Social commerce is reshaping travel. Discover how AI, influencers & interactive content are turning inspiration into instant bookings.
Building upon the foundational understanding that social media has become a primary source of travel inspiration, the emergence of social commerce - where social media seamlessly integrates with e-commerce - signifies a move towards direct transactions within these platforms. The shift towards social commerce in travel represents a significant opportunity to redefine how travel experiences are planned and booked.
While initially dominated by sectors like fashion and beauty due to the nature of their commoditised products and audiences following rapidly evolving trends, social commerce is expanding into the experience economy, driven by the increasing integration of e-commerce functionalities into social media platforms. By 2028, social commerce is expected to reach US$1 trillion, according to estimates from Statista, representing more than 20% of online sales. So what are the opportunities for tourism? With over 50% of experience bookings occurring while travellers are in their destination, could social media content drive last-minute impulse purchases?
As we've explored in a couple of our recent opinion pieces, social media platforms are going through a period of rapid change. Instagram, for example, is launching Partnership Ads in recognition of influencers' role in shaping purchases and enhancing their relationships with brands. With social media increasingly being used as a search engine, acting as the source of inspiration for 77% of travellers, these platforms offer an untapped potential for driving conversion. The strategic partnership between TikTok and Klook, which integrates booking capabilities directly into TikTok, and the introduction of Expedia Travel Shops exemplify this burgeoning opportunity.
With influencers selected based on their reach, relevance and resonance, 57% of brands worldwide invest more than 20% of their marketing budgets in influencer marketing (as of January 2025) and the Influencer Marketing Benchmarking Report outlines how these campaigns are evolving to strike a balance between performance and brand building. While driving sales is the top objective (36%), followed by building brand awareness (24%), the positions reverse when considering performance metrics. Here, engagement (26%) and reach (22%) outperform sales (21%).
For destination marketing, Sojern's State of Destination Marketing 2025 report, highlights how 42% of DMOs see bookings generated as a significant strategic goal, with 90% using social media as a key channel. This social content can be repurposed to drive bookings. Visit Skåne’s interactive Pinspiration Map is just one example of how DMOs can innovatively integrate social content into a holistic and interconnected marketing strategy. Gathering popular Instagram Reels and pinning them on a ‘living map’ provides a user-friendly way to discover the region, simplifying the process of trip planning and giving equal exposure to both popular destinations and lesser-known attractions. In this manner, short, inspiring videos, filterable by nature, food & drink and art & culture, are positioned as a strategic component of balanced tourism growth in Skåne.
Marseille Tourist Office's vertical video format on its website is indicative of the importance placed on social content to drive travel demand, using this as a visual aid to highlight the various districts of the city. Yet, with less than 1% of travel bookings made through social platforms, we see an opening for DMOs to amplify their impact by driving direct sales to their industry. Through advancing social strategies that move away from purely inspirational content and instead take a full-funnel approach, DMOs will be better able to demonstrate a tangible return on investment and justify marketing budgets when facing pressure from external stakeholders.
The increasing uptake of generative AI has facilitated a trend of Delegated Discovery, where advanced algorithms act as a shortcut for travel planning. For example, in a recent update, Google Maps announced that users will be able to identify locations from screenshots based on text within the images. This is intended to streamline trip planning, with travellers able to save their favourites to this new 'screenshot list'. On the other hand, this compounds the attribution challenge faced by the majority of DMOs.
With travellers expecting information at their fingertips, destinations and the wider tourism sector must adapt to this changing behaviour. While AI searches are starting to compete with curated destination content — impeding the digital visibility of DMOs — generative AI may also be the solution to the fragmented travel ecosystem by enabling social integration. At the same time, innovative DMOs like Visit Greater Palm Springs are driving discovery through interactive videos, creating stronger connections between visuals and destination experiences. This approach facilitates a seamless journey from inspiration to action, enhancing viewer engagement and providing valuable insights into audience interests through detailed analytics.
