the factors that influence ethical consumer behaviour in the hospitality industry. One of the most interesting findings of their paper was that external influences (i.e. what opinion leaders advocate) tend to influence ethical consumers’ hehaviour in the hospitality more, as compared to internal influences (i.e. what respondents believe to be right). Pursuing a structural equation modelling (SEM) approach in their study entitled “Britain in bloom? A study into Chinese tourists’ experience”, Lin, He and Vlachos target Chinese visitors in the UK and examine their experiences based on a conceptual model of tourist satisfaction and destination loyalty. The driving force behind this investigation rests on the considerable impact of Chinese outbound tourists to European destinations.

The empirical findings confirm that visitors of Chinese origin tend to be more influenced from culture-specific, as opposed to destination-specific factors. The authors conclude that this could be an important finding for every destination aiming to attract Chinese tourists. The abovementioned findings are confirmed in the study entitled “Strategic framework showcasing Greece in the Chinese tourism market” by Kapiki et al ., where they conclude that Chinese visitors to Greece are mostly drawn by the authenticity of the Greek islands, cultural heritage and safety. The study is particularly important because it represents one of the first attempts to concentrate on the particular requirements of this tourism market in Greece.

On the other hand, the paper, entitled “Contrasting quality of service experience for northern and southern Mediterranean tourists” co-authored by Schlesinger, Cervera and Pérez-Cabañero, adopts a more holistic approach in their investigation trying to examine tourists’ service experiences across seven north and south Mediterranean city destinations. Their motivation derives from the need to consider the quality of the service experience in a holistic and comprehensive way. The authors use a standardized survey questionnaire, deployed across seven Mediterranean cities to collect their data. With the use of exploratory descriptive statistical analysis they conclude that tourists perceive northern Mediterranean destinations differently from destinations in the southern Mediterranean. Tourists report high tourist involvement in northern destinations, whereas, in the south, tourists’ emphasize on destinations’ hedonistic features.

Mason and Moretti, in their study “Antecedents and moderators of golf tourists’ behavioural intentions: an empirical study in a Mediterranean destination”, follow on the same path albeit adopting a more focused approach. In particular, the authors consider tourists engaging in golfing activity during their vacations. Their objective is to differentiate golf tourist markets according to perceived quality, satisfaction and behavioural intentions. They argue that quality perceptions are a strong indication of heterogeneity among golf tourists. Hence, quality indicators could be a useful tool for marketing managers to segment the tourism market more effectively, and subsequently becoming more competitive. The last paper “The importance of social media on holiday visitors’ choices – the case of Athens, Greece”, by Kavoura and Stavrianeas, deployed a survey questionnaire to a sample of 301 respondents at the Athens International Airport. The authors’ focus is upon destination image and how different groups of visitors (differentiated based on their nationality and gender) perceive the importance of social media as sources of information for tourism purposes. Their empirical findings maintain that Facebook seems to be one of the primary sources of information regarding tourist destinations in the Mediterranean. Other popular sources of tourist information were official web sites/blogs and photo sharing sites.

Overall, the collection of papers in this Special Issue presents an original set of detailed case studies that highlight various aspects of the evolving paradigm in tourism marketing. One aspect that emerges all too prominently is that of the experience economy. In particular, all six of the papers feature some aspects of the experience economy, either directly or otherwise, indicating in this way its significance and a turning point in the marketing field. The examination of the experience economy through the various case studies ranges from the visitor, to the destination (e.g. how does a destination improves visitors’ experiences), to the particular services offered.

All six papers in this Special Issue have, one way or the other, identified the strong competitive forces permeating the tourism industry in and across the Mediterranean sub-region and propose various methods and approaches for tourism destinations to overcome these forces. Another interesting fact that emerges from the collective consideration of the papers appearing on this Special Issue is that quality, and various aspects of it, play an overwhelming role in the operations of the tourism industry. Thus, the papers included in this Special Issue cover dimensions of quality ranging from information provision, to hospitality offerings, to authentic quality experiences and to perceived notions of quality. It is particularly heartening that all papers and their respective authors assign such a central role on quality notions, paving in this way tourism managers’, practitioners’ and policy makers’ way towards more elaborate and experiential-based tourism offerings (Morrison, 2013).

Clearly, the field will continue to need multiple and varied cases akin to those presented in this issue. This collection adds useful and pertinent examples in pursuit of exploring and elaborating the field. Completing this editorial, we would like to mention that without the interesting papers and the assistance of Professor Dimitrios Vrontis and the Editorial Office of EMJB , this Special Issue would not be easy at all. We also like to thank all the authors and the reviewers for their contribution and valuable work; they have considerably facilitated our task.

Professor Marios Sotiriadis - Department of Transport Economics, Logistics and Tourism, University of South Africa, Pretoria, South Africa

Dr Alexandros Apostolakis - Technological Educational Institute of Crete, Heraklion, Greece

McCabe, S. (Ed.) (2014), The Routledge Handbook of Tourism Marketing , Routledge, London

Middleton, V.T.C., Fyall, A., Morgan, M. and Ranchhod, A. (2009), Marketing in Travel and Tourism , 4th ed., Butterworth-Heinemann, Oxford

Morrison, A.M. (2013), Marketing and Managing Tourism Destinations , Routledge, New York, NY

Sotiriadis, M. (2012), “Tourism destination marketing: approaches improving effectiveness and efficiency”, Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Technology , Vol. 3 No. 2, pp. 107-120

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The challenges of tourism marketing – The solutions of Destination Marketing

The challenges of  tourism marketing, the solutions of destination marketing.

The travel sector is one of the many very volatile industries. For instance, tourism is far from remaining invulnerable to political or social shifts, economic changes, government regulations.

Sure, most of these circumstances are well outside your control and your company’s control. However, stay aware and ready to use adaptive approaches quickly.

Right here are 5 critical obstacles that the travel industry is currently challenging and needs to address.

Tourism Infrastructures

Governments, tourist boards, and also destination marketing companies have to function in the direction of boosting the existing framework with foresight. Future difficulties should also appear in this area.

You might love to consult our free Travel And Tours Marketing Formula [The How To – Actionable Strategy For Tour Operators]

Few of the latest works: mysiemreaptours.com , mythailandtours.com .

Tourism Globalization

Globalization is leading the production of consistent criteria and also protocols. The unique marketing point (USP) of traveling companies or destination advertising and marketing organizations (DMOs) exists in supplying a one-of-a-kind and unusual experience.

The travel sector, therefore, functions towards providing products that allow the average tourist or tourist to experience something they have never experienced before. Uniqueness is a much-needed component in today’s travel aspirations.

Tourist boards and also traveling companies must recognize just how to connect with the international tourist. They have to make use of translation services to create multilingual websites, vital travel info, and also vital signs that can accurately lead vacationers.

Tourist is among one of the most taxed industries. A necessary eye the tax obligations paid on airline tickets as well as resort areas provides an idea of how taxation can substantially influence tourists.

The traveling sector needs to provide competitively valued offerings to stabilize out the formula. Governments should also involve the realization that travelers currently contribute to the regional economic climate via purchases, travel retail, and other tourism expenses.

