What do the 2025 email figures say about the travel industry?
The latest email benchmark travel industry has been published. The Deployteq Benchmark 2026 provides insight into email marketing performance in 2025. For the travel industry, we see a number of interesting shifts: a strong improvement in deliverability, rising open rates once again, a changing send time, but also a decline in CTR.
What do these figures mean in concrete terms? And more importantly: where do the opportunities lie for 2026? We have listed the most important insights for you.
Key figures from the email benchmark travel industry
Delivery rate increases: attention to deliverability pays off
Despite tightened regulations and stricter inbox filters, the delivery rate in the travel industry rose to 99.70% in 2025 (vs. 99.53% in 2024). This is an important development. Furthermore, the increase shows that organisations in the travel industry are becoming increasingly conscious of:
- Better database hygiene
- Tighter opt-in processes
- Reputation management
- Technical optimisation (SPF, DKIM, DMARC)
As a result, emails are reaching the inbox more reliably than ever before.
Open ratio continues to rise
The open rate rises further to 56.91% in 2025 (54.66% in 2024). However, the travel industry lags slightly behind the average across all sectors (59.7% in 2025 vs. 53.1% in 2024).
This increase does require some nuance. Automatic opens (such as via Apple Mail Privacy Protection) are included in these figures. As a result, the open rate can give a distorted picture of actual engagement. In Deployteq, you can distinguish between these by looking at the ‘Corrected Open Rate’ in Analytics — only opens that can be reliably measured are shown there.
Therefore, it is important to:
- Analyse your own database
- Combine opens with click behaviour
- Use an internal benchmark while continuously monitoring automatic opens
The open rate remains relevant, but is no longer the sole measure of success.
Best send day shifts back to Thursday
The day on which the most emails are opened within the travel industry is once again Thursday in 2025. In 2024, this was Friday, and in 2023, it was also Thursday.
Looking sector-wide, we see little difference between Monday and Thursday. In contrast, Friday and the weekend continue to score clearly lower in terms of open rate.
Sending time shifts to 14:00
A striking development highlighted in this email benchmark travel industry report concerns the send time. While 16:00 was previously the dominant time, we now see a shift towards 14:00 in the travel industry. Sector-wide, 16:00 remains the most popular time, but on average, the travel industry is most active somewhat earlier in the afternoon. This shows that send times are not static — what was optimal last year may shift this year.
Important to remember: the most popular day and/or time is not automatically the best moment for your organisation. Deviating from the crowd can actually lead to greater visibility in the inbox.
CTR drops to 4.3%
While the open rate is rising, the CTR is declining. After strong growth in 2024 (5.3%), the CTR drops to 4.3% in 2025. As a result, the travel industry is performing below the average across all sectors (5.4%).
According to the email benchmark travel industry, the possible causes are:
- More opens without actual click intent, or a higher share of automatically opened emails
- Higher competition in the inbox
- Content that sparks curiosity but is less activating
The gap between opening and clicking is widening. And that means it is even more important to be relevant — for instance by adding segmentation based on booking behaviour and interests.
What the email benchmark travel industry means for your 2026 strategy
Compared to last year, the email benchmark travel industry shows a clear shift. The Benchmark 2026 paints the following picture:
- Deliverability improves — technical optimisation and database hygiene are paying off
- Open rate increases — but also measure your corrected open rate
- Send time evolves — test Thursday at 14:00 as a starting point
- CTR declines — invest in more relevant, activating content and segmentation
Conclusion: from visibility to activation
The travel industry continues to perform strongly in email marketing. Inboxes are being reached effectively and emails are opened frequently. As a result, email marketing remains indispensable in your marketing strategy. However, the declining CTR shows that attention alone is not enough. The email benchmark travel industry 2025 confirms that deliverability is receiving more focus — and the next step is clear: from being visible to prompting action.
Curious how your figures compare to the benchmark? Dive into your reports or contact us — we would be happy to help you identify your optimization opportunities.
