ITV is helping travel brands of all sizes with the launch of the Backing Business Fund in collaboration with Travel Weekly
You may have no desire to couple up on Love Island, but you’ve probably watched it and thought: “Look at that sunshine. I wouldn’t mind a week in Majorca.” What we consume on our TVs can plant a destination firmly in our mind – and shape where we and clients want to travel.
Set-jetting, travelling to destinations featured as filming locations, is on the rise and the evidence is hard to ignore. Expedia found more than half of travellers have researched or booked a trip after seeing a destination on TV or film, while one in four say screen content influences their travel plans more than it did before.
One in five Brits have visited somewhere they saw featured in content they watched, rising to 61% among 18- to 24-year-olds, according to ITV’s own research, What Makes Content Catch. Following this summer’s Love Island finale, searches for Majorca jumped 29%. When Fortune Hotel aired, searches for Grenada holidays rose 50%, while searches for the five-star Silversands Grand Anse hotel, where the show is filmed, doubled. Searches for Australia consistently peak in November, when I’m A Celebrity…Get Me Out of Here! is on air.
ITV is supercharging growth
Travel Weekly and ITV are teaming up to launch an exclusive, ringfenced £500,000 Backing Business Fund, giving qualifying travel brands that are new to TV, or returning after an absence, access to matched funding and measurement support.
The Fund builds on the success of the initiative first launched in 2022, which helped four brands – Hays Travel, Ice Lolly, Holiday Best and Explore Georgia – use TV to support their growth.
For Ice Lolly, the UK-based holiday price-comparison website, the support was crucial. “The Travel Weekly & ITV Backing Business Fund enabled Ice Lolly to return to TV after an absence through matched funding and measurement support,” said Steve Seddon, chief marketing officer at Ice Lolly. “As a result, the campaign exceeded expectations with awareness up 20%, web sessions up 82% and cost per session down 35%.”
TV can accelerate bookings
Clearly TV increases search, but how does the type of shot affect bookings? Unsurprisingly, travel programmes come in first, with almost half of those who regularly watch them visiting a location they’ve seen featured.
ITV’s What Makes Content Catch research also found 31% of viewers visit places featured in or linked to a period or historical drama, while reality and adventure formats can spark a taste for the unknown, with almost a quarter of viewers saying shows such as The Chase Around the World and I’m A Celebrity…South Africa have inspired them to travel or try something new.
Meanwhile, one in five sports viewers have visited a featured location, stadium or host city, while the same proportion of nature-programming viewers have visited places they saw on screen.
