Five Key Digital PR Shifts for Travel Brands in 2026

Introduction: The Digital PR landscape for travel in 2026

The online travel industry has changed significantly over the years, with advancements in tech, search, social media and big shifts in consumer behaviour too. 

With generative AI becoming mainstream, the tables have shifted once more - a massive 84% of travelers globally intend to use AI for planning trips in the future. 

Brand mentions have been proven to support AI visibility, which makes Digital PR even more crucial to being able to compete in this fast-moving space. Our role has just pivoted from “building links” to “building topical authority and visibility” across AI and traditional search (because that’s not dead either!) - through brand coverage and links. 

In fact, 81% of marketers believe Digital PR is going to be even more important in the next 2-3 years.

Aira’s Digital PR team has launched a new report, ‘The state of digital PR in the travel industry 2026’, which brings together insights from senior Digital PRs, in-house marketers and travel journalists and editors. The report has helped to uncover five key shifts for Digital PRs working across the travel industry, to help brands stay ahead of the curve and compete in this evolving landscape.

Shift 1: The evolution of tactics and taking an “always on” approach

With a shift in focus from quantity to quality of coverage (and links), and the changes in the media landscape and what journalists are looking for, the tactics Digital PRs are implementing have shifted slightly too.

It might be no surprise that data-led content campaigns are still the most popular tactic for earning coverage in the travel sector. In fact, 95% of Digital PRs surveyed use them, and 67% highlighted them as the most effective approach. 

However, many PRs did highlight that these are getting harder to execute well, as there are just so many in circulation. Due to this, there is now more emphasis on unique and robust data, and stronger methodologies to stand out from the crowd. 

Alongside campaigns, 71% are using reactive and newsjacking techniques, with 29% highlighting it as their most effective tactic. Reactive activity has become increasingly popular for a couple of reasons. It’s being used to take an “always on” approach to landing coverage and links in the right places, and journalists are often looking to add a first person perspective or expert view to their articles (to strengthen their own work). But at the same time, some budgets have become tighter, meaning this is the most effective tactic for those brands.

Aligned to reactive work, responding directly to journalist requests sits as a favoured second priority tactic for effectiveness, for almost a third (29%). This shows that monitoring opportunities and building relationships with key journalists can be crucial to effectively landing coverage in the travel space.

Thought leadership campaigns are also used by 62%, but no other tactics come close for effectively earning coverage and links. The days of stunts might be ending for the travel industry!

Shift 2: Personalisation and the need to really understand your target audience

Two of the key predictions for Digital PR in the travel industry in 2026 focus on really understanding the target audience, the different segments and their individual desires. 

According to the insights from in-house marketers and travel journalists and editors, successful travel Digital PR will be the stories that lean more on answering real consumer concerns and needs, such as convenience, affordability, safety and other tangible value, rather than just promoting destinations.

Gavin Haines, freelance travel writer and editor highlighted that: “Rising unemployment and the ongoing squeeze on living costs will narrow the horizons of many British travellers, likely benefitting short-haul and domestic destinations.”

On top of this, travellers are more aware of what they want. Franco Lucchetti, Head of SEO at Columbus Direct, added that  “Travel Marketing will be counting more on personalised experiences and extremely tailor-made itineraries”. 

Rob Gaige, Head of Global insights at Reddit is quoted within Skyscanner’s 2026 travel trends report highlighting that “rather than selecting the destination and then assembling activities, today’s travellers begin their search with individual passions, hobbies and interests, leading to more meaningful trips.”

Alongside hobbies and interests, Gavin Haines highlighted several economic and real-world factors that could influence personal travel and holiday decisions this year, such as “the reluctant return to the office five days a week for many workers … set to re-harden the boundaries between work and play, signalling an end perhaps to the longer hybrid holidays many enjoyed before.”

It’s therefore going to be fundamental for Digital PRs to really understand their target audience, and to distill the different segments. This is so they can create stories which not only resonate with who they want to engage with, but also with the media, who have their target audience at the heart of all their editorial decisions too. 

Shift 3: Human-led storytelling is crucial to standing out in a world of “AI slop”

The 2025 word of the year was “AI slop”. People are still using AI to produce content - content which is a spin on something else out there. This isn’t going to go anywhere. The one thing that will set content apart is first-person experience.

Across the travel journalists and in-house marketers interviewed as part of the state of digital PR in the travel industry report, there was a strong agreement that authentic, experience-led storytelling will be the differentiator in 2026. 

