Understanding The Role Of Travel Influencers In Marketing
Influencers and the travel industry have long been a perfect match. Even before social media platforms, people have loved to see travel content, hear about people’s travel experiences, and learn more about new destinations.
Today, popular platforms like Instagram and TikTok replace the snapshots, slides, and home movies of vacations past. They’ve also fundamentally changed how people choose destinations and plan trips — so to stay in the game, travel marketers need more than one mega-influencer to hashtag their brand.
Micro-influencers appeal to everyday people who don’t have endless resources to plan their trips. Here, we’ll look at why micro-influencers have largely replaced macro-influencers in the travel industry and how their authentic presence yields higher engagement numbers.
Travel micro influencers build a community based on shared interests
Travel micro-influencers are social media personalities in the travel sector who have between 10,000 and 50,000 followers. Unlike mega, celebrity, or mid-tier influencers who may have millions of followers, micro-influencers are content creators with one or two specific interests, such as cooking affordable meals or parenting young children.
Some micro influencers build a following by focusing on a single travel aspect, such as visiting the funkiest hotels in the U.S. or finding the best deals in a new city. But travel micro-influencers don’t necessarily focus on a specific smaller niche. If an influencer builds an audience by posting about their travels, they fit into the category of travel micro-influencers.
Why travel brands should partner with micro-influencers
Successful micro influencers put in the time and effort to build trust with their audience. When you partner with the right micro-influencer, you automatically establish a degree of credibility, which can have several benefits including:
Better audience engagement
Micro-influencers often have higher engagement rates than other influencers, largely because their content taps into people’s emotions. Because travel encompasses so many of our most important priorities, such as spending time with loved ones, having new experiences, and living life to the fullest, people can’t help but relate to the content.
When you partner with a travel micro-influencer, their followers are already interested in having better travel experiences. As long as your campaigns overlap with the micro-influencer’s niche, it’s easier to drive win-win marketing efforts with an engaged audience.
More authentic social media presence
Larger travel influencers often lead exotic and luxurious lifestyles, which can be exciting to see on screen but far more difficult for the average person to replicate. In addition, if a mega-influencer makes their living off Instagram posts, audiences may assume they’re more likely to exaggerate or even fib about a brand.
Micro-influencing is often more of a side hustle or hobby, making the content seem more authentic and trustworthy to the audience. More than ever, travelers rely on social proof to learn and understand what it’s like to visit a new place. Before they book a hotel, airline ticket, or excursions, they first need to believe what the micro-influencer tells them.
Lower cost of partnerships
Micro-influencer collaborations are often a fraction of the price of working with a celebrity or macro-influencer. While a macro-influencer might charge $10,000 for a single Instagram post, a micro-influencer might charge as little as $100.
It’s worth noting that most influencer estimate ranges are imprecise calculations at best. But the bottom line is that brands can conserve their budgets by working with smaller influencers. If you’re balancing your finances as your business scales, partnering with micro-influencers can mean the difference between hiring new team members, upgrading your automation tools, or kick-starting new initiatives.
How micro-influencer partnerships work
Micro-influencer partnerships will look different from brand to brand, though they all share some common mechanics. Here’s how they work and how to establish better terms and conditions from the start.
Travel brands define the terms of the engagement and manage the relationship
With every campaign, the brand is responsible for defining the general goals, finding the influencers, setting expectations, and maintaining the influencer-brand relationship. While micro-influencers should have some creative license, these boundaries are essential for better influencer marketing campaigns.
Let’s say a tourism board partners with a foodie micro-influencer to promote the city’s quick-service restaurants. The board might provide free meals at participating businesses in exchange for hashtagged posts.
The board would specify the type of content (photos, videos, etc.), which social media platforms to post on, and when the posts should go live. To ensure a better experience for the micro-influencer, the board might arrange convenient transportation to and from restaurants or provide small souvenirs to commemorate the influencer’s trip.
Understanding what fair compensation looks like
Micro-influencers provide a valuable service to brands, so it’s important to pay them fairly. However, as mentioned, the costs and estimates can vary widely. For example, Shopify pegs micro influencers' Instagram rates in 2024 at between $100 to $500, whereas Impact puts the same metric at between $2,000 and $8,000.
The best way for marketers to understand compensation is to start by asking the influencer’s standard rate and then negotiating from there. But with travel, the compensation may look a little different.
Micro-influencers are already travel enthusiasts, often planning multiple trips per year (regardless of brand partnerships). Because they’re already spending money on travel, they may be more likely to work for free accommodations, excursions, or transportation.
Travel influencers help followers make the most of their vacation
Travel influencers inspire people’s trips, whether that’s through their photos, videos, or tips. In a branded partnership, the influencer is responsible for creating and sharing value-packed travel content.
Whether it’s a caption about the restaurant’s decor or a video of the hotel amenities, their content should leave a lasting impression on followers. If their followers have questions or concerns about what they’re seeing, the influencer is expected to follow up and engage with them.
If the influencer has questions about details of the collab, such as deadline conditions, tagging requirements, or compensation schedules, it’s their responsibility to clarify with the travel brand (though you can cut down on a lot of the confusion with clear contracts and direct conversations).
5 examples of travel micro-influencer accounts
Micro-influencers come in all shapes and sizes. Here, we look at how different micro-influencers relate to their travel experiences, audience, and brand partnerships.
