From inspiration to booking: the new role of creators in travel

Just a few years ago, talking about influence in travel often meant talking about visibility. A destination would invite a creator, the creator would share their experience with their community, and the campaign generated reach, engagement, and ideally, desire. That dynamic still exists, but it reflects less and less what we are observing today.

Creators are now involved much more broadly throughout the traveler’s journey. They help people discover a destination, of course, but they also help them choose an itinerary, a hotel, or an activity. They answer very concrete questions, alleviate concerns, and produce content that brands can then reuse within their own ecosystems. This is precisely what we discussed during our conference at IFTM with Chloé Pieplu and Nicolas de Dianous: we are moving from an influencer campaign mindset to a true creator strategy. For destinations, tourism boards, hoteliers, transport providers, and the broader tourism industry, this shift is far from trivial.

The journey now begins well before the search

Recent studies point to the same conclusion: social media is intervening earlier and earlier in destination choice. According to Expedia Group’s traveler value index 2025, 61% of travelers now find travel ideas on social media, up from 35% in 2022. The study surveyed over 11 000 consumers across 11 markets, including France.

Academic research reflects the same trend. A systematic review published in 2026 in the international journal of tourism research, based on an analysis of 304 scientific publications, confirms the growing role of influencer marketing in tourist attitudes, intentions, and behaviors. Another academic study on travel influencers and tourism marketing highlights the key role played by Instagram and TikTok in promoting destinations and shaping the decision-making process.

What interests us here is not just the growth of social media, but when it comes into play.

On Instagram, TikTok, or YouTube, we aren't necessarily actively searching for our next trip. A video appears in our feed. A place catches our attention. A creator shares a weekend getaway, a hike, a restaurant, or a hotel. We save the post. We send it to a friend. And a destination we weren't thinking about just seconds before has entered our field of possibilities.

The journey sometimes begins before the traveler has even decided to travel. For destination marketing and tourism promotion strategies, this is a major shift. Being present when a consumer searches for "what to do in Corsica in September" remains essential, of course. But part of the battle is now fought long before that search query: getting the destination into their imagination. Travelers aren't always looking for a destination; sometimes, they just happen to stumble upon a story that makes them want to go there.

In tourism, the real challenge is projection

LTravel has a fairly obvious characteristic that we sometimes forget when building communication strategies: you buy something you cannot try before purchasing. A destination can show its landscapes. A hotel can show its rooms. An airline can show its product. All of this contributes to desirability. But travelers are ultimately buying a promise: what they will experience once on-site. This is where creator marketing in travel reveals its full value.

There is a major difference between a video saying "Discover Corsica" and someone sharing: “I spent five days in Corsica with my kids, here are the spots they loved, and here’s what I would do differently next time.”

The destination is the same. What changes is the ability to project oneself. The second video answers questions many travelers have without necessarily voicing them: Is this for me? What would my days look like? Will my kids enjoy it? What will I actually experience there?

Data from Expedia supports this. In its study the science of wanderlust on the impact of travel content, 71% of surveyed travelers stated that video content influences their travel decisions, compared to 24% for static images. This power of projection largely explains why travel creators have taken center stage in tourism marketing. They don't just showcase a destination, they give it context, rhythm, utility, and a perspective. In other words, they allow audiences to experience it vicariously.

Creators no longer stop at inspiration

CThis is probably the point that strikes me as the most interesting for the coming years. For a long time, we’ve placed influencer marketing in tourism at the very top of the funnel. The creator’s role was to raise awareness, build affection, and spark desire. But that role is gradually shifting much further down the funnel. According to Expedia Group’s Traveler Value Index, 73% of travelers surveyed say that recommendations from influencers have already influenced their decision to book a trip or a component of it. Among those under 40, that figure rises to 84%. Of course, this number must be interpreted correctly. It does not mean that 73% of bookings are generated by influencers. We’re talking here about a reported influence on the decision, not a commercial attribution.

