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10 of the Best Ways to Advertise Online

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Digital marketing can be an essential part of any business strategy, but it’s important that you advertise online in the right way. If you’re looking for different ways to advertise, these 10 ideas will get you started on the path to successfully publicizing your business.

Establish Yourself as a Subject-Matter Expert

Writing helpful, informative articles about your area of expertise can get your name out there and establish your business as trustworthy and knowledgeable. You can contribute blog posts and articles to online publications, self-publish on Medium or answer questions on sites like Quora. When you use these sites to advertise your knowledge, make sure you include a link to your business’ website or socials.

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Curate Top-Notch Visual Content

Social media sites and apps that rely on imagery, like Pinterest and Instagram, are a great way to capture attention when your business deals with something visual. Retailers, architects, bakers, restaurant owners, landscapers and others can use beautiful photos of their work or products to increase site traffic. Again, be sure to include addresses and usernames, or perhaps in a subtle watermark on the photo itself.

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Claim Public Business Listings

Google, Bing and other search engines typically provide profiles for businesses to offer more information when users search. If you haven’t done so, claim your business’ profile wherever you can so you can add important information like operating hours, menu photos and social/web addresses.

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Create Profiles for Major Social Media Platforms

Social media is all about advertising, and the best part is that it’s free. You don’t necessarily need to update all the time, and you don’t even need to build up a huge follower base to make a difference. Prospective customers and clients just want something informative to look at when they’re researching your business for the first time.

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Post Ads on the Right Social Networks

Don’t just buy ads on any social media outlet — think instead about who your target customer is or what medium would best display your products. A jeweler would probably do best on Instagram or Facebook, while a B2B service provider would probably do best on LinkedIn.

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Get Good at Email Marketing

There’s an art to good email marketing — you can’t just bombard people with irrelevant messages all the time. This makes email one of the more finicky ways to advertise a business, but if you can get it right, you can form a great connection with customers who are likely to become regulars.

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Network With Other Business Owners

Forging relationships with other businesses in your niche or your local area gives you the opportunity to combine forces for mutual promotion. You can work with others to sponsor special events or giveaways and increase exposure.

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Partner With Influencers

From bloggers to social media stars, finding someone to talk about your product or service can be a great way of bringing in new customers. Find an influencer who makes sense for your product. For example, if you sell homemade eco-friendly lunch boxes, a mom blogger would be a smart partnership choice.

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Generate Instructional Content

Whether it’s through blog posts, downloadable ebooks, video tutorials or another medium, free instructional content can be a great way of advertising your business. Look at SEO keywords for how-to and other content related to your industry or area of expertise, recommends Entrepreneur. As always, make sure what you produce is clearly connected to your business name.

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Use Hashtags Wisely

If you enjoy actively participating in social media, you can leverage that for your business by using interactive features like geotags and hashtags. Make sure your content is related to the hashtag in question, and be sure to make your social profile bio sections rich with information and links for prospective customers to use in finding you.

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10 best travel ads that will make you book your next vacation in seconds

October 27, 2023

Header_ Best travel ads article (2)

As the world recovers from the pandemic, travelers are keener than ever to find their next vacation spot. And the companies’ and countries’ tourist offices are wasting no time trying to attract as many visitors as possible to their destinations. 

To show you some of the true gems in travel advertising, we’ve put together a list of the 10 best travel marketing campaigns that will make you want to book your next holiday ASAP. Plus, a little background on tourism marketing.

So let’s dig in!

What is tourism marketing?

Tourism marketing refers to strategically promoting travel destinations, attractions, and services to potential visitors. As part of tourism marketing, companies from the various aspects of the tourism industry develop targeted marketing campaigns on various channels to spread compelling messages to attract tourists.

Each tourism campaign aims to increase awareness, generate interest, and ultimately drive visits from local and international visitors.

10 best tourism marketing campaigns

Here are the ten best tourism campaigns and ads:

1. Switzerland – Yodel Ay Hee Hoo

Is there a better way to promote the countryside than by inviting various people from a train station to spontaneously take a day off from work and enjoy the beautiful and peaceful Alps?

That’s exactly what the Switzerland tourist office did in one of their endearing tourism campaigns and sent the important message of how often we forget to take a step back to relax from our busy daily schedules. 

The creators made the travel ad even more authentic by live streaming from the Alps, with an elderly man inviting everyone from the Zurich train station to come join him. 

Intending to inspire travelers, this innovative approach caught daily commuters off guard and made them question whether to take a free daily ticket to the Alps or to continue their regular trip to work. 

2. Travel Oregon – Only Slightly Exaggerated 

Whether you’re watching an ad for the latest toothpaste or a fantastic new trip destination, they all have one thing in common – they exaggerate how great they are. 

Travel Oregon used this common motive in their “Only Slightly Exaggerated” tourism campaign to paint Oregon as a unique, dreamy, cartoon-like destination. 

The ad shows that Oregon mountains are more magical than anywhere else, rivers hide secrets never seen, and the streets offer entertainment like nowhere else. Just like in your childhood dreams! 

3. Iceland – OutHorse Your Emails

Being able to disconnect from work when on vacation is something that many of us struggle with these days. Luckily, Iceland found a perfect solution for the problem – outsourcing your emails to Icelandic horses. All you have to do for that is come to Iceland, and the rest will be taken care of.

This quirky ad is an amazing example of how creative and funny countries can get in attracting new tourists. 

4. Sweden – Spellbound

Have you heard of Dark Tourism? If you’re a fan of horror stories and mystic movies, then you certainly did! And you’ll absolutely love what Visit Sweden released this year as an attempt to attract a specific target audience with their unique tourist marketing campaign.

Their Spellbound campaign invites mystique lovers to Sweden to explore beautiful nature while enjoying the unique experience of listening to a chilling audio story. The campaign was set up so that a Spotify playlist would only become available to visitors once they came to a specific location. 

This way, they had to visit the location to get the unforgettable and scary experience. Who would’ve thought that horror stories could be such a great way to advertise a country?

