Travel is a popular niche within the creator economy, with some influencers earning five figures working with hotels, cruise lines, and tour companies to promote their experiences.
These creators can cultivate very engaged online audiences who look to them for recommendations on cities to visit, places to stay, and even tips on how to become travel creators themselves.
Many travel companies offer free services or experiences in exchange for posting or pay creators a set amount.
A new study by the travel marketplace Jerne found that many hotels, cruises, and tours expect creators they partner with to create at least four social-media posts per day in return for a hosted experience.
The platform examined 23,453 applications for partnership deals between 4,723 creators and 325 companies from September 2022 to October 2023 to carve out data on what these collaborations look like.
“Compared to industries like beauty and fashion, there is almost no information about the travel industry and the impact that creators are having,” Tim Morgan, the company’s cofounder and CEO, told Business Insider. “We wanted to commission this study because we didn’t see any analysis about the partnership details, challenges, and opportunities between both sides of the marketplace; creators and brands.”
The creators surveyed were registered on Jerne’s platform as either travel influencers, advisors, agents, or tour guides, and were based in 84 countries. Ninety-eight percent of them listed their primary platform as Instagram, 19% said TikTok, and 13% said YouTube.
The companies surveyed provided accommodations, restaurants, cruises, or tours across 102 countries.
Here are three takeaways from the study:
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Most hotels, cruises, and tours expect four social-media posts per day in return for a hosted experience: The study found that in exchange for this content, on average, hotels offer two nights of accommodation for two people, including breakfast but not transportation. Meanwhile, cruises offer seven nights for two people on average including food and beverages. Tours offer seven days of accommodation for one person including food and drink.
“The emotional value that people put into travel is so high that travel companies haven’t really had to pay out creator fees, instead offering free stays or experiences, but I do expect that to change as more creators tap into affiliate marketing,” Morgan said. “We might see them roll that concept more into the deliverables for companies because they’ll be able to make money from that long after the trip is over.”
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Travel creators averaged 170,944 impressions from the content they made per partnership: In addition to this, creators averaged 16,921 likes and 913 comments per brand deal.
“It just shows how valuable creators are for a company, whether that’s a cruise or a hotel, in driving up interest,” Morgan said.
Out of the hundreds of companies on Jerne, cruise line Virgin Voyages is doing a particularly good job in forging long-term partnerships with creators, Morgan said, because it really understands the needs and demographics of travel influencers.
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Female creators influence travel buying decisions more than male or non-binary creators: 85% of the creators in the study self-identified as female, compared to 14% who identified as men and 1% who were nonbinary. Morgan said this isn’t a surprise because of the dominance that women hold over travel; including those who choose to travel solo.
