Skift Take
An obsession with prestige can obscure the declining value of traditional media. Travel brands need to re-evaluate their comms and marketing strategies.
On Experience
Colin Nagy is a marketing strategist and writes on customer-centric experiences and innovation across the luxury sector, hotels, aviation, and beyond.
You can read all of his writing here.
I recently had a conversation with the head of communications at a big global luxury brand. She mentioned that the usual sources of information that we have come to trust and revere were no longer moving the needle for her brand’s business.
A splashy spread in a Conde Nast-style publication? That may stroke the ego of an executive, she suggested, but there isn’t much strategic or business driving value.
Following the U.S. election, traditional news organizations are all wrestling with whether they missed where the country was. Travel media has the same issues.
Skift’s founder and CEO Rafat Ali made the point in a LinkedIn post:
The one big lesson from this election season all around the world, especially U.S.: mainstream media is obsolete, fractured into million podcasts, specialist sources and social platforms, mostly X. YouTube is now the most powerful media company on the planet, still underestimated. And yet. Travel industry – especially companies and organizations from emerging tourism countries – remains obsessed with mainstream consumer media, the PR complex sells them goods that are way beyond their