5. Tourism Ireland – What Fills Your Heart?

You can never go wrong with a heartwarming tourist marketing campaign that celebrates good spirits, brings nostalgia, and connects people to the nature and the culture of one place. Tourism Ireland managed to do all that in one of their recent campaigns titled “What Fills Your Heart?”

In a series of ads with famous Irish actresses in the main roles, including Derry Girls and Sharon Horgan , the Irish tourist board told the story of Irish history, culture, and customs. 

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Source: youtube.com

6. Vienna – What Does A Belly Do In Vienna?

There is no better place for a hungry and heartbroken belly to indulge in life’s beauties than Vienna. That’s the story Vienna’s tourist board told in their highly creative and surrealistic short film. 

As the belly walks through the streets of Vienna, trying to forget his dear human who didn’t treat him well, we get a glimpse of what tourists can see and enjoy during their next visit to the city. 

The creator’s unique approach to promoting Austria’s capital wins the creativity award and is an excellent magnet for new tourists. 

7. Only in Scotland – Why Scotland Needs You

During the COVID-19 pandemic, many countries struggled to attract tourists. People were concerned about their safety and if the location could provide memorable experiences despite numerous restrictions. 

At that time, Scotland released a beautiful ad showing why Scotland needs people while showing tourists why they’re the ones who actually need a holiday in this astonishing place. The ad is in the spirit of hope, serenity, and relaxation – everything people needed during the pandemic. 

8. KLM – Live Hologram Bar

Imagine spending hours at the airport talking to almost anyone in the world. You could learn about different cultures, what to visit in your next destination, or chat to make the time go by faster. 

In their 2019 marketing campaign, KLM placed hologram bars in airports around the world and allowed travelers from different parts of the world to connect and exchange their stories. Not a bad way to spend your time waiting for your next plane. 

9. Croatia Full of Life – Ode To Joy

What is a summer vacation in Croatia other than your own yearly ode to joy? 

This famous symbolic motif is what Croatian Tourist Board chose for the promotional campaign in 2012, and earned a prestigious travel industry ‘Oscars’ award, ‘Das Goldene Stadttor,’ at the International Tourism Film Festival. 

Beethoven’s inspiring music narrative, led by cellist Ana Rucner carries the video highlighting the rich cultural, historical, and natural heritage of Croatia as well as many Croatian beauties. 

10. Chicago Not in Chicago

In 2022, Mayor Lori E. Lightfoot announced the launch of the “Chicago Not in Chicago” campaign to show how Chicago has inspired many other iconic cities worldwide. 

This creative campaign featured city tour buses across major US cities where people got a tour of Chicago instead of the city they were visiting. And by first confusing and then entertaining the visitors, the campaign sent a powerful message that every city has a story – a Chicago story. 

Final thoughts

When it comes to travel marketing campaigns, the sky’s the limit. Countries and companies can use many different sources of inspiration to tell unique stories about a location or a travel service. 

And these travel marketing campaigns are a great example of how creativity combined with emotional appeal is a recipe for success. The only question remains: “In which of these locations did you book your next vacation?”

Nika Prpic

Advertising

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7 best Nike ads and marketing campaigns that get our approval

The greatest storyteller of all times? In my view it isn’t Roald Dahl, Stephen King, or Banksy.  It’s Nike. The company consistently manages to inspire the young, old, and everyone in between. Their ads are fun, engaging, and personal in a way that hits you right in the feels.

Klaas Hermans

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10 best TikTok ads that are changing the world of advertising 

Whether we like it or not, TikTok is becoming a serious advertising channel for more and more brands. To help you get in the TikTok game, we bring you a selection of the 10 best TikTok ads, with a little background story about each successful campaign.

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11 best food ads that will make your senses tingle

Food advertisements have a unique power to get our attention and make our taste buds tingle. Whether it's the sizzling of a juicy steak, the oozing cheese on a pizza, or the decadent layers of a chocolate cake, these advertisements have a way of making us drool.

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7 best Mother’s Day marketing campaigns that break the mold

May is for mothers, and it’s no surprise that in the coming months we’ll be seeing an influx of Mother’s Day marketing campaigns across all platforms. Ensuring that our moms are truly spoiled with the best perfect gift, it goes without saying that the market is increasingly competitive between brands.

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8 McDonald’s marketing campaigns that get our approval

There are few brands as iconic as McDonald’s. And whether you like or loathe their food, you can’t knock their marketing. Let’s look at some of their best ads and campaigns over the last five years.

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6 Valentine’s Day ads that get our approval (and 3 that don’t)

Like other holidays, Valentine’s Day ads can bring out the best and worst in brands. Some are poignant. Others have a playful twist that stands out against the noise. And then there are those Valentine’s Day campaigns that simply never should have been made.

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OOHs and ahhs: 18 best billboard ads that made the world stop and stare

Out of home advertising (OOH) can be a breath of fresh air in the constant chatter about data, social strategies, and geotargeting tactics. And when looking at the best ads of all time, billboards take up many of the top spots. Because billboard advertising is created for everyone passing by, it has no choice but to be strikingly simple. And that’s one of the key components of a great ad. 

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Travel Marketing Campaigns: The 7 Best of All Time

Travel Marketing Campaigns: The 7 Best of All Time

Travel marketing in 2021 and beyond is going to have to work harder and smarter than it ever has before.

The industry has been ravaged by the pandemic. Restrictions have prevented travel, holidaymakers have been confined to their homes and, even as society begins to unlock, consumers are wary of returning to post-pandemic travel behaviour.

That’s why it’s time for travel marketing and travel advertising to level-up.

The best travel marketing campaigns and travel ads delight, entertain and entice consumers to step out the door and have an experience like no other. Now these campaigns are going to have to do all this and more.

But what makes a great travel marketing campaign? What are the best examples out there? And what can we learn from them?

