Travel Trade Campaign: Travel Weekly & Aspire Magazine

European trade rarely get the chance to experience Hawaiʻi directly. Emotive Travel Marketing built a multi-year trade media programme with Travel Weekly and Aspire, then embedded a journalist on a luxury product manager FAM - so a single campaign delivered operator product, agent training and seven pages of trade editorial featuring first-hand accounts from those who attended, with solus emails hitting 29-31% open rates.

From one FAM seat to seven pages of trade coverage: amplifying an Oʻahu and Island of Hawaiʻi trade FAM through strategic, first-hand advocacy from tour operator product managers

Client: Hawaiʻi Tourism Authority 

Market: UK   

Timeframe: February 2025 - July 2026

Services: Trade Media Strategy · Trade Campaigns · FAM trips · Trade PR · Trade Training

Headline Results:

• Seven luxury product managers hosted alongside a trade journalist

• Five-page Aspire Kaua‘i feature

• Solus emails to 5,500 agents achieving 29-31% open rates and 700+ clicks

• FAM Two double-page hotel spreads

The Challenge:

UK agents rarely receive Hawaiʻi training, trade media is expensive, and FAM trips are the costliest tool in the box - run separately, all three can under-deliver. HTE needed each pound of trade investment to work more than once, keeping Hawaiʻi visible to agents through peak booking periods when formal training isn't possible.

Our Approach:

Rather than buying one-off placements, Emotive Travel Marketing built a multi-year, multi-format partnership with Travel Weekly and its luxury title Aspire - the UK trade's most trusted media. Paid campaigns were timed to quieter trade periods and integrated consumer themes, such as mālama, into the agent training programme. Then we put the partnership on a plane: embedding Travel Weekly journalist India-Jayne Trainor on the September luxury product manager FAM, so the same trip that built operator product also seeded long-form trade editorial - with sustained press office support turning the trip into coverage over the months that followed.

What We Did:

• Ran advertorial phases across Travel Weekly (circulation 10,725) and Aspire (6,500) with solus emails to 5,000 agents, timed to peak booking season (February–September 2025)
• Delivered a six-week multi-channel campaign (October–November 2025) promoting the Brand USA Hawaiʻi training module: competition page, rotating display, and three solus emails to ~5,500 agents each - with a mālama-themed competition question embedding Hawaiian values in trade education
• Hosted seven luxury product managers on the September Maui and Kauaʻi FAM - including ITC, Carrier, Scott Dunn, Windrose Finest Travel, America Unlimited/Feinreisen and Enchanting Travels - with India-Jayne covering the experience
• Curated FAM experiences that became editorial: Lydgate Farms' chocolate and honey tastings featured directly in the resulting Aspire coverage
• Provided ongoing press office support - fact-checking, imagery, follow-up - converting the FAM into publication

Results:

Trade: Solus emails achieved 29-31% open rates with 700+ combined clicks; Run of Site banners over-delivered at 76,551 impressions; the training competition drew 110 agent entries. The FAM sat within a 2025 programme that generated 72 new operator products against a target of 7.

PR: Two major features by India-Jayne Trainor: a five-page Kauaʻi feature in Aspire (Issue 66, March 2026) with double-page spreads on 1 Hotel Hanalei Bay and Montage Kapalua Bay — including an 'Ask the Expert' from FAM participant Helen Tabois of Elegant Resorts - and a Travel Weekly Maui feature (July 2026).

Explore another Hawaiʻi success story: Aloha Europe! Hawai‘i Tourism Europe Roadshow

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