What tourism boards look for in OTA and tour operator co-marketing, a 2027 planning checklist

By Roy Stratford, Director of Retail Media Services, Platform 195

In co-marketing conversations between our clients and tourism boards about 2027 campaigns, the same two questions keep coming up. The first, will this partner reach the travellers we actually want? And the second, will we have something to show for it afterwards?  

Neither question is new, but the pressure behind them is. The answers shape which OTA partners tourism boards choose, and how much they invest with them over time.

In an OTA co-marketing partner, tourism boards typically look for proof that the OTA's audience fits their priority source markets, reporting that shows the value they received, a programme that's easy to take part in, and a partnership that improves each time it's renewed.  

Many also ask for room for several partners in one campaign,  reach beyond the OTA's own site, or help with creative messaging, although these vary by tourism board and by campaign.  

If you're an OTA or tour operator, anything on the checklist below you can't tick yet is worth sorting before 2027 conversations start.

What's different about co-marketing with tourism boards for 2027?

Some tourism boards are committing later. With demand uneven between regions, some are waiting to see how their markets perform before committing 2027 spend. When they do commit, decisions can move quickly, so it pays to be ready before the brief arrives.

More campaigns involve several parties. We're seeing more multi-party campaigns, with sub-regions and partners such as hotels, attractions, and airlines taking part alongside the tourism board. That adds complexity, with more contributors, approvals, and reporting needs on each of those campaigns.

The bar for proving impact is higher. Tourism board teams face more scrutiny from their own funders and need results they can defend. The wider industry is responding too, and in August 2026 the European Travel Commission began commissioning research into how national tourism organisations can better demonstrate what their marketing delivers.  

Tourism boards haven't stopped spending, but they are spending more carefully. When they commit, they want to know exactly which travellers they'll reach and what they'll be able to show their stakeholders afterwards.

The checklist

1. Can you show tourism boards your audience fits?

Tourism boards plan by source market. For an existing partnership, past performance in those markets is the strongest evidence. For a new co-marketing arrangement, case studies from similar destinations do the same job.

What to check

• You can demonstrate tangible return for each of the tourism board's priority markets without a separate data request
• You can target campaigns to a single market and report at that level
• For existing partners, you can show how previous campaigns performed in their priority markets
• For new partners, you have case studies from similar destinations or markets that you're cleared to share

2. Can you show tourism boards the value they received?

Tolene van der Merwe, Director UK & Ireland at Malta Tourism Authority, put it better than I could.  

"When we choose an OTA partner, the first question is whether their customers are the travellers we want to reach in our priority markets. The second is whether we'll have results we can stand behind with our own stakeholders afterwards. The partners we return to year after year are the ones who make both easy, and who come to us with ideas based on what their customers are actually searching for and booking."  

In my experience, renewals often depend on what a tourism board can take back to its stakeholders, so clear, consistent reporting matters as much as the results themselves. A spreadsheet arriving three months after the campaign ended has never won anyone a renewal, or an expanded co-marketing agreement.

What to check

• You agree reporting metrics and timings with the tourism board before the campaign goes live
• Reports split results by market and channel as standard
• You collect proof that each placement ran, such as screenshots and live links, while the campaign runs
• Reports reach the tourism board by an agreed date after the campaign ends

3. Can several partners take part in one campaign?

Tourism boards often bring sub-regions, events, anniversaries, suppliers, or attractions into their campaigns. An OTA that can bring several partners and themes together in one plan makes that much simpler.

What to check

• You can bring a tourism board and its partners, such as sub-regions or suppliers, into one campaign
• Each participant can get a separate report if needed
• One person on your team owns approvals and communication across all partners

4. Can you extend campaigns beyond your own site?

Off-site activity gives tourism boards more scale from a single co-marketing partner. It uses the OTA's own customer data to reach the same kind of travellers across social, display, video, and connected TV. Because those audiences are built on real browsing and booking behaviour, tourism boards reach people who are already planning trips.

What to check

• You can offer off-site activity built on your own customer data
• You can plan on-site and off-site activity as one campaign, with one report
• You can explain clearly how your audiences are built and kept privacy compliant

5. Can you help shape the creative messaging, as well as the assets?

In IDEAS That Travel, a report published by TOURISE and LIONS Advisory in October 2026, 60% of the 8,374 international travellers surveyed agreed that many travel ads look similar. That makes the messaging in a co-marketing campaign as important as the placement

Campaigns work best when they start with creative messaging that connects the destination to the OTA’s customers, such as a theme, a type of trip, or a reason to visit now.  

Many tourism board teams are small, so an OTA that can help shape the messaging and adapt the creative is a valuable partner. A destination dealing with negative headlines, for example, may need to switch from inspiration to reassurance mid-campaign.

What to check

• You can suggest creative messaging based on what your customers search for and book
• You can send creative specs and templates on the same day a brief comes in
• You can adapt creative by market or language, through your team or a partner you can recommend
• You can change live creative within days, with a named owner for approvals

6. Is your programme easy for tourism boards to take part in?

When every budget line has to be justified, complexity gets in the way. High minimum spends and slow approvals can rule out smaller activations, even when a tourism board is keen to take part.

What to check

• You have entry-level options for smaller budgets and short activations
• What a tourism board will get, and when, is clearly defined
• You know your typical lead time from agreement to live campaign, and can commit to it

7. Can you build the next campaign on what you've learned together?

Co-marketing partnerships get stronger each year when both sides understand what worked and why. Many renewal conversations happen at trade events such as WTM and ITB, so it helps to have that shared understanding in place well ahead of them.

What to check ‍

• You hold a review with the tourism board after each campaign, covering what worked and what to change
• You write down what you learned together and use it to shape the next plan
• You have a proposal for the next campaign, built on those results, ready before planning season

Frequently asked questions

What do tourism boards look for in a retail media co-marketing partner?

Tourism boards typically look for audiences that match their priority source markets, reporting that shows the value they received, a programme that's easy to take part in, and a partnership that improves over time.  

The ability to include destination partners, extend reach off-site, and help shape creative messaging is often requested too, although not every tourism board is looking for all three. Tourism boards also value partners who can work flexibly within the advertising regulations and approval processes they have to follow, which are often stricter for publicly funded organisations. Further, tourism boards look to co-marketing partners to bring new innovation when available, keeping their investment up to date with the changing media landscape and the shifting relevance of channels.

How do tourism boards measure co-marketing campaigns?

Most tourism boards look at reach and engagement by source market, alongside proof that campaigns ran. Where it can be measured, they also look at bookings or revenue linked to the campaign.

How Platform 195 can help

At Platform 195, we work with more than 35 travel retailers to build and run co-marketing retail media programmes that tourism boards and other partners find easy to take part in.

‍UpliftHub brings campaign booking, approvals, evidence, and reporting into one place. UpliftAds+ extends campaigns off-site using first-party travel audiences, and Amplify supports the creative and campaign work that helps destination activity perform.

If you work with tourism boards, I'd be interested to hear which of these you find hardest to get right. And if 2027 planning is already on your desk, I'm always happy to talk it through, so do get in touch.

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