In this article we’ll look at the best travel marketing campaigns of all time, including:

  • Inspired by Iceland – The Iceland Academy
  • Doors of Thrones
  • Fill Your Heart With Ireland
  • The Oregon Tourism Commission
  • Yodel Ay Hee Hoo
  • Meliá Hotels International
  • The worst travel marketing campaigns
  • Essential strategies

The current state of travel marketing campaigns

The stats paint a bleak picture for the travel and tourism industry. Airlines alone lost in excess of $250 billion last year , and experts predict it could take years for hotels to return to pre-COVID levels of business. While tourism spending is also set to take until 2024 to recover.

The good news is the green shoots of recovery are already appearing. After spending the best part of a year stuck in their homes, people want to travel again, even if it’s only domestically to begin with.

There’s no escaping the fact that travel in a post-pandemic world is now a harder sell. It’s why the need for travel marketing campaigns with powerful, emotive storytelling that tugs on the heart strings, captures a sense of adventure and creates a compelling experience has never been greater.

Right now, travel marketing campaigns and ads need to go further than they have previously. Marketers need to get even more savvy in terms of delivering the right message to the right people at the right time – and they need to do it at speed and scale.

Let’s take a look at what we think are some of the best travel marketing campaigns of all time and see what we can learn from them:

1. Inspired by Iceland

This won’t be the first time the travel industry has had to bounce back from a disaster. In 2010, the eruption of the Icelandic volcano Eyjafjallajökul closed the skies across Europe and led to many misconceptions about travel to the awe-inspiring country.

In response, the Icelandic government joined forces with the City of Reykjavík, airlines Icelandair and Iceland Express, Promote Iceland and about 80 other tourism-related companies to create the campaign Inspired by Iceland.

The campaign, which is still running, takes on different themes each year and has won numerous awards such as the Cannes Lion and ICCA.

The campaign blends humour (see the series of Iceland Academy videos and The Hardest Karaoke Song In The World – which has been viewed nearly 14 million times on YouTube) with the best of what Iceland has to offer. It strikes a tone that’s warm, engaging and often hilarious. It makes people smile and makes visiting Iceland seem like something everyone should do at least once in their life.

2. Doors of Thrones

Despite its stunning natural beauty and world-famous landmarks like the Giant’s Causeway, Northern Ireland has never been the easiest destination to sell. Due to Northern Ireland’s turbulent past, its travel marketing has had to work harder than most.

Thankfully, the end result is some spectacular campaigns. None more so than the stunning Doors of Thrones.

In 2016, Storm Gertrude destroyed some of the trees that make up the iconic Dark Hedges, where the scenes on the Kingsroad were filmed for HBO’s smash hit, Game of Thrones.

Quick to find hope in the midst of a disaster, the fallen trees were carved into ten doors, each one to represent an episode from Season 6 of the show. These doors were then shipped across the country to different locations. They now make up a new experience called The Journey of the Doors.

It’s another example of turning a negative into a positive alongside combining real experiences with marketing mastery.

3. Fill Your Heart With Ireland

Sticking with the Emerald Isle, 2018 saw Tourism Ireland unveil an industry-first campaign. If great marketing and advertising centres around talking the hearts of the audience, then it doesn’t come more literal than the Fill Your Heart With Ireland campaign.

A married couple from Sweden, who had never visited Ireland before, wore custom-made tech to track their physiological responses on their trip around the country. Heart monitors were linked to head cams and the data from the heart rate monitors was used to determine what footage would feature in the advertising.

4. Travel Oregon

Travel Oregon has gained a reputation for creating some of the best campaigns going. From a tour guide in the shape of a robot fish through to satirical articles , Travel Oregon frequently combines print, sponsored post, social media, banner ads and video to profound effect.

Perhaps the icing on their incredibly impressive marketing cake is the Studio Ghibli-like video that re-imagines the US State as an ‘adventure dreamland.’

Their marketing consistently pushes boundaries, is fun and performs to perfection.

5. Yodel Ay Hee Hoo

From #Lookup the billboard campaign from British Airways to the wonderful Europe, It’s Just Next Door campaign from SNCF , interactivity is playing an increasingly important role in travel marketing.

Pick of the bunch, however, is the Yodel Ay Hee Hoo gem from Graubünden Tourism in Switzerland. The highlight of the campaign was a live video stream from a mountain village into a train station which encouraged passers-by to engage in conversation with a man from the village.

It’s fun, quirky, and uses the best of modern technology to engage and surprise audiences.

6. Meliá Hotels International

Meliá Hotels International have pioneered the approach to digital display advertising , combining technical excellence with powerful messaging. Designed using Bannerflow Creative Studio , Meliá Hotels International display ad features a range of unique interactive elements. What’s more each design element works together perfectly to drive the viewer to engage and drive a click to a specific landing page.

Asking audiences the question of ‘Where do you want to go?’. The call to action button turns into a dropdown list when the user interacts with it – ensuring maximum engagement, and adding a personalised touch.

7. #LifeInHel

Yet another multi award-winner, this integrated social and digital campaign was billed as the ‘world’s longest layover.’ The campaign, by Finnish airport operator Finavia, sought to demonstrate the best of Helsinki Airport – boosting its profile among travellers journeying between Europe and Asia.

Chinese influencer Ryan Zhu lived at Helsinki Airport for 30 days, uploading content to multiple channels on a daily basis. The total media coverage exceeded 2.2 billion in 2017 , the year the campaign was run.

The worst travel marketing campaigns of all time

For every travel marketing ‘win’ there’s been some spectacular losses too. Take a bow the tourism boards of Lithuania and Girona , both of whom fell foul of eagle eyed viewers when they used pictures from other places to promote their destination.

The Real is Beautiful campaign saw the country’s tourism chief resign. Why you ask? Images from Slovakia and Finland were used to promote Lithuania across social channels.  While, the Girona Tourism Board found themselves in hot water too. Get ready…for using a picture of a beach in the Bahamas to promote the Costa Brava. And their excuse?! They didn’t have photos of sufficient quality for the local area! Seriously, it’s lovely.

