How TikTok Helps Travelers Discover Hot New Destinations

TikTok is helping travelers find new vacation spots as users increasingly use the app to search rather than just scroll for entertainment.

That’s according to Hannah Bennett, travel lead for TikTok’s global business solutions team. “People are really turning to TikTok now to find their next destination, where to travel, and who to fly with,” she told Business Insider.

Bennett said TikTok has seen a five-fold increase in views of travel content since 2021. In a survey of U.K. users last year, 82% said the app inspired them to consider new destinations.

Bennett told BI that the trend of “destination spoofs” is noticeable, with users interested in a location that is “not completely off the beaten track, but somewhere that is a little less discovered.”

Travel companies like Booking.com and Expedia have jumped on the idea of fake travel deals by posting videos on their apps promoting alternative destinations.

As examples, Bennett pointed to people choosing Albania or Montenegro over Greece or Italy, or the Slovenian capital Ljubljana over Prague. Taipei and Zanzibar have also seen increased popularity recently, she added.

Last year, a record 6.19 million people visited Slovenia, and the latest statistics from the Zanzibar government show a 66 percent increase in visitors between February 2022 and this year.

Airlines are also capitalizing on TikTok’s popularity.

Bennett recalled how easyJet capitalised on the viral popularity of scenes from Airline – a reality show about the budget airline – and reconnected with his former operations manager Jane Boulton to record a TikTok video.

She also said she liked how British Airways “supported its crew” in the videos, which made the company more welcoming.

“As a company, we’ve been very focused on e-commerce, and now we can really focus on travel as we continue to see steady growth post-COVID,” Bennett told BI.

Booking a vacation isn’t an option on the TikTok Shop, but she said the app will “dynamically serve you a destination we think you’ll like based on an algorithm.”

“So the final purchase will happen on the brand’s website, but we’ll be able to track that and optimize for what the next step is in our brand conversations.”