Marketing in travel and hospitality
travel marketing: the direct vs OTA battle, loyalty programs, dynamic pricing, and selling an experience.
This block builds marketing fluency specific to travel and hospitality, an industry defined by perishable inventory, high-intent search behavior, long booking windows, and intense OTA-driven price transparency. You will examine how brands acquire guests across metasearch, OTAs, direct channels, and loyalty programs, and how demand fluctuates with seasonality and events. The block moves from foundational marketing concepts adapted to booking funnels, through the specific metrics that determine channel profitability and guest lifetime value, to the compliance obligations governing pricing claims, promotional disclosures, and data use in travel advertising. The goal is practical fluency: reading a hotel or airline marketing dashboard, questioning channel mix decisions, and spotting regulatory exposure before a campaign launches, without needing a marketing degree or a legal background.
What you'll master
- Map the traveler purchase journey and identify where OTAs, metasearch, and direct channels each influence conversion
- Calculate and interpret CAC, RevPAR-linked marketing ROI, LTV, and funnel conversion rates using sector benchmarks
- Evaluate channel mix and loyalty program economics to judge whether a marketing budget is being spent efficiently
- Audit a travel marketing campaign for compliance with pricing transparency, advertising, and consumer-protection rules before launch