Newspapers book bulk of travel dollars

Newspapers are overwhelmingly the media of choice for travel related marketers, netting more than 60% of the dollars spent every year. Television is a distant second but has been steadily increasing its slice of the pie from 19.6% to 25.2% between 2001 and 2004. Radio is in third spot, gaining slightly year over year to a high of 6.7% in 2004.
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Newspapers are overwhelmingly the media of choice for travel related marketers, netting more than 60% of the dollars spent every year. Television is a distant second but has been steadily increasing its slice of the pie from 19.6% to 25.2% between 2001 and 2004. Radio is in third spot, gaining slightly year over year to a high of 6.7% in 2004.

Annual National Advertising Spend – Q1 – Spring Travel
(planning, booking, and necessary paraphernalia)

Q1 2001 Q1 2002 Q1 2003 Q1 2004
Government travel bureaus $7,576,040 11,100,878 9,216,466 14,191,559
Hotel chains $629,949 471,307 830,198 311,172
Informational sites / search engines / portals $40,022 43,749 34,071 33,502
Insurance: travel $25,553 177,331 169,560 377,111
Luggage, leathergoods, handbags, umbrellas $800 0 2,918 0
Magazines, periodicals $0 8,254 33,603 22,437
Tours, cruises, yacht charters $1,014,256 1,188,320 1,442,730 958,442
Travel agents, travel assoc. $19,587,306 15,140,452 19,816,279 21,928,317
Travellers cheques, foreign exchange, gift bonds $616,725 366,685 852,657 355,304
Total $29,490,651 $28,498,704 $32,398,482 $38,177,844

National Q1 Total Spend by Medium

2001

Dailies $21,366,162 (72.5%)
Magazines: $860,909 (2.9%)
Out of Home: $481,224 (1.6%)
Radio: $1,015,936 (3.4%)
Total TV: $5,766,420 (19.6%)

2002

Dailies $17,280,771 (60.6%)
Magazines: $2,186,355 (7.7%)
Out of Home: $1,180,924 (4.1%)
Radio: $957,487 (3.4%)
Total TV: $6,893.167 (24.2%)

2003

Dailies $20,203,772 (62.4%)
Magazines: $1,531,226 (4.7%)
Out of Home: $1,551,562 (4.8%)
Radio: $1,461,468 (4.5%)
Total TV: $7,650,454 (23.6%)

2003

Dailies $23,698,215 (62.1%)
Magazines: $1,539,723 (4.0%)
Out of Home: $741,998 (1.9%)
Radio: $2,565,948 (6.7%)
Total TV: $9,631,960 (25.2%)

National Q1 2004 – Top 5 Spenders, Spring Travel
1) Ontario Government
2) IAC/Inter Active Corp. (Travel agents/associations)
3) Newfoundland Government
4) Itravel2000.com (Travel agents/associations)
5) Sears Canada (Travel agents/associations)

The preceding data is from the Nielsen Media Research, AdExpenditures. For more information, please contact Andrea Beach, business manager, andrea.beach@nielsenmedia.com.

All data courtesy of Nielsen Media Research.