Finlay Millar | Senior Strategist | 24 September 2026
The traditional view of social content in travel is that it's purely aspirational. Something to inspire an individual, who then heads to Google to research, plan and book the trip. Up until recently, that was an accurate description of the traveler journey. The majority of views across Beautiful Destinations channels came from those scrolling through Instagram or TikTok, looking to be inspired.
Search is now the fastest growing source of content views across our channels. Planning related searches across BD channels are up nine percentage points since 2023, and the behaviour is weighted towards the people who will be booking for the next twenty years. 41% of Gen Z have a social-first search mindset, and that number is only going to increase.
Social has evolved from an inspiration platform into a search engine where travelers research and plan their trips. Yet most travel brands are still running the traditional playbook: aspirational content built to go viral and perform well in the end of month report.
The way travelers search has changed
On TikTok, the searches that drove the most views to our posts in 2025 averaged twelve words. Propellic's From Search to Purchase report found the same shift across the industry: travelers moving from short, keyword based queries to natural, conversational prompts.
These are specific queries, not generic keyword searches, and generic content does not answer them. Travelers are looking past the hero shot to get a deeper understanding of what there is to do, when they should go, and whether it's worth the trip.
Why brands keep posting the wrong thing
There is a disconnect between how travelers are using social and how brands are posting. Aspirational, discovery phase content still dominates many destination and travel brand accounts. It looks great, but it doesn't answer the traveler's questions and it doesn't help them plan their trip. Social pages are still built with aesthetics over functionality. Captions written to sound good, not to be found.
Brands post this way because it is what they are asked for. Campaign objectives are set in reach and views, and an aspirational edit will beat a guide on both every time. The behaviour is rational.
What it produces is a page full of content that performs against the brief and answers nothing a traveler is actually typing. The emphasis on judging content in days rather than months makes it harder to fix. Not every post should be judged by vanity metrics in short term windows. Social strategies need to serve more than the dreaming stage.
Build for the whole journey
The solution is simple. Social strategies must incorporate content for the whole traveler journey, and understand the nuances between the stages. Not all videos should be designed to go viral. In fact, for planning related content, reach is a poor metric to judge it by. The primary goal of this content is to be findable and useful for travelers actively planning, researching and deciding on their next trip.
That starts with keyword research across platforms, looking to understand what travelers are searching for in relation to your destination, across the types of trips you deliver, and what content rises to the top when they search.
Captions and on screen text should be built around the terms people actually search, and content strategies built off the back of what travelers are actively looking for. The result is an evergreen library mapped to how travelers are searching, and formats that best serve those searches. Across BD channels, one in four planning searches is about things to do, making itinerary and guide content highly valuable to our audience, and consequently a key priority for us over the past 18 months.
Findable beats viral
The benefit of this goes beyond the immediate performance of the post. A searchable post keeps earning views long after it falls out of the algorithm's focus on newness. The top things to do, or the best spots for foodies in a destination, are just as valuable to someone traveling in November as to someone traveling in March.
So while you may not see an immediate spike in views, understanding social as a search engine turns a strategy built on aspiration into one built on utility, shaping the decisions that actually lead to a booking.
Sources
Beautiful Destinations, The Culture of Travel Report, 2026
Propellic, From Search to Purchase, 2025
Sprout Social, Q2 2025 Pulse Survey