TikTok made its debut in the United Kingdom in 2018 and has grown rapidly over the intervening years and is now approaching par, across most metrics, with the longer-established, legacy social media and entertainment platforms.

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Over the years, the platform has matured and diversified. As more people gravitated towards short-form video for entertainment, different categories of interest have emerged, including leisure travel.

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Phocuswright’s U.K. Consumer Travel Report 2024 confirmed that TikTok saw the largest year-on-year percentage increase in usage for travel of all the social media and entertainment platforms used by British residents between 2022 and 2023.

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This paper draws on new research into the thoughts, opinions and preferences of 1,561 British leisure travellers who identified as users of a social or entertainment platform for either planning a trip or sharing content related to a trip within the past 12 months.

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TikTok generates sparks of inspiration through its “For You” page, which is tailored to the wants and needs of each user with its recommendation engine, creating active search opportunities for brands to harness traveller intent. Its significance for travel content lies in the strength of its communities: how people are using, interacting and ultimately converting through the platform.

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Travel brands and marketing departments looking to harness these engaged communities have many platform touchpoints to explore. TikTok can help businesses to not only reimagine “the funnel” but also to recalibrate to maximise the potential of marketing campaigns that are social and entertainment-platform native.

• The new frontier: TikTok’s rapid rise to travel’s top table
• The new funnel: TikTok delivers on discovery, search, conversion
• The new community: TikTok users and creators drive engagement and evangelism
• Conclusion