Who Is Spending Money on Travel Advertising This Fall

This fall’s travel edition of the New York Times T magazine gives watchers an early look at which travel companies are betting big on high-end travelers with full-page ads and old-school native advertising, a.k.a. advertorial.

The biggest spenders this season are tourism boards, especially domestic ones. A seven-page spread of advertorial and ads devoted to all 50 states and Washington, D.C., calls out regional highlights, depending on where you purchased the Times this weekend. In the New York market, that means Long Island, Maine, and New Hampshire.

U.S. destinations stick to the south and warmer locations with ads from Maui, Beaches of Fort Myers and Sanibel, and Charleston, as well as an Instagram-inspired one from St. Petersburg Clearwater.

The international destinations are those with bigger budgets than tourist numbers. Instead of Italy, we have Israel and rather than Spain there’s South Africa. And for every inspiring “powered by nature” ad from Norway there’s a confusing one like Malaysia’s Facebook-logo packed one.

The airlines were led by Emirates, which splashed out big on a back-cover advertisement telling flyers to “find your work-life groove.” United had an ad near the front of the magazine promoting the “faraway friendly” of its new/old marketing message. Single-pagers from Delta, Air Tahiti Nui, and Hawaiian Airlines (which didn’t include its website in the ad) were joined by one from private jet service JetSuite, which incongruously beckons users to “join the revolution” and use its elite service.

Cruise lines don’t make a strong showing, but they stick to the high end and elite with adverts from Holland America Line, Silversea Expeditions, and Lindblad-National Geographic.

Hotels just edge out the cruise lines in the number of ad pages. There’s a two-page spread at the front of the magazine from the Dorchester Collection, a one-pager from Viceroy announcing its new Viceroy New York property, one from Stay AKA for “when a hotel isn’t the answer,” and an inside back-page ad from Couples Resorts.

It looks like two ambitious resort groups, Elite Island Resorts and Palace Resorts, splashed out their yearly ad budget on an ad with a special offer, and one of advertorial and an ad, respectively.