In a packed World Travel Market London session on digital marketing trends, Dan Christian, host of the popular Travel Trends podcast revealed the top five trends he had noted from conversations with his guests over 100 episodes.
Social media is the new SEO
Christian said it was now important to consider the use of social media for search “just like you need to optimise for SEO.”
Referring to a podcast conversation with Konrad Waliszewski, founder of @Hotel, Christian explained: “Most people are now using social to search for travel, so what they did is they registered every possible variation of city and hotel.”
Hyper personalisation with AI
According to AI Summit research, fewer than 15% of tour operators are using AI, Christian said, and those that are, are typically using it for customer service purposes using chat bots.
The new trend was to use customers’ search and booking data to personalise their experience, he advised: “That is going to be the dominant trend, how companies are going to use AI next year.”
He further predicted firms who had recently invested with AI itinerary personalisation company Mindtrip were likely to have “a big competitive advantage.”
Podcasts become mainstream
Christian pointed out across all forms of media marketing engagement averages 3%, yet with podcasts it’s believed to be more like 30% with listeners more likely to “retain that information and take action.”
He added: “People love storytelling, they love hearing someone’s voice.” He also acknowledged the multi-tasking potential that podcasts allow. He advised “most companies should have a podcast of their own or partner with a podcast, or better yet, do both.”
Short form video dominates
Christian expressed surprise at how few travel companies have compelling videos as part of their sales strategy and advised: “There’s still so much opportunity to leverage short form video. It’s no longer inspiration; people want to know where somewhere is and immediately book it.”
Purpose driven marketing
Highlighting B Corp tour operator Intrepid’s marketing for praise, Christian reminded the audience of the adage ‘people don’t buy what you need, they buy why you do it’. He added that while sustainability and other ethical considerations may not be the reason people first book with a company, they are often the reason people stay loyal for years.
Though Christian said he hadn’t ranked the five trends, a poll of the audience showed most people believed the domination of short form video to be the most important followed by social media as the new SEO.
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TikTok Trends
Picking up on the theme of short form video, was a session on TikTok Trends led by Hannah Bennett, head of travel for the social media platform. She used WTM London to unveil a new report with PhocusWire and flag the early 2025 launch of TikTok travel ads.
Entitled ‘From Bucket List to Booking, how TikTok is Shaping Travel Decisions Today’, the report indicates that among those already using social media to plan part of their trip, short form video was the most preferred format. It was also revealed as the social media format most likely to result in conversion.
Bennett said people had evolved from discovering travel content through TikTok’s For You feed to actively searching the platform for it, with three in ten users now doing so.
She also claimed the platform’s content was perceived to have greater authenticity than its rivals. “Gone are the days when people want to look at glossy brochures and look at social influencers where it’s a gorgeous couple and a gorgeous white sand beach.”
The platform was wrongly perceived as attracting young users without spending power she stressed, with the average user age now 30.
She advised advertisers and creators to latch onto the content trends for fandom travel, destination duping (where people seek lesser-known alternatives to popular hotspots), and the romanticising of journeys through slow travel.