Summer Travel Season: Get Your Brand in the Itinerary with CTV

It's officially summer, and your audience is already in vacation mode. They're browsing destinations, comparing options from the couch, and watching travel content - often on the same screen where a great CTV ad can reach them at exactly the right moment.

And it’s no secret that summer is one of the biggest travel seasons of the year. Kids are out of school, work slows down, and people finally take the time off they've been putting off all year. For travel and tourism brands, that means the competition for attention is at its highest. And the brands that show up now, on the biggest screen in the house, are the ones earning a spot in the itinerary.

Here's how streaming ads for travel brands work, and how to use CTV advertising to reach vacation planners this summer.

Why Streaming Ads Work for Travel Brands

Travel is a visual category. It runs on aspiration, and it rewards brands that can show what an experience actually looks and feels like.

CTV is built for that. Ads are full-screen and non-skippable, watched in a lean-back environment where viewers are genuinely engaged rather than scrolling past. According to our CTV vs Social report, the average social ad is viewed for just 5 seconds. On Paramount, ads run for their full 15- or 30-second formats. Which gives you just enough time to transport someone to your intended destination in their mind (and hopefully IRL soon enough).

That attention environment also matters for trust. According to The Trade Desk's Premium Payoff Report, premium media environments drive a 40% increase in purchase intent and are 30% more effective than less premium environments, with 85% of respondents saying premium environments increase trust in advertisers.

For travel brands where credibility is part of the booking decision, context carries real weight.

Reaching Vacation Planners with Paramount Ads Manager

Your future customers are already here. Paramount Streamers are avid travelers, and the data reflects it:

• 54% say travel is one of their passions
• 75% say they prefer traveling to places they've never been
• 47% say planning a vacation is just as much fun as the trip itself
• 66% are likely to plan a domestic vacation in the next 12 months, and 41% are likely to plan international travel

It's also worth noting the traveler mix across Paramount streaming audiences:

• 34% of Paramount Streamers are Do-it-For-Me Vacationers who prefer guided tours and packaged deals and tend to book with familiar airline and hotel loyalty programs. Which makes them a natural audience for full-service travel brands.
• 25% are Backyard Vacationers who favor nearby destinations and drive-to getaways, which makes Paramount a strong match for regional hotels, resorts, and attractions.
• 16% are Outdoor Travel Enthusiasts who prefer road trips and off-the-beaten-path destinations - the perfect audience for RV brands, campgrounds, and adventure travel.
• 15% of Paramount Streamers used Airbnb, VRBO, or similar rental services on their last trip (rising to 17% among Paramount Ads Manager Sports audiences), making streaming a productive channel for alternative accommodation brands too.
• 21% of Paramount Streamers stayed in upscale hotels on their last trip (and that rises to 22% among Paramount Ads Manager Sports audiences) a strong signal for premium hospitality brands.

Source: Source: MRI Simmons. 2025 November Cord Evolution (SU25 USA). Weighted to the population. Based on P18+. Sample Size > 50

Paramount is where you can reach highly engaged, high intent travelers who are actively looking for something worth booking. The question is whether your brand shows up when they're deciding.

Paramount Ads Manager's targeting tools let you zero in on the specific audiences most likely to care about your destination or travel brand, whether that's adventurous solo travelers, families looking for a resort, or luxury guests who won't compromise on the hotel.

Interests & Behaviors Targeting

In the Audience Targeting step of Paramount Ads Manager campaign setup, you can zero in on streaming viewers based on real-world signals that indicate travel intent. For travel and tourism brands, relevant segments include:

• Travel Enthusiasts: People who express active interest in traveling)

• Luxury Buyers: People likely to shop for high-end products and experiences

• • Especially useful for premium hospitality brands, given that 21% of Paramount Streamers stayed in upscale hotels on their last trip

• Parents: Households with children, a key segment for family-focused destinations and resorts

• Live Events Fans: Audiences likely to attend live events, relevant for destination travel around festivals or sports

• Life Events: People going through major moments like graduation or marriage, which are common triggers for meaningful travel

• Recreational Vehicles: People interested in renting or buying an RV,

• • FYI: 16% of Paramount Streamers are Outdoor Travel Enthusiasts who prefer road trips and off-the-beaten-path destinations

• Health & Wellness: Audiences focused on physical and mental wellbeing, a strong match for retreat and wellness tourism brands

Geo-targeting

Geo-targeting adds another layer of precision, letting you reach audiences by country, state, DMA, or ZIP code. A resort can target DMAs within a day's drive. A theme park can prioritize its strongest feeder markets. A tour operator can focus on the metropolitan areas where past bookings have historically come from. For geo-targeted travel ads, this kind of specificity means your spend goes toward audiences who can actually act on it.

Retargeting

When planning a big trip, most people visit a destination or booking site, compare options, and leave without making a purchase (often multiple times before finally booking).

Retargeting is where you close that gap. With the Paramount Ads Manager Pixel installed on your site, every visitor becomes an audience you can reactivate. When someone browses your vacation packages or hotel offerings and leaves without booking, you can reconnect with them through a CTV ad while they're watching programming on CBS Sports or catching up on Paramount+ originals, keeping your destination top of mind through the full consideration window.

During beta testing, advertisers using retargeting saw a 30%+ improvement in site visit performance by reconnecting with audiences already familiar with their brand. For travel brands with longer conversion timelines, that persistent presence makes a real difference.

Lookalike audiences extend the logic further, identifying new streaming viewers who share characteristics with your existing customers or recent site visitors so you can scale reach without starting from scratch.

Your Summer Travel Campaign Playbook

The peak summer travel window is in full swing right now, which means the right strategy is about staying visible through the whole season rather than trying to get in before it starts.

Right now: capture active planners

Run awareness campaigns against Travel Enthusiasts and behavioral segments aligned with your category. Get your pixel collecting data and make sure your creative reflects what's available and bookable now.

Layer in retargeting for recent site visitors

If you've had any site traffic this season, activate retargeting immediately. These are warm audiences already familiar with your brand. Connecting with them on the biggest screen in their home, with the right offer, is one of the highest-ROI moves available in the current window.

Stay on through August

Late-summer travel is a real booking category for many travelers, and brands that pull back campaigns in mid-July leave August spend on the table. Maintain a consistent presence and use performance data from earlier in the season to optimize creative and targeting as you go.

Use CTV to make your other channels work harder

CTV doesn't stay in its lane. Research from our CTV vs. Social report shows that paid search conversion rates increase by 22.3% when supported by CTV exposure.

That matters for travel brands running on Paramount Ads Manager in particular, because travelers are active researchers: 32% of Paramount Streamers consult travel planning sites like Expedia, Booking.com, and Hotels.com when planning trips, and 11% turn to social media.

Viewers who've seen your brand on streaming TV are more likely to click your search ads, engage with your social posts, and convert when they land on your site. Running CTV alongside search or social amplifies everything else in the mix.

Launch with Paramount Ads Manager

Summer travelers are spending time on the couch between trips, and in front of the biggest screen in their home when they are. Paramount Ads Manager gives you a self-serve way to reach them, with no agency required and no minimum spend.

With Paramount Ads Manager, you can:

• Launch CTV campaigns across Paramount+, CBS, CBS Sports, Pluto TV, and more
• Target vacation planners by interests, behaviors, and geography
• Retarget site visitors and build lookalike audiences on the big screen
• Install the Paramount Ads Manager Pixel to track site visits and measure downstream impact
• Get TV-ready creative through our Creative Plus service

Their bags are almost packed. Time to meet your audience where they’re already watching.

Start running ads →