Two years ago, no one predicted the devastating crash of the travel and tourism industry during the Covid pandemic. It clearly brings the spotlight on technology to transition the industry into resilience mode. While several industries developed the infrastructure to act quickly, the travel and tourism industry faced the brunt due to social distancing norms and nationwide lockdown.
With the pandemic slowly subduing, the world is picking up from where it left but with major technology transformations. People ready to backpack are consuming travel content online. This is leading to the emergence of social travel. By harnessing the power of content and the voice of content creators, social travel and influencers are transforming the travel experience of 4.5 billion social media natives.
Present travel landscape
Nearly 80% of millennials choose their next vacation on social media. However, finding and booking personalized leisure travel itineraries is a complex and painful experience as they get burdened with the overload of information available. Around 60% of travelers connect with brands to personalize their travel. However, OTAs only offer cookie-cutter or semi-cooked AI recommendations. On the other hand, travel content creators who have created a traveling inventory by personally traveling to places lack incentives and tools to monetize travel bookings. The absence of a one-stop platform to reward the content creators for the bookings they influence and OTAs with huge market share creates a wide gap in the market.
As travel groups are returning to travel, it has become evident that customers need a customized and personalized trip experience. In the age of the creator economy, social commerce is doing wonders to fashion, fitness and other lifestyle segments and the travel industry is no longer an exception. Advanced travel tech platforms are empowering travel influencers and equipping them with tools to boost their earnings. ,
Commenting on the market need, Ashish Sidhra, Co-founder, Alike.io, says, “We acts as a catalyst in bridging the market gap by connecting travelers with travel influencers. We offer content creators and travel enthusiasts a go-to platform to publish and book travel experiences. More importantly for the bookings the content creators influence, we are the only platform to share the revenues with them. By establishing a new way of discovering, planning, and sharing travel experiences, we monetize bookable travel itineraries, empowering travel influencers to make a living on their passion.”
Bridging the market gap
The presence of integrated social travel platforms eliminates the need to hop from one platform to another to make an efficient booking. By offering the social discovery and booking of travel experience on a single platform, the entire experience is streamlined, saving valuable time and interest of travelers. Influencer driven social travel is a revolutionary concept that is set for massive growth in India and globally with the support of platforms.
