ABTA – The Travel Association today unveiled a programme of new consumer engagement activity to raise awareness of the ABTA brand amongst 18-34 year olds. The activity aims to engage with consumers by focusing on the inspirational and fun aspects of travel.  Over the summer ABTA will be running a variety of different initiatives targeting various segments of the 18-34 year old market, including students and young families.

Activity will initially focus on a face-to-face engagement programme that aims to reach in excess of 15,000 students. Beginning at Portsmouth University on Friday 1st June, ABTA and its Members (Real Gap, Tucan Travel, STA Travel and eufest) will be attending three university summer festival events with a view to educating students about the ABTA brand in an exciting and inspiring way. At the events students will be able to take part in fun experiences, such as a climbing wall, as well as meet ABTA and ABTA Member representatives to learn more about the brands. The events will be supported by posters, flyers and on- and off-line peer-to-peer student promotion.

All activities will direct consumers back to ABTA’s new Love Travel Facebook page, launched today: www.facebook.com/abtalovetravel. The Facebook page, which will be supported by online advertising, aims to create an ongoing dialogue between ABTA and consumers by offering ideas, inspiration and travel tips.

Further campaign activities are being planned for later in the summer to specifically target young families.

Victoria Bacon, Head of Communications ABTA said: “ABTA has very strong brand recognition among all consumer age groups.  Research shows that they tend to associate us very strongly with values of trust, security and authority.  ABTA stands for choice and expertise as well as protection, and this is a message that resonates particularly strongly with younger audiences. The aim of this campaign is to raise brand awareness of ABTA’s offer to consumers, highlight the huge variety of our Membership and encourage people to look for the ABTA logo when they book. We hope as many Members as possible will ‘like’ us on Facebook and get involved.”