Connecting geolocated social media content with interactive mapping tools will also support travellers in overcoming disjointed inspiration and planning across multiple videos or platforms. Instead, using AI to collate all this social content to transform posts into travel itineraries will enable personalised trip planning based on actual traveller interests. For DMOs, creating interactive map animations compliments content engagement, while the curation of itineraries and digital visitor guides helps to visualise in-destination experiences. The latter would be particularly valuable for streamlining experiences such as hiking, using visualisations to help prevent travellers from getting lost.
Instead of separating social media promotion and website design, using geotagged videos for API integration also offers opportunities for expanding the reach of social content across multiple channels. This approach provides a framework to improve cooperation with businesses by using video content to drive referrals while improving user experiences through an engaging interface. Using interactive videos to boost the performance of content also offers opportunities for DMOs to establish long-term relationships with influencers, improving the storytelling on DMO websites in a way that complements their vibrant social channels.
To effectively capitalise on the social commerce opportunity in travel, DMOs must adopt a social-first mindset, going beyond pure inspiration and leveraging its strategic potential to drive conversion. Addressing the inherent complexity of travel booking by implementing embedded booking functionalities directly within social media apps will be vital for bridging this inspiration-conversion gap. This is where AI-powered solutions may have a strong role to play, with a clear majority of social media marketers already reporting how AI has driven measurable improvements across the board in influencer marketing.
While the opportunities within travel social commerce are multifaceted, DMOs need to make conscious decisions about platforms and partners to ensure long-term viability, particularly given the rapid expansion in influencer marketing service providers and platforms. Lingering uncertainty around the future of TikTok also presents a degree of risk about going all-in on social commerce. Nevertheless, as an emerging field, we see social content soon becoming a strategic necessity. Social integration offers vast potential to become the binding agent in marketing strategies, transforming what was once simply scrollable content into a cohesive end-to-end user journey.
Investing in shoppable interfaces across social platforms and owned channels — as Visit Alberta, Brand USA, Visit Orlando and Go Dominican Republic have done through Expedia Travel Shops — will further streamline bookability in tourism. As social commerce becomes more commonplace, starting with experiences and hotels, its acceptance by Gen Z and Gen Alpha soon to start travelling independently, curated itineraries in these travel shopfronts may even enable DMOs to better promote lesser-known destinations. However, this also requires DMOs to alter their approach to marketing metrics, with KPIs shifting away from engagement and reach to direct correlations between content and bookings. Without such a change, DMOs risk false positives within their marketing analytics, which will, ultimately, create barriers when identifying the influencers driving the strongest return on investment.
The traditional model of the linear purchasing funnel will be killed by social commerce's growing popularity. With changing consumer habits, marketers also need to evolve their communication tactics to let travellers engage on their own terms. To achieve this, research suggests using 'influence maps' to segment audiences — with AI playing a vital role in this process. In doing so, DMOs will find it much easier to deliver highly targeted campaigns that drive performance improvements. While these will be incremental to start with, as social commerce takes off, tapping into the inspiration-conversion gap on social media channels will be a highly impactful part of this new approach to segmentation and targeting.
As an example, with Gen Z balancing conflicting priorities of budget-consciousness with prioritising travel experiences, and their natural attraction to social and gaming interactions, here at the Digital Tourism Think Tank, we see last-minute deals as being a primary technique of how this audience will be incentivised to act on their instinctive fondness for travel. Social commerce and the integration of emerging AI-driven marketing platforms, particularly those focusing on influencer content, will be vital aspects of this new approach to the marketing funnel. Once travel social commerce becomes normalised among these Gen Z and Gen Alpha audiences, older demographics will also be innately attracted to engaging in the popularity and convenience of this conversion channel.
Nevertheless, marketers should also be aware of the visitor flow management risks of pursuing such a direct bookings-focused approach to tourism. With clear strategies in place, the emergence of travel social commerce could also help leverage the power of influencers to share the story of hidden gems and help them gain prominence. This would result in win-win-win scenarios, where travellers have fulfilling, meaningful and authentic experiences, destinations have balanced tourism growth and improved visitor dispersal and influencers benefit from an improved reputation as trendsetters, and ultimately, also enhanced revenue through new opportunities for leveraging their affiliate links. To achieve this, destination marketing should go hand-in-hand with industry development, enhancing SMEs' ability to accept and manage digital bookings from many channels to go beyond a simplistic focus on OTAs and tap into the strengthening potential of social commerce.
