Travel Booking Companies Spend Big on Marketing, Expecting Huge Vacation Season

In a bid to get more people booking flights and accommodation, travel booking firms are spending a lot on advertising, Reuters reported Friday (May 13).

This comes as the summer travel season is imminent, and the companies want to try and get travel back to pre-pandemic levels.

Various companies like Airbnb, Booking Holdings and Expedia were among the biggest losers of the pandemic since it began in 2020, as COVID cancelled travel plans and, more widely, the need to travel at all.

Now, things may be looking up, with around six in 10 Americans making plans to go on at least one summer trip in 2022, per data from the nonprofit U.S. Travel Association.

Some analysts posited that it could be the biggest summer travel season in years. With that is coming a new deluge of spending, with the industry likely to spend 14.2%, or $4 billion or so, on digital advertising, according to stats from marketing firm Insider Intelligence.

Reuters wrote that the spending boost might make a dent in profits in the short term, though the benefits will likely be much greater later on.

The report said ticket prices in March for U.S. domestic flights were 15% higher month-on-month, though the rise hasn’t hurt demand for flying. As such, Reuters posits that Americans aren’t currently bothered by inflation in that regard.

PYMNTS recently wrote that Airbnb has rolled out a Trust & Safety Advisory Coalition (TSAC) to advise the company on how to make people feel safe when traveling.

Read more: Airbnb Intros Safety Advisory Coalition

The TSAC will help with promoting a “reliable experience” before, during and after a trip. It will be made of 22 industry organizations and will advise Airbnb over “community policies, products, support, resources and training,” the company said.

The TSAC has already held an in-person meeting in Washington, D.C., and the group will get together quarterly to brainstorm and deliver progress reports, sharing ideas between the meetings.