Domestic tourism ad spend surged 196% to $16.2 million in March, according to analysis by SMI (Standard Media Index).
Companies benefitting most from the higher spend are Nine Entertainment, News Corp, Facebook and ViacomCBS.
"We’ve split our government travel bureaux category into new domestic and international tourism agencies categories," says SMI AU/NZ Managing Director Jane Ractliffe.
"It’s great timing as it clearly highlights the huge growth in domestic tourism marketing and of course the seismic decline of International marketing as the total travel category’s ad spend fell 9% in March."
The quarter by quarter state of tourism ad spend (March quarter was $38 million):
SMI also added TV streaming services, up 69% in March ,as a new category.
Media agency numbers show overall spend grew 2.1% in March with strong digital and television.
The growth trend continues with SMI numbers showing early bookings for April and May growing more than 20% from last year’s COVID-affected months.
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