Executive Summary

In a difficult environment for advertising, the US travel industry will bring up the rear in overall spending, growth, and share, and by most metrics, will have the most challenging year any vertical has had since we began tracking digital ad spending.

How much will digital advertisers spend on travel ads this year?

Travel industry digital ad spending will amount to just $3.24 billion, a staggering decline of 41.0% year-over-year (YoY). We estimate that travel will account for just 2.4% of US digital ad spending, down from 4.2% in 2019.

How has the coronavirus pandemic changed our outlook?

Pre-pandemic, we estimated 19.3% growth for travel ad spending, a strong figure in line with the generally robust trends for digital across nearly all verticals. No industry had grown its digital ad spending at less than a double-digit rate in the past three years; travel’s 41.0% decline is unprecedented.

Which digital ad format will see the most travel spending?

Travel leans more toward search ad spending than any vertical. Search will account for 58.8% of its digital budget, compared with the industrywide figure of 40.4%. But the $1.91 billion that travel will spend on search will be the least it has transacted on the format since 2016.

Which platforms are favored for digital travel ads?

Unlike most industries, which lean heavily on mobile, travel is balanced between mobile and desktop/laptop ad spending (50.9% versus 49.1%).

WHAT’S IN THIS REPORT? This report includes our annual breakdown of US travel digital ad spending. It features a comprehensive overview of total digital ad spending, as well as estimates by device and format.

KEY STAT: US travel digital ad spending will plummet 41.0% this year to $3.24 billion. No other industry will decline as fast or spend as little.