Social Content Opportunities For the Luxury Travel Audience in Q4 2023

Purpose of This Research

• ‍Identify white space content opportunities
• ‍Identify replicable production elements (formats, editing techniques, etc) that contribute to those content opportunities
• ‍Identify content themes that are not performing well and may be avoided
• ‍Identify organic content opportunities that could be created alongside owned media  

In order to drive the most effective TikTok, Instagram and Facebook content strategy possible to resonate with the luxury travel audience.

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The 1-Minute Gist

Luxury travel audiences respond to content that inspires them to live their dreams.

Share how your hotel* will help enhance their dream trip through videos that:

• Use storytelling to show why guests should visit your hotel and the unforgettable experience they will have.
• Personify the key selling points of your hotel with partner posts that serve as endorsements.
• Share valuable information about destinations and your hotel to help inform audiences’ travel choices.  

Let inspiration, relatability and partnerships drive your organic companion posts.

Enhance your episodic owned content with supplementary media that:

• Partners with creators and related niches whose brands align with yours to amplify your reach in a more casual tone.
• Inspires audiences to visit by sharing unique hotel features, travel inspiration and the amenities you can offer guests.
• Enhances relatability with emotional content, such as opportunities to win a vacation and funny videos.

Top visual trends

• Top-performing organic content uses cinematic high-definition visuals to inspire travellers and…
• Uses a variety of formats including compilation, POV, drone and time-lapse to immerse viewers…
• And uses popular trends such as seamless transitions and social media vs. reality to expand reach.

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Top social content themes in the Luxury Travel space.

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Excellent social content themes in the Luxury Travel space.

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Good social content themes in the Luxury Travel space.

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Okay social content themes in the Luxury Travel space.

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Hotel Partner Posts

Partner with influencers whose content aligns with your brand. 

Brands like Hilton and Hyatt are communicating their offerings through partnerships with popular creators to promote their brands in more organic ways. 

Production Elements From Top Performing Posts

• ‍40 seconds in duration on average.
• Top videos give influencers the creative freedom to tell a story related to the hotel in their unique voice. 
• ‍This video uses time-lapse that is timed to the melody of the music to complete the art. 
• Each post uses branded hashtags that identify the hotel affiliation and campaign they’re a part of. 
• Show how your hotel is suitable for different people through a variety of partnerships with creators whose brands are synergistic with yours. 

Examples

Views: 43M

Engagements: 379K 

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Views: 35M

Engagements: 317K 

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Views: 16M

Engagements: 504K 

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Win a Vacation

Connect with the community and surprise someone with their dream vacation. 

Everyone likes a happy ending. Share content with people winning their dream vacations and their heartwarming reactions. 

Production Elements From Top Performing Posts

• ‍1 minute 41 seconds in duration on average.
• Top videos feature a happy ending as a main tactic. They share the heartwarming experience of a person unexpectedly getting their dream vacation and their overjoyed reactions.
• ‍On-screen captions are used to highlight the key moments of the story. 
• ‍Dialogue between giver and receiver is in every top video.
• Offer opportunities for people to win a stay with you and increase your brand favorability. 

Examples

Views: 25M

Engagements: 5.1M

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Views: 24M

Engagements: 153K

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Views: 7.9M

Engagements: 1.3M

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First Class Flights

Luxury-adjacent niches such as first class flying show off a dream lifestyle.

Tell the story of your first class flight experiences and allow people to live vicariously through it. 

Production Elements From Top Performing Posts

• ‍56 seconds in duration on average.
• Top videos are informative and share a detailed look into flying first class and all its perks.
• Segments are filmed in POV & third person to immerse viewers in the experience but also show key features of it clearly.
• ‍Voiceovers are used to highlight the benefits and features of first class flights. 
• Partner with luxury-adjacent niches to amplify the reach of your content.  

Examples

Views: 16M

Engagements: 1.5M

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Views: 10M

Engagements: 410K

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Views: 5.6M

Engagements: 744K 

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Destination Information

Visually inspire travellers to visit unique destinations around the world. 

Become a trusted source of information for users deciding where to travel next. Show them the beauty of dream destinations and share details about them.