Freelance travel journalist James Wong highlights that “As we battle with AI, I’ve already noticed a shift from generic guides to much more personal travel stories. The kind of stories that cannot be imitated by an algorithm.” 

Gavin Haines added that he foresees “a greater embrace of rich, human-led travel narratives from more discerning outlets” while Hayley Minn highlighted that these stories are “more interesting to read about, as they’re more relatable so are great for the paper, and do well online.”

Digital PR ideas and stories therefore need to incorporate this element to increase the chances of coverage, and driving topical authority. Whether it’s through personal insights and recommendations or giving behind the scenes access, or through thought leadership, there are a number of ways human narratives can be weaved in. This will not only set the content apart, it will also strengthen E-E-A-T for the content itself too. 

Shift 4: The death of “spray and pray” outreach and only lightly tailored emails

The journalists interviewed as part of the new report all emphasised the importance of Digital PRs understanding the writers they’re pitching to, their audience, editorial styles and topics of interest or expertise. 

Gavin Haines, Freelance travel writer and editor emphasised that “Most of the emails I receive from travel PRs go straight to my trash because they aren’t remotely relevant to my areas of expertise. The ones that don’t go to trash come from PRs who know what I write about and the titles that I write for. It would be great to see more brands sharpening their focus and cultivating more meaningful relationships.” 

Hayley Minn, Deputy Travel Editor at the Mail Online added that “Trying your hand at writing a headline in the Mail’s style at the top of a press release always makes me more likely to run the story, as it means I don’t need to find the story within the press release.”

This is only set to get more crucial. Gavin Haines went on to add that legacy media brands are returning to their original business models, strengthening their relationships with their readers, and Digital PRs will need to respond to this trend if they hope to land coverage in these places.

In addition to this, both James Wong and Gavin Haines highlighted that they usually source their own experts through their connections to ensure they have unique insight for their stories. Building these kinds of relationships is unlikely to happen when taking a spray and pray approach.

Only 24% of Digital PRs currently heavily tailor their pitches. This shows there’s a big gap between what journalists expect and what’s actually happening right now - and potentially a big missed opportunity with regards to creating the right types of stories to land coverage. 

Shift 5: Reporting on value in an AI-driven search landscape 

Reporting has always been a challenge in Digital PR. To add to that, the way success is measured is expected to evolve massively with the emergence of AI visibility tools. But this will likely only add more questions about what this really means to website performance or even the bottom line. 

The report uncovered that 81% of Digital PRs still use DA/DR when reporting on coverage. But there is a growing shift toward "relevance" (90%) as the primary success metric. This is reported on more than volume of mentions or links - which demonstrates the change in focus that’s already occurred in the industry, with the move from quantity to quality. 

However, only 38% have been able to quantify this relevance, with an internal relevancy score. Meaning that although it’s reported on, it’s not easily “measured”.

Quantifying success further isn’t happening across the board. Just under half of Digital PRs surveyed report on ranking improvements, increases in traffic to site, and/or search visibility. Just under a third (29%) report on increases in traffic to sections of a site or branded search traffic. And only a fifth (19%) attempt to correlate activity with revenue. 

Jolie Hoang, Digital Marketing Manager at Cabin Zero highlighted that “Further understanding effectiveness is key to understanding where we can invest our budget moving forward.”

With Digital PR sitting so far from the bottom line, and correlations the key way to tie activity to site performance, there will likely need to be more understanding from both sides - Digital PRs and in-house marketers (who are selling this to their c-suite). We can show what Digital PR has likely helped support, but it’s probably not done this in a silo. 

The fact is, whilst directly tying Digital PR activity to revenue remains tricky, the industry is clearly evolving, and brands that don’t invest in building authority, relevance and visibility will risk being left behind as the search landscape continues to evolve. 

Conclusion: Staying ahead of the Digital PR curve in 2026

The online travel landscape is rapidly evolving, driven by AI and changing consumer behaviours. Studies show that 84% of travellers plan to use AI for trip planning, highlighting the need for travel brands to show up here too. 

81% of marketers believe Digital PR is going to be even more important in the next 2-3 years, supporting visibility in traditional and AI search. But to do so effectively, Aira’s state of digital PR in the travel industry report highlights five key shifts, including the importance of personalised storytelling and fully understanding the target audience, human-led narratives, heavily tailored pitching, and more open conversations about reporting. Embracing these changes will help brands stay ahead of the curve, landing coverage in the right places to support appearing more for their target audience’s buyer journeys!  

You can find Aira’s full state of digital PR in the travel industry report here.

This post was written by Chloe Osunsami, Head of Digital PR at Aira

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