Virgin Australia has launched a new Travel Media Network giving advertisers access to almost 21 million annual customers, as News Australia unveils a refreshed travel offering and doubles down on AI-powered planning tools.
The announcements were made at News Australia’s Travel Upfront in Sydney on Tuesday night, the fourth of five sessions in the publisher’s Beyond’27 intelligence series.
The event centred on a rapidly changing travel landscape, with News Australia arguing that while AI is making it easier for consumers to research and plan holidays, brands now need to build trust and be remembered long before travellers type their first search query.
The biggest commercial announcement of the evening came from Virgin Australia, which has partnered with content agency Suddenly to launch its new Travel Media Network. Suddenly will manage sales for the new media network, too.
The network will give brands access to Virgin Australia’s customers across digital, airport lounges, in-flight and experiential channels.
More than 300,000 people visit Virgin Australia lounges every month across seven major city airports, spending an average of 70 minutes there. The network will also extend across Virgin Australia’s website and app, reaching more than three million monthly visitors, while in-flight WiFi sponsorships and targeted emails are also on the roadmap.
Brands will additionally be able to activate through pop-up experiences, sampling hubs and major cultural moments.
Virgin Australia chief marketing and sustainability officer Libby Minogue said the airline had an enormous number of touchpoints with customers throughout their journey.
“When I look at the touch points in the airline journey, whether it’s through digital booking, through to getting to the airport, going into the lounge, you’re at the gate, you’re on board, you leave the airport, there are so many opportunities to engage with consumers in each of those spaces,” she told the audience.
Virgin carried around 21 million passengers last year, while one in five Australian households is a member of its Velocity Frequent Flyer network.
But Minogue said the network would be about more than simply putting advertising in front of a captive audience.
“This is around improving the experience,” she said. “We want to partner with the right brands that are contextually relevant, that add value for our guests and our travellers.”
The Virgin announcement came alongside News Australia’s own major travel overhaul.
The publisher has launched a refreshed News Travel Network, bringing Escape, news.com.au, Travel + Luxury and The Australian together under one editorial vision led by head of travel Kerrie McCallum.
News also announced Escape’s integration into the news.com.au ecosystem, with the publisher targeting a 45 per cent increase in its travel-intender audience.
AI will also play a major role. Escape’s Ask Skye is evolving from a conversational assistant into an interactive visual travel planner, allowing users to build itineraries and filter them by factors including budget, flight duration and weather. During its beta phase, 40 per cent of users who engaged with the tool generated tailored itineraries, News said during the Upfront.
Other announcements included Platinum Escape, a new quarterly glossy magazine, expanded episodic travel video programming and a Global Private Marketplace connecting advertisers with audiences across titles including The Wall Street Journal, The Times, The Sun and the New York Post.
Why Human Expertise Will Always Be Prioritised, According To News
While AI featured heavily throughout the event, News Australia’s argument was not that technology would replace travel experts and journalists. Quite the opposite.
McCallum said travellers were increasingly surrounded by generic and synthetic content, making genuine expertise more valuable.
“Anyone can ask AI for an itinerary, but a machine can’t feel the magic of a hidden boutique hotel or know if an airline upgrade is actually worth your points,” she said.
“In a world flooded with synthetic and generic content, travellers aren’t looking for more noise. They are looking for a trusted guide.”
News Australia is leaning into AI rather than avoiding it, but McCallum said Ask Skye would be built on the publisher’s own tested and first-person editorial content.
“We aren’t running away from it,” she said. “In fact, we’re harnessing it to help travellers plan with confidence.”
For News, AI is not replacing the human element.
“AI isn’t replacing human curation, it’s making it priceless,” McCallum said.
That same message was echoed by Minogue, who said trust was central to Virgin Australia’s marketing strategy and customer experience.
Virgin Australia was recently named Roy Morgan’s Most Trusted Travel and Tourism Brand for the fourth consecutive year.
“Trust is one of our core metrics,” Minogue said. “It’s really important to us that people trust Virgin Australia and they trust the experience when it comes end-to-end.”
