Tourism Social Media Campaigns

Here’s my hack to use ChatGPT to create industry-specific insights from a dense study: This research offers a framework to optimize online content for generative search - a question I’m asked a lot! I pasted the link into Chat (paid version) and asked, “What could a destination marketing organization do to capitalize on these findings?” The output was four broad approaches suggested by the study to use stats and attribution to improve credibility with generative search engines. I then asked Chat to break down each of the approaches into actionable steps for a DMO: ✨ Identify High-Interest Topics: Research frequently asked questions about the destination that travelers often seek. Use tools like Google Trends, keyword research platforms, or insights from social media and travel forums. ✨ Incorporate Clear, Reliable Citations: Ensure all facts, statistics, and claims are backed by reputable sources. Generative engines favor content with authoritative references, so use links to official sites, government data, or well-regarded publications. ✨ Use Structured Data: Implement schema markup on your web pages. For DMOs, relevant schemas might include “TouristDestination,” “Event,” or “Place.” Structured data improves how well content is indexed and featured in GEs. ✨ Create Data-Rich and Visual Content: Include statistics about visitor numbers, spending, or local trends that GEs could pull directly into results. Visual elements like graphs or maps can be described with alt text to enhance GE indexing. Give this a shot and let me know how it turns out - and try asking for specific examples for your destination or business! #destinationmarketing

𝗬𝗼𝘂 𝗛𝗮𝘃𝗲 𝟭.𝟯 𝗦𝗲𝗰𝗼𝗻𝗱𝘀 𝗼𝗳 𝗔𝘁𝘁𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻. 𝗪𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗪𝗶𝗹𝗹 𝗬𝗼𝘂 𝗗𝗼 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵 𝗜𝘁?   We are living in what some call the "𝗮𝗴𝗲 𝗼𝗳 𝗶𝗻𝗳𝗶𝗻𝗶𝘁𝗲 𝗰𝗼𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗻𝘁".  Everything is competing for your attention, your feed, your inbox, your lock screen, and even your smart fridge and TV.   While these things do contribute to making life a bit easier, the average digital attention span is now under 5 seconds. And for brands, this isn’t just a creative challenge. It’s a question of “𝘩𝘰𝘸 𝘧𝘢𝘴𝘵 𝘤𝘢𝘯 𝘐 𝘨𝘳𝘢𝘣 𝘮𝘺 𝘶𝘴𝘦𝘳’𝘴 𝘢𝘵𝘵𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯?”   Because if attention is the new currency, earning it requires more than budget or hashtags. It requires cultural awareness, creative discipline, emotional precision and a tad bit of agility. This is where the moment marketing comes into play.   What is moment marketing? It’s the ability to read the cultural room, to understand what people are seeing, feeling, reacting to, and connect with that moment authentically, not opportunistically. Done poorly, it feels like a brand trying too hard to be “relatable.” Done well, it earns relevance without shouting for it.   And in India, one of the best examples of this isn’t a global brand or a consumer app. It’s Kerala Tourism’s social media strategy. A few months ago, when a UK F-35 fighter jet got stranded in Thiruvananthapuram, most brands ignored it. Some joked, some retweeted the news headlines.   But Kerala Tourism’s social team turned it into a hospitality headline. And this isn’t a one-off social post that they’ve done. Over the years, Kerala Tourism has: ●    Referenced Netflix hits to promote offbeat destinations ●    Tapped into Onam nostalgia with visuals that feel like poetry ●    Created pop-culture references that feel rooted in their voice, not borrowed from Twitter Their moment marketing strategy is not simply about taking advantage of the trends, but truly connecting with the audience.   Moment marketing isn’t just about how fast you adapt to the trends in your social campaigns. It’s about readiness combined with creative, cultural, and emotional resonance. When was the last time a brand’s post made you pause and check them out in detail? #brand #marketing #innovation