Production Elements From Top Performing Posts

• ‍27 seconds in duration on average.
• ‍This video does their own take on the trend “It’s just a beach” where videos start off with a view of the earth. 
• Top videos preface with an introduction to set the stage and end with clips that reveal the destination and its features. 
• ‍Music that picks up during destination reveals is used to set the mood of the videos. 
• Create awe-inspiring travel videos that motivate viewers to plan their dream vacations.

Examples

Views: 20M

Engagements: 80K

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Views: 12M

Engagements: 811K 

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Views: 10M

Engagements: 694K 

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Exotic Getaways

Inspire audiences to have new experiences in exotic places. 

Help people dream big and share bucket list spots for them to explore and visit. Show them that you have the perfect spot for them, no matter the occasion. 

Production Elements From Top Performing Posts

• ‍14 seconds in duration on average.
• Top videos feature cinematic imagery that show the majestic beauty of the destination. 
• Use popular sound-bites to gain more traction in your videos.  
• ‍This video sets an emotional tone with its choice of music and caption “when life feels like a movie” that captures the feeling of the moment. 
• Encourage dreaming about bucket list destinations by creating cinematic videos that inspire audiences to travel. 

Examples

Views: 16M

Engagements: 1.8M

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Views: 14M

Engagements: 1.5M

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Views: 7.1M

Engagements: 1.3M

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Unique Hotel Experiences

Share how picturesque your hotel is and why it should be on your audience’s bucket list. 

Show the unique features of your hotel to entice visitors to book stays with you.

Production Elements From Top Performing Posts

• ‍45 seconds in duration on average.
• ‍Strong visuals aesthetics dominate this category with all top videos highlighting the beauty of the hotel. 
• ‍Voice-overs are used to share key information about each hotel in most top videos. 
• Use long captions to highlight each hotel’s features and benefits. In the first post the description is used for this instead of in the video.  
• A picture is worth a thousand words. Share the beauty of your hotel and why guests should stay with you. 

Examples

Views: 17M

Engagements: 1.6M

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Views: 12M

Engagements: 1.2M

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Views: 8.6M

Engagements: 773K 

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Hotel Amenities

Share all the bonus activities your hotel has to offer beyond just a place to sleep. 

Waiters on rollerblades? Yoga classes with flamingos? Share all the extra perks guests will have access to when staying with you. 

Production Elements From Top Performing Posts

• ‍21 seconds in duration on average.
• Top videos don’t feature dialogue and instead aim to highlight the amenity visually.
• ‍This video uses TikTok’s comment reply function to respond to user questions. 
• ‍Music is used to add ambiance to the top videos. 
• Show your audience what amenities and activities you offer. Let the amenities speak for themselves by using visually impressive footage to inspire travellers. 

Examples

Views: 12M

Engagements: 452K 

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Views: 4.8M

Engagements: 1M 

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Views: 4.2M

Engagements: 473K

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Social Media vs. Reality

Reverse this trend to show that luxury travel lives up to the hype.  

Share how your hotel is even better in real life than on social media. 

Production Elements From Top Performing Posts

• ‍11 seconds in duration on average.
• Use back-and-forth compilation footage that shows how your destination looks on social media before showing how reality is even better. 
• ‍Captions and music are used to enhance the storytelling and highlight the differences between social media and reality. 
• ‍This video still shows the amazing hotel view and how luxurious it is despite its “reality”. 
• Create videos in which the (1) reality is even better than the social media version. 

Examples

Views: 27.2M

Engagements: 2.8M 

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Views: 7.8M

Engagements: 793K 

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Views: 4.3M

Engagements: 188K 

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Funny Travel Videos

Use humour to connect with the luxury travel audience and be more relatable.

Share travel bloopers, funny moments and funny travel stereotypes with your audience to show that there is a more than just picture perfect spots. 

Production Elements From Top Performing Posts

• ‍16 seconds in duration on average.
• ‍Highlight relatable travel moments. In this video, the creator asks other travellers if they clean their suite before housekeeping arrives so they don't think they're slobs.
• ‍Use humour to attract attention. In this video a child orders 2 big plates of seafood like he is the one paying as his parents laugh at his audacity in the background.  
• Share scenarios and stereotypes to humorously relate with the luxury travel experience and audience. 

Examples

Views: 12M

Engagements: 574K

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Views: 5.9M

Engagements: 840K

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Views: 5.8M

Engagements: 559K

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Viral Outliers

Viral Outlier posts exceed the average view and engagement benchmark for their content theme by 3x.