Building upon the foundational understanding that social media has become a primary source of travel inspiration, the emergence of social commerce - where social media seamlessly integrates with e-commerce - signifies a move towards direct transactions within these platforms. The shift towards social commerce in travel represents a significant opportunity to redefine how travel experiences are planned and booked.
While initially dominated by sectors like fashion and beauty due to the nature of their commoditised products and audiences following rapidly evolving trends, social commerce is expanding into the experience economy, driven by the increasing integration of e-commerce functionalities into social media platforms. By 2028, social commerce is expected to reach US$1 trillion, according to estimates from Statista, representing more than 20% of online sales. So what are the opportunities for tourism? With over 50% of experience bookings occurring while travellers are in their destination, could social media content drive last-minute impulse purchases?
As we've explored in a couple of our recent opinion pieces, social media platforms are going through a period of rapid change. Instagram, for example, is launching Partnership Ads in recognition of influencers' role in shaping purchases and enhancing their relationships with brands. With social media increasingly being used as a search engine, acting as the source of inspiration for 77% of travellers, these platforms offer an untapped potential for driving conversion. The strategic partnership between TikTok and Klook, which integrates booking capabilities directly into TikTok, and the introduction of Expedia Travel Shops exemplify this burgeoning opportunity.
With influencers selected based on their reach, relevance and resonance, 57% of brands worldwide invest more than 20% of their marketing budgets in influencer marketing (as of January 2025) and the Influencer Marketing Benchmarking Report outlines how these campaigns are evolving to strike a balance between performance and brand building. While driving sales is the top objective (36%), followed by building brand awareness (24%), the positions reverse when considering performance metrics. Here, engagement (26%) and reach (22%) outperform sales (21%).
For destination marketing, Sojern's State of Destination Marketing 2025 report, highlights how 42% of DMOs see bookings generated as a significant strategic goal, with 90% using social media as a key channel. This social content can be repurposed to drive bookings. Visit Skåne’s interactive Pinspiration Map is just one example of how DMOs can innovatively integrate social content into a holistic and interconnected marketing strategy. Gathering popular Instagram Reels and pinning them on a ‘living map’ provides a user-friendly way to discover the region, simplifying the process of trip planning and giving equal exposure to both popular destinations and lesser-known attractions. In this manner, short, inspiring videos, filterable by nature, food & drink and art & culture, are positioned as a strategic component of balanced tourism growth in Skåne.
Marseille Tourist Office's vertical video format on its website is indicative of the importance placed on social content to drive travel demand, using this as a visual aid to highlight the various districts of the city. Yet, with less than 1% of travel bookings made through social platforms, we see an opening for DMOs to amplify their impact by driving direct sales to their industry. Through advancing social strategies that move away from purely inspirational content and instead take a full-funnel approach, DMOs will be better able to demonstrate a tangible return on investment and justify marketing budgets when facing pressure from external stakeholders.
The increasing uptake of generative AI has facilitated a trend of Delegated Discovery, where advanced algorithms act as a shortcut for travel planning. For example, in a recent update, Google Maps announced that users will be able to identify locations from screenshots based on text within the images. This is intended to streamline trip planning, with travellers able to save their favourites to this new 'screenshot list'. On the other hand, this compounds the attribution challenge faced by the majority of DMOs.
With travellers expecting information at their fingertips, destinations and the wider tourism sector must adapt to this changing behaviour. While AI searches are starting to compete with curated destination content — impeding the digital visibility of DMOs — generative AI may also be the solution to the fragmented travel ecosystem by enabling social integration. At the same time, innovative DMOs like Visit Greater Palm Springs are driving discovery through interactive videos, creating stronger connections between visuals and destination experiences. This approach facilitates a seamless journey from inspiration to action, enhancing viewer engagement and providing valuable insights into audience interests through detailed analytics.
Connecting geolocated social media content with interactive mapping tools will also support travellers in overcoming disjointed inspiration and planning across multiple videos or platforms. Instead, using AI to collate all this social content to transform posts into travel itineraries will enable personalised trip planning based on actual traveller interests. For DMOs, creating interactive map animations compliments content engagement, while the curation of itineraries and digital visitor guides helps to visualise in-destination experiences. The latter would be particularly valuable for streamlining experiences such as hiking, using visualisations to help prevent travellers from getting lost.
