Airbnb knows that all our lives have been flipped and turned upside down. So here’s a remedy: Fans of the sitcom Fresh Prince of Bel-Air will have a shot to spend one night in Will Smith’s famed white-pillared mansion thanks to Airbnb. Starting Sept. 29, groups of two lucky Los Angeles County residents will have…
The Covid-19 pandemic has taken its toll on the travel sector, hitting the airline, cruise and hotel categories hard. But travel subcategories such as nature gateways and rentals of recreational vehicles are booming, and seizing the opportunity to grow. With people reluctant to travel long distances or in crowds, companies like Getaway, which connects people…
In such a dire travel ecosystem, almost any announcement from a travel brand is a big deal–new partnerships with cleaning products, resuming routes and reducing capacity. With advertising budgets slashed, brands have been largely quiet, putting out minimal messaging that it’s safe to fly and encouraging would-be travelers to book a trip. That’s why it…
The U.S. Travel Association has a simple message for the country: Let’s go there. Anywhere. Literally, anywhere. It doesn’t have to be tomorrow, but please, put something on the calendar. Launched this morning, the new campaign titled “Let’s Go There” is a collaboration between prominent USTA members including Marriott, Disney, Delta and American Airlines, along…
No one’s suggesting that visitors to the new Virgin hotel in Nashville should act like rock stars, circa 1969, tossing TVs off balconies, smashing plate-glass windows and trashing the place. In fact, the hotel would rather you didn’t. But if you want to get up to some mild 2020-style shenanigans–like checking in with a fake…
The airline industry’s myriad fees have been a bone of contention with travelers for years, and the change fee–which charges fliers as much as $200 to take a different flight after purchasing a ticket–is one of the most hated. But this week, within a few hours of one another led by United Airlines, almost every…
Over these long months of quarantine, we’ve all gotten a little aspirational with our virtual backgrounds thanks to video chat platforms like Zoom. Now, Coors Light and agency DDB are offering to actually send you to the real location in your virtual background–eventually, when things are safe and Americans are allowed into other countries again….
At the height of the 2008 economic recession, American Airlines became the first major carrier to charge for a checked bag. More than a decade later, travelers now almost expect to be nickel and dimed for everything short of using the lavatory (though Ryanair floated that idea in 2010). But now, in the midst of…
In the travel industry, the customer journey has always been a fickle thing for marketers. There are online travel agencies displaying discounts, thousands of review sites, and a whole Google suite of travel products dedicated to helping travelers get a good deal. As travel demand has plunged during the pandemic, and is just barely beginning…
In time for International Dog Day on Wednesday, and after months of lonely homebound humans rushing to bring new pets into their lives during lockdown, direct-to-consumer (DTC) luggage brand Away has added a new, animal-centric item to its repertoire: a pet carrier. To promote the new product, Away’s marketing team worked to get inside the…
As if anyone needed an excuse to get out into the wilderness this summer, Airbnb has set its sights on the outdoors, launching a campaign alongside the National Park Foundation, the charitable arm of the National Park Service. Exactly 104 years since President Woodrow Wilson signed the act formally creating the National Park Service, Airbnb…
It took a little less than two months into the pandemic for top hospitality brands including Hilton and Marriott to try and reassure travelers that their rooms were squeaky clean, even amid the health crisis. In April, Marriott announced a council featuring prominent doctors to elevate its own cleanliness standards. A week later, Hilton announced…
The remote Faroe Islands continue to show the rest of the world how it’s done on the marketing front, attracting 700,000 visitors from 197 countries with its recent gamified, live virtual tours. For context, the sparsely populated Nordic nation–where its 80,000 sheep far outnumber its 50,000 human inhabitants–had about 130,000 real-life visitors in 2019. During…
Fans of the cruising industry can now air their grievances about the federal No Sail Order issued in March directly to the government agency that issued it. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which is responsible for regulating health standards for the industry, has formally requested information from cruise lines on how they plans…
Before they were given more than $25 billion in March, airline executives warned Congress that if it didn’t act quickly, the industry would see unprecedented layoffs as travel restrictions sent demand plummeting. “Time is running out,” they wrote roughly 10 days after the NBA suspended its season and more than 1,000 Americans tested positive for…
Key insights Marketers want to keep brands top of mind during the pandemic, when consumer demand for travel ebbs and flows. Flexible work-from-home policies could extend the leisure travel season. Advertising spend in the travel industry has increased by nearly 22% since early April, when demand cratered at the onset of the pandemic. In April,…
For at least a handful of on-trend reasons, it’s the perfect time to market an artisanal domestic vacation, especially one that promises a break from Zoom and Netflix and an intro to “small-batch experiences.” A new digital campaign for VisitLEX, from agency Cornett, positions Lexington in central Kentucky as just such a destination, where curated…
Hoping that the worst of the pandemic is behind it, Marriott announced losses of nearly $232 million in the second quarter. Revenue per available room (RevPar) for the world’s largest hospitality brand dropped more than 84% worldwide, while North American occupancy rose to nearly 20% on average, reaching nearly 34% by the end of July….
Amid the bleak landscape of the airline industry, Southwest Airlines has become a rare bright spot. Although far from unscathed–the airline lost $915 million in the second quarter–the largest domestic airline in the U.S. has already promised not to lay off workers in the face of depressed travel demand, unlike its competitors. It also managed…
Graphic designer Amber Share isn’t the first person to seize on a negative review and flip it on its head for marketing purposes. Some self-deprecating brands have been doing it successfully for years. But the North Carolina resident has put her own spin on the advertising trope, taking one-star reviews of U.S. national parks and…
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