ABTA has kicked off the first phase of its latest Travel with confidence advertising campaign, on one of UK’s the biggest commercial radio stations – Heart Digital UK – today. The campaign is a key part of ABTA’s marketing activity throughout the year designed to support and generate business for Members, and maintain high public favourability for the ABTA brand.

This initial phase sees a radio advert hit the airwaves from 12 December for a four-week run. The advert highlights the importance of holidays in creating memories and spending quality time with friends and family – playing on the theme that, even in uncertain times, we all want to have a holiday. The ad also encourages people look for the ABTA logo to bring peace of mind when booking their trip. The campaign has been strategically placed on Heart to reach family audiences, with ABTA’s research showing that this one of the demographics most likely to carry on taking holidays despite the cost of living crisis.  

The second phase of the campaign will go live on Boxing Day and run until the end of February through a video on social media. The video shows a montage of ABTA Members’ customers explaining why they are loyal to the ABTA Members they book with and the benefits of booking with a Member, as well as why their holidays are important to them. 

Initially launching on ABTA’s Instagram and Facebook channels, the two-minute video will then be cut for Pinterest and Reddit. It will be backed with a selected advertising spend to appear in consumers’ social media feeds and to reach a wider audience beyond ABTA’s own channels.   

Last year’s campaign reached 12.5 million people across the airwaves and over 16 million people across ABTA’s social media channels.  It is expected that this year’s will reach similar figures.

ABTA’s annual Travel with confidence campaign is timed to support the traditional peak holiday booking period and when many ABTA Members are also running their own advertising campaigns. The pre-Christmas radio activity will help reinforce the value of booking with an ABTA Member ahead of when the decision is taken about where and how to book.

ABTA is encouraging Members to ensure they are using the ABTA logo and the hashtag #WeAreABTAMembers in their marketing and communications to customers to help them benefit from the strong recognition and value of the ABTA brand. 

Independent research finds 83% of people saying that the company being an ABTA Member is an important factor when booking a holiday¹ and many are willing to spend more on a holiday when it is booked through an ABTA Member^2. To support Members, ABTA has updated its marketing toolkit with social media posts and assets which Members can download and use across their own social channels. 

Graeme Buck, Director of Communications at ABTA said: 

“Effective advertising campaigns tap into people’s emotions. With the current economic backdrop, some people who haven’t yet booked a holiday might be wavering, so our focus this year is to remind people how precious holidays are and that they’ll be in safe hands if they book one with an ABTA Member.

“Once again, our campaign is projected to reach millions and it’s exciting to support our Members by reminding people why they should book with them.” 

For more information about the campaign visit http://www.abta.com/travelwithconfidence 

Notes to editors

1 & 2) ABTA consumer sentiment research conducted by The Nursery Research and Planning (www.the-nursery.net/) in October 2022, with a nationally representative sample of 500 consumers

About ABTA

ABTA is a trade association for UK travel agents, tour operators and the wider travel industry. We’re the largest travel trade body, with over 3,900 travel brands in Membership who have a combined pre-pandemic annual UK turnover of £40 billion. We work closely with our Members to help raise and maintain standards and build a more sustainable travel industry, and provide travellers with advice, guidance and support.

Our Members sign up to a code of conduct and commit to agreed service standards and fair trading. When you need clear travel information, and accurate and impartial advice relating to your trip, we’re here for you. We’ll help you understand your level of financial protection, and what to do next, in the unlikely event that an ABTA Member goes out of business. So, whatever happens, when you book with an ABTA Member, reliable advice comes as standard. This means that booking with our Members brings peace of mind. Together with our Members, we help you travel with confidence. www.abta.com