Young travellers are incredibly active on social media, especially on platforms like TikTok and Instagram.
Before making any sort of purchase, what do you usually do? We’re willing to bet you almost always jump online and do some research. Deciding where to go on holiday is no different, and young travellers turn to social media for inspiration, recommendations, reviews, and deals more than any other generation before them.
According to GlobalData Travel and Tourism analyst Ralph Hollister, “A travel company’s success with millennials and Gen Z can now be determined by its performance on social media, with positive performance and service levels on these platforms encouraging brand loyalty while boosting visibility.”
If you’re a travel brand looking to reach younger travellers, you need to be active on social media.
Let’s look at how travel brands are engaging young travellers on social media.
Community interaction
If you want to reach young travellers on social media, you have to put the time, effort and resources into cultivating your online community. 30% of Gen Z and 32% of Millennials state that direct engagement with a brand is a key driver of purchase.
Here are a few tips for better community management on social media:
- Respond promptly to messages and comments
- Actively engage with your followers
- Encourage your followers to contribute
- Retention is easy and more cost-effective than finding new followers
- Ture followers into brand advocates
- Incentivise your followers by adding value and offering rewards
Travel Brands on TikTok
Willie Sutton, an infamous bank robber was once asked why he robs banks, to which he succinctly replied, “Because that’s where the money is.”
There’s no denying that TikTok has exploded over the last couple of years. With 47% of users between the ages of 10 and 29, the video-sharing platform is an obvious choice for travel brands looking to connect with young travellers.
Check out how Tourism NZ is harnessing the power of influencer marketing to reach young travellers.
TikTok Strategy
As is often the case with any relatively new social media platform, your marketing strategy will involve a decent amount of trial and error.
Let’s take a look at how you should be approaching TikTok.
Trends
More than any other social media platform today, TikTok is all about trends. Whether creating them or jumping on board with an existing trend, creating content around trending music or challenges should be a solid part of any travel brand’s TikTok content strategy.
It’s important to remember that TikTok moves fast. The pace of TikTok dictates how you plan and create content for the platform. Unline traditional online content, the videos you make for TikTok should focus on simple, easy-to-execute ideas with a quick turnaround time.
If you’re unsure where to start on TikTok, we recommend spending some time on the platform and checking out what other travel brands are doing, what’s trending, and how you can find your niche.
Influencer marketing
There’s no denying the fact that influencer marketing works. Did you know that the influencer marketing industry is worth a whopping $14 billion? And influencers are a pretty big deal on TikTok.
We don’t have the budget for big-name influencers. We hear you, but we don’t have the budget for big-name influencers. From 2018 to 2020, nano-influencers with followers had the highest engagement rate of any influencer group.
Like Instagram, one of the most complex parts of TikTok is breaking through to a new audience. You’re opening yourself up to a new audience by partnering with influencers. Before jumping into an influencer partnership, ensure you do your research.
Spark Ads
In TikTok’s words, Spark ads are “a native ad format that enables you to leverage organic TikTok posts and their features in your advertising.”
Because TikTok’s Spark ads appear natively within a user’s feed, they feel more natural than traditional digital marketing. Spark ads are engaging and effective. Take SunExpress’ success on the platform as a sign that TikTok is worth the investment. The Turkish-German airline used in-feed ads to reach 33 million users and achieve 120,000 clicks.
Social Media-Related Jobs
There’s no denying that social media platforms offer digital marketers the most access to young travellers, and travel brands are jumping on board with massive investments into social media advertising.
According to GlobalData, “From 2020 to 2021, there was a 175.8% increase in social media-related jobs in the travel and tourism industry. That’s a massive increase, especially when considering that it happened during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.
If you haven’t done so already, you should be considering growing your marketing team or outsourcing some work to increase your social media efforts.
