ADVERTISING INFORMATION
Chasing clicks may be killing your brand story. Here's why
Children click, bankers don't. Advertising formats based on clicks and discounted rates devalue your brand. They attract one-night-stand customers. Without brand interest there is no long-term relationship. Since January 2003 Smart Travel Asia has been helping worldwide frequent travellers — over 60% coming in direct through bookmarks — make smart choices.
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JUMP TO Circulation profile | Referrals, search, and direct traffic | Reader profile | Advertising products | Advertising positions & rates
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Why Smart Travel Asia?
A MILLION AFFLUENT FREQUENT FLYERS
Our global audience - Luxury Travellers, Wedding and Meeting Planners, Discerning Consumers, and Families - have one thing in common: frequent travel (16 air trips a year) and high income (US$172,000 per household). Over 60% come in direct through bookmarks.
LUXURY TRAVELLERS SEEK BRAND EMOTION . SO DO WEDDING AND MEETING PLANNERS
Our readers are drawn from banks and financial institutions, government, fashion houses, academia, tech companies, and multinational corporations. They spend more on travel and therefore take more time on research to seek quality information. Luxury Travellers need to connect with brand emotion, feelings, personality. Brand is an amotion. Luxury travellers are NOT IN THE CLICK-AND-BOOK SPACE. They fly high above the crowd and algorithms and formulas will not find them. The same is true for meeting and wedding planners.
We have growing numbers of younger millennial readers too who, while less brand loyal, spend time researching new brands and independent players as they seek offbeat opportunities.
Advertising formats based on clicks and discounted rates devalue your brand. Brand comes first, booking is the last step
ARE YOU JUST ANOTHER PRETTY FACE IN THE CROWD?
Our readers are researching brands like yours and visit our site as a trusted source. We help build brand aspiration and interest. The research space always comes before retail and this is the space - where your potential customers get lost - that we are strongly positioned in. How do travellers choose online where everyone looks great (see graphic) and almost identical? This is a fundamental problem for all travellers. No brand, no booking.
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Global Circulation, Asia Travel Focus
A worldwide circulation with 70% of readers based in Asia (key concentrations in China +Hong Kong (25%), Singapore (15%), India (8%), Japan, Korea, Taiwan, Malaysia, Thailand, Philippines); 15% in USA and North America, 15% in UK and Europe (with 8% in UK alone and key concentrations in Germany, France, Switzerland, Netherlands, Scandinavia, Portugal, Spain). As many as 10% of our readers are from Australia (included under Asia). South Africa, Russia and the Middle East + Iran, Israel and Turkey, are fast growing markets.
WE HELP READERS MAKE SMART TRAVEL CHOICES
As many as 96% of readers say Smart Travel Asia helps them make travel decisions after which 62% book through an online agent (OTA), 20% through an offline agent and 18% through a hotel website. High end and luxury product bookings do not commonly happen through a banner click as wealthy travellers tend to use their own trusted booking channels.
We are about quality not quantity. Our focus is on building brand equity for our partner advertisers, not just generating clicks. Research shows that pursuing clicks can be a wasteful and costly exercise. Masses of fake clicks are generated by "Click Farms" that pay bored housewives and students to earn money by clicking on advertising banners and links. Kids are clicky, mature bankers are not.
Luxury travellers do not simply click and book. The same is true of weddings and corporate meetings
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High Search Results and Direct Traffic
Smart Travel Asia and all individual articles on the site have high natural search engine rankings. We do not pay for links or visibility. And over 60% of our traffic is direct through bookmarks and our monthly newsletters. We also get referrals from social media of various kinds.
REFERRALS FROM PUBLICATIONS . AIRLINES . HOTELS
A great many readers are referred to us from international publications, airlines, and corporations. Our syndicated columns and reprints also appear in top newspapers and magazines around the Asian region with our URL prominently displayed
Reader Profile 2024: Travel and Purchase
According to our annual travel poll Jul-Sep 2024, Smart Travel Asia readers get their primary brand information online (94%). They are looking for trusted editorial reviews and research. As many as 95% of readers say Smart Travel Asia helps them narrow travel choices as a trusted information source that is not trying to sell any product.
Travel and lifestyle interests
Business travel remains strong though diminished post Covid. Top travel interests include, Food & Nightlife (72%), Culture/Heritage History (66%), Shopping (61%), Adventure/Nature (58%), Spas (52%), Child-friendly resorts (48%), Conference/Meetings (32%), Resort Weddings (30%), Golf (18%), Cruises (16%), Diving (16%), Casinos (8%).
Planned purchases next 12 months
Planned purchases include camera gear and phones (78%); luxury fashion (56%); cars (52%); city residences or holiday villas (48%); duty-free alcohol (38%); and medical tourism (22%).