But other studies corroborate the link between content creators and purchasing behavior. A study published in 2026 in the Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Technology analyzes, in particular, how perceived authenticity and the alignment between a travel influencer, the brand, and its audience can influence attitudes toward the brand and, subsequently, tourism-related purchasing behavior. The key finding is significant: a single ecosystem of creators can play a role at multiple stages of the journey.

Aspirational content introduces travelers to a destination. A five-day itinerary fuels consideration. A family’s firsthand experience provides reassurance. A selection of hotels or activities can bring travelers even closer to making a decision. And tourism stakeholders themselves are beginning to bridge the gap between these different stages. Expedia, for example, has launched Trip Matching, which allows users to start with a public Instagram Reel to get recommendations and build a bookable itinerary based on that content. Its Travel Shops also enable creators, media outlets, celebrities, and tourism boards to offer curated selections that travelers can then discover and book. The line between social media, travel inspiration, and conversion is thus becoming increasingly blurred.

Performance can no longer be reduced to reach and engagement

This shift is also evident among advertisers. In its 2026/2027 study on influencer marketing in Europe, Kolsquare shows that 79% of the organizations surveyed now view influencer marketing as a growth driver or an important support channel. Only 3% still consider it experimental. This shift toward performance is inevitably changing the way campaigns are measured. For a long time, the main metrics were reach, impressions, and engagement. They remain useful, but they tell only part of the story. In France, the findings are particularly interesting: according to the French section of the Kolsquare 2026/2027 study, 40.8% of marketers use engagement rate as a KPI, but 39.8% now measure sales.

Both metrics are at virtually the same level. This is a strong signal: after asking influencers how many people they reach and how many interact with them, brands are increasingly seeking to understand what value they actually generate. In the travel industry, this performance can be measured through search queries generated, qualified visits, saves, clicks on an itinerary, sign-ups, leads, and when the ecosystem allows it, bookings. For destinations, conversion is obviously not always directly transactional. A tourism board does not necessarily sell the hotel, flight, or vacation package itself. The challenge, therefore, is to develop a metric tailored to the actual role of content within the customer journey. The right KPI differs between content designed to introduce a destination and content intended to help plan a trip.

Not all content is meant to serve the same purpose

We sometimes tend to expect every piece of content to be inspiring, engaging, informative, and commercially successful all at once. This is neither realistic nor necessarily desirable. Beautiful Destinations’ 2026 Travel Trend Report illustrates this clearly in its analysis of its own social media data: “planning”-oriented content generates 11% more saves, while “dreaming”-oriented content generates more passive interactions. It seems almost obvious: people don’t save a spectacular video of the Dolomites for the same reasons they’d save “7 Must-Try Spots for a Three-Day Trip to Rome.” Yet this distinction should have a much greater impact on travel social media strategies. One piece of content might aim to create desire. Another might aim to give a reason to consider the destination. A third might aim to answer a question. A fourth might be to trigger an action. Each objective has its own content, creators, and KPIs. This is far more effective than searching for a “miracle” piece of content capable of filling the entire funnel on its own.

The travel industry is accelerating its investments in influencer marketing

CThis trend is no longer a niche phenomenon. In 2026, Kolsquare published a report specifically focused on the sector, titled The State of Influencer Marketing in Europe: Travel & Hospitality. More than 75% of the travel and hospitality brands surveyed plan to increase their influencer marketing budgets. The report also describes a sector where creator ecosystems are growing rapidly, even though investment levels remain more modest than in certain industries that have historically been more mature in terms of influencer marketing. Even more interesting for casting strategies: Travel & Hospitality stands out as a particularly audience-driven sector. The relevance of the audience, its affinity with the destination, and the interests the creator brings to life are becoming more important than the sheer number of followers. This is a particularly healthy development for our industry.

Because the best travel influencer isn’t necessarily the one with the largest following. It’s the one who has the right credibility, the right narrative, and the right audience to convey the experience we want to highlight.

