Daily Podcast: Marriott’s Media Network

Today’s edition of Skift’s daily podcast discusses’ Marriott’s new in-room media push, a resurgence in group travel by Latin Americans, and yet another negative consequence of Brexit.

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Episode Notes

Marriott International announced on Monday it will launch a media network to enable advertisers to reach its guests via the company’s app and room TVs, writes Senior Hospitality Editor Sean O’Neill.

O’Neill reports that Marriott and advertisers will test out the media network in the U.S. and Canada over the next two weeks. While the company will use customer data from past searches and reservations made on its platforms to allow brands to display ads relevant to travelers, Marriott said it wouldn’t share consumer or loyalty program information such as names and addresses.

The hotel giant will use Yahoo as a tech partner, with advertisers shopping for ad inventory via Yahoo’s portal and sales team. However, it’s uncertain when Marriott will unveil a program enabling it to display advertisements on TVs in guestrooms and hotel lobbies.

We go to Latin America next. The region has seen a major resurgence in group travel, which has resulted in an enormous boost in business for its travel agents, reports Contributor Paula Krizanovic.

Krizanovic writes that extended family and friends traveling together as well as graduation trips and the rise of destination weddings are sparking the sector’s recent boom in Latin America. Group travel currently represents close to 40 percent of the vacation trips taken in Latin America. That’s a huge increase from the 10 to 15 percent figure recorded prior to the pandemic, according to Argentina-based market research and tourism marketing firm Promovêre.

The surge in group travel has also led to more travel agents across Latin America returning to their offices. Andrea Tosi, Promovêre’s founder and communications manager, said a sense of urgency is driving more consumers to look for in-person assistance from agents, with many travelers eager to go on trips quickly that would have often taken a long time to prepare in the past.

Finally, Ryanair CEO Michael O’Leary believes the United Kingdom is responsible for its travel staffing shortages due to what he calls its inflexible labor market following its departure from the European Union two years ago, writes Airlines Reporter Edward Russell.

While the Ireland-based carrier itself isn’t experiencing staffing issues, O’Leary said on Monday that there is a shortage of airport and catering employees across the U.K., especially in locations that Ryanair flies to — such as Glasgow, Bristol and Manchester. He added the labor shortage will pose major challenges for the U.K. travel industry, with the country unable to bring in young European workers as it had prior to Brexit.