Keepin’ It Real: The Power of Authenticity in Travel Tourism

One of The Abbi Agency’s fabulous Brand Managers, Kelly Kimball, recently had the chance to attend the 2024 Arizona Governor’s Conference on Tourism, and she’s more than ready to share some of the invaluable tidbits of knowledge that she picked up during her time there! Kelly dove into multiple sessions surrounding the states’ industry updates, brand process and air travel, along with breakouts focusing on video trends, social media, and health and wellness. Needless to say, she’s pretty much an expert now!

Good news for the rest of us scrubs: Kelly is here to dial us in on everything she learned. Sit back, grab a treat and get ready to soak up some super cool travel and tourism knowledge.

Hello, operator? 1-800-TOURISM, please!

Wait, Can We Even Afford to Keep it Real?

If you were a bird looking down at the current national travel industry (a bird’s eye view, if you will), there are a handful of trends and developments that stand out against the ever-shifting travel landscape. First though, we had to have a little chat about money, money, money. Because tourism is so fundamentally intertwined with the health of our economy, it’s only right that the conference kicked off with Zeek Coleman of Tourism Economics sharing his teams’ findings on economy and travel segments. Don’t worry— it’s good news!

The Economy is Stronger Than You Think:

• Anxieties about the economy are often overdone. While it’s true that the economy is decelerating this year and next, it’s not alarmingly so.
• A resilient labor market and cooling inflation continue to support consumer spending, though many lower income households will continue to find themselves a little pinched.
• Election impacts in 2025 will likely be limited.

Travel is On the Up-and-Up:

• Lower-tier hotels face softening demand.
• Though some markets are easing, leisure travel continues to experience a tailwind, as consumer budgets have capacity.
• Business travel is still rebuilding, and is thus seeing positive trends for group trips. 
• International inbound travel is still seeing the strongest gains.

After the general travel session wrapped, it was time to break free for breakout sessions! Topics ranged from navigating video content trends, to digesting AI capabilities and conversations. Kelly spent her time learning about video content trends, social first marketing, and the rise of nature and wellness tourism.

Navigating Video Content Trends on Social Media

Kelly sped right over to a breakout session on video trends in social media, because Kelly is highly intelligent and Kelly knows that video is going to continue to play a tremendous role in the growth of social media marketing! 

Listen to this: a whopping $191.3B is expected to be spent on social video ads in 2024. That equates to nearly $10B in revenue from short-term video. The reason? In a world where many of us have the attention span of a newborn squirrel, easily consumable visual content is king. Short-term video content is preferred by 73% of social media users. 

More often than not, short-term video in the tourism space equates to work with local communities, businesses and content creators. Like planets orbiting their sun, the use of these three segments centers around the deep universal desire for authenticity in video content. More than ever, users are yearning for short, impactful content to digest. All three panelists in this breakout shared their hit list of must-haves for social media success:

Local Vibes: Lean on in-state or in-area content creators to embrace the true, authentic message you are trying to convey.

UGC is the OG: Continue to build your UGC library so users are more inclined to interact when viewing true, real content. 

Talk the Talk: Social media is for sparking conversations. Use your voice to listen, comment back and DM users. All personal interactions on social media will help increase your trustworthiness as a destination. 

Embracing Authenticity in Social First Marketing 

Let’s get real for a second. Social media feeds, blog posts, video content— no matter which corner of the marketing world you find yourself in, it’s a simple truth that “authenticity” is the magic word of today’s travel industry. 

According to Tripscout, a creator marketing network, nearly 86% of consumers believe authenticity is important when deciding which brands they like and support. At the same time, 92% of consumers trust recommendations from other people, even if they don’t know them personally. Tripscout shared many case studies, but all of their success can be defined by a few key tips n’ trends:

Say Goodbye to “Perfect”: Audiences want to see destinations for who they are. Picture-perfect, overly posed content is out; authentic, true-to-life content is in.

Let Creators Create: Creators know their own audience better than anyone. It’s kind of their thing! Trust them to run with whatever will resonate with their specific audience (within reason, of course).

Get Local: Consider collabing locally with businesses and creators who can in turn help build your credibility and spark genuine conversations among the community.

Tell ‘Em Something True: Being authentic and highlighting local voices will show your true story, and set you apart from the rest of the pack.

The Rise of Nature and Wellness Tourism

Many destinations around the world have the luxury of nature or wellness as a main selling point for prospective travelers. However! A majority do not. In his breakout session, Jeff Ficker, Chief Creative Officer of Casual Astronaut, explained that travelers don’t just want to see things anymore, they want to experience and make them meaningful. Here are a few top priorities for travelers searching for nature and wellness experiences: 

Authenticity: Travelers increasingly seek experiences that allow them to connect deeply with nature and local cultures, favoring trips that offer more than just sightseeing.

Immersion in Nature: There is a growing trend toward nature-based tourism in which travelers look to escape urban environments, choosing to instead immerse themselves in serene, natural settings for relaxation and personal renewal. 

Well-Being: A focus has been shifted to travel that provides not just physical rest, but also emotional and spiritual well-being. This kind of travel emphasizes mindfulness, wellness activities and transformative experiences.

Personal Growth: Many travelers now view vacations as an opportunity for personal growth, choosing destinations and activities that offer learning experiences, challenges and opportunities for self-reflection.

Jeff also shared an interesting extra insight: he is finding that visitors of his clients’ destinations have been shifting their mindset from “what do I want to see during this trip?” to “what do I want to experience and remember during this trip?” For example, his team has observed a shift in web traffic over the last few years from users searching for things like hotel room details, to searching around for things to do on the property.

Basically, travelers are getting out of their rooms and into the world around them, caring less about where they stay, and more about how they can build experiences that will stay with them for a lifetime.

Wrapping Up

Between the general sessions and breakouts, two things rang true. First, tourism is back on the upswing post-pandemic. Second, travelers are on the hunt for unique, authentic experiences that are deeply meaningful. Our hot tip for destinations? Remember that there’s always something unique to uncover and share about a place. Whether it’s proximity to boundless adventure, a quirky local tradition, fantastic food, one-of-a-kind art or anything in between, be you, be true, and always keep it real.

Need a little help keepin’ it real? That’s what The Abbi Agency does best. Click here to get in touch with our team.