The booming world of travel influencers in the post-pandemic world

Diving deep into the nitty-gritties of how can travel-related brands leverage influencer marketing, BuzzInContent found out that brands need to do their homework properly, in terms of researching influencers and identifying their audience base, before roping them in

author-image
Shreya Negi
New Update
Post Thumb

With the tourism industry rebooting, the travel influencer culture is on an all-time rise in the digital-oriented millennial and GenZ world. While people are eyeing off-beat locations, influencers have made it a point to showcase the best content through their unique storytelling and vlogs.

However, there are multiple points which need improvement and with the return to normalcy in the post-pandemic world, travel influencers think it is high time that they are paid adequately and dealt with fairly by the businesses. In a conversation with BuzzInContent.com some of them also highlighted the negatives of this line of work and shared words of advice for the upcoming and wannabe travel influencers.

Influencers like Larissa D’sa, Anunay Sood, Avantika Mohan, Ashi Khanna, Honeyimmhome, thebrownvanlife, Aashna Hegde, Nagma Mirajkar, bruisedpassports, among many others have not only catered to the travel brands to the best of their capabilities but have significantly helped in the rise of the travel culture, after the setback faced by it owing to the pandemic.

“Travel confidence and demand is strong this year due to ease in restrictions both for domestic and international travel. However, interest in international travel this year is strong due to pent-up demand, despite the rising fuel prices. At an industry level, flights have seen an 83% recovery in domestic travel and 70% recovery in international travel,” according to Manan Bajoria, VP Growth Marketing and Analytics, ixigo.

In fact, in August the resuscitation of the pandemic-hit travel industry is most likely to begin as the month tentatively has a series of two-three extended weekends. This provides a perfect getaway for backpackers, office-goers and more. In the coming months, the festive season is also going to begin in India, which is further expected to boost the industry.

According to Avantika Mohan, a travel, lifestyle and fashion influencer, “The influencer culture has transformed the way people think and travel, from exploring breath-taking offbeat destinations to adding popular tourist destinations and food stops to your bucket list, the influencers have got everything covered.”

Continuing the same chain of thought, Ashi Khanna, a lifestyle and travel influencer said, “I think it is the golden time for the travel industry as people are just passionately willing to travel after being locked in their homes due to the pandemic. Brands can use this opportunity to collaborate with influencers to promote their products which will really benefit the people as well the brands. They can use influencer marketing by targeting the correct influencer and researching a bit about the influencer's niche and their audience base.”

Larissa D’sa, a travel and lifestyle influencer, recently took the internet by storm with her videos which captured the serenity of Kerala. She has won the Cosmopolitan Travel Influencer of the Year award for two consecutive years, 2021 and 2022.

 
 
 
 
 
View this post on Instagram
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

A post shared by YouTube India (@youtubeindia)

Similarly, avid traveller, photographer and videographer, Anunay Sood’s Instagram handle has become the favourite hangout of travel enthusiasts who are looking for a viable option for virtual travelling. He also won the award for Cosmopolitan Travel Influencer of the Year in 2022.

 
 
 
 
 
View this post on Instagram
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

A post shared by ANUNAY SOOD | India (@anunaysood)

Caravanning their way through the PanAm route, thebrownvanlife is a rather familial Instagram page that expresses Smriti and Kartik’s love for caravan travel along with their paw-some pooch, Everest.

The van life couple had a message for all the upcoming travel enthusiasts who also want to make it big on Instagram and other digital platforms, “Even though one may feel the pressure to keep up pace with the trends on Instagram Reels and YouTube Shorts, its sheen will not last for so long and once you hit the peak, it’ll be extremely exhausting. But posting out content that is well weaved in terms of storytelling and showcasing something that you really love doing and find inspiring rather than just doing it for the Gram world, will make you an even better creator.”

 
 
 
 
 
View this post on Instagram
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

A post shared by Smriti | Kartik | Everest (@thebrownvanlife)

HoneyImmHome, the queer couple who love catching flights and feelings while they look for a homey feeling in every city they go, also emphasised on how influencers need to carry out their back-end research before taking up a branded content project, so that they put out the desired and real content out in the public.

Atulan and Divesh in their interaction with BuzzInContent.com also suggested that brands should keep in mind the sanctity of content and pay creators adequately. They said, “Travel in itself is expensive and if the brands can pay the bare minimum expenditure and organise a comfortable and hygienic stay, it does motivate us to do even better. Expecting us to travel to your location and tending to the expenses as influencers does not feel right, especially because at the end of the day, even we need motivation to put out good content for our follower base and audience.”

 
 
 
 
 
View this post on Instagram
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

A post shared by Atulan

“Millennials see an Instagram photo as a real and personal depiction, and not a campaign created by the marketing department. It is influencers which allow brands to establish a more personal connection with potential customers and inspire the fellow millennials to get out and explore the world,” Mohan pointed out when asked about how important it is for a brand to leverage social media through influencer marketing.

As fun as it sounds and as easy as it looks, social media has its own set of challenges which can easily take a toll on anyone, be it travel influencers or lifestyle content creators or fashion models.

“Social media sounds and comes across as a very light and fun profession but most of the people are unaware of the amount of work that we put in to make content. We are humans and we don't always like dressing up and are not in a very amazing mood all the time. Hence, being consistent is a task and is quite challenging. However, I lift up myself and try to keep myself motivated by recalling all the love that my social media family has sent my way,” Ashi Khanna said.

The booming world travel influencers post-pandemic world