Reaching International Travellers Before They Arrive in the US

The check-in desk may be in the US, but the booking decision can happen much earlier and much farther away.

International travellers often make decisions about where to stay and what to experience before they reach their destination. OOH allows hotels and hospitality brands to reach these audiences in key markets and travel environments, keeping their property visible while travel plans are being considered and journeys are underway.

Choose the markets where your guests are

Reaching international travellers starts with understanding where potential guests are coming from and identifying the markets and travel environments where they can be reached before and during their journey. This could include major cities in key markets, international airports or locations around connecting hubs.

For example, a luxury hotel in New York, Miami or Los Angeles could target relevant international markets based on its guest strategy, then select OOH environments that align with where those audiences are likely to be. The campaign can be tailored by location, timing and available audience information.

This approach allows hospitality brands to put their media investment in the markets and environments most relevant to their international acquisition goals.

Extend your campaign beyond US borders

Once the relevant markets are identified, DOOH gives hospitality brands flexibility in how and when they activate their campaigns. Depending on available inventory and buying methods, campaigns can be planned around specific locations, time periods and audience information across international markets.

A hotel can adjust its media activity around priority locations or travel periods rather than relying on a single market or environment. Programmatic activation can also provide a flexible way to access eligible digital inventory across multiple locations, depending on campaign requirements and available supply.

This makes it possible for hospitality brands and their agencies to build campaigns around the markets and moments that matter to their international acquisition strategy.

Planning around the audience

Moving Walls starts with the audience, helping hospitality brands plan OOH around the markets, locations and audiences most relevant to their campaign objectives. MW Planner supports this process by bringing audience intelligence, location planning, forecasting and optimisation together, allowing planners to evaluate potential locations and media allocations before a campaign is activated.

For hospitality brands, this can help connect audience information with the locations most relevant to their campaign objectives. Existing social media campaigns can also be adapted for DOOH, creating additional physical touchpoints for audiences beyond digital channels.

Beyond measuring reach and impressions, campaigns can also be evaluated through incrementality, providing a way to assess whether OOH exposure contributed to an outcome beyond what would have occurred without the campaign.

A hotel campaign provides a practical example

A Moving Walls campaign for a global luxury hotel in Sydney demonstrates how audience and location planning can be applied to hospitality advertising.

The 13-day programmatic DOOH campaign ran across 27 premium digital screens, generating more than 2.52 million impressions and reaching 284,054 unique individuals.

The campaign focused on CBD and transit environments where travellers, commuters and shoppers were likely to be present. Audience and location information helped inform media selection, while programmatic activation provided flexibility during the campaign.

While the campaign was for a Sydney property, the example demonstrates the planning and activation approach that can also be applied by hospitality brands operating across international markets: identifying relevant audiences, understanding where they are likely to be and selecting OOH environments that align with the campaign objective.

Reach international guests before they arrive

For US hotels targeting international travellers, OOH can extend the reach of a campaign beyond the property’s home market. By activating in relevant international markets and travel environments, hospitality brands can introduce their properties to prospective guests before they arrive in the US.

For brands looking to attract international visitors to a US property, this makes OOH part of the wider traveller journey, connecting the property with prospective guests before they reach their destination.

Explore Moving Walls Americas

Moving Walls supports OOH and programmatic DOOH planning, activation and measurement across the Americas. Connect with our team to reach audiences beyond the US: