2022 Trend Alert: The Travel Vertical is Ready to Take Off

Welcome to our Trend Alert series! We recently published our 2022 Global Advertising Trends report, and will be sharing insights, data, and trendy topics from the report in this newest blog series. This week, we’re taking a look at a particularly hard-hit industry – Travel – and its initial recovery.

The Impact on Travel

The pandemic has impacted every facet of our world, from our families, to how we work and interact, and beyond. From an industry perspective, some were more hard-hit than others. For example, while brick-and-mortar retail braced for the impact, new opportunities for ecommerce, mobile online shopping, and live streaming advertisements helped fill the gap. The road to recovery looks different for each industry.

One particularly arduous one has been for the travel industry, with ripple effects for tourism-related businesses (and of course communities that rely heavily on tourism). According to UNCTAD, the travel industry suffered a negative impact of 63% in 2020.

As Year Three of the pandemic stretches before us, advancements in vaccines, lifted lockdowns, and loosening restrictions are spurring the recovery for the travel and tourism industry, paving the way for travel-related apps and websites to thrive.

Travel’s Recovery – and Opportunity for In-App and Desktop/Mobile Web Advertising

One side effect of all this has been cabin fever: a restlessness and urge to get out.

Equipped with vaccine passports and fewer entry requirements, travelers have resumed their globe trotting. While business travel may be lower, businesses that have embraced a remote-working or hybrid model may find their employees working extra-remotely, from different cities or countries around the world.

At Smaato, we’re seeing initial travel and tourism optimism reflected in increased user engagement with apps:

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By the summer of 2021, a combination of more open borders, better weather (to enable outdoor activities), and promising vaccine data may have contributed to the gains.

Booking.com reached almost 3 million app downloads in Europe this past summer, with average downloads of the app spiking to 1.7 million installs monthly!

As engagement with travel apps increases, so too does the opportunity to make a big impression.

So, what can publishers and marketers do to capture the attention of travelers around the world and across devices?

Drive Contextual Messages with Deep Linking

First of all, what are deep links? Deep links are embedded URLs that drive a mobile app user to in-app content. And contextual deep links take this a step further: contextual deep links drive users to a particular piece of in-app content.

For the travel and tourism industry, contextual deep links can be especially useful. For example, instead of dropping a user on the homescreen of a booking app, why not lead them to a hotel search in a city relevant to their upcoming travels?

Giving users a more tailored and relevant experience can boost engagement, improve user experience, and help boost brand sentiment.

For Advertisers, Reach the Right Audience with Travel Pre-Packaged Deals

We offer a travel-related pre-packaged deal to help marketers and advertisers reach a relevant audience in a privacy-compliant way. Our team hand-selects and curates pre-packaged deals that run on the open exchange by bundling relevant inventory together. Selecting a travel pre-packaged deal can give marketers and advertisers a chance to reach travel-interested audiences.

For Publishers, Invite Relevant Advertisers to a Programmatic Private Exchange

Private exchanges offer publishers a unique opportunity to auction their premium inventory to a hand-selected group of marketers and advertisers. If you are a travel app or travel site, why not invite relevant marketers and advertisers to participate in an auction to reach your audience?

You can hand-select relevant demand partners to bid, and can help give your users and viewers a contextually-relevant experience, and ensure cohesion for your app or website. Typically, private exchange deals give marketers improved transparency and access to more premium placements, which in turn yields higher eCPMs than the Open Exchange alternative. You can learn more about private exchanges here.

Read the 2022 Global Advertising Trends Report

Download your free copy of our 2022 Global Advertising Trends Report to get more great insights into trending topics to help inform your advertising and monetization strategies. Plus, enjoy insights into Smaato’s platform performance YoY, and learn new ways to reach audiences around the world and on any device.