Top of the list of worst travel marketing campaigns of all time is the ill-fated collaboration between Hoover and JSI Travel in the early ‘90s. They ran a promotion where, if you bought a vacuum cleaner or washing machine worth at least £100, you’d get two free plane tickets to Europe or America (yes, you read that right).

Unsurprisingly, the campaign backfired spectacularly and nearly sent Hoover out of business. The campaign generated £30 million in additional sales but cost Hoover £50 million in flights.

Essential strategies: production automation and campaign management for travel marketing campaigns

When looking at the best travel marketing campaigns, there was one common factor that tied all of them together; storytelling . The best campaigns are have a strong story and powerful narrative.

In today’s world, that story needs to be everywhere, all the time. This means control and consistency across all channels. Furthermore, display campaigns often need to change on-on-fly to remain customer centric. And travel businesses face the added challenge of reducing costs, using data effectively, and being agile to changing legislation.

Production automation and campaign management are critical products to achieving this. Thanks to the technology behind industry-leading Creative Management Platform platforms (CMPs) , creative production can now easily be automated and scaled. It’s now possible to go from a single creative to an entire campaign spanning all formats and channels in minutes.

How, you ask? A CMP enables you to optimise, test and tailor ads at high speed – without the need for coding. This gives you the power and control to replace generic ads with many more personalised variations. Or you can simply use the time to experiment more!

This is global advertising with a personal touch. Giving your brand power to always keep messaging relevant to your target audiences and thus boost both click-through rates and ROI.

These stand-out campaigns combine technical excellence and execution with creativity and outside-the-box thinking. They put stories, emotion and connection first. They speak to the heart and engage the mind.

A digital advertising platform like Bannerflow can help you do all of this at scale and at speed. With it, you’ll be able to consistently create campaigns that wow your audience and get the wanderlust flowing.

If you want to find out more about how Bannerflow can help power your digital advertising in 2021 and beyond, then get in touch for a demo and let us open the door to a new world of possibilities.

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Hilton pokes fun at hotels that charge extra hidden fees in its new spot, showing the difference between Hilton and other hotels.

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  • Country: United Kingdom
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Club Med Canada - The mountain made me do it McCann Montreal

Club Med Canada shows off its beautiful landscapes, gourmet dining, and more in a new spot.

McCann Montreal Montreal, Canada

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  • Country: Canada
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Visit Jordan - #ExperienceJordAIn 1 Adpro Communications

Visit Jordan uses AI descriptors to show off the beauty of the different sights in their country. This spot highlights the Dead Sea.

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  • Country: Jordan
  • Advertiser: Jordan Tourism Board

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  • Country: United States
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Booking.com - Somewhere, Anywhere (118s) Zulu Alpha Kilo

Melissa McCarthy brings the comedy in Booking.com’s new spot. This spot shows travelers the amazing experience they will have vacationing with Booking.com from the minute they start!

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Effective Travel Advertising Strategy for 2022 + 16 Ad Examples

Ana Predescu

You can’t rely solely on people’s wanderlust when advertising travel services because while it may keep your business afloat, it’s not enough to help you make waves in the industry.

Besides, people’s appetite for traveling is dependent on many factors and may decrease as a result of unforeseen events.

We’ve seen this happen when traveling took a hit in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, which is reflected in the industry’s spending data on digital advertising from previous years. While things are improving, a lot is riding on travel ads performing well.

For your vacation advertising efforts to be truly successful, you need a combination of good strategy and creative ads .

Stick with me as I walk you through the steps of building an actionable travel advertising strategy, including identifying your target audience, knowing the customer journey, setting your campaign goals, and measuring ads’ effectiveness.

We’ll also look at 16 travel ad examples from big names in the industry that will surely inspire your future campaign creatives.

If you’re more interested in the ad examples rather than the strategy, use the summary below to jump to that part.

Create Ad Campaigns 1

A. Steps for the perfect advertising strategy 

1. Identify your target audience

2. know the traveler’s customer journey.

3. Set campaign goals

4. Create ads with seasonality in mind

5. Choose the right advertising platform

6. measure your ads’ effectiveness.

B. Inspiring travel advertising examples and templates

A. Steps for The Perfect Advertising Strategy

Advertising takes time, money, as well as other resources, so needless to say, the end goal is to maximize ROI.

The surest way to achieve this is by devising a strategy beforehand, meaning a step-by-step plan to reach the right audience and persuade prospects to choose your travel services over those of your competitors.

On top of giving you a precise course of action, having a strategy also provides a reference to assess your results along the way and re-evaluate the plan if need be.

Here are the key steps you must check to build a strong tourism advertising strategy:

A well-defined target audience is the foundation of any good travel advertising strategy. 

Just think what a waste of resources it would be to target users with no potential to become customers. Narrowing down the group allows you to focus your efforts on reaching those who would benefit most from your travel services.

Plus, with a clear target audience in mind, you can create travel ads that double as personalized customer experiences, proven to be more successful in converting to sales.

To define your audience, make a list of different attributes you’d like your ideal customer to have, a.k.a. build a buyer persona. These attributes can be geographic, demographic, psychographic, or behavioral. 

  • Geographic : anything related to location, including customers’ country, region, city, or even postal code;
  • Demographic : population-based attributes, such as gender, age, education, income, marital status, and so on;
  • Psychographic : personality traits, values, interests, hobbies, and lifestyle aspects;
  • Behavioral : online behaviors according to browsing patterns, spending and purchasing habits, and many others.

The customer journey sums up all interactions a prospect has with a brand during the purchase process, from the first encounter, up until a transaction is completed. 

Commonly, it’s divided into three main stages: awareness, consideration, and conversion.

However, a traveler’s customer journey differs from the typical model because booking a trip isn’t an easy-to-make purchase decision; quite the opposite—a lot of thought and planning is put into it. 

I mean, would you buy plane tickets as quickly as you would a chocolate bar? Me neither.

