There is a pretty interesting article in Monday’s Travel Daily News that says 80% of travel companies plan to at least maintain their level of online marketing spending, with more than half planning to increase online marketing expenditures.  This increased expenditure comes at a time when most other aspects of budgets are being cut (including offline advertising.)

The article doesn’t really address companies reasons for increasing their online ad budgets, but I’m pretty certain it has something to do with trackability.  In my mind, online advertising is absolutely the best investment for a company with a limited budget.  Online advertising provides a clear means of tracking return on investment.  Companies looking to reduce their marketing budget are going to cut the non-trackable (offline) marketing first.

If you’re interested in learning more about marketing travel during a recession there is a great article and subsequent discussion on the Tracking Tourism Blog that is very apropos.