Finding Travel Publishers
It's been a massively tough year or two in travel with most airlines and cruise lines mothballing entire fleets. Hotels and other ancillary services also pretty much stopped and the 'hospitality' industry closed down, in some areas completely - for months.
For many travel operators then, there is a huge challenge in re-starting programs and/or re-energising affiliate relationships. That is of course all dependant on the status of any remaining global travel restrictions and the skies are still eerily quiet almost everywhere.
Certainly the emphasis has been on domestic vacationing and some operators have enjoyed some resurgence in activity. The next few months will be key for advertisers to regain their share of that activity as the market expands.
Challenges for travel publishers
This has meant of course that it's also been a tough year or two for travel publishers, as the Spotlight on weather2travel below explores. When the pandemic first hit, most advertising budgets were cut - some completely, leaving travel publishers high and dry. Travel publishers, bloggers and influencers were hit very hard with many losing huge %ages of revenue.
Many affiliate programs wound down and even if still live, no-one was booking flights or hotel stays which meant commission stopped. A very few advertisers bizarrely closed down their affiliate programs completely (all we can guess is that some VP just cut all budget without thinking!). The potential damage to those hard won affiliate partnerships will no doubt take significant time and investment to repair.
How do you find new travel affiliates?
It's plain that many publishers in the travel verticals have had to re-invent themselves as Colin explains in the article below - some will have pivoted completely away from traditional flight, cruise or broader vacation focus. So there will be challenges ahead for advertisers - and opportunities to find new types of vacation reviewers and travel blogs.
The question above poses two scenarios; finding affiliates new to you, to the travel sector - or even to the industry. The task of finding travel publishers who are keen to build new relationships has of course been changed by the market in 2020-21.
Publisher Discovery has been built specifically to take the pain out of finding new affiliates in any vertical. The selection of affiliates below is taken directly from the Publisher Discovery platform. Dig into the vertical view shown, explore the affiliates' advertiser partnerships and social links to understand their audiences. The tools also help you contact them directly to engage with them.
- search through thousands of potential new relevant affiliate partners
- understand their marketing style an audience
- see which are promoting your competitors, and
- create a Gap Analysis against your own program.
| Publisher Website | Partners | Contacts | Social | Relevance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| mailerlite.com | 3 | 17 | Y | 89 | |
| kelbillet.com | 4 | 10 | 86 | ||
| britannia-parking.co.uk | 1 | 2 | 84 | ||
| travelsupermarket.com | 3 | 6 | Y | 84 | |
| mic.com | 9 | 7 | Y | 80 |
Now you can develop
more relevant affiliate partnerships!
Publisher Spotlight
Read more about how a leading travel affiliate managed the effects of the global pandemic - and their plans for the future.
Colin Carter founded Weather2Travel back in 2005 as a simple weather guide for holidaymakers deciding where and when to go on holiday. Colin strives to find effective ways of partnering with relevant travel brands. He is experienced at promoting travel products through innovative use of technology, weather data and authentic content.