1. @where_is_she_now
Chrissy Choate is a Dallas-based travel influencer who takes her followers around the world and puts them in the finest luxury hotels. In places like Bora Bora, Guatemala, Cabo San Lucas, she’s often pictured rolling her suitcases, relaxing in the hotel’s infinity pool, or enjoying a gourmet breakfast on her hotel bed.
While her posts may appear to purely cater to an elite crowd, her video content also features travel hacks that help followers make the most of their limited vacation time.
2. @travelingspud
Idaho-based travel and lifestyle creator Katie explores the best of her state and captures her most idyllic and fun moments. Whether she’s hiking, sipping wine, or kicking up her feet in a hammock, her Instagram account focuses on the picturesque scenery found (mostly) outside her back door.
While she does venture off to parts unknown, including New Delhi, her following has far more to do with local Idaho tourism than international tourism. Plus, as her name suggests, she finds creative ways to honor her state’s iconic (and best-known) crop.
3. @tavreviewseverything
Atlanta-based nomad Antavia Lauren has an Instagram and TikTok account where she reviews food, travel itineraries, and experiences. While she largely roams the U.S., she has been known to venture into the Caribbean Islands.
Her posts don’t show her leading the luxe life but rather embracing everything from fast food chains to bowling to city walks. She’s equally at home waving with the Hamburglar at McDonald’s as she is scoping out a fancy pink tea room or romantic table for two.
4. @chelseaannepaine
Florida-based travel and lifestyle influencer Chelsea is an entrepreneur and lululemon ambassador. Based in Jupiter, Florida, she largely stays local, though she does branch out into the nearby islands.
Lately, she’s been showing off her lululemon duds in different destinations, including Dominica and St. Petersburg. She usually finds a way to work in some high-quality content for her yoga-centric followers, whether she’s on a girls' weekend or participating in charity events.
5. @banksfamilytravels
San Francisco-based family travel influencers, the Banks are Asian-American jetsetters who share their international travel experiences. Venturing off to destinations like Hungary, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Morocco, their content proves that it’s possible to satisfy your wanderlust even with a busy family.
Their posts show their adorable children and share travel tips on where to stay, what to do, and how to find family-friendly activities that will make everyone happy. Their pictures and reels highlight some of the most picturesque sights at these travel destinations.
They also include some of the more mundane travel moments, such as waiting at a tram stop with your kid. By focusing on the realities of travel, especially with young children, the content is more relatable to like-minded families.
Local influencers: An alternative to micro-influencer partners
Local influencers are separate from standard influencer tiers because they’re defined more by their followers’ locations than their follower count. While they often have the same follower count as nano- or micro-influencers — between 500 and 5,000 — local influencers build their audience in a different way than micro-influencers.
For example, a travel micro-influencer might have 6,000 followers spread out across the country, with only a fraction of them able to afford or access the influencer’s lifestyle. (Consider micro influencer Chrissy Choate, who only stays at the finest global hotels.)
Local influencers act as more relatable travel guides, which can be a worthwhile alternative for many travel marketers, especially if your target demographics are largely concentrated in a single area. A local influencer’s audience is largely people within driving distance, and it becomes a lot easier to influence people in your own city to drive a few hours to a fun destination than it is to convince them to book a flight to a faraway spot!
When Destination Madison — a tourism board in Madison, Wisconsin — partnered with Hummingbirds’ local influencers, the marketing organization saw more than 12% engagement with their campaign, as opposed to the industry standard of 0.75%. These numbers are a nod to the influencer’s authenticity and also speak to their followers’ interest in finding novelty and joy without traveling 15+ hours to get there.
Local influencers are more cost-effective for brands
Brands can recruit a lot of local influencers for a similar price as a few micro-influencers or one mega-influencer. This way, there are multiple unique voices hyping up a city or region’s benefits rather than a single voice focusing on one message. This can be more effective than marketers realize.
Consider that even the smallest destinations appeal to more than one demographic. For example, a tourism organization or economic development organization could ask a thrifty mom to cover the town’s affordable hotels or free attractions, a hip 20-something to hype the best hiking spots, and a foodie to speak to the town’s local flavors.
Local influencers can help appeal to different demographics
If you’re marketing a single destination, such as an amusement park or aquarium, you might have families, couples, and solo travelers detail how they approached the day to squeeze the most value (and fun) out of their trip. Whether you’re tempting people to your area for a few hours or trying to convince people to move to your area, local travel marketing can have a major impact on your audience.
When the average person often has just a few days of PTO a year and a small travel budget, luxury travel just isn’t in the cards. By contrast, local campaigns like Destination Madison prove to people in nearby cities that it’s easy, fun, and affordable to plan trips to the capital.
Learn why local influencers are the most powerful marketing partners
When audiences prioritize authenticity above all else, travel marketers can’t necessarily count on traditional marketing strategies anymore. Because they’re familiar with the area they operate within, local influencer content is often automatically more relatable to their nearby followers.
At Hummingbirds, our intuitive platform matches local influencers and brands, creating mutually beneficial partnerships that make a real impression on travel enthusiasts. Over time, we’ve learned that local influencers have loyal, passionate audiences, and their words and content carry a lot of weight with people who live in their area!
Want to learn how local influencers can help you gain more traction? Check out our strategy guide today!