Tourism Protection And Safety

Industry gamers have to function towards establishing better safety infrastructure for visitors and also tourists. Results can be accomplished by collaborating with local police, the common council, and also local governments. Federal governments have to work towards sourcing for even more workforce and economic sources to increase protection and caution without suppressing the traveling experience within the country.

Currently, the big question is, can these difficulties relapse? Well, a few of these difficulties can end up being development opportunities for travel firms, tourist boards, and also location advertising and marketing companies.

When it comes to the others with outside factors included, it would be unthinkable for private traveling services to make considerable changes.

The travel industry all at once must unify and also be willing to work out and also review its terms– occasionally with federal governments and unions. At the same time, it has to agree to adjust to altering trends and situations additionally.

Travel Marketing

Travel marketing can sometimes be deemed by vacationers or travelers as being inadequate, false, or overstated.

To change this assumption, advertising entities must function in the direction of establishing ingenious marketing options to tempt the new crop of travelers that are coming to be more discerning and educated.

Besides, technological interruptions, as well as the impact of social networks, additionally, indicate that it’s a time of both possibilities and also dangers.

Travel marketing professionals must look to harness technology as well as creative thinking to find their means right into visitors’ itineraries. On the other hand, they also need to pay attention to local content.

Our team is now focusing on things like these important pages for the tour websites:

• Phi Phi island tour by speedboat from Phuket
• James Bond island tour by speedboat from Phuket
• Private Angkor Wat Sunrise tour

We will update you here about the developments!

We move on now to see in-depth the challenges and the related strategies to adopt

• There is a decline of high-end street travel agents
• Social media. The record tracking management
• The appeal of sharing economies. The new peer to peer travel

Why use Destination Marketing? A strategy with 17 expert tips

The Decline Of High Street Travel Agents

Do you remember how we were reserving a vacation before the web?

When we were having a real-life dialogue with a real-life human person at a real-life travel representative? Scary now?

Gone are the days of snapping via a pamphlet and also taking the travel representative’s word as gospel.

As are, fortunately, the days of keeping your fingers crossed, the traveling representatives hadn’t tactically removed the structure website besides your resort from the advertising and marketing shots.

Yes, the internet has transformed things considerably. We can now search ourselves for the very best deal on the resemblance booking.com or lastminute.com, besides, to review analyses on TripAdvisor to inform our choice making.

We can additionally stay clear of one-on-one conversations, involving through new technologies such as online chat as well as chatbots rather.

With this unrelenting change to electronic, high street traveling representatives have taken a big knock.

Granted, this is barely brand-new or unique to 2019. However, the pattern for scheduling holidays online continues to be a difficulty the high street travel agent, particularly independent chains, should browse.

More youthful generations, in particular, are not likely to have ever step foot inside a travel agent and feel more at ease with reservations online. Chatbots, particularly, tap into millennials’ requirements for pleasure principle, and they usually choose this form of interaction above any other.

The travel booking website Expedia is an example of a business that utilizes this technology. Facebook users can reserve flights using the messenger app. It also sponsors the 5 most prevalent hotel choices in their prime location.

By clicking any of the hotels recommended, the user gets rerouted to the Expedia website where they can reserve directly. Following a deal, the user receives a message within messenger with a link to their itinerary. Easy things.

Some believe that we shouldn’t cross out the high street travel representative in favor of online competitors just yet. There are currently some innovative and inspiring initiatives, VR for example, with immersive content, few ways travel agents try to seduce customers back in the stores. Some of these actions also had great results, bringing even a 40% return on investment.

If you’re a high street travel representative, here are simply a few other methods you can take on your online peers: Online travel representatives are successful as they accommodate today’s requirement for instant gratification, in addition to using a seamless method to travel research, reservation, and payment.

Guarantee your payment procedure is similarly streamlined by presenting online and mobile payment methods.

A great rule is to make equally beneficial relationships with other market gamers to reinforce your travel service.

Reaching out to new relationships and markets, you can both increase the offer and the reach/customer base.

Motivate consumers to compose online reviews and reviews about their experience of reserving in-store.

Social Media And Credibility Management

For most of us, reserving a vacation is a substantial expenditure and an occasion that we wait all year for. Subsequently, we aim to plan every detail of the itinerary, down to every single moment.

Anything that remotely threatens this has the potential to provoke an extremely emotional reaction (we’ve all seen those old episodes of Airline).

Be it a postponed flight, an insufficiency with your travel operator, or a less than satisfactory hotel service, in years passed, we’d be required to wait till we returned from vacation to compose a letter or an email of complaint.

Then along came Twitter. All of a sudden, we were able to share our bad experiences and frustration with airline companies, hotels, and tour operators on a big, public platform.

To some extent, we’ve come to anticipate the typical, low-level, daily complaints, such as flight hold-ups, made utilizing social media, and typically, these social outbursts aren’t immensely damaging to the reputation of the company in question.

But indeed they can be. Some circumstances can rapidly intensify like social media wildfire.

Do you remember when a United Airlines passenger was randomly picked and then dragged out from the airplane because of a case of overbooking? Who forgot that! It became a social network sensation.

Companies in the travel industry, need to make sure to be adequately qualified to handle their standing in the event of a PR crisis.

So what moves can those working in the travel business take to help them manage their reputation online? Here are some quick ideas for online reputation management:

• Engage with reviews online, with as many reviewers as possible, all of them, even if they aren’t in your favor.
• Engage with those talking about your brand on social media.
• Tools and platforms such as Google signals, Social Mentions can help you do this.
• You undoubtedly will not be able to engage with everyone, so make a good plan and study a good timing to react and when not to.
• Be transparent and open to any kind of feedback or criticism.
• If your company does mess up, do something wrong, act like if you own it, offer a real apology, and more support to anybody impacted.
• Remain authentic and polite in any online communications or discussions.

Ongoing Popularity Peer To Peer Travel Or Sharing Economies

The sharing economy has conflicted with the travel and hospitality industry? Yes, it had a significant effect, as crucial as the appearance of the web affected the way airlines and travel offices make sales. The sharing economy refers to this:

Actively networking for an architecture that partitions tasks or workloads between peers. Peers are equally privileged, equipotent participants in the application.

It is often considerably cheaper than buying a comparable product/service from a successful organization.

Other alternative accommodations, such as CouchSurfing, are also chipping away at online travel agents and hotels. Airbnb is an excellent example of these recurrent events; it is becoming more prominent than first thought, forcing hotels to up their game.

For example, for some online travel businesses such as Expedia, acquiring new websites and market exposure is crucial. At the same time, while these types of online platforms are increasingly popular, there will always be individuals who prefer the security and high-end of a hotel stay and have the ways to do so.

Of course, there will. This is why there will always be business ideas popping up, such as Airbnb and Airbnb Plus, services offering opportunities for high-end accommodation.

Search Engines Monopoly Of  The Online Travel Space

Google Flights, Hotels, Maps, It’s obvious that the search giant has actually slowly encroached on, and continues to broaden right into, the online traveling area.

The launch of Google Flights, as well as the capacity to book straight from the SERP’s, has, particularly, been a sector gamechanger.