Most destinations don’t have a marketing problem. They have an attention problem. If I became the Director of Marketing for a destination tomorrow, I wouldn’t tweak a few things. I’d burn the playbook and rebuild from zero. DMO marketing is too safe, too slow, too predictable, and totally out of sync with how people travel today. Before anything else, this should be number one, but it’s not even on the list. It’s an automatic. I’d start with the team. I’d learn who I’m working with, what drives them, and what they’re best at. I’d build a family culture, not a corporate one. A team that trusts each other moves like one unit. That’s the real engine behind everything else. Then I’d do this: 1️⃣ Build a storytelling machine. Most DMOs push promos, not stories. I’d build a content engine that shows real people, real flavors, real emotion. People don’t love places because of brochures. They love them because of how they feel. 2️⃣ Turn the destination into a media brand. Think like a creator, not a committee. Daily short videos, raw moments, behind the scenes. Stop whispering. Start broadcasting. 3️⃣ Own the story before OTAs do. If a traveler’s first touch is a third party, the DMO already lost. Show up first. Be louder. Be real. 4️⃣ Activate local voices. Locals beat influencers every time. Build an ambassador program. Turn locals into storytellers. 5️⃣ Invest in media libraries. Every strong destination needs content on demand. Drone shots, vertical clips, photos, emotional soundbites. Stop begging. Own it. 6️⃣ Post daily. Not weekly. Not monthly. Daily. Marketing a destination isn’t a campaign. It’s a conversation. And conversations don’t happen once a week. 7️⃣ Master platform psychology. What works on Instagram won’t work on LinkedIn. TikTok isn’t YouTube. Speak the native language of every platform. 8️⃣ Use emotion, not just strategy. Travel is a feeling. It’s desire, belonging, curiosity, status. Win hearts first, wallets second. 9️⃣ Make the data sexy. Data isn’t paperwork. It’s power. It shows trends early and makes every dollar hit harder. You can’t grow what you don’t measure. 🔟 Think lifetime, not one trip. Every traveler is a future guest, fan, and megaphone. Build retention, not just reach. This isn’t about being louder. It’s about being sharper, faster, more human. If DMOs want to win, they need to act less like governments and more like media companies. Attention is the new currency. Destinations that get it will own the future. --- If you like the way I look at the world of hospitality, let’s chat: scott@mrscotteddy.com

While the travel industry races to dominate Instagram and TikTok, many sustainable travel brands, especially those who are unbranded, local or community-driven are missing out on a quieter but incredibly powerful platform: 𝐏𝐢𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐭. Unlike traditional social media, Pinterest isn’t designed for likes or virality. It’s a visual search engine where users go to plan their lives, not scroll through them. And that’s precisely why it’s one of the most aligned platforms for sustainable tourism. Pinterest is where people search for how they want to travel, not who they want to travel with. And here’s where it gets interesting: as of now, 96% of all searches on Pinterest are unbranded. That means users are typing in things like “eco retreats in Latin America”, “cultural trips for women”, or “offbeat travel experiences” not company names. This creates a rare opportunity for grassroots, regenerative, and offbeat tour operators to be discovered without needing global recognition or massive ad budgets. 𝟏. 𝐏𝐢𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐭 𝐖𝐨𝐫𝐤𝐬 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐔𝐧𝐛𝐫𝐚𝐧𝐝𝐞𝐝 In a space where big OTAs (online travel agencies) dominate Google and social algorithms, Pinterest flips the script. The fact that almost every search is unbranded makes it the perfect discovery tool for small, community-rooted experiences from a women-led trek in Morocco to a seaweed-foraging tour in Chile. If your brand centers around values instead of volume, Pinterest is your space. 𝟐. 𝐈𝐭 𝐑𝐞𝐚𝐜𝐡𝐞𝐬 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐑𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭 𝐀𝐠𝐞 𝐆𝐫𝐨𝐮𝐩 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐒𝐮𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐢𝐧𝐚𝐛𝐥𝐞 𝐓𝐫𝐚𝐯𝐞𝐥 Pinterest’s core users are women aged 25-44, many of whom are sustainability-conscious, wellness-driven, and in a phase of life where they’re actively planning meaningful travel solo retreats, family holidays, cultural immersions or low-impact honeymoons. These women are not just dreaming, they’re deciding. This demographic is increasingly steering tourism demand toward slower, greener, and more inclusive experiences. 𝟑. 𝐘𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐂𝐨𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐒𝐭𝐚𝐲𝐬 𝐕𝐢𝐬𝐢𝐛𝐥𝐞 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐘𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐬 One of Pinterest’s biggest advantages is how content remains evergreen. A post today about “regenerative farming stays in Portugal” can resurface six months or even six years later and still drive traffic. This is vastly different from platforms where visibility dies within hours. Plus, Pinterest doesn’t rely on followers. It's driven by visual design and keyword search, meaning anyone can get visibility with the right content strategy. If you're a sustainable travel brand or tour operator especially one focused on authenticity, culture, and community. Pinterest could be your most impactful channel. The conscious traveler is already out there, searching. Pinterest is where many of them begin that journey.

