International arrival numbers into the USA remain below desired levels, and both FY26 and FY27 are expected to stay challenging for many tour operator partners — though this pressure is concentrated in the first-time USA traveler segment and traditional gateway destinations.
The Travel South region instead attracts a more experienced, well-traveled Benelux audience, often visiting the USA for a third or fourth time, who are more destination-focused, less swayed by short-term political developments, and continue to value the region’s culture, authenticity, landscapes, and experiences — keeping interest in the region relatively stable. A weaker euro has reduced the effective value of the available marketing budget, so the FY26-27 strategy is deliberately more selective: stepping back from routine recurring events and traditional activations in favor of fewer, longer-term trade and consumer tools designed to keep generating value well beyond a single campaign period.
The centerpiece of the plan is a partnership with Travel Diaries, a Dutch digital travel-journal platform founded by a National Geographic journalist, combining online and print-style storytelling. The collaboration includes a dedicated Travel South landing page and branded e-book of destination inspiration, plus a Travel South chapter within Travel Diaries’ broader “Unique Destinations” e-book, with bookable product woven in through the region’s Ambassador Tour Operators (UStravel, Aeroglobe, AmerikaNu.nl, and Connections) to keep the content inspirational while still driving conversion. This is supported by a year-round Benelux trade and PR newsletter distributed across all GPP states, ongoing organic and lightly boosted Facebook and Instagram content, a product inventory survey benchmarking which Benelux operators currently sell TSUSA product, continued (but more selective) membership in the Visit USA Belgium and Visit USA Netherlands associations, and sponsorship of Joker Reizen’s Reisbeurs trade show to reach its well-traveled attendee base through a branded booth, agent training, and dedicated presentation.
Across these initiatives, the throughline is authenticity, culture, and experience-led travel — themes chosen to resonate with a repeat-visitor audience already primed to trust the South over first-time-traveler gateway cities. Success will be tracked through newsletter open rates for both trade and media audiences, the reach and readership generated by the Travel Diaries e-book campaign, growth in the number of operators offering and expanding Travel South product and itinerary diversity through the product survey, and engagement outcomes from the Joker Reisbeurs sponsorship — together giving the market a leaner, more strategically targeted program built for durability rather than short-term visibility.
