Paul Black, Vice President of Growth at TravelAd, discusses who the winners will be in the fast-moving world of tourism marketing over the next decade

For years tourism marketing success was judged by reach and impressions; how many people could potentially see your message? But that only tells part of the story. It doesn’t show whether anyone paid attention, engaged or acted. For an industry built on experiences, impressions are no longer enough. The future of tourism marketing will be shaped by new metrics that combine effectiveness with responsibility.

REACH VS ATTENTION
Reach measures how many people your message was delivered to.
Attention measures whether it was actually noticed. The difference is crucial. A billboard may reach thousands of commuters, but few stop to engage. A programmatic display ad might deliver millions of impressions, but many are ignored or blocked. An SMS, by contrast, reaches fewer people, but commands far greater attention, with open rates up to 98%, SMS is almost always seen. This is why agencies and brands are shifting toward attention metrics, such as dwell time, meaningful clicks and active engagement. For tourism, where visitors make decisions quickly and in the moment, attention is far more valuable than scale.

WHY ATTENTION MATTERS
Travellers are time-poor and choice rich. When they arrive at a destination they’re bombarded with options. In that environment, the messages that capture attention make the difference between an experience booked and an opportunity missed. The numbers highlight the gap between channels:
■ SMS response rates average
45%, compared with 10% for email.
■ SMS click-through rates range
between 6-20%, compared with 2-4% for email. What makes SMS and WhatsApp particularly powerful is that they reach travellers in the moment, as they arrive, explore and make decisions on the ground. That immediacy is why attention outperforms reach. For tourism operators, it means campaigns that focus on attention are far more likely to translate into visits, bookings and spend.

THE CARBON COST
The move away from impressions is not only about effectiveness, it’s
also about sustainability. Traditional print campaigns have obvious environmental costs in terms of paper, ink and distribution. Digital display, programmatic, connected TV and video advertising also carry a footprint through the servers and data centres that power them.
Studies suggest the average digital ad impression emits 0.08 to 1 gram
of CO₂, depending on the format and delivery method. Multiply that by
millions of impressions, and the impact is substantial. By comparison, an SMS generates just 0.014 grams of CO₂. That makes it both more likely to be read and far lighter on the planet.

FROM REACH TO RELEVANCE
The most important shift will be from chasing the biggest possible audience to reaching the right audience. Relevance is the new benchmark: speaking to the right tourist, in the right place, at the right time, with the right message. A credible framework should combine four dimensions:
1. Reach – how many people
could we have reached?
2. Attention – how many actually
engaged or paid attention?
3. Conversion – did it drive bookings,
visits or spend?
4. Carbon impact – what was the environmental cost of each action?
Platforms that deliver precision targeting, such as SMS and WhatsApp
campaigns, already make this possible. Solutions like TravelAd show how these four dimensions can be measured together, proving that marketing can be both effective and sustainable. Counting impressions alone is no longer enough. The tourism industry has entered an era where reach, attention, conversion and carbon must be considered together. Destinations and brands that embrace this approach will not
only deliver better results, but also demonstrate responsibility to travellers who increasingly care about sustainability. The winners will be those who measure not only how many they reached, but how well they engaged and at what cost to the planet. Relevance is the new benchmark: speaking to the right tourist, in the right place, at the right time, with the right message