Some fans of Google Flights say that it has many positive points for being clean, ad-free, and quickly distinguishable from Skyscanner and various other flight search aggregation websites. (There is a lot to learn in these words!)

A lot more most importantly, however, Google Flights often tend to include right at the top of the SERP’s. This, of course, leaves smaller space on the leading page for travel firms providing a similar solution. Google does not target only this. An additional item in Google’s traveling item offering is Google Trips. Those who are committed and also dedicated to the brand name tend to applaud the reality it can be integrated with various other Google products such as Google Calendar and Google Now.

Plainly, Google is making significant invasions in the travel field.

At present, it’s common for tourists as well as holidaymakers to make use of different systems such as Skyscanner, Expedia, Airbnb, to get information and also book their holiday. In the future, nonetheless, it could be that we study, prepare, and whole publication journeys via Google.

So, you can always be doing to defend your service profits versus such search titans? Well, one thing that jumps to mind very obviously, compared to various other online traveling carriers, a big differing point is a lack of human component.

Airlines and also various other travel carriers can utilize this to their benefit and construct a brand name that emphasizes the human link in the travel experience.

Do you have a travel firm or operate in the traveling industry? Have you determined any added obstacles in the industry?

The Strategies

Your business-specific goals or targets to achieve within a given timescale. • Achieving a certain level of sales growth within a given time. • Increasing the profitability by a given percentage within an agreed time scale. • Obtaining a given percentage market share within a given period. • Reducing business risk by diversifying the product range.

Niche Marketing Strategy

This marketing is adopted when an organization appreciates that what it has to offer serves a limited number of market segments, or conversely, that there is a limited market that can be readily served. The assumption lies in the fact that there will be limited competition.

Concentrating on a particular market, understanding its needs and, therefore, developing products and promotions which are completely appropriate for those markets can be an effective strategy, especially for smaller companies without massive resources but with an excellent understanding of their target markets.

These companies can operate within niche markets, which are too small to attract market leaders. A focused approach is particularly suitable for those who wish to develop closer and more direct relationships with their clients.

Marketing Leader Strategy

For this method to be crafted, significant ability and determination are needed. To dominate in terms of volume and value of sales or bookings is not an easy task.

Such power permits the organization to establish benchmarks or requirements in the market to make it tough for competitors to remain in the market.

A reasonable marketing audit evaluates the business’s products in contrast with competitors’ volumes, interest market sectors, and their contribution to the organization’s earnings and expenses.

This might assist in decision-making to enable the organization to build the company strategy over the next period. Besides, other factors may be considered to be significant, such as changes to relevant legislation, or new conditions in the economy. (As I already stated before) A proper diagnosis needs to be in-depth, creating an analysis

• of the current and future trends
• of each of the marketplace sectors
• of the interest of the organization.

Concerning this technique, the organization can develop a policy of either management or item distinction. In this way, it may prevent the risk of trying to be the leader in everything but excelling in none.

” Operators have moved more to mass market, low price methods; smaller sized operators have relied on expertise, whether by geographical area, type of activity or market served”

Let us assume that one of the trip operators chooses to become professional in establishing package vacations for customers residing in a specific area of the United States.

The advantages of this group can be the benefit of local airport departures, free transport to the airport, or complimentary parking at the airport.

Lots of clients will be pleased to pay slightly higher prices for the convenience of a regional departure and the additional benefits provided.

When it appears to clients that this local trip operator or travel agency is supporting the economy of the area, and is active in local community occasions, residents will consider this specific organization first when preparing their holidays. In this method, diversification is particularly valuable when the organization spreads its risk throughout several markets and sees the chance of buying a new trademark name.

Advertising is one of the most basic methods of distinguishing services.

Advertising develops and strengthens substantial barriers versus brand-new organizations going into a market.

Any beginner needs to buy exposure to overcome recognized companies’ awareness and brand commitment.

The ”Follower” Strategy

If the organization did not attain success in such a short-term to end up being market leader, the business might use this structure, to permit it to preserve a strong position in the market near the leader. Hence, the business will hold a significant market share and will embrace, as a matter of course, a similar strategic direction to the market leader.

The method depends on intensive rival intelligence, versatility, and quickly performed tactical projects. The ultimate objective will be to become an opposition to the marketplace leader when market conditions allow this.

This type of technique can be adapted to specialize in distinct sorts of items, which are not offered by its competitors. It can also concentrate on quality, validating a higher rate than the big competitors, by providing enhanced value. As an example of this strategy, significant hotel chains have determined a steady rise in the number of organization females to whom they are catering; so they had to react meeting their needs consisting of more feminine decoration, cosmetic mirrors, hairdryers, etc…

Source: Le sfide del marketing per il turismo

The Challenger Strategy

This is a structure utilized when the organization is not in a position to follow a market leader’s technique or follower method, due to resource restrictions.

Making use of this strategy is to settle a company’s position in the market by copying the method of the marketplace leader in a diluted format. The organization will be slower to respond to the marketplace modifications and not be ingenious, where it might be efficient in remaining within an external zone of competition. The focus of the strategy lies in copying the effective formula of market leaders to stay in the market.

Keep in mind: Produce a product-positioning map, revealing the clients’ picture of existing organizations contending in particular fields.

This can be very useful both to a company currently operating in the market, or one considering introducing a new product.

Time and money can be conserved by keeping a keen eye on market leader’s activities, learning by their success and failures. Finding a marketing leader’s benefits indicates knowing and competing more effectively. Whenever possible, the tour operators require to see the marketing leader’s brochures and know what sort of items are on offer.

Also, it will be practical, if mindful efforts can be made to carry out a fair analysis every few months, jotting down findings to choose how the details can be utilized, examining their costs, their visitors, facilities and promotional activities.

Specific Niche Marketing Strategy

This is embraced when an organization appreciates that what it needs to use serves a minimal variety of market sections, or on the other hand, that there is a restricted market that can be quickly served.

The assumption lies in the truth that there will be limited competitors.

Concentrating on a particular market, comprehending its requirements and for that reason developing items and promos which are suitable for those markets can be an efficient strategy, especially for smaller businesses without enormous resources but with an exceptional understanding of their target audience.

These businesses can run within niche markets, which are too small to draw in market leaders. A focused method is especially appropriate for those who want to develop closer and more direct relationships with their clients.

Relevant Actions You Can Take To Improve Your Brand Marketing

Utilize Contextual Marketing

Instead of waiting it out till the next flourishing travel season, stores can seek to move their products to an online E-commerce shop and transform themselves.

Instead of merely providing, for example, one theme souvenirs at a specific location, on a specific destination, an online shop can improve brand awareness selling those locations best souvenirs worldwide or nationwide. Constructing a contextual marketing campaign can also help develop a personal connection with your audience. Essentially, contextual marketing is everything about understanding one’s audience and utilizing the best message at the correct time to connect with them.

When what and how we interact, whether in our expert interactions or individual lives, is directly relevant to our audience, as they will know the context of the message. Without context, we lose significance.

Widen Your Digital Footprint

There are many difficulties to continually remaining on top of mind to both locals and travelers trying to find new experiences.

You can, for example, make a campaign to engage all social media complaints that you can intercept. You can improve your services and response on the most popular social media platforms.