Instead of separating social media promotion and website design, using geotagged videos for API integration also offers opportunities for expanding the reach of social content across multiple channels. This approach provides a framework to improve cooperation with businesses by using video content to drive referrals while improving user experiences through an engaging interface. Using interactive videos to boost the performance of content also offers opportunities for DMOs to establish long-term relationships with influencers, improving the storytelling on DMO websites in a way that complements their vibrant social channels.
To effectively capitalise on the social commerce opportunity in travel, DMOs must adopt a social-first mindset, going beyond pure inspiration and leveraging its strategic potential to drive conversion. Addressing the inherent complexity of travel booking by implementing embedded booking functionalities directly within social media apps will be vital for bridging this inspiration-conversion gap. This is where AI-powered solutions may have a strong role to play, with a clear majority of social media marketers already reporting how AI has driven measurable improvements across the board in influencer marketing.
While the opportunities within travel social commerce are multifaceted, DMOs need to make conscious decisions about platforms and partners to ensure long-term viability, particularly given the rapid expansion in influencer marketing service providers and platforms. Lingering uncertainty around the future of TikTok also presents a degree of risk about going all-in on social commerce. Nevertheless, as an emerging field, we see social content soon becoming a strategic necessity. Social integration offers vast potential to become the binding agent in marketing strategies, transforming what was once simply scrollable content into a cohesive end-to-end user journey.
Investing in shoppable interfaces across social platforms and owned channels — as Visit Alberta, Brand USA, Visit Orlando and Go Dominican Republic have done through Expedia Travel Shops — will further streamline bookability in tourism. As social commerce becomes more commonplace, starting with experiences and hotels, its acceptance by Gen Z and Gen Alpha soon to start travelling independently, curated itineraries in these travel shopfronts may even enable DMOs to better promote lesser-known destinations. However, this also requires DMOs to alter their approach to marketing metrics, with KPIs shifting away from engagement and reach to direct correlations between content and bookings. Without such a change, DMOs risk false positives within their marketing analytics, which will, ultimately, create barriers when identifying the influencers driving the strongest return on investment.
The traditional model of the linear purchasing funnel will be killed by social commerce's growing popularity. With changing consumer habits, marketers also need to evolve their communication tactics to let travellers engage on their own terms. To achieve this, research suggests using 'influence maps' to segment audiences — with AI playing a vital role in this process. In doing so, DMOs will find it much easier to deliver highly targeted campaigns that drive performance improvements. While these will be incremental to start with, as social commerce takes off, tapping into the inspiration-conversion gap on social media channels will be a highly impactful part of this new approach to segmentation and targeting.
As an example, with Gen Z balancing conflicting priorities of budget-consciousness with prioritising travel experiences, and their natural attraction to social and gaming interactions, here at the Digital Tourism Think Tank, we see last-minute deals as being a primary technique of how this audience will be incentivised to act on their instinctive fondness for travel. Social commerce and the integration of emerging AI-driven marketing platforms, particularly those focusing on influencer content, will be vital aspects of this new approach to the marketing funnel. Once travel social commerce becomes normalised among these Gen Z and Gen Alpha audiences, older demographics will also be innately attracted to engaging in the popularity and convenience of this conversion channel.
Nevertheless, marketers should also be aware of the visitor flow management risks of pursuing such a direct bookings-focused approach to tourism. With clear strategies in place, the emergence of travel social commerce could also help leverage the power of influencers to share the story of hidden gems and help them gain prominence. This would result in win-win-win scenarios, where travellers have fulfilling, meaningful and authentic experiences, destinations have balanced tourism growth and improved visitor dispersal and influencers benefit from an improved reputation as trendsetters, and ultimately, also enhanced revenue through new opportunities for leveraging their affiliate links. To achieve this, destination marketing should go hand-in-hand with industry development, enhancing SMEs' ability to accept and manage digital bookings from many channels to go beyond a simplistic focus on OTAs and tap into the strengthening potential of social commerce.
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