Global: Travel advertising that is most likely to catch the attention of leisure travelers

Travel advertising has kept pace with the increase in leisure travel. Fuelled by investments from airlines, tourism groups, and cruise lines, it has grown by 83% year-on-year in 2022.

But what makes these travel ads work? Where are they most likely to grab a traveler’s attention?

In a recent YouGov study we asked consumers – intending to travel domestically and/or internationally for leisure in the next 12 months - across 25 markets where travel advertising attracts their attention.

Data from YouGov Global Travel Profiles reveals that more than two out of five global consumers (45%) are most likely to pay attention to travel ads on social media – a proportion mirrored in all regions except Europe, where the number falls to 37%.

This is followed by advertisements on travel websites which are likely to catch the attention of a third of travelers in APAC (30%), Europe (32%) and the Americas (33%).

Digital ads placed on online streaming services (including audio streaming) are far more likely to hold the attention of APAC travelers (33%) than travelers across the European (17%) and MENA (21%) markets.

While travel ads in a cinema are attractive to more than a third of travelers in the MENA region (32%), they hold less sway over travelers in the Americas (15%) and Europe (12%). Similarly, travelers in MENA (26%) are more likely to pay attention to direct mail advertising than their global counterparts (19%).

Television ads on free-to-view channels are likely to capture the attention of a quarter of global travelers (25%), compared to only slightly more than a tenth of consumers (11%) who are likely to pay attention to those on paid/subscribed channels.

Travel adverts in podcasts, national print newspapers and on the radio (11%, 11% and 10% respectively) bring up the rear in catching the attention of global leisure travelers.

Explore our living data – for free

Discover more travel and tourism content here

Want to run your own research? Start building a survey now

Make smarter business decisions with better intelligence. Understand exactly what your audience is thinking by leveraging our panel of 20 million+ members. Speak with us today.

Methodology: YouGov Global Travel Profiles is a globally consistent audience dataset based on rolling surveys and continuously collected data from adults - aged 16+ in China and 18+ in other markets - across 25 key travel markets, with sample sizes varying between 2,804 and 6,926 for each region. Data from each market uses a nationally representative sample apart from India and UAE, which use urban representative samples, and China, Egypt, which use online representative samples. Learn more about YouGov Global Travel Profiles.