You can partner with micro-influencers with a widespread reach.

As all brands do, you also need to also embrace natural and paid search to stay at the top of search engine rankings.

Empower your happiest customers to develop social proof and audience trust, to leave any kind of reviews.

Enhance Customer Experience

Discovering methods to improve the client experience provides significant obstacles to travel marketing for companies like airlines. The market likewise needs to fill more seats and potentially decrease advantages and features to make more revenue.

It takes more than just using a rotating menu of treats or increasing ticket expenses to get more legroom and increase convenience.

More and more brands are converting towards social media crusades to establish brand awareness. To focus on customer experience, you can rely on travel and tourism marketing to showcase innovative stories.

Develop Amazing Travel Experiences

Too many options in a crowded market may provide limitless variety and cost points for tourists, but make it tough for the travel market to bring in new customers.

However, companies can look towards the pattern of Millennials craving experiential travel to curate remarkable experiences.

However, when you design that “off-the-beaten-path” experience, how do you market it to an audience? Utilizing youtube and social networks, influencers can target specific niche fans, also increasing brand name awareness, publicizing those distinguished experiences.

What You Should Do Is Very Clear

The growth of the tourism sector is a major grantor to improve infrastructure or many other tourism-linked services, in your country as well as in many developing countries.

A good plan should be created to link your business goals and resources to your marketing opportunities.

This may result in making the best use of its resources. Concentrate your consideration on the development of your tourism marketing planning model, this will be very useful for every tourism administrator.

Make a strategic program that can be detailed in a structure or model, with a number of major steps to be followed. Here is also How Do You Advertise a City!

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U.S. issues travel warning for major European country over fears of terrorist activity

• Updated: May. 02, 2024, 5:41 p.m. |
• Published: May. 02, 2024, 3:54 p.m.

The U.S. State Department warns that travelers to Germany should exercise extreme caution on their visit. The travel advisory issued Wednesday was issue over concerns about terrorist activity. Seen here is the Neuschwanstein castle, in Schwangau, an iconic sight in the central European nation.

• Robert Higgs, cleveland.com

WASHINGTON – A new advisory from the U.S. State Department warns European travelers to exercise increased caution if they visit Germany for fear of terrorist activity.

The warnings were contained in an advisory issued Wednesday that said terrorist groups continue to plan attacks in Germany and may strike with little or no warning.

“They target tourist locations and transportation hubs,” the advisory states. “They also target markets/shopping malls and local government facilities. They target hotels, clubs, and restaurants. They also attack places of worship, parks, and major sporting and cultural events. They target schools, airports, and other public areas.”

The advisory is a Level Two warning that calls for exercising increased caution. Level Three (Reconsider Travel) and Level Four (Do Not Travel) advisories are the two more serious levels.

But the Level Two advisory for Germany is unusual. It is a large nation in central Europe with a thriving economy and a population second only to Russia.

The only more serious warnings issued in the last year for European travel were for countries impacted by the war in Ukraine. Do-not-travel warnings were issued for Ukraine (May 2023), Belarus (July 2023) and Russia (September 2023) in connection with the fighting.

The State Department cautions that U.S. citizens traveling to Germany should take the following measures:

• Be aware of your surroundings when traveling to tourist locations and crowded public venues.
• Follow instructions of local authorities.
• Monitor local media for breaking events and adjust plans based on new information.
• Enroll in the Smart Traveler Enrollment Program ( STEP ) to receive Alerts and make it easier to locate you in an emergency.
• Review the State Department’s Country Security Report for Germany.
• Visit the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention online to learn the latest Travel Health Information related to your travel.
• Prepare a contingency plan for emergency situations. Review the State Department’s Traveler’s Checklist .

Travelers may also want to follow the State Department on  Facebook  and  Twitter for any updates, the advisory states.

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Automatic Refunds and No More Hidden Fees: D.O.T. Sets New Rules for Airlines

The Transportation Department issued new requirements on refunds when flights are canceled or delayed and on revealing “junk” fees before booking. Here’s what passengers can expect.

By Christine Chung

The Transportation Department on Wednesday announced new rules taking aim at two of the most difficult and annoying issues in air travel: obtaining refunds and encountering surprise fees late in the booking process.

“Passengers deserve to know upfront what costs they are facing and should get their money back when an airline owes them — without having to ask,” said U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg in a statement, adding that the changes would not only save passengers “time and money,” but also prevent headaches.

The department’s new rules, Mr. Buttigieg said, will hold airlines to clear and consistent standards when they cancel, delay or substantially change flights, and require automatic refunds to be issued within weeks. They will also require them to reveal all fees before a ticket is purchased.

Airlines for America , a trade group representing the country’s largest air carriers, said in a statement that its airlines “abide by and frequently exceed” D.O.T. consumer protection regulations.

Passenger advocates welcomed the new steps.

Tomasz Pawliszyn, the chief executive of AirHelp, a Berlin-based company that assists passengers with airline claims, called it a “massive step forward and huge improvement in consumer rights and protection” that brings the United States closer to global standards in passenger rights.

Here’s what we know about the D.O.T.’s new rules, which will begin to go into effect in October.

There’s now one definition for a “significant” delay.

Until now, airlines have been allowed to set their own definition for a “significant” delay and compensation has varied by carrier . Now, according to the D.O.T., there will be one standard: when departure or arrival is delayed by three hours for domestic flights and six hours for international flights.

Passengers will get prompt refunds for cancellations or significant changes for flights and delayed bags, for any reason.

When things go wrong, getting compensation from an airline has often required establishing a cumbersome paper trail or spending untold hours on the phone. Under the new rules, refunds will be automatic, without passengers having to request them. Refunds will be made in full, excepting the value of any transportation already used. Airlines and ticket agents must provide refunds in the original form of payment, whether by cash, credit card or airline miles. Refunds are due within seven days for credit card purchases and within 20 days for other payments.

Passengers with other flight disruptions, such as being downgraded to a lower service class, are also entitled to refunds.

The list of significant changes for which passengers can get their money back also includes: departure or arrival from an airport different from the one booked; connections at different airports or flights on planes that are less accessible to a person with a disability; an increase in the number of scheduled connections. Also, passengers who pay for services like Wi-Fi or seat selection that are then unavailable will be refunded any fees.

Airlines must give travel vouchers or credits to ticketed passengers unable to fly because of government restrictions or a doctor’s orders.

The vouchers or credits will be transferable and can be used for at least five years after the date they were issued.

Fees for checked baggage and modifying a reservation must be disclosed upfront.

Airlines and ticket agents are now required to display any extra fees for things like checking bags or seat selection clearly and individually before a ticket purchase. They will also need to outline the airline’s policies on baggage, cancellations and changing flights before a customer purchases a ticket.

The rules, which apply to all flights on domestic airlines and flights to and from the United States operated by foreign airlines, have varying start dates.

For example, automatic refunds must be instituted by the airlines within six months. But carriers have a year before they’re required to issue travel vouchers and credits for passengers advised by a medical professional not to fly.

Follow New York Times Travel on Instagram and sign up for our weekly Travel Dispatch newsletter to get expert tips on traveling smarter and inspiration for your next vacation. Dreaming up a future getaway or just armchair traveling? Check out our 52 Places to Go in 2024 .

