The third quarter of 2021 saw major online travel players continue to increase advertising and marketing spend.
Airbnb, for example, continued to reap the benefits of the marketing campaign it launched in February, with a 15% boost in traffic.
The company, which also ran ads targeting autumn travel, increased sales and marketing expenses 156% year over year in Q3 to $291 million.
The figure was slightly down from Q2’s figure of $315 million and, says CEO Brian Chesky, also down as a percentage of revenue on 2019 levels, which he anticipates will continue.
By contrast to Airbnb’s relatively small Q3 sales and marketing investment, Expedia Group’s increased 150% to $1.3 billion.
The company was no doubt bolstered by renewed confidence in travel industry recovery at the time, with CEO Peter Kern saying the company had been improving its marketing capabilities and would become “much more aggressive.”
Interesting to note that the company also nearly hit 2019 profit levels in the quarter. By…
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