A few years ago, before AI exploded, I had a thesis about social commerce in travel, but I was wrong. I was convinced that social media would become the singular point of sale for travel. People would see the destination, share it with their decision-making circle, and as the platforms are so easy to use, that would be it. Booking done. By analysing Chinese traveller and social media behaviour (Little Red Book and Mafengwo specifically) I thought it was only a matter of time before the rest of the travel world adopted social commerce like they had. But that hasn’t really happened at scale, and I think a lot about why. It’s obvious that because travel is one of the most considered purchases a consumer will make, taking up to 69 days to go from inspiration to booking, and the complexities that exist around booking haven’t been overcome by the ease of use of social, but maybe there’s another bigger factor that I hadn’t considered. This year social media and AI together have become a far more effective sales engine, collapsing the funnel and flipping the old search-dominated model on its head. At Beautiful Destinations, we’ve been watching this play out with interest. Travel CMOs that are seeing the best results are the ones that are building full-journey content systems that answer practical questions at each stage, giving consumers the confidence they need to move from discovery to booking in these new channels. These leaders are: - Creating video content based on trending searches in AI - ⁠Making video itineraries from social listening & social trend data   - Partnering deeper with OTAs & B2B travel tech providers on products that build on social search, like Expedia Group’s Trip Matching or TikTok Go with Booking.com. So the question for every travel marketer today is: are you building content for this new customer journey or are you doing what you’ve always done? If you’re building social content without thinking about its role in the rest of the decision-making journey, you’re handing the advantage to those that understand how AI and social media together are changing traveller behaviour. The opportunity is shifting to a completely different way of selling travel. I’d love to hear from travel marketers who are exploring this space. Are you seeing what we are? Any insights or ideas you can share?

🌴 Instagram and TikTok together account for 60% of reported social media usage by international visitors to Bali That matters because Bali is no longer being discovered primarily through traditional destination marketing. It is being discovered visually, socially and algorithmically. For Bali’s visitor economy, this changes the strategic playing field. Social media is no longer just a promotional channel. It is where destination perception is formed, where expectations are created, and where the visitor journey often begins long before the booking is made. For hotels, this has direct commercial implications. A guest may first see Bali through a reel, a creator post, a hotel visual, a wellness experience, a restaurant moment or a short-form video of a beach club, villa, temple, waterfall or sunset. But that attention does not automatically convert into direct booking. This is where the commercial challenge begins. If hotels are visible on social media but weak in conversion, the value can leak into OTAs, aggregators and competing properties. In that case, the hotel may help create the desire, but someone else captures the transaction. The implication is that hotel content strategy must move beyond attractive imagery. The winning hotels will be those that build a clear narrative around: ◾ why the guest should stay here, not just visit Bali; ◾ what experience the property owns; ◾ how the stay fits into the guest’s identity, lifestyle or purpose; ◾ why booking direct creates additional value; ◾ and how the digital promise is delivered on property. For Bali, this is especially important because its core visitor appeal remains place-based: nature, culture, hospitality and lifestyle. Hotels that can translate these destination assets into credible, ownable guest experiences will be better positioned to defend rate, improve conversion and reduce dependency on intermediated demand. The next phase of hotel competitiveness in Bali will not be won by properties that simply post more content. It will be won by those that understand the full pathway from attention → aspiration → trust → booking → experience → advocacy. In Bali’s visitor economy, social media is now part of the demand infrastructure. Hotels need to treat it accordingly. 📎 (Source: Bali Provincial Tourism Office/Udayana University & PT Hotel Investment Advisory) #Bali #Hospitality #HotelInvestment #HotelMarketing #TourismStrategy #VisitorEconomy #DestinationMarketing #RevenueManagement #DirectBooking #IndonesiaTourism #SocialMediaMarketing