Christine Chung is a Times reporter covering airlines and consumer travel. More about Christine Chung

Open Up Your World

Considering a trip, or just some armchair traveling here are some ideas..

52 Places:  Why do we travel? For food, culture, adventure, natural beauty? Our 2024 list has all those elements, and more .

Mumbai:  Spend 36 hours in this fast-changing Indian city  by exploring ancient caves, catching a concert in a former textile mill and feasting on mangoes.

Kyoto:  The Japanese city’s dry gardens offer spots for quiet contemplation  in an increasingly overtouristed destination.

Iceland:  The country markets itself as a destination to see the northern lights. But they can be elusive, as one writer recently found .

Texas:  Canoeing the Rio Grande near Big Bend National Park can be magical. But as the river dries, it’s getting harder to find where a boat will actually float .

Southwest Airlines Is in Trouble

Major U.S. carrier Southwest Airlines is facing a huge shake up after posting poor first-quarter financial results this week.

On Thursday, April 25, the airline announced it would cease operations at four airports and cut 2,000 jobs after it reported a net loss of $231 million—$0.39 loss per diluted share—in the first quarter of 2024, despite record first-quarter revenue of $6.3 billion, up 11 percent from the same period last year. The changes have been put down to financial issues caused by the ongoing problems at aircraft manufacturer Boeing, leading to a hiring freeze and major operational changes.

Despite highlighting some successes during the first quarter of the year , chief executive Bob Jordan admitted the company requires serious changes to push it through the difficult period.

Read more: Compare the Best Credit Cards for Travel

"While it is disappointing to incur a first quarter loss, we exited the quarter with healthy profits and margins in the month of March," Jordan said in a statement on Thursday. "We are focused on controlling what we can control and have already taken swift action to address our financial underperformance and adjust for revised aircraft delivery expectations."

The Boeing Issue

The blame has been largely laid on Boeing , with problems highlighted following a midair door blowout on an Alaska Airlines flight in early January .

Since then, the manufacturer has been placed under intense scrutiny over the safety record of its 737 MAX 9 planes, including an federally mandated grounding of all MAX 9 aircraft for several weeks, delay to the certification of two new models of the plane, and an audit by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), which found the plane's production process was plagued with issues . Newsweek has contacted Boeing via email for comment outside of normal working hours.

Boeing's safety record has also directly affected Southwest. Earlier this month, an engine cowling on a Southwest operated Boeing 737-800 fell off during take off from Denver airport. Flight 3695 reported the engine cowling "fell off during takeoff and struck the wing flap" an FAA spokesperson previously told Newsweek .

In 2018, an engine on a Boeing 737—not the MAX variety—traveling from New York to Dallas failed in midair. Most of the engine inlet and parts of the cowling broke off, shattering a window and resulting in the death of passenger Jennifer Riordan, who was one of 149 people aboard.

As a result of Boeing's troubles, Southwest, the world's largest operator of the 737, is expecting growth to be thwarted. The company is now only expected to receive 20 new Boeing aircraft this year—down from 46.

"I won't downplay the challenges from the Boeing issues—they're a big deal," Jordan told investors this week, according to a report by the Wall Street Journal .

"Every aircraft brought to market has had its own share of teething issues, and the Max and 777X are no different," Chad D. Cummings, an attorney who has previously worked for American Airlines , told Newsweek . "To be clear, there is no suggestion that Max is inherently unsafe, and this is demonstrated by the number of successful and uneventful flights since the first Max flight in 2016. It is not difficult to imagine that Boeing will continue working behind-the-scenes to resolve these issues and regain the public trust.

"The difficulties that Boeing is experiencing are not unique to a single product line, and there are obviously negative synergies spilling across product lines."

Cummings explained that unless Boeing's problems are rectified, the issue could spread to other airlines, having a knock-on effect on other aircraft manufacturers too.

"Unless and until that course correction can take place, the capacity cuts announced by Southwest will continue to be replicated at other carriers, even those airlines that are not Boeing customers," he said.

"This is because Boeing customers are turning to the only other game in town, Airbus, to backfill and compensate for Boeing's inability to deliver aircraft on time, thereby adding to Airbus' already substantial order backlog."

When asked for comment, a Boeing representative referred Newsweek to chief financial officer Brian West's comments at the Bank of America Industrials Conference on March 20, which do not directly address the recent announcement made by Southwest.

"We put the customers in [a] tight spot, the most important thing we do is communicate with them," he said. "And they have been supportive of everything we're trying to do to enhance safety and quality for the industry. We are in regular, very transparent communications [with Southwest] and they know precisely where we stand and the progress that we're making and we, at the same time, have to understand what their needs are as they think about their flight schedules and their passengers."

Operational Changes

As part of its cost-cutting plans, Southwest announced on Thursday that it would end all services at Bellingham International Airport, Cozumel International Airport, Houston's George Bush Intercontinental Airport, and Syracuse Hancock International Airport. Capacity reductions will also be implemented in Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport and Chicago O'Hare International Airport.

The last time Southwest dropped operations at an airport was in 2019, when it ceased all operations out of New Jersey's Newark Liberty International Airport.

Read more: 7 Ways to Avoid Airline Baggage Fees

Some of the service cancellations are at airports that Southwest only recently began servicing. Southwest has operated flights out of Syracuse and Bellingham since November 2021, but will now end operations from both in August this year.

The airline also announced it is reviewing its one-class, open-seating policies which are uncommon among major airlines. To shore up its financial position, Jordan said in an interview with CNBC that the airline is "looking into new initiatives, things like the way we seat and board our aircraft," most likely in the form of additional paid for perks.

Employment Changes

In its statement on Thursday, the company said it was "implementing cost control initiatives, including limiting hiring and offering voluntary time off programs," confirming that it expects to "end 2024 with approximately 2,000 fewer employees as compared with the end of 2023."

A spokesperson for Southwest told Newsweek that the employee reduction is being completed through "attrition and other voluntary programs," and that the company is "not laying off or furloughing employees."

Pay has been bumped up for tens of thousands of Southwest's staff recently. Just this week, flight attendants employed by the airline voted in favor of an immediate 22 percent pay raise and 3 percent per year raises until May 2028.

Earlier this year, Southwest agreed an immediate 29 percent salary increase with its 11,000 pilots, ending nearly three years of negotiations between airline management and Southwest Airlines Pilots Association (SWAPA).

Do you work for Southwest Airlines and have something to say about the changes being made? Email [email protected].

Correction, 4/29/24, 4:15 a.m. ET: An image caption was amended to say Ontario International Airport in California, not Canada.

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The $21 billion influencer industry has an ad fraud problem

• Influencer marketing is booming, and brands spend billions to promote products with a personal touch.
• But the industry is unregulated and creates problems for brands, audiences, and influencers alike.
• Influencer ads can be fraudulent, discriminatory, and unethical, and audiences have no way to push back.

It seemed like a marketer's perfect plan to get products into the hands of their target audience: pay an internet icon or local influencer to promote them to their loyal fans.

And for the better part of the past two decades, it worked like a charm.