What are they reading and for how long?
Reading times averages 3 minutes with visitors looking at an average 2.5 pages. The most time is spent on reccomendations and reviews.
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Advertising Products
Top Asian Hotels Collection page
Macau Showcase
Shanghai Showcase
BIG VISUAL SHOWCASES
With our long years of print magazine design experience, we are specialists at creating A4-friendly pages that download quickly, are elegant and visually eye-catching, and have the ability to print out easily anywhere in the world. We have moved to a larger (also printable) visually stronger format with more editorial space to present your story. This 'showcase' is sold in combination with banners that click in to these pages and/or with editorial lead-in buttons in key spots. It is written by a top editorial team and features professional photography.
See the elegant, informatively written, mobile-friendly Shanghai Bund Advertorial format and explore this special Macau Fun Advertorial. The writing and photography is of the highest international level with appeal for a discriminating audience.
TOP ASIAN HOTELS COLLECTION/ EDITORS' CHOICE
If your business hotel, spa, or resort has a unique story to tell and is hand-picked by our editors - for service, style, beauty, location - you might receive an invitation to our Top Asian Hotels Collection. This unique branding platform features an exclusive collection of Asia's best hotel products. We strongly recommend these to our readers. The section is prominently displayed on every page with a one-click drop-down menu. Invited hotels get a rotating image that features on every page of our website along with a link on the dropdown menu. The pages print out in excellent quality on A4 paper.
This section is the biggest single draw on our web magazine highlighting once again the huge reader demand for quality, and independent, hotel recommendation.
DISPLAY BOX . SKYSCRAPER . BANNER . CINEMA BANNER XL
Opt for prominently placed Display Boxes (Display Banners, rectangle, 300 x 250 pixels) or Skyscrapers (160 x 600 pixels vertical), for stylish, eye-catching animated messages. An ideal shape for fashion and luxury products.
Any advertising product can be placed on any page on the site, subject to space availability. In addition to our Cinema Banners (600 x 160 pixels horizontal) is our new Cinema Banner XL (Extra Large - featured here) format at 600 x 240 pixels, which visually dominates the page top (see accompanying Shanghai Tourism banner page top accompanied by an editorial lead-in button for the advertorial). The Cinema Banner XL works brilliantly for destination marketing and product display. The format is large enough to carry strong visual information - or text - and its position at the top of the page, running the entire width, ensures the message gets seen. Use this for brand building or exciting images showing new rooms, a new hotel, a new property, a shopping mall, or a new car line. There may be a surcharge for high-traffic premium pages.
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Advertising Positions & Rates (2025 Rates / US$)
Our rates are NETT. Any ad product can be placed on any page on the site, subject to space availability. There may be a loading fee for high-value pages with superior traffic.
ALL BANNERS ARE IN JPEG static image format and resiide on our international servers. Some formats may not be available.
Button: Left column, 130 x 130 pixels. US$3,000/ 30 days. Max file size 30kb.
Banner: Page top or in Text, 600 x 80 pixels, US$5,000/ 30 days. Max file size 40kb.
Display Box: Right Margin, US$6,000/ 30 days. 300 x 250 pixels. Max file 60kb.
Skyscraper/ Vertical Banner: Right margin, 160 x 600 pixels vertical. US$8,000/ 30 days. Max file size 60kb.
Cinema Banner: Page Top or in Text. Max file size 80kb, US$8,000 horizontal, 600x160 pixels, 30 days.
A Cinema Banner XL (Extra Large) format Page Top or in Text, is available at 600x240 pixels. This visually dominant product with a page-top placement is priced at US$9,000 for 30 days, We can provide an excellent package for this eye-catching product.
Advertorial: A printable, elegantly written, visually dominant in-magazine format to showcase destinations and products at a base rate of US$30,000 for one month. This is a long vertical format with larger font and an easy-to-read presentation. This comes in combination with Editorial Lead-in Buttons and other visibility enhancements on key pages relevant to the subject. This showcase is sold as a package for a brief or extended period.
Contact Us | Download Media Kit | The Luxury Pyramid | Brand is an Emotion | Brand vs ROI - Pick a Wife | Advertisers
PAYMENT DETAILS: Payment is expected in full within 15 days of uploading to our “live” sites of any particular product/ advertorial/ banner or button advertising. Bank Drafts or Telegraphic Transfers must be made payable to “DANCING WOLF MEDIA” at The Hongkong & Shanghai Banking Corporation Ltd, Hay Wah Building Branch, 71 Hennessy Rd, Wanchai, Hongkong, Account: 004-110-517331-001. Normal banner and button bookings/ cancellations 15 days prior to upload date. Special advertorial/ advertising bookings/ cancellations 30 days prior to upload or as specified in contract. All rates quoted here in Net US$.
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