summer travel data

The Sun hangs high in the sky. You’re working from home. You’re working in the office. You’re daydreaming about being on a beach in Greece or maybe you’re keeping it simple and considering a summer camping trip in Wisconsin. Do people still camp? Are domestic flights more expensive than international? What does the data tell us about the way Americans are spending their summers? We’re going to find out in this summer travel-themed blog that uncovers the web of data that links us all and expands with every passing moment.

2023 Travel Data

In the summer of 2023, 40% of Americans have intentions to travel and 44% are willing to travel more than once. 61% of travelers are keeping their travel plans within the United States, 16% going domestic and international, and 6% solely international. That’s a huge segment of Americans just waiting to pack their bags and jump on a jet or into a minivan and head toward their final destination. On average, 40% of travelers are most often taking trips for outdoor recreation like hiking or snorkeling, a family-related event, or exploring U.S. national parks. It’s important to get ahead of the curve with your marketing plans and look to capture these seasonal travelers with strong awareness and consideration campaigns built around the globetrotting mindset. Curious about what that looks like? Let’s explore some ideas together.

Crafting a Targeting Travel Campaign Strategy

Travelers have one main thing in mind when starting the ideation process of where to go: getting out of the house. Every journey begins with a destination. You can best capture your targets by considering the places they’re likely to go and then accenting your campaign strategy around the adjacent components to their destination. Nearly 39% of American adults say they intend to road trip more than 250 miles from their home this summer. For example, if a family is looking to travel to the beach, it’s best to start with broad strokes like Beach Vacation Enthusiasts, Waterfront Activity Participants, Luxury Hotel Guests, and Boat Enthusiasts to lay the groundwork for your audience optimization. These larger scale audiences are the backbone to a successful campaign because they represent the pillars of your audience’s initial identity and what it will come to be. In the early stages of your travel campaign planning, don’t be afraid to take big swings to bring interested parties with big tentpole audiences.

Leveraging Data to Enhance Consideration Campaigns

As you start to develop more insights into the characteristics of these sunbathing, wave surfing, and beverage-drinking targets, if it’s available, blend in your first-party data to begin to watch these broad stroke audiences evolve and learn more about their intentions. This is a vital part of any consideration campaign as it allows for your campaign to take a defined stance against your direct response goal. By working closely with our data partners and utilizing partnerships with opt-in data providers, Dstillery can weave domain data into our Consideration Solutions and help further map customers not solely based on assumed interest but also by their digital journey and online intentions. Consideration campaigns are where you begin to explore intention – where do these people exist online? What and where are they researching topics based around your brand?

Optimizing Consideration Campaigns for Maximum Results

We may know that they are Beach Vacation Enthusiasts, but perhaps they’re already local to an area like the American Southeast, so we can sharpen by adding in audiences like Myrtle Beach Trip Planners, Florida Atlantic Coast Planners, Beach House Second Home Owners, and Beach Supply Shoppers audiences to hone the signal in your consideration campaign to focus on users with the highest intention to deliver results. Their adjacency to the subject of your campaign based on their internet habits is that it improves Dstillery Considerations Solutions’ effectiveness. It thereby creates a microcosm based on your customers and their digital experiences and serves them ads that will ideally push them toward a real-world action.

This is all to say that campaign planning begins similarly to planning a vacation – with broad strokes that become more and more defined over time until you reach your destination. Nearly 42% of American adults say they intend to travel more this summer than last, so you’ve got to be ready to capture their attention and craft around it with turnkey targeting solutions. Reach out to Dstillery and build tactical, intuitive campaigns and strategies with our data experts today.