But these days, influencer marketing is off the rails. According to analysts and experts who spoke with Business Insider, influencer brand deals and advertisements are rife with unethical business practices thanks in part to limited regulation of a practice that is rapidly growing year over year.

Since 2016, the dollars driving the industry have ballooned from $1.6 billion a year to an estimated $21.1 billion in 2023, an Influencer Marketing Hub report found. The outlet estimated the industry would reach an estimated $24 billion by the end of 2024.

In a recent article for Harvard Business Review, Emily Hund, a researcher and the author of the book "The Influencer Industry: The Quest for Authenticity on Social Media," made the case for new regulatory guardrails to be applied to the industry, saying marketers and regulators often turned a blind eye to bad behavior from brands and influencers , which can include discrimination, unfair business practices, and outright fraud.

"While the industry has developed into a sophisticated, albeit chaotic, space, it has done so largely outside the confines of regulatory or professional oversight," Hund wrote. "Its lack of boundaries opens the door for multidirectional exploitation. Marketers, brands, influencers, and platform companies all have opportunities to exploit one another to varying degrees of harm."

It's rough for brands

David Camp, a cofounder of the marketing company Metaforce, told BI that while there's nothing new about influencer marketing — it's just a revamped version of the classic celebrity endorsement, shrunk down for small-time personalities with niche audiences — the industry faces fraud, misrepresentation, and just plain unreliability.

Fake influencers can defraud brands by purchasing followers or manipulating their metrics to give the appearance of more engagement than they actually receive, driving up their asking price for partnerships and ad deals. The practice costs businesses about 15% of their ad spending, totaling more than $1.3 billion in 2019, CBS News reported, citing research from the cybersecurity firm Cheq.

"Those kinds of negative impacts are more likely in this domain because most of these online influencers do their own thing, and they're basically hustlers," Camp said. "They're trying to build an audience so that they can monetize it, and they're not typically represented by very polished spokespeople and agents that rep them to marketers and agencies, whereas in the traditional celebrity-influencer space, there's a whole coterie of people who are associated with evaluating potential spokespeople and influencers and vetting them and then negotiating with them."

In a traditional celebrity endorsement, the people promoting brands' products are well known and well represented and deliver a predictable result for the businesses that hire them — the audience of loyal followers shells out big bucks for the products that have been endorsed. Think Michael Jordan for Nike, George Foreman for the Salton electric grill, and Brooke Shields for Calvin Klein . With influencer marketing, that isn't always the case.

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For brands, this means their investment in influencers can end up wasted — or, worse, the social-media personalities could use an inopportune moment like the California wildfires in 2018 to promote themselves or a brand, which could damage reputations all around.

It's not great for consumers

Despite the money flying around, the Federal Trade Commission provides only basic guidelines about disclosure requirements for this marketing to protect consumers of influencers' content.

But only the biggest names seem to get caught when they mislead their audiences — and generally only when they run afoul of rules on disclosing their paid partnerships, which Camp said was the only rule he's aware of for digital media sponsorships and paid advertisements.

In 2022, the Securities and Exchange Commission settled with Kim Kardashian for $1.25 million after she failed to disclose a $250,000 payment she received to promote ethereummax crypto tokens on her Instagram page.

Similarly, Chiara Ferragni was fined $1 million in January following what Italian officials described as a misleading charity campaign in which she encouraged her followers to purchase a cake, with the proceeds going to a hospital donation, but never fulfilled the promise.

Lindsay Lohan, DJ Khaled, and Naomi Campbell have all also been subject to federal investigations into whether they failed to disclose paid partnerships, Hund said in her Harvard Business Review article. The celebrities received warning letters from the FTC requiring them to provide the agency with information about their relationships with the brands they stealthily promoted, according to the nonprofit Consumer Reports .

"Because she is one of the highest-profile celebrities in the world, Kardashian was an easy 'get' for regulators," Hund wrote. "But far too much sponsored content and far too many influencers exist for government agencies to effectively oversee them all."

That's not to mention instances of influencers tricking their audiences into buying branded products with overly positive reviews of companies they're paid by, despite quality issues or even labor issues .

It's inconsistent for influencers

It's not all easy for the influencers, either. Black and Hispanic content creators face a 35% pay gap compared with white creators, NBC News reported, citing a study from MSL, a public relations firm that works in influencer marketing. There are also reports of fake talent-management firms requesting $300 "deposits" as part of a scam to fool wannabe influencers .

"Creators bear the brunt of the industry's pervasive uncertainty: They must spend a significant amount of time navigating changing content norms, new platforms and tools, uneven contracts, high expectations for audience engagement, and the blowback that can come with being a public figure with few professional protections," Hund wrote for Harvard Business Review.

Some influencers faced racial discrimination during an in-person brand-sponsored trip, BI previously reported. And Dylan Mulvaney , an influencer who partnered with brands such as Nike and Bud Light, faced a barrage of anti-trans hate and harassment after she posted sponsored content for the companies on her social-media pages.

Her partnership with the brands became the reason conservative figures, including Ben Shapiro and Donald Trump Jr., called for a boycott of Bud Light. She said the resulting threats were so bad she traveled out of the country to escape the backlash .

No end to the mess in sight

Despite the industry's known problems, Camp said that in some cases, influencer marketing was still perceived as more desirable because there's a level of authenticity when someone you follow and trust is pitching a product versus just an anonymous ad.

While the FTC's guidelines on disclosures offer some guardrails for the industry, regulators have not focused much attention on the issue.

And there are no signs of slowing the ethical conflicts, especially in the digital marketing and advertising world, where Camp said "there's lots of smoke and mirrors, and it's hard to sometimes understand what you're actually looking at."

"Obviously, some influencers are more high-minded about the brands that they choose to associate with, but for those that are looking to just make money off of their eyeballs, they usually are hustling any which way they can," Camp told BI. "Anyone with an internet connection and an idea can write about their idea and aggregate eyeballs, so there's a lot of shit floating around in that space because there's really no filter, there's no barrier — so there's a very small percentage of cream that rises to that top."

Watch: Ulta Beauty's CMO says the brand's most effective influencers are its store associates

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An airport problem no one envisioned: free-range children

Christopher elliott (and some experts) weighs in on a harmless but vexing problem.

By Christopher Elliott

6:00 PM on May 1, 2024 CDT

Have you noticed all the kids at the airport lately?

Not so long ago, you could only find them at the terminal playground areas or the gates, where their parents kept a watchful eye on them. But no longer.

“It’s a free-for-all,” says Lisamarie Monaco, an insurance saleswoman from Jacksonville, Fla. She knows a thing or two about traveling with youngsters as the mother of seven kids. And she’s been appalled at what she’s seen lately.

“Parents let their kids do whatever they want at the airport,” she says. “It drives me crazy.”

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Passengers are complaining about free-range children running around the airport unsupervised. How bad has it gotten? When I lived in Santiago, Chile, last year, one young passenger jumped on a luggage belt and took a joyride . Airport workers eventually retrieved the child, who was unharmed.

The anything-goes attitude is often a preview of the flight to come. Who can forget that viral video of the toddler using her tray table as a springboard on an eight-hour flight? Or the frustrated United Airlines captain who wanted to divert his flight because of unruly schoolkids in the back of the plane?

