Mobile ad network operator Millennial Media released its latest SMART report, outlining advertising trends in the travel industry – one of the fastest growing verticals in this space.

The travel industry is currently the third biggest spender on Millennial’s network behind telecommunications and finance, and is also holding on to the third spot in the fastest growing verticals category.  Spending increased by 200 percent year over year.

Millennial broke down these numbers a bit: 57 percent of marketers’ ad budget went to the ‘Booking Agents and Sites’ sub-category, while 18 went into “Hotels, Resorts and Cruise Lines” and 11 percent was spent on “Airlines.”

These categories align relatively well with the leading sectors on the consumer end. While the very top of the list is dominated by personal e-mail, social media and e-mail, the fourth most popular activity among  mobile travelers is searching for local hotspots – about 62 percent of them do. Fifty five and fifty-four percent search for entertainment in hotels and while traveling, respectively, and at the same time 27 percent of travelers make reservations for hotels and attractions. Only 24 book flights ahead of time.

Some interesting side notes – Millennial also says that sustained in-market presence was the leading goal among advertisers by a “large margin”, and business travelers seem to be the favored audience. The travel industry has certainly come a long way since last year.

Back then, SiliconANGLE editor Kristen Nicole posted a piece rightfully entitled “Mobile Travel: An Industry That Doesn’t Yet Know Itself”. The technology was already here but the pieces simply wouldn’t come together, because travel agencies were still getting used to the idea of users planning out their trips from within their smartphones. Mobile wasn’t considered a viable medium yet, and it took travel portals a while to expand to the new platforms that this trend introduced.