So, the customer’s travel journey can be split into the following four to five stages: 

  • Dreaming: whether it’s picturing themselves in a gondola on the canals of Venice or sunbathing in Greece, all soon-to-be travelers begin here.
  • Planning: even the most spontaneous people make some sort of arrangement for their trip, even if it only implies picking a hotel to stay at.
  • Booking: prospects are ready to buy plane tickets and book accommodation. 
  • Experiencing: travelers are enjoying their vacation and making lasting memories.
  • Remembering: this is an optional stage that comes after the traveler’s journey is completed, where you can consolidate the relationship with your brand .

Understanding this customer journey allows you to time your travel advertising to the most favorable moments, specifically when prospects are in the planning and booking stages.

3. Set your travel campaign goals

Goals or objectives give your travel campaigns a clear direction and help you measure progress along the way, so you don’t lose sight of the value of your work.

To yield the best results, you should set your campaign goals according to the S.M.A.R.T. criteria. The acronym stands for specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound, all qualities your goals should have.

A few of the most common goals that can aid your campaign’s success are the following:

  • Increase brand awareness by getting your travel services on the radar of potential customers;
  • Grow website traffic or attract new visitors to your company’s website;
  • Drive consideration through campaigns that promote different travel services;
  • Generate leads , whether that means new subscribers to a newsletter or prospects filling out a form to find out more about an offer;
  • Boost conversions , a.k.a. make sales.

4. Create travel ads with seasonality in mind

The rain in Spain stays mainly in the plain . 

Well, not really. It falls along Spain’s northern coast and mountains. But the country has its meteorological particularities, as do all travel destinations .

Tourism is highly dependent on weather conditions. As a general rule, there are three seasons in the travel industry: peak season, shoulder season, and off-season.

Demand usually hits an all-year high in summertime (mid-June through August), known as the peak season or high season.

From April to mid-June and from September to October is the shoulder season, during which people still travel, but not as much as they do during peak season.

All travel businesses experience a decline in sales from November to March during what is known as the off-season.

However, seasonality isn’t necessarily a negative thing for travel marketing as it allows you to have a clear perspective over the following months.

Try to stay mindful of seasonal patterns and trends as you will understand when prospects want to purchase plane tickets, accommodation, or all-inclusive offers to specific destinations. Timing your creative ads and tailoring your messaging according to these seasons might help you influence purchase decisions.

There are numerous advertising platforms available, and the easiest way to identify the most suitable ones for your brand is to look where your customers are spending time.

Generally, the following three platforms are obvious choices for most businesses:

Google Ads: Running search or display campaigns on the Google ad network allows you to leverage Google’s massive reach and advanced targeting options to get in front of potential customers exactly when they are looking for travel services.

Social media ads: Whether it’s Instagram, Facebook, or TikTok, advertising on social media helps you increase brand recognition and reach a wider audience at the same time. Plus, it gives you the chance to experiment with a wide range of ad formats, including image and video ads.

Email marketing: Email offers a direct communication channel with customers that you can use to send personalized messaging, as well as discounts and special offers. Besides, it’s a cost-effective marketing method that provides easily measurable results.

Even with a killer strategy up your sleeve, things might not go as expected. And even if they do, measuring the success of your travel campaign is vital to understanding how your vacation ads are performing. 

If everything is going well, you’ll know what to repeat with future campaigns, and in the opposite scenario, you’ll figure out how to optimize ads for success.

Luckily each advertising platform, including Google and Facebook , offers relevant metrics known as KPIs (key performance indicators) to track for the most popular campaign objectives. Hence, you know exactly what to look at.

Things work differently for email marketing campaigns, as you need third-party tools that also enable email automation to measure campaign performance.

B. Inspiring Travel Advertising Examples and Templates

On to the part everyone has been waiting for, here are 17 travel ad examples that succeed in capturing audiences’ attention in one way or another:

Expedia: Chase new experiences

expedia display ad sea

Let’s kick things off with an industry giant—Expedia. These two creative ads from the same campaign work so well because they promote experiences tourists can have in Marocco rather than the destination itself.

The font pairing is a match made in heaven, and the copy conveys a powerful message when teamed up with the beautiful scenery photos.

Kayak: Group trip without the drama

kayak group trip ad

This Kayak display ad gets the struggle of planning a trip with a large group of friends. No matter how tight the relationships are, it’s bound to be a bumpy road.

While design-wise, the ad might not be too impressive, the copy makes audiences feel understood, which is why I think it deserves a place on this travel ad examples list.

JetBlue: Stretch your legs, not your wallet

JetBlue leg room static ad

Moving on to a different traveling pain point, we have this witty JetBlue Facebook ad that promotes the airline’s extra option to have up to 7″ more legroom in coach class.

The simple illustrated design is elevated by the ad copy that manages to capture viewers’ attention and say so much with so few words.

As this is one of my favorite travel ads on this list, I couldn’t resist including a second Facebook ad from the same campaign, a video one this time.

Once again, the funny ad copy is the star, suggesting you don’t have to be a billionaire such as the likes of Jeff Bezos to get to space, which is a clever way of saying JetBlue travelers can get more legroom at an affordable price.

Carta Travel: Tailor made travel experiences

creatopy travel ad template carta travel

Edit this template

Pictures have the power to transport viewers to different locations, so many travel ads use them to do just that. This template is no exception, using a photograph of a beautiful sunset as its main focus.

If you’d like to create similar designs for your business, open this template in Creatopy and customize it with different elements from our extensive library.

Lufthansa: The joy of flying

lufthansa display ad

The view from an airplane window has become representative of traveling. Many people pay extra money to sit in the window seat when flying or rejoice when randomly assigned to it.

The German company Lufthansa chose this specific image to evoke the joy of flying and invite viewers to click this half-page display ad promoting the over 200 worldwide destinations in their portfolio.

