Skift Take
When Silk Way West Airlines, a cargo airline from Azerbaijan, is the third-leading airline advertiser on U.S. television, you know coronavirus has turned the world upside down. Online travel websites, hotels, airlines, and cruise lines are still largely dark.
If you are looking to TV advertising to reflect — or generate — a travel recovery, then be patient because there is little sign of a pulse.
But within the travel vertical, as defined by U.S. TV analytics firm iSpot.tv, it was theme parks and resorts (40 percent of travel's spend), and then cities and destinations (37 percent) that led the way in the top two positions, respectively. Trailing were travel websites (8.7 percent), hotels and motels (8.36 percent), airlines (4.4 percent), and cruise lines (1.2 percent)
The total travel vertical only allocated an estimated $7.8 million for national TV commercials in the United States from April 1 to May 12, as reflected in the iSpot.tv chart below. (Car rental firms and tour operators weren't included.)
Travel Industry U.S. National TV Spend 4/1/-5/12/2020
Source: iSpot.tv
When consider
