How Travel Brands Can Win Attention in the Age of Distraction

By Sam Holmes, Head of Marketing at Force24

 

Attention has become the most valuable resource in marketing. And in no industry is that more evident than travel. With more brands than ever fighting to be seen, clicked and remembered, standing out requires more than just good creative. It requires strategic timing, thoughtful personalisation and a serious rethink of what your audience actually needs from you.

The rules of engagement have changed. The average attention span has not just shortened, it has fragmented. Consumers switch between apps, devices and modes of thinking in seconds. For cruise and travel brands, this presents both a challenge and an opportunity. Because in such a distracted world, those who can meet customers with the right message, at the right time, in the right way, are the ones who will win.

This is where attention marketing comes in. It’s not a gimmick or the latest buzzword. It’s a response to a clear shift in consumer behaviour. And when applied properly, with the right technology and mindset, it can transform the impact of your marketing.

We’re not talking about likes, clicks or even reach. We’re talking about the ability to hold someone’s focus long enough for your message to matter. That’s what attention marketing is really about. And right now, it’s one of the most important strategies any travel brand can master.

Attention marketing isn’t new. But what is new is the environment we’re all operating in. Consumers are more distracted than ever, jumping between platforms, conversations and devices at lightning speed. For cruise brands, that makes the challenge even more complex. Your customer journeys are longer, more considered, and heavily influenced by multiple moments along the way. And if those moments don’t feel relevant, personal or well timed, attention is lost, often for good.

But here’s the good news: this isn’t a losing battle. In fact, the brands that are starting to win in this space aren’t doing more. They’re doing things better. With a few shifts in mindset and some smart use of automation, cruise marketers can create campaigns that feel natural, timely and genuinely helpful. The kind of marketing that earns attention, rather than demands it.

 

Relevance beats reach every time

The traditional approach to marketing in travel has often focused on volume. Big lists, big pushes, big creative. But these tactics are becoming less effective. If your messaging isn’t grounded in relevance, even your most beautiful campaign will fall flat.

The first step is understanding where your customer is in their journey. Are they researching options for the summer? Comparing cruise lines for a special anniversary? Revisiting a past favourite destination? Your communications should reflect that context. Relevance isn’t just about using a first name. It’s about speaking to what your audience is feeling, needing or wondering in that moment.

This is exactly where marketing automation becomes invaluable. You don’t need to manually segment every list or second-guess every next step. With the right setup, your platform can do the heavy lifting, tracking behaviours, mapping journeys and sending communications based on real-time engagement. That’s how relevance scales.

You don’t have to be everywhere, just present when it counts

One of the biggest misconceptions about attention marketing is that it requires being on every channel, all the time. But the most successful brands aren’t everywhere. They’re simply present in the right places, at the right moments.

That starts with understanding which channels your audience actually responds to. Email might still be your core channel, but what happens when a customer clicks through to browse an itinerary and doesn’t convert? A well-timed reminder via SMS or a WhatsApp message could be what brings them back. If a past customer hasn’t engaged in six months, a personalised piece of direct mail might reignite the relationship.

These are not isolated actions. They’re part of a connected journey. Automation tools like Force24 help you build these journeys visually, using data points like web behaviour, campaign activity or booking stage to trigger the next best message. It’s not about spamming. It’s about making it easy for your customer to keep moving forward.

Make personalisation useful, not just clever

Personalisation is one of the most overused terms in marketing. But when done right, it’s not about gimmicks. It’s about usefulness. That means showing people content they actually care about, when they’re most likely to act on it.

For cruise brands, this might mean highlighting destinations a customer has viewed multiple times. It could mean offering a cabin upgrade to someone who abandoned their basket last week. Or surfacing loyalty rewards just as they’re researching their next holiday.

The trick is to move beyond static lists and one-off campaigns. Instead, think in terms of dynamic journeys. Build a few well-considered paths that cater to different stages or behaviours, then let automation deliver them in a timely, seamless way. That way, every message feels like it belongs, because it does.

Keep things simple behind the scenes

We’ve worked with enough marketing teams to know that complexity is the real killer of momentum. If your team is spending hours pulling lists, reporting manually, or trying to stitch systems together, your best ideas never see the light of day.

The power of marketing automation is that it simplifies the day-to-day, without sacrificing quality or creativity. When you’re no longer bogged down in execution, you have more time to focus on what actually moves the needle: story, timing and experience.

Don’t worry about building everything at once. Start small. Choose one or two journeys that matter most to your business, like first-time cruisers or lapsed customers. Map out a few messages that align with each step in that journey, and build from there. The confidence will come as you start to see results and unlock time.

 

The role of trust in attention

One thing travel brands understand well is trust. You’re asking someone to invest in an experience that hasn’t happened yet. That takes confidence in your brand, your promises and your communication.

The same principle applies in attention marketing. If your messages are inconsistent, irrelevant or mistimed, trust erodes. But if every interaction feels well judged and respectful of your audience’s time, trust grows. And trusted brands keep attention far more easily than forgettable ones.

Use your automation platform to support that trust. Make unsubscribing easy. Send follow-ups that genuinely add value. React to signals of interest quickly, but never force the issue. Attention is earned, not captured.

A more achievable approach to attention

It’s easy to feel overwhelmed by the idea of overhauling your marketing to fight for attention. But the truth is, you probably already have the ingredients: a loyal audience, valuable content and clear moments in the journey that matter most.

The challenge is simply aligning those things, and doing so consistently. That’s where automation comes in. It’s not about removing the human touch. It’s about enabling it at scale, so your team can spend less time on busywork and more time crafting messages that truly connect.

Attention marketing isn’t about perfection. It’s about progress. Small, well-timed changes to how you communicate can have a huge impact on how your brand is experienced.

So if you’re thinking, “this sounds like a lot,” that’s understandable. But here’s the perspective I share with every client: you don’t have to win attention from everyone. You just need to win it from the people who matter most to your business. And you already have more power to do that than you think. In a world of noise, the brands that listen, respond and stay consistent are the ones that people come back to.