Air France: Le Rendez-Vous

This animated Air France display ad compares a trip in business class to an anticipated first date, embodying the french elegance and romantic spirit. Of course, we’d expect nothing less from France’s flag carrier.

The ad is also a lesson in consistency, as the brand’s distinctive personality is instantly recognizable thanks to the blue, white, and red color palette, as well as the emblematic logo.

Tripadvisor & Visit Orlando: Explore Unexpected

tripadvisor and visit orlando facebook ad

The Tripadvisor Facebook ad above encourages users to take a different kind of trip from the comfort of their own home—an interactive voice tour of Orlando.

The different shades of teal used for the ad’s design help it stand out on the Facebook feed, while the choice to use a single font ensures the text’s high readability.

Delta Air Lines: Your ticket to more travels

Delta Air Lines uses footage of an idyllic destination to catch the eye right before inviting users to learn more about the miles reward program through the CTA of this Facebook video ad.

The copy aims to persuade by linking the reward card to states of wonder, serenity, and inspiration, all of which can be achieved through traveling.

Hilton: Where the pets stay

hilton hotels facebook ad

Now, this ad will make a lot of pet owners go aww . I mean, it can’t be just me swooning at the idea of traveling with my cat.

It’s true Hilton is targeting a niche audience with this adorable Facebook ad that announces pets are welcome in their hotels. Still, even travelers outside the ad’s target audience are likely to smile at the cute animal photos and the pet-away wordplay in the copy.

Traveloom: A great stay is a happy memory

creatopy travel ad template

Is there a more effective way to advertise for hotels and resorts than by using actual pictures from the location? I don’t think so, as all travelers want to see where they will stay before booking accommodation.

This fully customizable Facebook template can be adjusted for any use case by adding and replacing design elements in Creatopy’s drag and drop editor. 

Hotels.com: Find your perfect somewhere

Hotel.com knows how important compatibility between a tourist and its booked hotel is. So much so that they compare it to that between lovers, stressing the importance of choosing the right hotel.

The hotel description narrated in the first person by the personified boutique hotel immediately draws viewers into this upbeat ad. It is reminiscent of about me sections on match-making websites, further supported by the tagline Find your perfect somewhere , which sounds similar to Find your perfect someone . Overall, a great example of video storytelling.

Airbnb: Turn the world into a field trip

airbnb newsletter ad

This colorful newsletter ad promotes Airbnb’s Field Trips, a collection of online experiences from around the world targeted at kids. 

This time around, the visual part outshines the ad copy, as the bright-colored background catches the eye instantly, and the exciting collage image prompts viewers to click the CTA button that invites them to Explore Field Trips .

Vacasa: Make check-in a breeze

vacasa newsletter ad

The vacation rental company Vacasa aims to increase app installs with this clean and sharp-looking newsletter ad that promises a stress-free trip experience where travelers needn’t worry about aspects like hotel check-in, home entry codes, or wi-fi connection.

Viewers get a glimpse of how the app looks thanks to two mobile phone screens placed on a color block backdrop, which is a great selling point.

Visit Greece: All you want is Greece

The classic problem and solution approach works here because the ad’s characters are so relatable that viewers can easily identify with them. 

Wrapping It Up

As seen from the strategy tips and ad examples in this article, understanding and connecting with the customer is key in the travel industry. 

Hopefully, you’ve learned something new that you can implement when planning your future travel campaign or designing ads for it.

Let us know what you found most helpful, and feel free to share your own travel advertising tips in the comment section below.

Ana Predescu

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6 ideas for travel and tourism advertising campaigns (with examples)

Carla Vianna

Want to create eye-catching travel ads like Expedia, Southwest Airlines, and KAYAK?

As travel starts to pick up again, it’s time to get serious about your advertising. Tour operators can hugely benefit from paid ads — but with so many forms of advertising available across different platforms, you may be wondering where to start.

In this post, we’re sharing actionable strategies to build better ad campaigns that appeal to your target audience, plus top-level examples from the brands who do it best.

Top factors to consider for travel advertising campaigns

Want to see more positive results from ads? Keep these strategies in mind when crafting your future marketing campaigns .

1. Define your target customer

Do you know who your customers are? Before you begin crafting an ad campaign, you need to know more about your guests.

Building a buyer persona is a strategic way for tour businesses to get to know their customers. A buyer persona is a visual representation of your ideal customer: Dig into their demographics, study their behaviors on your website, and send surveys to your email list to find out more.

The takeaway? You’ll find a much higher ROI with ad campaigns that specifically appeal to your target audience.

2. Understand the travel customer journey

It’s difficult to sell a tour to someone who hasn’t decided on a destination yet. Ideally, you want to show your ads to people when they’re most likely to book.

Understanding the travel customer journey can help you pinpoint when that is. Google defines the travel search process in four stages:

  • Dreaming: Guests are looking for destination inspiration.
  • Planning: Guests are researching potential travel dates, hotels, and activities.
  • Booking: Guests are booking flights, hotels, etc.
  • Experiencing: Guests have arrived and are searching for activities and attractions to experience.

Tour operators are likely to see more conversions in the “booking” and “experiencing” stages. For example, if you’re investing in Google Ads, it’s better to target narrow search terms like “best hiking tours in Colorado,” which is what someone in the booking or experiencing stage would search for.

People in the dreaming stage, on the other hand, would likely be searching overly broad terms like “best summer destinations.”

3. Choose the right platform

There are several different platforms to launch your advertising campaigns, and choosing the right one matters. Where is your audience most likely to see your ad? Where are they already hanging out?

Here are five popular travel advertising outlets:

  • Google Ads: Show up at the top of Google search results for relevant keywords.
  • Social media ads: Target specific demographics on Facebook and Instagram.
  • Yelp ads: Appear to people searching for similar experiences on Yelp.
  • Tripadvisor ads: Target people planning a trip to your destination.
  • Email marketing: Offer discounts to your email list, one of the more cost-effective ways to advertise.

