News from the Spalder editors
What we're watching.
A short read every couple of weeks on what's actually changing in travel media, agency practice and the technology behind both. Honest takes, no breathless hype.
Social
TikTok is now where travel inspiration starts
One in three Gen Z travellers picks a destination based on a TikTok they scrolled past. For tourism boards, this rewrites where the funnel begins.
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Channels
WhatsApp is becoming the pre-booking channel for travel
From itinerary nudges to chatbot pre-booking — WhatsApp Business is quietly becoming the most valuable owned channel for destinations.
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Travel Market
The booking window is shrinking — and reshaping the funnel
Average European wintersport bookings now happen 22 days before departure, down from 47 days in 2019. Campaign timing needs to follow.
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Spalder
Snowplaza launches Winter Content Tour 2026/27 across the Alps
From October to March, our mobile editorial team will report live from 50+ ski destinations across Austria, Switzerland, Italy and France.
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Sustainability
Carbon data is becoming a buying criterion in travel ads
42% of Dutch travellers say they'd choose a destination based on visible carbon impact data. The infrastructure to show it is finally arriving.
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AI
Voice search is reshaping travel question patterns
Voice queries are 4-7 words long, conversational, and intent-loaded. Destinations that optimise for them get cited in AI travel answers.
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AI
AI is rewriting how travellers plan their trips
Generative AI has moved from novelty to default for the first step of travel research — and that quietly changes where destinations need to show up.
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Strategy
Why pan-European is beating single-market for travel brands
Destinations running coordinated NL+DE+BE+UK+FR campaigns are seeing 20-30% lower CAC than single-market peers. Here's what's driving it.
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Channels
Branded podcasts are quietly working for tourism boards
A growing number of European destinations are launching destination podcasts — and the long-form attention they earn beats most paid formats.
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Travel
Short-form video is now the dominant travel-inspiration channel
TikTok, Reels and Shorts are quietly overtaking Instagram feeds and travel blogs as the place where travellers first fall in love with a destination.
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Measurement
How to actually measure influencer ROI for destinations
Brand lift, branded search and signups in campaign windows — not followers and likes. A pragmatic measurement framework that works.
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Data
The first-party data spine that every destination needs
Newsletter, CRM, loyalty, consented web data. Four sources, one spine. How destinations are building their data foundation for the cookieless era.
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Travel
Sustainable travel is shifting demand to the shoulder seasons
Climate-conscious travellers, overtourism backlash and creative pricing are moving holiday demand away from the traditional high season — fast.
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Travel
Travel creators are reshaping the publisher landscape
A new generation of trusted niche creators is moving travel attention away from legacy guidebooks — and changing how destinations get discovered.
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Travel
Bleisure & remote work are reshaping travel patterns
Remote and hybrid work have unlocked a new traveller profile: longer stays, off-peak windows, and a willingness to book unusual weeks.
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AI
Generative AI is changing creative production economics
Midjourney, Runway, Sora and ElevenLabs are not just experiments. They are quietly rewriting the cost structure of campaign creative.
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Agency
The cookieless web has arrived. First-party data is the new strategic asset
Third-party cookies are effectively gone. What replaces them — owned data, consented identifiers, and direct relationships — is now a strategic priority.
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AI
Server-side tracking is no longer optional
What started as an advanced tactic has become a baseline requirement. Brands without server-side measurement are quietly losing performance data.
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Agency
Connected & Addressable TV: the big screen is back, with precision
Streaming and Addressable TV have given the big screen a second life — with the targeting precision linear TV never had.
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Agency
Retail media networks are emerging as the third great ad channel
Search and social are familiar. Retail media — the ad inventory of large retailers — is increasingly the third pillar of paid digital strategy.
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