Mars Announces Partnership with Tripadvisor, Creating Better Pet Travel Experiences

Listen to this article

Mars Incorporated, a global leader in pet care products and services, confectionery, snacking and food and the maker of some of the world’s most-loved brands, has today announced a partnership with Tripadvisor, the world’s largest travel guidance platform, kicking off in the U.S. market with plans for future global expansion. Through a new co-branded digital hub, consumers will be inspired by and connected to pet-friendly communities across Tripadvisor’s platform, while businesses will be encouraged to realize the cultural, well-being and financial benefits of becoming pet-friendly. Despite 73 percent of US Tripadvisor users owning pets^[2], less than 1 percent^[3] of Tripadvisor’s U.S. restaurants are currently listed as pet-friendly, demonstrating a huge need for more pet-friendly businesses.

The collaboration furthers the broader Mars Petcare purpose: A BETTER WORLD FOR PETS, and the CESAR brand’s commitment to making the world a more dog-friendly place, by improving the experience of traveling with pets at every step of the journey. It’s the result of a significant investment from Mars to accelerate the digital transformation of its pet nutrition business to meet the needs of the increasingly ‘always-connected’ pet parent.

“At Mars, we’re dedicated to becoming the most digitally enabled, pet parent-centric organization, which means collaborating with innovators like Tripadvisor to transform the pet parent experience,” said Natalia Ball, global chief growth officer of Mars Pet Nutrition. “This partnership cements our commitment to supporting pet parent communities, using our unmatched expertise, knowledge and relationship with over 400 million pets and their pet parents who purchase our products every year.”

Shaping the future of pet-friendly travel 

Travel remains a highly researched topic for today’s pet owner – in the U.S., “pet travel” is searched on Google over 19 million times annually^[4], yet it remains one of the biggest pain points. The same data found pet parents only take a vacation ‘once every few years’ or less because of pets and 33 percent of pet parents have actually altered travel plans because of difficulty traveling with them. In addition, of the 746,000 U.S. restaurants on Tripadvisor, only 5,000 – less than 1 percent – are listed as pet friendly.

The partnership serves to help bridge this gap, using digital technology to connect consumers with pet-friendly options, helping to guarantee a better travel experience for pets, their parents, and the businesses that want to support them. Partnership features include:

• A new consumer hub, available online or through Tripadvisor’s mobile app, offering a one-stop resource for pet-friendly travel. Specifically:
  –  City guides developed in partnership with CESAR, featuring pet-friendly travel tips and attractions in BETTER CITIES FOR PETS-certified U.S. cities, including Miami, Austin, Nashville, Phoenix, Palm Springs, with plans to expand globally.
  – An enhanced AI Trip Builder for users to build a pet-friendly trip in minutes with a personalized itinerary guided by traveler tips and reviews.
• A hub for businesses to discover the benefits of welcoming pets, including how to become pet friendly on Tripadvisor, how to accommodate pets, and how to ensure consumers know that they can visit with their animal companion.
• The launch of a new coveted Travelers’ Choice Best of the Best Award category, Pet-Friendly Hotels, with Hotel Fioreze Quero Quero in Brazil named the world’s most pet-friendly, and Hyatt Centric Las Olas Fort Lauderdale in Florida taking the title in the U.S.

“We know our travelers love their pets and are looking for hotel and restaurant recommendations to make sure they can enjoy every part of their adventure together,” says Christine Maguire, global vice president of sales and partnerships, Tripadvisor. “Through this partnership, we’re streamlining the journey for those who want to bring their pet along, helping them create lifelong memories – while encouraging and supporting the growth of pet-friendly businesses.”

The CESAR brand made a commitment in 2022 to make the world a dog-friendly place, so that people and their pets can always be together. The brand marks this commitment by partnering with Tripadvisor on the launch of the new Traveler’s Choice Pet-Friendly Hotel award category for 2024. The top pet-friendly hotel in the world was named Hotel Fioreze Quero Quero in Brazil, which boasts over two acres of open space for pet parents and their four-legged friends to explore. The No. 1 pet-friendly hotel in the U.S. is the Hyatt Centric Las Olas Fort Lauderdale in Florida, which allows pets on every floor and in the outdoor garden sitting area.

^[1] Infogroup, Google search data 2023, OnePoll
^[2] GWI; US based TA users; 2023
^[3] Tripadvisor internal data
^[4] Infogroup, Google search data 2023, OnePoll