Air travelers disapprove of free-roaming kids

Passengers are almost unanimous about this problem: Ninety percent of travelers say parents should not let their kids roam free, according to a recent survey by Kayak . After all, your fellow passengers are not babysitters.

“These encounters with kids have become a bigger issue,” says Howard Pratt, a psychiatrist at Community Health of South Florida who specializes in treating children. “Not everybody traveling looks forward to interacting with kids who are not their own. So it’s not just a question of protecting your kids from strangers, but also about protecting other passengers from the potential stress they may experience from having to deal with kids they don’t know, yet whom they may feel responsible for.”

What’s a parent to do? If you’re flying with young kids, you may wonder if it’s OK to let your kids run free anywhere at the airport. When are they old enough to let them out of your sight? What are parents’ responsibilities when it comes to allowing their kids to interact with fellow passengers? And also, what if you’re on the receiving end of attention from someone’s unsupervised child?

Should you allow children to run free in the airport?

Yes — and no.

“In a safe, unpopulated area such as a terminal gate that is full of empty seats,” says Ashanti Woods, a pediatrician at Baltimore’s Mercy Medical Center . “Children need to play and burn energy, especially if we want them to sleep on the flight.”

But there’s a catch: Parents have to keep one eye on their kids and another on the departure gate to make sure the flight doesn’t leave without them.

So should you let your kids run free in the airport? No, say experts.

“Children should not be allowed to run free in the airport,” says Bidisha Sarkar, a pediatrician at ClinicSpots , a travel medicine site. “It’s essential for safety and courtesy to keep them within reach at all times.”

What is an appropriate age to allow your kids to explore the airport without adult supervision?

It depends. Timon van Basten, who runs tours in Spain , says he’s seen kids as young as 8 who have no trouble being independent in the airport terminal — and behaving. But it depends on the child and the airport.

“Busy airports like London Heathrow might prove too overwhelming for some kids,” he says.

Sarkar says parents have to assess their kids’ maturity and ensure they know all the airport protocols (no leaving the secured areas, be back in time for boarding).

“Parents also have to ensure their children do not disturb others,” she says.

What is a parent’s responsibility when it comes to allowing their kids to interact with fellow passengers? I can’t believe I have to say this, but parents, you are responsible for your children at the airport.

“It’s the parent’s responsibility to keep their child from disturbing other passengers as much as possible,” says Brandi Taylor, a travel concierge . ”If your child is trying to strike up a conversation with a stranger, keep an eye on the stranger’s reaction. If they are enjoying the interaction, then there’s no need to intervene. But if the stranger would obviously prefer to be left alone, you’ll want to redirect your child.”

Again, it depends on the child. When my kids were toddlers, they would talk to anyone. And not everyone wanted to get talked to. I erred on the side of caution and avoided the free-range kids problem.

“Parents should use the occasion to demonstrate many of the foundational etiquette skills that will serve them well their entire life, such as being mindful of others, respecting people’s personal space, being polite yet direct, and setting boundaries,” says etiquette expert Nick Leighton.

What if you have an encounter with an unsupervised child?

Don’t panic. The parents can’t be far away. But if you can’t find the parent, track down an airport or airline employee and ensure they know the free-range child is on the loose.

Etiquette experts say — and I agree with them — you’ll gain nothing by approaching a free-range parent angrily. They already know what they’ve done, and they probably don’t care.

A lighthearted, “Look who I found?” might be the best approach. Yelling or finger-wagging will just stress you out even more, and it won’t change the parents’ behavior.

Those signs warning of child trafficking in the bathrooms are a good start. If that’s not enough to put the fear of God into a parent, I don’t know what is. More designated areas for kids to play would help, too.

But ultimately, it’s up to parents to teach their kids good manners and responsible behavior.

Christopher Elliott is an author, consumer advocate, and journalist. He founded Elliott Advocacy, a nonprofit organization that helps solve consumer problems. He publishes Elliott Confidential , a travel newsletter, and the Elliott Report , a news site about customer service. If you need help with a consumer problem, you can reach him here or email him at [email protected] .

Christopher Elliott , Special Contributor . Christopher Elliott is an author, consumer advocate and journalist. He founded Elliott Advocacy, a nonprofit organization that helps solve consumer problems. He publishes Elliott Confidential, a travel newsletter, and the Elliott Report, a news site about customer service.

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Billie Eilish fans are complaining about "outrageous" ticket prices for her Hit Me Hard and Soft tour. Read this and all the latest consumer and personal finance news below, plus leave a comment in the box.

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• OECD warns UK shouldn't cut interest rates yet
• UK ranks bottom in G7 economic growth forecast
• 'Outrageous': Billie Eilish fans complain about ticket prices
• Aldi's market share falls as people head back to traditional supermarkets (except one)
• New ISA rules were supposed to help savers - right now they've just made everything more complicated

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• How to nab yourself a free upgrade on a flight
• You're probably washing and storing your clothes wrong. Here's what you should do instead
• Money Problem : 'Builders won't repair dodgy work - what are my rights?'
• '£2,000 landed in my account' - The people who say they're manifesting riches

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If you earn significantly more or less than your partner, how do you split payments for things like housing, food, household essentials, entertainment and holidays? 

Do you both pay equally, do you split costs according to income, or do you have another method? 

Get in touch with an outline of your situation in the  box above or:

• Email [email protected] with the subject line "Money blog"
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Pint-sized bottles of wine will be allowed on UK shelves from autumn under new post-Brexit trade rules - although doubts have been raised over their demand.

Seven changes to pre-packaged wine sizes are due to come into force on 19 September.

The move to introduce the 568ml size of wine, to sit alongside 200ml and 500ml measures already available, was announced in December and hailed by ministers as a Brexit "freedom".

Pint bottles of Champagne were sold in the UK before Britain joined the European Common Market and were on shelves until 1973.

Read more here ...

JD Sports has told head office staff they must return to the office at least four days a week .

The new amendment to the hybrid working policy will be effective from 1 July and will impact employees at the retail chain's head office in Bury, Retail Gazette reports.

However, the chain will still allow flexibly depending on individual roles.

Pubs could stay open late during the Euros this summer, according to The Sun .

Home Secretary James Cleverly hinted he was looking into extending pub opening hours for the tournament on The Sun show Never Mind The Ballots.

He said: "I will certainly look into it."

We've been bringing you news of plenty of bank switch deals offering free cash these past few months, but Virgin Money has a different kind of incentive for switchers - a 12% interest rate. 

People who switch to its M Account, M Plus Account or Club M Account will be able to get bonus interest rates of 10% gross/10.47% AER (fixed). 

This is on top of the 2% gross/2.02% AER (variable) interest rate already offered on current account balances up to £1,000 - meaning customers can get an interest rate of 12%. 

No other savings accounts offer interest rates this high, and the bonus applies for a year.

TikTok will restore millions of songs to its app after settling a royalty dispute with Universal Music Group. 

Users had been unable to make videos featuring songs from the likes of Billie Eilish and Ariana Grande due to a row over how much TikTok was paying. 

The fight had led to Universal withdrawing music from some of the world's most famous singers. 

