Emirates has won Gold in the inaugural Best Travel, Leisure & Experience Campaign category at the 2026 Global Performance Marketing Awards, the airline said in a press release.

The airline said it was recognised for overhauling its affiliate marketing programme in Asia Pacific, a market it described as highly competitive, with online travel agencies, airlines, and travel agents all vying for the same affiliate partners.

Emirates said it shifted from broad publisher volumes to a smaller group of partners, strengthened direct relationships, focused spending on the areas with the greatest impact and added new categories of affiliate partner. It said revenue growth from performance marketing in Asia Pacific rose 31 percent in a single year as a result of this.

“Performance marketing is a fundamental commercial growth driver for Emirates,” said Boutros Boutros, Executive Vice President for Corporate Communications, Marketing & Brand at the Emirates Group. He said the team’s data-led approach had improved both the quality of bookings and revenue outcomes in the Asia Pacific region.

Emirates said a core team in Dubai runs its performance marketing, covering affiliate marketing, paid search, and metasearch. The team is supported by more than 60 digital marketing colleagues and hundreds of partners worldwide. The airline said these three channels deliver more than a third of new customers acquired through emirates.com.

It said the team manages more than 5,000 always-on campaigns across search engines, flight search sites, and affiliate partners, supporting more than 4,000 routes in 80 markets.

The awards recognise work that drives measurable growth across performance and partnership marketing, according to the release. It said entries are scored independently by multiple senior judges from brands, agencies, and publishers on strategic clarity, quality of execution, partnership collaboration, and commercial impact.

The release added that the win follows Emirates’ shortlisting for Best Use of Search (Travel/Leisure) at the Global Search Awards.

Source: PR