4. Pay attention to seasonality

Timing is one of the most important factors in travel advertising. Keep seasonality in mind when crafting your campaigns, and remember to edit previously launched campaigns as needed.

A skiing ad won’t make sense at the beginning of summer, so make sure to pause seasonally irrelevant campaigns.

5. Stay true to your brand

airbnb experiences

Your ad campaigns should reflect your brand identity. People who click on your advertisements are expecting to find the same tone of voice, visuals, and customer experience on your website.

6. Use geographic targeting 

Rather than making your ad visible everywhere on the planet, you can target specific locations your guests are likely to be in. For example, you can target other tourism websites in your state to lure in tourists who are already visiting.

By narrowing down your ad’s geographic reach, you can maximize your budget and focus on the areas that’ll bring you the most return.

7. Promote your sales and special offers

What better way to entice someone to click on your ad than to present them with an unbeatable offer? Advertisements are an effective way to promote your sales, especially seasonal offers. You can send out an ad offering a great discount during the low season to help replenish your bookings, for example.

Pro Tip: One of the simplest ways to do this is by creating coupon codes. Here is how easy it is to create a new coupon code in Xola.

8. Leverage user-generated content 

intrepid travel instagram post

Sometimes you can generate an ad campaign with user-generated content alone. It’s another cost-effective way to bring more eyes to your tour company.

You can start by encouraging guests to use your brand’s hashtags, share their photos with their own followers, or even submit photos on your website. Apps, like Fotaflo , which integrates natively with Xola, make the process of curating UGC photos and videos easier. Tour operators can also offer incentives for anyone who posts on social media about your tours, such as hosting a giveaway for everyone who uses a hashtag related to your brand.

Tour operator Intrepid Travel asks guests to share their experiences on Instagram with the hashtag #BeIntrepid , for example, which has garnered over 50,000 posts.

Guests typically love seeing their content reposted on other accounts. Still, make sure to always credit the original owner. To avoid serious copyright issues, many brands ask followers to agree to a disclaimer about how and where the images will be used before re-posting them.

Reviews can also be considered user-generated content — but tour operators need to be very careful when it comes to encouraging guests to leave positive reviews. Tripadvisor prohibits brands from offering incentives in exchange for testimonials “because they can hinder the validity and accuracy of reviews.”

9. Use images and videos

Images and videos are the most powerful form of advertising in the travel industry. High-quality images of your destination and scenes from your tours can entice hundreds of clicks. An expertly crafted video can drive even more engagement.

Instagram and Facebook are great places to start experimenting with image and video ads; see a couple of great examples below.

6 examples of great travel advertising examples 

Ready to see these strategies in action? Here are six travel brands that have nailed their travel marketing — including examples of general ad campaigns, paid search ads, and social media ads.

Expedia’s campaign: “It matters who you travel with.” 

This Expedia campaign wants travelers to feel confident booking with the platform in a post-pandemic travel world. The tagline “It matters who you travel with” frames the company as a trusted travel partner rather than just a booking platform.

The company created a playful and very relatable video of a solo traveler who runs into several hiccups on her trip. That is until actress Rashida Jones steps in, embodying Expedia, and makes the trip more memorable.

The company chose a video to expertly convey its marketing message to travelers: Expedia promises a seamless trip and memorable experiences you can’t find on your own.

Southwest’s Transfarency campaign

Southwest Air Lines’ new campaign targets the controversial topic of ticket prices. The company has always billed itself as a transparent brand that cares about employees and customers alike. The new campaign called Trans fare ncy , a play on the words transparency and airfare, builds on that reputation.

The campaign promises customers no unexpected bag fees, change fees, or hidden fees. It’s a great advertisement because it fits perfectly within Southwest’s brand identity, and the airline delivers on the promise.

TourRadar’s travel and destination Facebook ads

Vienna-based TourRadar launched a Facebook campaign to increase bookings from people who had visited its website. The company used visually stunning travel ads to promote relevant tours to people who had browsed the same tours online.

The company also promoted relevant destination offers and tours to people who hadn’t visited their website yet but had shown interest in the destination. The campaign focused on the company’s core markets, including the U.S., the U.K., Australia, and New Zealand.

It was a success: TourRadar doubled its conversion rate over a year.

KAYAK’s video ads on Instagram

Kayak facebook ad example

KAYAK ran video ads on Instagram to bring more people to its website, including one that shows how simple it is to filter flights by airline, price, number of stops, and destination.  

The company played around with ad placement in both Stories and the News Feed, and each ad had a “book now” or “learn more” call-to-action button that linked back to the KAYAK website.

The ads were shown to a lookalike audience based on the travel search engine’s existing audience, which increased the likelihood of clicks. As a result, KAYAK saw a 5x increase in incremental sales conversions.

Airbnb Experiences search ad

Airbnb experiences search ad

Airbnb is targeting people who search for outdoor activities in Colorado to promote its local-led tours. In this example specifically, Airbnb’s paid search ad for a hiking tour shows up under the search for “best hiking in Colorado.”

The title “Hiking in the Rockies – Year Round” quickly answers the questions of “where” and “when,” two details that directly impact the customer’s trip. The wording of the title narrows down the search for the searcher. The description focuses on Airbnb’s unique offerings — “hosted by expert locals,” “experiences vetted for quality,” and “small group sizes — further enticing readers to click.

It’s a great example of Airbnb using a feature other than its main accommodation services to bring people into its website.

Viator’s Brooklyn food tours search ad

viator search ads

Here’s another effective Google Ad example. Viator is promoting its food and wine tours in Brooklyn under the search term “Brooklyn food tours.” 

Unlike the other search ads that pop up, Viator specifically mentions the keywords that the customer will be skimming the page for and includes another enticing offer.

Viator includes “Book & Save Money” in its title, directly appealing to money-conscious travelers visiting a destination known for being very expensive. Therefore, this ad specifically speaks to budget or mid-range travelers who appreciate a good deal.

As you can tell from these examples, an effective ad campaign is crafted around your ideal audience. Top travel companies like Viator and Southwest use words, images, and videos to appeal to their target customers, and your campaigns should follow suit.

