Global partnership management platform impact.com and Digital Travel Insights recently released their inaugural joint travel marketing insights report.
Titled Beyond the Booking: Where APAC Travel Brands Are Investing for Growth, the study features perspectives from 100 SEA marketing leaders and 1,200 travellers from Singapore, Australia, and China, and explores how businesses and consumers are navigating an evolving travel landscape.
As such, it highlights shifting preferences, brand priorities, and the need for marketing strategies that keep pace with rising consumer expectations in a dynamic, experience-led industry.
Per the study's findings, impact.com's managing director for the Asia Pacific and Japan Adam Furness remarked: “The modern consumer demands trust, transparency, and authenticity, and they turn to their communities and trusted sources of information to guide their purchasing decision. The brands that thrive are balancing acquisition with retention and community-building through partnerships with affiliates, influencers, publishers, customer advocates, and more. This report highlights how partnerships can help marketers increase revenue and build valuable connections with travellers through authentic content, recommendations, and reviews.”
Likewise, the report provides a well-rounded view of how brands are transforming their marketing strategies and how consumers discover and purchase travel-related products and services.
What's up in APAC travel and tourism
As demand for travel cools post-pandemic, brands are grappling with travel fatigue and economic pressures, driving greater focus on retention and brand-building.
However, a significant number of marketers within Southeast Asia continue to make online advertising their main tool for driving bookings despite the fact that only 27 percent of Singaporean and 18 percent of Australian travellers trust online channels.
To overcome rising ad costs and competition, a fundamental rethink of marketing investments towards more trusted and high-impact channels, such as influencers, affiliates, and collaborative brand ventures, is essential for today’s businesses.
Among the other key themes presented in the report are:
Understanding and Engaging The Evolving Traveller
APAC travellers are digitally savvy and discerning, with peer recommendations and word-of-mouth referrals ranking as top influences for travel-related purchases, trusted by 62.5 percent of travellers in Singapore, 67.5 percent in Australia, and 75 percent in China.
Despite this, many brands still underinvest in these high-trust channels, highlighting a key growth opportunity.
At the same time, travellers, particularly in Singapore, also rely on a broader range of platforms when making decisions.
Comparison sites, OTAs, loyalty programmes, and social media all play a key role, highlighting the need for brands to maintain visibility across multiple touchpoints to effectively guide consumers along the purchase journey.
The Role of Partnerships in Driving Growth
In Singapore, 68 percent of travellers trust review and comparison sites the most, which is on par with China and ahead of Australia.
This presents an opportunity for brands to embed affiliate links in travel content and guides, capturing intent early in the decision-making journey.
To move travellers from inspiration to booking, savvy brands are broadening their partnership strategies by working with influencers, affiliates, OTAs, premium publishers and other partners.
More than one in every four marketers still turn to OTAs and aggregators to reach high-intent audiences.
But with commission fees reaching up to 30 percent, many are re-evaluating their spend; meanwhile, 25 percent pointed to affiliate marketing as a growing priority, favoured for its performance-based structure that rewards partners only when bookings happen, while also meeting consumer demand for cashback, loyalty perks, and discounts.
Where Travel Marketers Are Doubling Down
While marketers indicate an emphasis on doubling down on online advertising and OTAs, affiliate marketing and influencer marketing are playing an increasingly important role.
In Singapore, 45 percent of travellers trust affiliates and 63 percent trust influencers when planning their journeys.
This trend extends across the region, with 50 percent of Australian travellers trusting affiliates and 68 percent turning to influencers, and in China, 59 percent and 75 percent, respectively, highlighting the growing influence of these channels in travel decision-making.
