Emirates has won Gold in the inaugural Best Travel, Leisure & Experience Campaign category at the 2026 Global Performance Marketing Awards.
The airline was recognised as the first-ever winner of the award for transforming its affiliate marketing programme in Asia Pacific (APAC). The region is one of the world’s most competitive travel markets, where online travel agencies, airlines, and travel agents all compete for the same affiliate partners.
Emirates rebuilt its affiliate marketing programme by shifting from broad publisher volumes to a refined partner base that works harder without sacrificing efficiency. The carrier strengthened direct relationships, focused investments where they delivered the greatest impact, and expanded into new affiliate partner categories. As a result, its revenue growth from performance marketing in APAC rose by 31% in a single year.
At Emirates, performance marketing operates as a strategic engine for customer growth rather than merely a marketing channel. An internal team of specialists combines channel expertise with advanced analytics, attribution, customer insights, and rich first-party data, maintaining a consistent focus on driving incremental revenue, customer quality, and lifetime value.
Boutros Boutros, Executive Vice President of Corporate Communications, Marketing & Brand for Emirates Group, said: “We’re proud to be recognised at the Global Performance Marketing Awards. This accolade underscores the team’s commitment to delivering real value for our customers and for the business. Performance marketing is a fundamental commercial growth driver for Emirates, and the team’s rigorous, data-led approach, combined with smart automation, delivers substantial value back to the business. Their success is driven by clear strategy, well-defined objectives, and disciplined execution, and we’ve improved both the quality of our bookings and revenue outcomes in APAC. It’s a win-win, and congratulations to all the teams involved.”
Emirates’ performance marketing at a glance
A core team in Dubai covers affiliate marketing, paid search, and metasearch, supported by more than 60 digital marketing colleagues and hundreds of partners globally. Together, these three channels deliver more than a third of new customers acquired through emirates.com.
The team manages strategy and execution for over 5,000 always-on campaigns worldwide across search engines, flight search websites, and affiliate marketing partners. Big data from partners powers this always-on engine and guides strategic investment decisions supporting more than 4,000 routes across 80 markets.
High levels of automation and strict processes allow the team to operate at this scale while keeping decisions consistent, with dedicated specialists across each discipline ensuring best-in-class execution and governance.
Exclusive partnerships enable Emirates to bring industry-first and industry-leading advertising solutions to market.