Now it’s time to implement these strategies into your own campaigns. Then sit back, relax, and watch those bookings soar.

Writer Carla Vianna

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7 Best Travel Ads To Fuel Our Wanderlust Now That The World Is Opening Up

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You can tell that travel is back on the menu when countries and airlines are aggressively advertising to lure you to your favourite destinations. And while it won’t take much convincing to get us to dust off our passports, seeing how these travel ads take flight is one of the little joys that will warm any wanderlusting globetrotter’s heart.

To take you on a trip down memory lane, we take a look at some of the best travel ads to ever grace our screens from the past to the present.

1. Tourism Malaysia – Malaysia, Truly Asia

One of the most iconic campaigns here in Southeast Asia is Malaysia, Truly Asia . It was envisioned by theD agency Integrated Strategic Communications way back in 1999, and is one of the most awarded and recognised tourism campaigns to come out from Malaysia even today nearly 30 years later.

Through its many activations and plenty of television commercials, the Malaysia, Truly Asia campaign promoted the country as a destination with cultures and wonders to see and soak in. And it’s hard to not “sing” the tagline whenever it comes to mind.

2. VISA – Travel Happy

If you’ve ever caught a movie in a cinema around the late 2000s and early 2010s, you might have seen a commercial of a man dancing around the world. That guy is Matt Harding , one of the OG “influencers” who went viral after a compilation of him dancing in different countries went viral on YouTube.

What started out as a fun thing to do on his travels became one of the first Internet phenomenons with VISA eventually getting him to be the face of their Travel Happy campaign. From Singapore to Japan to Hollywood, Matt’s presence spoke a universal language: dance. 

His little dancing jig accompanied by the locals sent the message travel and dance will always be on the cards no matter what cultural barriers might exist between people.

3. Tourism Australia – Best Job In The World

Young adults are always on the hunt for the best job in the world, and Australia was more than happy to give it to them back in 2009. Tourism Queensland and agency SapientNitro – now Publicis Sapient – came together to launch the Best Job in the World campaign.

The role was a six-month contract to be a caretaker to the beautiful islands around the Great Barrier Reef. Throw in a A$150,000 salary, a luxury villa, and a job scope that required you to write one single blog post a week, and you can guarantee every traveller worth their salt was rushing to apply for this opportunity.

Best travel ads

Over 34,000 applicants submitted a 60-second clip in an attempt to score the job, but the results were far greater than what Tourism Queensland and SapientNitro expected.

The campaign’s website saw more than 6.8 million unique monthly visitors with almost 54 million page views; 46,000 mainstream media stories and 230,000 blog posts were written; and another 4 million people watched BBC’s documentary about the campaign. All this coverage was secured with just a budget of US$1.2 million that was spent on recruitment ads. 

Winner of the role Ben Southall even appeared on Oprah for a 10-minute segment. Impressive.

4. Singapore Airlines – In-flight video

While not technically a travel ad, Singapore Airlines’ 2017 in-flight video is still a piece of content that just makes you want to fly with them. 

Created in conjunction with Singapore Tourism Board and agency TBWA Singapore, the campaign redefines how an educational video can be something aesthetic and memorable. Rather than showing the interior of a plane, the safety video transports viewers and passengers into some of our Little Red Dot’s most beautiful attractions like The Intan Peranakan Museum and Henderson Waves.

Best travel ads

Since its release in 2017, millions of passengers have seen the video on their Singapore Airlines flights plus two million more on YouTube. It has also bagged multiple accolades from the Gong Awards and Creative Circle Awards. If you haven’t watched it, we highly suggest you do, especially if you want your heart strings pulled.

5. Discover Ireland – Doors of Thrones

Despite the fiasco that was Game of Thrones, the show still gave us spectacular shots from around the world. One of these landscapes was Northern Ireland’s Dark Hedges which was the backdrop for the Kingsway in the show. When a storm knocked down two of the trees, Tourism Ireland, agencies Publicis and Carat, and HBO came together to fashion doors from the lumber.

Best travel ads

Ten imposing doors with intricate carvings were made from the felled trees as part of the Doors of Thrones campaign. These were then placed in pubs, inns, and hotels near iconic filming locations in the country so fans can still “pay their respects” when they visit and stay at these places.

For their creative thinking, the campaign walked away with three awards from the highly-regarded Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity. Valar Morghulis.

6. Travel Oregon – Only Slightly Exaggerated

Best travel ads

In their 2018 campaign Only Slightly Exaggerated , they worked with agencies Wieden+Kennedy along with the studios Psyop and Sun Creature to visualise the Oregonian landscape in the style of classic Ghibli movies. The whimsical style of the animated films coupled with the otherworldly landscapes in Oregon made them a perfect match.

Best travel ads

7. Qantas – I Still Call Australia Home

Best travel ads

Launched first in 1987 and now returning for a 2022 edition, the latest version of the campaign stars Hugh Jackman, Kylie Minogue, Troye Sivan accompanied by the vocals of the Australian Girls Choir, National Boys Choir, and the Gondwana Choir.

The announcement of the campaign must be a bittersweet feeling for the agency The Monkeys and production house Rabbit as the scenes were filmed during pre-Covid times. Seeing it come to life on YouTube, billboards, and TV screens around Australia at last has to feel good after years of being in advertising limbo.

To put things into perspective, the song I Still Call Australia Home is Australia’s equivalent to Home by Kit Chan or Where I Belong by Tanya Chua. Now imagine the absolute slayage if that’s used in an advertisement for Singapore Airlines. Oh wait, they already did something similar back in 2021 .

Iconic travel advertisements & campaigns

There’s no denying that advertising has taken a softer approach with partnerships with influencers and content creators being the norm. However, it’s still important to look back at how these advertisements made waves in both the creative industry and their impact on the mainstream travel market.

Cover image adapted from: TWAB , Wieden+Kennedy

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