The right content creator isn’t necessarily a travel content creator, by the way

In tourism, our motivations go far beyond travel itself. We travel to eat. To run a marathon. To ski. To see a concert. To discover a culture. To spend time with our children. To pursue a passion. To get together with friends. A destination promotion strategy therefore has no reason to limit its target audience to only those labeled “travel.” This is something we do regularly: reaching out to adjacent communities to tell the same story through multiple entry points. A cruise isn’t just a travel topic. It can be about family, fine dining, entertainment, or lifestyle. A mountain destination can be showcased through skiing, but also through trail running, wellness, food, or photography. A city can highlight architecture to one community, nightlife to another, and fine dining to a third. A destination rarely tells just one story. Why limit the storytelling to a single type of creator? This approach also allows destinations to reach audiences who don’t consume travel content on a daily basis and who may not have even considered the destination before.

Creative content is no longer just a post

This is probably where the influencer business model is evolving the most. For a long time, we were essentially buying a single post: a creator, an audience, a single post, with a relatively short lifespan. Today, we need to think more in terms of content assets. A Reel produced by a creator can be posted on their account, reposted on the brand’s account, amplified through paid social, adapted into different versions, integrated into a landing page, used in a CRM, or incorporated into a much broader tourism promotion campaign.

The “Destination Toronto” case study presented by TikTok for Business is interesting in this regard. The campaign combined content from creators, in-feed ads, and TikTok’s “Out of Phone” initiative. According to TikTok, it reached 3.4 million people and achieved a CTR 296% higher than the benchmark, with DOOH impressions 44% higher than projections. Beyond the results specific to this campaign, it is the circulation of the content that is particularly interesting. Content created using social media conventions can become the raw material for a much broader media campaign. This trend is directly reflected in brands’ investments. According to Kolsquare 2026/2027, 62.6% of organizations surveyed are increasing their investments in paid media and boosting, 59.2% in long-term creator partnerships, and 53.2% in UGC. Affiliate marketing now stands at 49.4%. Influencer marketing, UGC, creator content, social media, and paid media are gradually converging. Continuing to view them as completely separate disciplines makes less and less sense.

Producing an asset also means planning for its exploitation

This new approach changes another aspect that is sometimes underestimated: rights. If a piece of content is likely to have a six-month lifespan, to be amplified, adapted, distributed across multiple territories, used on a website, or even moved from social media to display advertising, you need to know this before producing it. Exploitation period, territories, media formats, paid media, whitelisting, adaptations, raw footage: these issues should no longer arise once the content is performing well. They are not part of the brief. The more a piece of content is intended to create value, the more its exploitation must be planned in advance. This does not necessarily mean producing more or spending more. It often means making better use of what we already produce.

Budgets are growing faster than market maturity

This is probably the most interesting paradox in today’s market. The Kolsquare 2026/2027 study, conducted in partnership with B2B International among 1,123 marketing decision-makers in seven European markets, shows that 89% plan to increase their influencer marketing spending over the next twelve months, compared to 75% in 2025 and 54% in 2024. The median annual budget now stands at €144,000, rising to €367,000 for companies with more than 1,000 employees. However, only 10% of organizations consider their influencer strategy to be fully integrated into their marketing mix. The conclusion is quite clear: investments are growing faster than the maturity of these strategies. For players in the travel industry, the next challenge is therefore likely not to “do more influencer marketing.” It is to better connect influencer marketing, creator marketing, social media, content production, paid media, and performance. And above all, to view these levers as different components of a single strategy rather than as a series of separate campaigns.