I’ll be honest, travel brands aren’t in full control of demand anymore. A few years ago, people would plan trips. They’d research, compare, build itineraries. Today, most trips start somewhere else, on a scroll. Someone sees a reel, saves it, sends it to a friend, and that’s the beginning of a trip. Not a search. Not a website. Just a moment online that sticks. As a travel founder, I see this shift every day. People are literally planning trips around what they see on social media. “We saw this on Instagram” has quietly become one of the most common starting points for bookings. And it shows. A creator shares the right experience, and enquiries spike. A destination that was stable suddenly picks up. It’s subtle, but it’s real. What’s changed is simple, the journey doesn’t start with intent anymore, it starts with influence. And the scale of this shift is massive. Influencer marketing is on track to cross $30B+ soon, growing rapidly in just a few years. That’s not just marketing spend, it’s behaviour changing. But there’s also a flip side. When demand moves this fast, destinations aren’t always ready. We’re already seeing places get overcrowded, experiences getting diluted. And as travel brands, we have a role to play here. At WanderOn, we’re trying to think more consciously, pushing lesser-known places, spreading demand, and designing experiences that don’t overwhelm destinations. Because if social media can create demand, it can also help distribute it better. It’s not just about where people can go anymore. It’s about what they’ve already seen, and decided they want to live. #WanderOn #InfluencerMarketing #TourismIndustry #Travel #TourismMarket

36 ways to turn viewers into guests. Most hotels are losing bookings not because of price but because of how they show up online. Here's what the best-converting properties do differently: First Impression 1. Show guests what they'll feel, not what they'll see 2. Let your guests do the selling 3. Write for the guest, not the brand 4. Show faces, not just rooms 5. Make your booking link impossible to miss 6. Use a cover that makes people stop scrolling Content 7. Post a guest's day from check-in to checkout 8. Show the setup behind a perfect event 9. Take people backstage 10. Tell the story behind your signature amenity 11. Celebrate guest milestones 12. Walk new visitors through what to expect 13. Capture what makes each season different 14. Replace static photos with short walkthroughs Trust 15. Share real reviews, word for word 16. Respond to every review publicly 17. Repost what guests are already sharing 18. Put names and faces to your team 19. Let your press and awards speak 20. Show up in the community Offers 21. Tie packages to local events 22. Create urgency with time-limited deals 23. Reward your followers with exclusives 24. Make shoulder season compelling 25. Bundle experiences into one irresistible offer Engagement 26. Ask guests to share their favorite memory 27. Poll your audience on what's coming next 28. Reply to every comment within 24 hours 29. Tag local partners to reach new audiences 30. Go live during events and launches Conversion 31. End every caption with a clear next step 32. Remove all friction from your booking path 33. Re-engage past guests through content 34. Build your email list from social 35. Track what drives clicks, not just likes 36. Double down on what's already working Stop throwing half a**sed content on socials, just because you want to 'keep the lights on'. Stop giving away social responsibility to the most junior person on the team. Stop posting without a strategy. The hotels who are smashing it online aren't the ones with the biggest ad spend or the biggest budgets, they're the ones who make every post feel like an invitation, every post is intentional! Who do you think is doing social well?

