Top Travel Influencers in 2018: What Can They do for Your Brand?

When the Marriott Group of Hotels wanted to increase their bookings, they skipped their advertisers and PR agents and head straight over to social media personalities Taryn Southern, Jen Levinson, Sara Hopkins, Tom Jauncey, and Diipa Khosla for help.

 

The group was tasked with creating highly-engaging videos of their stay at various Marriott hotels around the world. They had complete freedom to do what they wanted. The end objective – increase Marriott’s booking rates.

 

Within days of launching the videos, the Marriott Group of Hotels experienced a surge in bookings across their international properties. Soon, they had such a flood of requests that the Group had to turn down bookings due to lack of space.

 

Why did this happen and how?

 

 

The rise of the travel influencers

 

Taryn Southern and her team are what we call social media travel influencers. They travel around the world, posting pictures and accounts of their travel, in-the-process promoting various companies from travel agencies to spas.

 

These days, you have companies like ifluenz, which specialize in providing influencer marketing services. They work with hundreds of travel influencers, who have the ability to persuade people to utilize the services of specific travel & tourism brands when on holiday.

 

If you’re a travel agency, hotel, spa, resort, restaurant or any other player in the Travel & Tourism industry, then you need to consider utilizing social media travel influencers for your marketing events.

 

 

Say hello to the travel gurus of the social world

 

Are you interested in hiring a social media travel influencer to promote your business? Here are our picks for the Top 5 Most Popular Travel Influencers you absolutely need to know about this 2018:

 

• Hand Luggage Only

College friends Yaya and Lloyd have always been travel-crazy. So, it was little-surprise when they took their passion for travel and transformed it into a travel blog. The duo is one of the most-loved travel influencers in the UK, having been nominated for the Vuelio Blog Awards, for their detailed posts and stunning photographs of locations, food and culture.

 

Currently, they work with A-list PR agents in marketing some of the hottest properties around the world.

 

• Rachel Jones

Writer of the 28^th most popular blog in the world, Rachel Jones is a force to be reckoned with. Having visited over 35 countries, she has amazing knowledge about what works when travelling and what doesn’t.

 

Her blog, Hippie in Heels, is the go-to-place for youngsters looking for safe and fun places to party. She routinely gives tips on how to select the best hotels to stay, food to eat and the best places to relax and unwind.

 

• Murad and Nataly Osmann

Who hasn’t heard of these two? The brains behind the raging #FollowMeTo campaign have traveled to every country around the world, leading audiences to exotic locales, taking us on a visually-dramatic journey.

 

Now, with over 4.5 million followers just on Instagram, they work with big brands and institutions, helping promote tourism in the host countries. Their romantic travel pictures have inspired many-a-couples to take on similar journeys around the world.

 

• Emily Luxton

Owner of travel agency Emily Luxton Travels and travel blogger, Emily Luxton is out to prove that there’s nothing wrong in being a solo-female traveler. Her stunning blogs, chock-full of details about countries, cultures and creature comforts, has captured the imagination of thousands of young women from around the world.

 

If your brand wants to empower women or has services catering specifically to women travelers, then Emily Luxton would be a good choice for an influencer.

 

• Lakshmi Sharath

Indian-born media professional, chef and travel blogger Lakshmi Sharath certainly has set the standard high for people who love to travel, cook and read. A world traveler, she posts detailed descriptions of the global tours she regularly goes on, with helpful tips on where to find the best food joints, relaxation havens and more.

 

Sharath has worked with international brands like Airbnb, Thomas Cook, Virgin Atlantic and Nokia Lumia, promoting their various services.