With Most People Grounded, BBC Travel Saw Traffic Peaks

The travel industry suffered a major blow during the pandemic, with travelers stuck at home and unable to trek across the country or internationally. Despite the decrease in people actually traveling, BBC Travel has seen an uptick in readership. The site experienced between 29% and 30% increase in online traffic during the pandemic, according to the publisher. “We quickly saw that stories on history, archaeology and stories on food as well, exploded,” BBC Travel Editor Anne Banas told Adweek. “So we pivoted in that direction.” Original content played a crucial factor in audience growth during the pandemic. While the quantity of content produced remained the same—one story a day—the topics shifted. Typical stories include the forgotten forest under the sea and a look into a 400-year-old sushi recipe. As more people get vaccinated and cities open up, so too will travel, domestic and international increase. Earlier this year, 51% of respondents in an Adweek-Morning Consult poll said that they would somewhat likely book a vacation within the next three months. While other publishers benefited from traffic peaks during the pandemic, more travel should, in theory, also help bolster BBC Travel's traffic. Now as more people have become vaccinated, Banas said there is another shift in content that is centered around slow travel, which emphasizes connection with local people and culture and outdoor-related travel. “We got a lot of new users that were just looking for more in-depth, long-form,” Banas said. “We're a bit of an outlier in the travel space, where we are a low-volume publisher. We publish only five stories a week, but they go into a lot of depth. We have attracted new audiences that maybe we didn't have before, and they've stuck around because they liked what they saw or felt engaged with our content.” A subsidiary of BBC.com, the world news leader has also seen growth. BBC.com was the world’s most-visited news site in April with 1.2 billion visits. That was an 8% increase from the same month last year. “Travel brands have been commercial partners of BBC Global News for many years due to our relevant and engaging content, as well as our global and affluent audience,” BBC evp of global ad sales Sean O’Hara told Adweek in an email. “This has continued to be the case even throughout a global pandemic where, despite travel restrictions, BBC Travel has consistently offered audiences immersive travel content," he continued. "That is something brands want to be part of to stay top-of-mind and for the BBC’s expert storytellers to help them engage with audiences through creative and emotive brand campaigns.” Turning up the cultural sensitivity filter Another part of storytelling for BBC Travel has been an increased focus on who is telling the story and what subjects are being covered. “We're making sure that, first of all, our content is balanced," said Banas. "And diversity is three different things for us: It's who is writing the story, who is the subject of the story and who is quoted in the story. We're looking at those because we want to make sure that we get a diverse amount of people telling the story.” In order to tell unique stories that attract readers, authenticity and quality are extremely important, making the content production process much more methodical. “It's a filter that we put through every story,” Banas said. “Now we put a cultural sensitivity filter. We check and see who our authors are. We ask them why are you the best person for the story? And we do a sustainability check to make sure it's sustainable to the environment but also respects the local customs and cultures of the people.” Travel ad spend has not fully rebounded Though there is increased interest in traveling, ad spending has not caught up with consumers. But it's still seeing a sizable increase compared to last year when we were at the peak of the pandemic and very few travelers were looking for any expeditions. Ad spend is down 58% in 2021 compared to 2019, according to MediaRadar. But 2021 is faring better than 2020. Hotel ad spend has increased 94% year over year, and tourism ad spend has risen 130% year over year, per MediaRadar. Hotwire’s First Ad Push in 4 Years Wants You to Travel ‘Beyond Your Wildest Means’