From influence campaigns to creator strategies

That’s probably the main lesson I’ve taken away from these developments and our discussions at IFTM. For a long time, an influencer strategy began with casting: finding the right profiles, negotiating a collaboration, organizing the trip, and securing posts. Today, the starting point should be more about the content and its role in the traveler’s journey. Some content is meant to introduce people to a destination. Other content is meant to inspire, help people envision their trip, address a concern, or provide practical help in planning a trip. The best content can then be amplified and continue to work for the brand long after its initial publication. This approach automatically changes the casting process, the brief, and how performance is measured. It also requires thinking earlier about distribution, paid media, and usage rights. It is this shift from an activation-based approach to an ecosystem-based one that I believe defines the next stage of travel influence. For destinations, tourism boards, hotel groups, airlines, transportation providers, and other travel industry players, the opportunity is particularly significant. Few sectors have such a wealth of diverse stories, experiences, and communities to engage.

The challenge is no longer simply to generate buzz about a destination. It is to work with content creators to build a body of content capable of introducing travelers to the destination, making it desirable, bringing it to life, and, gradually, moving travelers closer to making a decision. Because, ultimately, a destination can certainly showcase a region. But a content creator can showcase what that region has to offer in terms of experiences. And that’s often where the desire to travel truly begins.

Louis du Sartel 

General manager & associate at Clark Influence & Anorak Travel 

Are you working on these matters?

At Clark Influence and Anorak Travel, we help tourism industry players build and implement their social media and influencer strategies,from strategic planning to casting creators, content production, paid amplification, and performance measurement.

Our belief is simple: a good creator strategy shouldn’t just generate visibility. It should produce content that’s useful to both travelers and brands, content capable of creating value far beyond its initial publication. If you’re thinking about your social media and influencer strategy, planning an upcoming campaign, or looking for ways to better leverage your creator content, come talk to us.

Sources & studies

Kolsquare, The State of Influencer Marketing in Europe: Travel & Hospitality, 2026 Industry report focusing on the influencer strategies of Travel & Hospitality brands. Data used includes trends in budgets and casting approaches. Consulter l'étude Kolsquare Travel & Hospitality 2026

Kolsquare & B2B International, The Future of Influencer Marketing 2026/2027 A study conducted among 1,123 marketing decision-makers in seven European markets. Data used on budget trends, market maturity, paid media, long-term partnerships, user-generated content (UGC), and affiliate marketing. Consulter l'étude Kolsquare 2026/2027

Kolsquare & B2B International, France 2026/2027 French component of the European study. Data used primarily on the KPIs employed by French marketers. Consulter les résultats France de l'étude Kolsquare

Expedia Group, Traveler Value Index 2025 A study conducted among more than 11,000 consumers in 11 markets, including France. The data examined how social media is used to discover travel opportunities and how recommendations from content creators influence booking decisions. Consulter le Traveler Value Index 2025

Expedia Group Advertising, The Science of Wanderlust, 2025 Research on the role of content in travel decisions. Consulter The Science of Wanderlust

Expedia, Trip Matching, 2025 Feature allowing to transform Instagram travel content into recommendations and a personalized itinerary. Découvrir Expedia Trip Matching

Expedia, Travel Shops France, 2025 Showcases allowing users to find and book recommendations from creators, media, and tourism actors. Découvrir les Travel Shops Expedia

Beautiful Destinations, Travel Trend Report 2026 Proprietary social data analysis from Beautiful Destinations, used notably on the behavioral difference between planning-oriented content and aspirational content. These results pertain to the Beautiful Destinations ecosystem and do not constitute a representative study of all travelers. Consulter le Travel Trend Report 2026

TikTok for Business, Destination Toronto Case study of a campaign combining creator content, in-feed ads, and out of phone. The cited results are those communicated by TikTok and are specific to this campaign. Consulter le case study Destination Toronto

International Journal of Tourism Research, 2026 A systematic review of 304 scientific publications on influencer marketing and tourist behavior. Consulter la publication scientifique

Tourism and Hospitality, 2026, Travel Influencers and Tourism Marketing Research focused on travel influencers, social media, tourism marketing, and destination promotion. Consulter l'étude académique

Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Technology, 2026 A study examining the relationship between perceived authenticity, creator-brand-audience fit, and purchasing behavior in the travel industry.. Consulter la publication académique