U.S. TRAVEL DIGITAL AD SPENDING TO REMAIN PARED DOWN FOR YEARS

The continued reduction in travel - particularly for business and across borders - will keep digital advertising spending in the United States significantly down for the next few years.

According to eMarketer, it will take until 2023 for U.S. digital ad spending in travel to reach $4.54 billion – putting it close to 2018 levels of $4.8 billion but still far behind 2019’s spending of more than $6 billion.

In 2020, as the pandemic shut down travel – and focused what remained of marketing on messages related to hygiene, safety and flexible policies rather than booking – digital ad spending in the U.S. plummeted to $2.99 billion, a $3 billion loss compared to 2019.

According to eMarketer, no other industry declined as fast or spent as little in 2020.