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Travel industry increased spend 200pc year-over-year: Millennial Media

The travel industry is constantly growing and marketers are increasingly implementing various mediums, including mobile advertising as a way to drive consumer engagement and brand awareness, according to new research by Millennial Media.

Millennial?s July Smart report focuses specifically on the travel industry and how marketers are using mobile advertising to engage new and existing customers. Mobile continues to present the travel industry with big opportunities and those that are not incorporating mobile into their strategies should begin to.

?Travel has been in the top 10 verticals on our platform for years, and still managed to grow spend by 200 percent from Q1 2011 to Q1 2012,? said Mack McKelvey, senior vice president of marketing at Millennial Media, Baltimore, MD.

"This shows that advertisers are seeing results from mobile advertising and are continuing to shift spend into the space," she said.
 
Fast travels
Travel was the No. 3 vertical on Millennial?s platform.

Campaigns purchased by booking agents and sites, hotels, resorts, cruise lines, airlines, tourist attractions, regional transit companies and rental car companies all contributed to the 200 percent year-over-year growth.

Booking agents and sites accounted for 57 percent of the travel campaigns that ran within the network during the first quarter of 2012.

Additionally, hotels, resorts and cruise lines made up 18 percent of all travel campaigns in the first quarter. ?Hotels, Resorts and Cruise Lines? was second, followed by ?Airlines.?

Millennial also looked at how vacationers used their smartphones and tablets.

Sixty-two percent of respondents searched for local restaurants or attractions, 55 percent used their device for entertainment while on vacation, 54 percent used their smartphone and tablet for entertainment while traveling, 27 percent of respondents made reservations for restaurants or attractions and 23 percent checked in at an airport ahead of time.

Consumers are increasingly using mobile to purchase travel products.

For example, 29 percent of respondents booked hotel reservations, 24 percent booked rental cars and 24 percent purchased airline tickets.

?Audience targeting provides travel advertisers a valuable opportunity to reach and engage the right consumers for their business,? Ms. McKelvey said.

?We saw advertisers choose to target business travelers 3-times more than vacationers,? she said.

?Many leading travel brands have dedicated resources to creating branded apps, and driving downloads and usage is a major point of emphasis. 59 percent of all travel campaigns gave consumers the option to download an app, and this was significantly higher than the overall average of advertisers on our platform.?

Final Take
Rimma Kats is associate editor on Mobile Marketer, New York