The State of the Industry: Travel and Tourism

Our team recently attended a Travel and Tourism Summit in Las Vegas Nevada where they listened and learned from travel marketers and professionals from around the country. We met with Mike and Ricky to gather their insights from their time in Vegas. 

What was the overarching theme of the show?

Overall, the most popular topic was that understanding and listening to your customers is critical. It was talked about from both a content and an overall data/targeting perspective. Targeting the correct audience is essential for a successful advertising campaign, along with serving them the correct content on the correct channel at the correct time. The best way to ensure that this happens is to completely understand your audience in as many ways as possible. Knowing demographic information as well as their concerns and interests will give you the information necessary to run an impactful campaign. 

Unsurprisingly, the deprecation of third-party cookies was another hot topic for travel marketers. In the same vein, the importance of using first-party data was another constant theme throughout the event. The depreciation of third-party cookies has directly led to a larger emphasis on using first-party data.

The brands at the conference were eager to discuss different aspects of first-party data collection, with conversations ranging from best overall data practices to how to collect the right data. Brands want their data to be secure both during and after its collection; however, not everyone knows what exactly that means.

What were some of the biggest concerns of travel marketers mentioned?

Aside from the general concern of digital marketing in a post-cookie world, destination marketers mentioned a few others. Many of these concerns stemmed from how they would target prospective travelers in this new era, while data practices were another major talking point. The new emphasis on first-party data has made DMOs think about data collection, best practices and measurement. 

Were marketers at the summit prepared for the deprecation of third-party cookies?

Overall, about 30 percent said that they were not prepared, 30 percent said that they were semi-prepared, and the rest said they were prepared. This indicates that most marketers in attendance were not confident in their brand’s preparation for third party cookies. It could be from a lack of knowledge of the manner in which the brands prepared, the lack of knowledge of why it matters, or the natural hesitancy of what will change in the industry. As the sunset of third-party cookies approaches, the result of this preparation (or lack thereof) will come into full effect. . 

What does this tell us about the state of the travel marketing industry?

Marketers are not overwhelmingly confident in their ability to navigate the industry in the post-cookie world. This is likely due to a few factors: one being the lack of knowledge about how the travel industry will be affected. Travel marketers will now need to rely on their first-party data for targeting purposes which is something that only some have had to do in the past. 

There is also a huge disconnect of information between tourism and travel companies and their ability to measure bookings and sales. While they can provide a link to book flights and hotels, travelers often browse through other websites and book on their own. It also gets tricky to measure and track campaign success when customers work with travel agencies and book through them. These barriers make it difficult for DMOs to track and measure which conversions were the result of their campaign. 

How can we help?

Semcasting has advanced expertise with digital marketing in the travel industry. We offer Managed Services for Data and Media and a self-serve platform - AudienceDesigner (ADS), which includes onboarding, advanced targeting capabilities and cross-platform measurement. With our completely cookieless platform, marketers are able to use a combination of their first-party and our third-party data to further narrow down their target audience. 

Advertisers are now able to see and measure campaign results in near-real time across all platforms used which not only allows for more transparent results, but also for immediate campaign optimizations. This is important for all types of campaigns and is particularly crucial for small budget campaigns. You will be able to see who you reached, who you didn't, and which messages were effective. ADS can generate those different audience segments for both retargeting and analysis purposes. 

From audience strategy, onboarding first-party data, to identifying the unknown site visitors to real-time measurement, Semcasting is equipped with the tools you need for a successful travel campaign. 

Don’t miss your opportunity to reach that unique traveler audience, Contact us today to get started.