The dispute appears to have been settled as the companies announced "improved remuneration" for artists.

More than 10,500 black cab drivers in London have launched a £250m legal case against Uber. 

They accuse the app of breaking the capital's taxi booking rules and deliberately misleading authorities to secure a licence. 

Transport for London (TfL) rules state drivers cannot take bookings directly from customers and must instead use a centralised system. 

The drivers, who are being advised by law firm Mishcon de Reya, argue they have faced unfair competition from Uber and that it knowingly broke these rules. 

Uber has denied these allegations and said the claims are unfounded.

The company has faced numerous challenges in London, including refusals from TfL to renew its licence which were later successfully appealed. 

Billie Eilish fans are complaining about "outrageous" ticket prices for her Hit Me Hard and Soft tour.

The 22-year-old singer unveiled an 81-date tour programme this week, sending fans rushing to secure tickets.

But some expressed disbelief on social media at the prices.

"I know I moan about this all the time, but look at the price of Billie Eilish tickets," one fan called Marianne wrote on X, sharing a screenshot of seated tickets priced at £398.50. 

"Something seriously needs to be done about ticket prices, it's f*****g outrageous!" 

Another complained they had paid less for Taylor Swift's Eras Tour, which was also criticised for high ticket prices.

A fan called Liv tagged Eilish, Live Nation and Ticketmaster, writing: "Are you ok? £145 for standing tickets is atrocious."

Thousands of people who receive government benefits, including Universal Credit, will be paid as early as tomorrow.

This is because there's a bank holiday coming up on 6 May which will affect benefits paid by both the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) and HMRC (they don't pay benefits on bank holidays).

A statement on the government website reads: "If your payment date is on a weekend or a bank holiday you'll usually be paid on the working day before. This may be different for tax credits and child benefit."

Here are the 11 different government benefits that are expected to be paid early:

• Universal credit;
• State Pension;
• Pension Credit;
• Disability Living Allowance;
• Attendance Allowance;
• Carer's Allowance;
• Child Benefit;
• Income Support;
• Jobseekers Allowance;
• Personal Independence Payment;
• Tax credits (such as Working Tax Credit)

Will your benefit payment change?

No, you'll be paid the same amount you usually receive.

Benefits are usually paid straight into your bank, building society or credit account.

Goldman Sachs is removing a cap on bonuses for London-based staff, paving the way for it to resume making multimillion pound payouts to its best-performing traders and dealmakers.

Sky News can exclusively reveal the Wall Street banking giant notified its UK employees today that it had decided to abolish the existing pay ratio imposed under European Union rules and which the government recently decided to scrap.

In a video message to staff, Richard Gnodde, chief executive of Goldman Sachs International, which comprises its operations outside the US, said it had decided to bring its remuneration policy in Britain in line with its operations elsewhere in the world.

"We are a global firm and to the extent possible we adopt a consistent global approach across everything we do," Mr Gnodde said in the message, which has been relayed to Sky News.

"The bonus cap rules were an important factor preventing us from being consistent in the area of compensation."

Aldi's market share has fallen - as people seemingly head back to traditional supermarkets for their shopping.

Aldi's share of the grocery market slipped from 10.8% to 10.4% in the 12 weeks to 20 April.

NIQ data shows sales rose just 1.3% in the period - for Morrisons it was 4.4%, Tesco 5.8% and Sainsbury's 6.6%.

Asda was the laggard with sales falling 0.9%.

Ocado is the fastest growing retailer with sales up 12%.

Aldi's rival discounter, Lidl, saw sales surge 9.5%, bumping its market share up to 8.2%. Media campaigns highlighting new ranges helped, NIQ said.

A Santander online outage is affecting thousands of UK customers.

Over 2,000 reports have been made on Downdetector - indicting the issue is widespread.

Customers have been met with messages like this...

Santander wrote on X: "We are aware some customers are experiencing issues accessing online services, we apologise for any inconvenience this has caused.

"We're working hard to resolve this as soon as possible."

Following on from our previous post, and the OECD also says the UK will grow more slowly next year than any other major advanced economy.

It puts this down to stealth taxes and high interest rates squeezing the economy.

The organisation, which is based in Paris, downgraded its forecasts for GDP to 0.4% this year and 1% in 2025.

In February, the UK had been in the middle of the rankings with forecast growth of 0.7% this year and 1.2% next.

The OECD pointed to the fact "tax receipts keep rising towards historic highs" - with National Insurance cuts not offsetting the additional burden Britons are feeling due to tax thresholds not rising along with inflation due to a government freeze.

Some good news is expected for UK workers as the OECD said there will be "stronger" wage growth when inflation is factored in against pay.

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Airlines will now be required to give automatic cash refunds for canceled and delayed flights

FILE - Passenger drop off their baggage at United Airlines in C Terminal at George Bush Intercontinental Airport, Thursday, Dec. 21, 2023, in Houston. The Biden administration issued final rules Wednesday, April 24, 2024, to require airlines to automatically issue cash refunds for things like delayed flights and to better disclose fees for baggage or canceling a reservation. (Brett Coomer/Houston Chronicle via AP, File)

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The Biden administration issued final rules Wednesday to require airlines to automatically issue cash refunds for things like delayed flights and to better disclose fees for baggage or canceling a reservation.

The Transportation Department said airlines will be required to provide automatic cash refunds within a few days for canceled flights and “significant” delays.

Under current regulations, airlines decide how long a delay must last before triggering refunds. The administration is removing that wiggle room by defining a significant delay as lasting at least three hours for domestic flights and six hours for international ones.

Airlines still will be allowed to offer another flight or a travel credit instead, but consumers can reject the offer.

The rule will also apply to refunds of checked-bag fees if the bag isn’t delivered within 12 hours for domestic flights or 15 to 30 hours for international flights. And it will apply to fees for things such as seat selection or an internet connection if the airline fails to provide the service.

Complaints about refunds skyrocketed during the COVID-19 pandemic, as airlines canceled flights and, even when they didn’t, many people didn’t feel safe sharing a plane cabin with other passengers.

Airlines for America, a trade group for large U.S. carriers, noted that refund complaints to the Transportation Department have fallen sharply since mid-2020. A spokesperson for the group said airlines “offer a range of options — including fully refundable fares — to increase accessibility to air travel and to help customers make ticket selections that best fit their needs.”

The group said the 11 largest U.S. airlines issued $43 billion in customer refunds from 2020 through 2023.

The Transportation Department issued a separate rule requiring airlines and ticket agents to disclose upfront what they charge for checked and carry-on bags and canceling or changing a reservation. On airline websites, the fees must be shown the first time customers see a price and schedule.

The rule will also oblige airlines to tell passengers they have a guaranteed seat they are not required to pay extra for, although it does not bar airlines from charging people to choose specific seats. Many airlines now charge extra for certain spots, including exit-row seats and those near the front of the cabin.

The agency said the rule will save consumers more than $500 million a year.

Airlines for America said its members “offer transparency and vast choice to consumers” from their first search.

The new rules will take effect over the next two years. They are part of a broad administration attack on what President Joe Biden calls “junk fees.” Last week, Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg announced that his department will let state officials in 15 states help enforce federal airline consumer protection laws .