The Problem With Travel Brand Marketing - And How To Fix It

12.11.2024 - 21:29 / skift.com / Colin Nagy

I recently had a conversation with the head of communications at a big global luxury brand. She mentioned that the usual sources of information that we have come to trust and revere were no longer moving the needle for her brand’s business. 

A splashy spread in a Conde Nast-style publication? That may stroke the ego of an executive, she suggested, but there isn’t much strategic or business driving value. 

Following the U.S. election, traditional news organizations are all wrestling with whether they missed where the country was. Travel media has the same issues.  

Skift’s founder and CEO Rafat Ali made the point in a LinkedIn post:

I couldn’t agree more. 

The blunt reality is: Too much ego and sentimentality exists in modern travel marketing. Sticking to the old way of doing things without doing the hard work to evaluate, assess, and evolve how a brand’s story is told and how heads are being put in beds. 

And “alpha” – the extra return brands hope for from marketing – is being left on the table in favor of shiny parties and being in the cool club. “It’s how things have always been done” is not working.  

Here are a few ways for marketers to thoughtfully slough off the laziness and investigate areas that could bring greater returns: 

YouTube is far and away where consumers go the most to look for travel content. So I find it insane that it is such a barren wasteland when it comes to brand involvement. 

When I look up a property, I either see (1) corporate marketing that looks like brochures or (2) raw, user generated content that often looks a bit choppy, sloppy and doesn’t represent the brand well. 

There is an incredible middle ground, where a brand can make something native and interesting to the platform, tells a story, and doesn’t feel awkward. This can include influencer-crafted video, done with the right levels of taste and vision. 

While mainstream media continues to suffer from a credibility crisis and can’t stop writing the same issues year after year (e.g. The Africa Issue, the Gold List) like a rinse-and-repeat formula, a lot of the most interesting writing has been taking place on Substack. 

The next travel writers and people driving brand love and revenue to properties around the world are currently incubating their voices here. It is worth figuring out meaningful ways to test and learn (trips, engagement, sponsored advertising in the right places), as well as traditional PR-related outreach, rather than just focusing on the big targets. 

While a lot of attention has migrated to longform audio, I haven’t seen creative applications for travel brands in the podcast space. 

Where is the brand supported “No Reservations” or Bourdain-inspired content that is done tastefully? Production costs