After a particularly turbulent three years, today’s travel brands are ready and eager to capitalize on the tremendous surge in traveler optimism in 2023. As they do, one thing is clear: times have changed.

These days, travel and destination brands know that “business as usual” no longer applies. They’re rethinking everything, from how they approach customer service to how they attract and retain employees in a tough labor market. Without a doubt, this same mindset for reinvention needs to be turned toward marketing and advertising, too. Here’s what today’s travel marketers need to know, particularly as it relates to the evolved opportunities in TV.

What Constitutes a “Performance” Channel Has Evolved

As travel brands and agencies move to capitalize on rebounding demand, many turn first to what were traditionally considered — prior to the pandemic, that is — to be the most efficient tactics and channels for advertising. However, the notion of “performance” has evolved in recent years.

While direct mail and digital channels like search and social have long been prioritized by travel marketers, many might be surprised to learn that today’s addressable TV offerings are capable of delivering on performance, efficiency and attribution goals, right alongside the sight, sound and motion, and world-class entertainment brands that travel brands have long relied upon when looking to make a memorable impact on consumers. Today’s TV (both traditional and streaming TV of all kinds) can be targeted, and that’s a game changer for travel brands looking to emerge from the pandemic in a powerful yet budget-conscious way.

Data Lets Brands Look Beyond Programming

Travel brands are now able to think of their TV ad spends as a larger part of their overall data-driven marketing strategies. Rather than targeting according to programming — by, say, trying to reach food enthusiasts by advertising alongside the latest Bobby Flay show — travel brands can leverage viewership data to target the specific audience members they want to reach, regardless of the content they’re watching. For many hospitality brands, this data-driven TV approach is quite different from how they’ve typically approached their TV budget allocations — if they made TV allocations at all. TV is efficient, fraud free, and there are ways to buy it that make it more efficient than many travel marketers might realize.

Attribution Studies Deliver Deeper TV Insights

Beyond targeting, the ability to conduct sophisticated attribution studies on TV ad investments has never been greater. In fact, for travel brands, it’s now possible to measure whether (and how many) people who were shown a destination ad actually went on to visit the locale being advertised. For travel brands, it’s precisely this level of real-world impact and understanding that can help optimize and scale TV investments, with precision, over time.

Evolved Formats Unlock Long-Form Opportunities

In addition to enhanced targeting and attribution, TV also offers travel marketers the opportunity to go beyond the short-form video offerings that have become prevalent in recent years — and even well beyond the classic :30 spot. In certain TV environments, advertisers can place highly targeted static ads that entice the viewer to click into a longer-form (two to 10 minutes) piece of informational or entertaining content. This is a particularly impactful option for travel marketers, given that TV has the opportunity to reach co-viewing family and friends who are also highly likely to be co-travelers.

National Buys Might Overlook Regional Opportunities

Finally, let’s talk about the nature of national versus regional buying. While many travel brands and agencies might pursue a national TV strategy, with the idea that they’ll be able to unlock audiences in all the major markets, it can benefit them to dig deeper with regional partners in key areas. Doing so can unlock higher-value travel audiences more efficiently. For example, New York represents a highly affluent market of business and personal travelers, made all the more accessible by its many airports. This audience represents a particularly strong investment for travel brands that might be under-delivered in the context of a national buy. Furthermore, regional partners can also unlock local lifestyle and news network content (e.g., News 12 and NY1 in New York) that is ideal for reaching travel audiences but wouldn’t necessarily appear on the lists of networks available from national inventory sellers.

The above new realities should be taken into consideration as hospitality marketers gear up to capitalize on the larger-than-ever opportunity to connect with eager travelers. When the industry hit an unanticipated wall in 2020, the data and advertising landscape kept moving unabated. Now, three years later, the opportunities for connecting with and engaging would-be travelers have evolved significantly—and are more powerful than ever.