So What Does The Data Show?
Before the announcements, The Growth Distillery general manager Leigh Lavery shared new research into how Australians are making travel decisions.
His key message was that travel was no longer simply about whether Australians wanted to go away.
“Beyond 2027, travel is no longer a demand story; it’s a confidence story,” Lavery said.
One in five Australians expect to spend less on travel, while three in four plan to maintain or increase their spending.
“Wanting to go has never been the question,” Lavery said. “Believing it’s the right call is.”
That confidence is becoming increasingly difficult to build as consumers are faced with more information, recommendations and AI-generated answers than ever before.
Two in three travellers want a travel agent involved in at least some of their planning, while one in four are more likely to use one because of AI.
Meanwhile, travellers who actually become confident in their decision consume 4.4 times more travel editorial while dreaming than those who remain hesitant.
“Confidence isn’t generated,” Lavery said. “It’s built in trusted environments.”
The research also revealed how AI is changing the traditional marketing funnel.
Sixty per cent of Australians would consider using AI for travel, with 38 per cent using it for research and 22 per cent for evaluating options.
However, just 15 per cent turn to AI when dreaming about their next holiday.
That, News Australia argues, is where brands can still win.
“AI is compressing the funnel,” Lavery said. “The brands that only fight for the last click become the easiest to replace.”
Instead, he said brands needed to build memory earlier.
“Beyond 2027, travel brands won’t just compete to be found,” he said. “They’ll compete to be remembered.”
The research also challenged assumptions around the valuable 55-plus market. Under-55s are currently 3.5 times more likely to use AI for travel planning than over-55s, meaning the next generation of older travellers will be far more digitally confident than advertisers may expect.
“The future high-value 55-plus traveller is going to be digitally fluent and AI-assisted,” Lavery said. “But importantly, not the dreaming or the decision.”
‘Advertisers Are Going To Jump On In’
Media agencies B&T spoke with at the event were enthusiastic about the new opportunities, particularly Virgin Australia’s Travel Media Network.
Nunn Media senior account manager Julia Medvedeva said the refreshed News Travel Network would help create more streamlined planning and execution across the publisher’s travel brands.
But she was particularly excited by the Virgin Australia announcement.
“This is going to bring incremental opportunities to reach an audience who probably we’re already talking to, but in a different environment, in a new touchpoint, maybe with a slightly different messaging,” she told B&T.
“We know that adding incremental channels boosts overall performance results, so that is exciting.”
While she acknowledged there were similar environments already in the market, Medvedeva said more choice was positive for advertisers.
“The more options there are in the market, the better because not everything suits every player,” she said.
And when asked whether advertisers would actually spend on the new network, she was bullish.
“Travel in general is a highly competitive category,” she said. “There is ongoing demand for new opportunities to stand out. To be honest, I think advertisers are going to jump on anything new.”
Medvedeva added that the backing of both News Australia and Virgin Australia would make the opportunity particularly compelling.
This Is Flow senior account manager Brandon Bodon shared a similarly positive view.
“I think it’s really exciting,” he told B&T. “I like what they said in there around if your brand’s not going to be there, your competitors will be. It’s very true”
However, Bodon said adoption could vary between advertisers, particularly in an increasingly fragmented media market.
“With anything big and bold launching, you’ll probably only find the most ambitious clients,” he said. “Mid- to lower-tier spenders would probably be a bit more cautious and almost hold off until they see some proven results.”
The same applied to News Australia’s growing AI ambitions.
Bodon said he was keen to see more hard data demonstrating the impact of the new technology before advertisers fully embraced new formats.
Medvedeva, meanwhile, said she was particularly interested to see how Ask Skye developed.
“We’re all very curious about that,” she said.
But she believes the technology could give News Australia’s existing editorial content an entirely new role.
“A lot of that is going to come to fruition or almost get a second life through this chatbot,” she said. “And I think as a result, it could result in a very powerful future.”
