The 2024 Travel Outlook Survey Results: Slicing Up the Paid Media Pie
Reaching repeat visitors and driving the right prospects requires having multiple paths from engagement to conversion. Based on our recent findings and given all the options at their disposal — both digital and traditional — how are DMO marketers planning to allocate paid media resources in 2024?
When asked about directing American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funds toward marketing efforts, a significant number (18%) indicated they would be spending more on paid media in 2024. To support these campaigns, a good number of DMOs (21%) said they planned to invest more money in creative.
Survey respondents indicate that social media (heavily favoring Meta brands Facebook and Instagram) gets the biggest share of the budget’s pie. Generous portions of the pie are shared by six additional strategies in different combinations, including video, SEM, broadcast, OOH, email, and print collateral.
SOCIAL MEDIA
Year after year, DMOs are allocating a larger slice of the paid media pie (35.0%) to social channels. Because younger travelers are using social media at every stage of the sales funnel — including before, during, and after a trip — it’s a meaningful two-way street for communicating and engaging all year round.
Of the social media platforms DMOs find to be the most effective at promoting travel and tourism, Facebook/Meta is the clear front runner, ranked #1 by nearly half (47.2%) of the survey respondents. Instagram is rated as the most effective channel by less than one quarter (22.2%), followed by TikTok (14.4%). Other social media platforms that rank low as being most effective for DMOs include Twitter/X, Snap, YouTube, and Pinterest. The least effective platform for DMOs is Pinterest, according to a significant number (71.3%) of respondents.
Among the metrics for measuring success, social media engagement and followers is mentioned by 58 percent of the survey respondents, making it the top answer.
Fill Out the Form Below to Download this Free Resource
"*" indicates required fields
Learn more about how we can help you adapt to the evolving marketing landscape and ramp up your efforts.
Share This Story
December 7, 2025
The Zero-Click Era Is Here — And Your Brand’s Visibility Strategy Needs a Reset In 2025, something quietly but decisively changed: your audience stopped behaving the way your dashboards think they behave. Organic traffic flattened, even declined for many. But demand didn’t. Discovery didn’t. Attention didn’t. Instead, everything is shifting to "zero click discovery, " the growing ecosystem where people get [...]
December 6, 2025
The Birthday Trip That Became a Masterclass in Hospitality On a recent family trip to Chicago to celebrate my son’s birthday, we planned the kind of weekend any kid, and any parent, would love. A stroll down Michigan Avenue. A stop at the Spider-Man exhibit at the Museum of Science and Industry. A downtown hotel near Millennium Park glowing with Christmas [...]
December 3, 2025
In a cluttered media landscape where attention is harder to win than ever, tourism marketers are being pushed to rethink how they drive awareness, influence travelers, and build long-term demand. That’s the core message behind Stronger Together: How Earned and Paid Media Work Better in Tandem, a recent webinar hosted with Southeast Tourism Society (STS), Advance Travel & Tourism, and Pineapple [...]
Ad Choices