US: Major League Baseball, Booking.com team up - How popular is the platform among audiences?

US: Major League Baseball, Booking.com team up - How popular is the platform among audiences?

Lesley Simeon - March 25th, 2023

Booking.com is now Major League Baseball’s (MLB) official online travel partner. The booking platform will have its branding featured in baseball stadiums across the US and will be supported by a new media campaign. Booking.com’s customers will get 15% off on stays in properties in MLB cities between April 4 and September 28, 2023. The 2023 Major League Baseball season is scheduled to run between March 30 and October 2023.

How popular is Major League Baseball amongst current Booking.com customers?

According to YouGov Profiles - which covers demographic, psychographic, attitudinal and behavioral consumer metrics - 38% of Booking.com’s current consumers watched or followed (either in person or on TV) MLB during the past year. Inversely, 8% of Americans who watched or followed MLB last year have purchased travel or leisure services from Booking.com in the past year.

As part of the partnership, Booking.com will have a dedicated spot on MLB’s official schedule pages. Its icons will lead site visitors to search and book accommodation near Major League stadiums. We look at Profiles data for some travel-related attitudes amongst respondents who have watched or followed MLB (either in person or on TV) in the last one year. 

Data from Profiles suggests that the general US population is more likely than the respondents who watched or followed MLB during the past year to agree with the travel attitudes we’ve observed around budget, package vacations, last minute deals and shopping at Duty Free.

Just over half (51%) of the respondents who watched or followed MLB during the past year agree with the statement that they “try to keep a strict budget when [they] go on vacation.” At 54%, the general US population is a little more likely to agree with this statement.

Just over a quarter (26%) of the respondents who watched or followed MLB during the past year and 35% of the general US population agree with the statement that they “would never think of taking a package holiday/vacations.”

A quarter of the respondents who watched or followed MLB during the past year agree with the statement that they “usually wait for last minute deals rather than planning [their] holiday/vacations or short break in advance”, 19% agree with the statement that the “try to shop Duty Free at airports/train stations rather than at the main shops for a better deal.”

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Methodology: YouGov Profiles is based on continuously collected data and rolling surveys, rather than from a single limited questionnaire. Profiles data for the US is nationally representative and weighted by age, gender, education, region, and race. Learn more about Profiles.

Photo by Ben Hershey on Unsplash