Social Media Drives Decisions. Now What? The Direct Channel Imperative for Hotel Teams. Phocuswright’s latest research confirms what we’re seeing on the ground. 62% of travelers who use social media for trip planning make specific decisions based on content they see. Social is influencing real bookings and shaping the entire guest journey. But for hotel commercial teams, this creates both opportunity and pressure. The challenge? Attribution is murky. Conversion paths are non-linear. And the booking decision may happen long before the guest even lands on your site. This is where the AI-powered direct channel becomes critical. The teams that win will be those who develop AI literacy and shift their mindset from chasing impressions to building AI-optimized conversion engines. Here’s how commercial teams need to pivot: 1️⃣ Treat Social as Part of Your Direct Booking Ecosystem Social is a top-layer discovery tool feeding your direct channel. Build seamless handoffs between social content and your website, AI-powered chat, and voice agents. 2️⃣ Invest in AI-Powered Content Creation Use AI image generation and vibe marketing workflows to produce high-frequency, high-quality visual assets that match guest intent. The faster you can personalize content, the more often you will win the scroll and the booking. 3️⃣ Integrate AI Voice Agents to Capture Interest Instantly Once interest is sparked on social, inquiries often come via phone or web chat. AI Voice Agents ensure you never miss a conversion moment by answering questions, handling bookings, and upselling on the spot. 4️⃣ Upskill Teams on AI Prompting and Mindset AI is is amplifying the commercial team. Teams need to master the art of setting AI intent, writing prompts, and curating output that converts. The human role shifts from execution to orchestration. 5️⃣ Build Attribution Models Beyond Last-Click AI-driven discovery requires new measurement frameworks. Develop multi-touch attribution that includes social signals, search behaviors, and AI-driven interactions to get a true picture of what is driving direct bookings. The bottom line: ➡️ AI is not the future. It is the present. ➡️ Social’s growing role in trip decision-making is the signal to start transforming your commercial strategy now. If you have any questions about how to apply this, drive immediate revenue, increase team productivity, or need 1:1 assistance, reach out. Consider me a gig member of your team. If you need any assistance on your tech solutions, I'll be with the Growth Advisors International Network - GAIN team next week in Indy! Otherwise, reach out to me via Vivander Advisors. 🤞 PS: Our new book, "The AI Literacy Playbook for Hoteliers" is currently being assembled at Amazon and should be ready in the next few days!

I used to be obsessed with the wrong numbers. Followers. Likes. Shares. Looking back, I was basically collecting digital trophies that meant nothing to my boss or our bottom line. The wake-up call came during my early days at San Francisco Travel in 2010. I was managing our social media channels and proudly reporting our growing follower count to my boss. He asked one simple question: "How many of those followers actually visited San Francisco?" I had no idea. That question changed everything. Instead of chasing viral moments, I started tracking what actually moved the needle for our destination: - Email signups from content - Visitor guide downloads - Time spent on key pages - Actual booking conversions - What users weren't engaging with (equally important) The transformation was remarkable. Over 14 years, we grew from 3 million to 12 million annual web visits. Our social audience reached 1.25 million followers. But more importantly, our web economic impact increased by 500%. Our website became more inspirational and useful to our audience. They found what they needed to consider San Francisco and plan their trip. Here's what I learned: 1. Track the entire journey, not just the entry point. Likes don't pay hotel bills or restaurant tabs. 2. Come to the table with curiosity about what's not working. The gaps in your data often reveal the biggest opportunities. 3. Build systems that outlast campaigns. Repeatable processes consistently outperform one-hit wonders. 4. Connect every piece of content to a business outcome. We asked ourselves: Does this help someone plan their trip? Does it drive bookings? Does it answer a real visitor's question? If you're early in your marketing career, resist the temptation to fall into the vanity metric trap. Your stakeholders care about results they can trust. What's one metric you wish you'd started tracking earlier?