Hotel Partner Post

A humorous video in which the creator presents stereotypes from different generations as they try to book a hotel for their vacation. 

Views: 101M

Engagements: 730K 

First Class Flights

A simple video of a couple cheersing as they close their doors for privacy in their first class seats. Shot from POV of one partner. 

Views: 81M

Engagements: 3.6M

Family Vacation

This Hilton video shares wholesome clips of a family spending time together and having fun during their stay at the hotel.  

Views: 16M

Engagements: 68K 

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Arts & Culture

A highliner performs a daring traverse across two skyscrapers in Qatar with drone footage showing the splendour of the city beyond him. 

Views: 15M

Engagements: 73K 

Food & Drink

A chef takes viewers through preparation of a mouth-watering gourmet meal at the Emirates Palace Mandarin Oriental in Abu Dhabi.  

Views: 13M

Engagements: 66K 

Room Reveal

Not all room reveals are made equal. This epic room reveal shows a wine cellar that has been converted into a private swimming pool en suite at the Leonardo Trulli Resort in Italy. 

Views: 23M

Engagements: 1M

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Viral Outliers

While these categories did not generally have high views & engagement, these videos were viral outliers.

Dream Destinations

A compilation of drone, time-lapsed and professional shots of Milan which capture the scale of the city’s beauty and magnificence. 

Views: 8.2M

Engagements: 507K 

Dream Destinations

This video captures the essence of Positano in a mere 11 seconds, panning from a beautiful restaurant terrace to the stunning coastline and quaint town. 

Views: 14M

Engagements: 3.2M

Dream Destinations 

This video asks audiences to visit Italy with the person who comes up first when they share the post while showing an inspiring montage of Lake Como, Italy.

Views: 80M

Engagements: 2.1M 

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What’s Trending?

This video by Hilton parodies a popular Instagram video where 2 friends share a vacation compilation in which they laugh their way through their vacation. 

Views: 16M

Engagements: 46K 

What’s Trending?

Use visual trends like cool transitions to add a wow factor to your posts. This video features a transition from day to night to view the NYE fireworks from this creator’s hotel room.

Views: 6.2M

Engagements: 495K

Hotel Room Quirks

A fun video of an interesting feature of this hotel, a fake gun that is used to shoot the lights on and off. 

Views: 11M

Engagements: 1M

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Celebrity Guests

Celebrity guest Bruno Mars collaborated with Fairmont to share one of his favourite drink recipes. 

Views: 6.8M

Engagements: 803K 

Supporting Social Causes

This Hilton Partner shares the impact Hilton and their partnership with Minus18 an LGBTQ+ non-profit, has had on their lives. 

Views: 6.1M

Engagements: 21K 

Service Trade

A creator loves the aesthetics of an Italian luxury hotel and offers to shoot content for them. The hotel offers him a free stay if they like the content he produces. A video detailing the entire journey and the finished result of his content. 

Views: 1.7M

Engagements: 59K 

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Content Theme Definitions

Hotel Partner Posts: Partner with influencers to produce travel and hotel-related content in a casual style. 

Win a Vacation: Offer unsuspecting people an opportunity to win their dream vacation or share posts of people surprising their loved ones with vacations and their reactions. Show people their dreams are possible. 

First Class Flights: Share enthralling stories, and reviews from luxurious first class flights. Allow people insight into a luxury lifestyle. 

Destination Information: Detail interesting information and travel inspiration for different destinations around the world.

Unique Hotel Experiences: Share unique hotel properties and all the luxuries they offer to inspire people to stay there. 

Hotel Amenities:  Show travellers everything extra hotels offer to enhance the experience of their stay including but not limited to amazing pools, yoga classes, equipment rentals, gyms, and cultural classes.

Social Media v. Reality: Use this popular trend in reverse to share how your hotel is even better than social media. 

‍Exotic Getaways: Share dreamy destinations that take viewers on a visual adventure. Feature exotic cultures with different people, perspectives, customs, foods, architecture and histories.

Funny Travel Videos:  Share funny relatable moments as seen on vacation such as vacation bloopers and stereotypes.

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Family Vacation: Fun and heartwarming vacation moments with families and show how your hotel is the perfect fit for them.  

Food and Drink: Amazing food, drinks and restaurants your hotel or destination has to offer travellers. 

Arts & Culture: These videos highlight the finer elements of cities from culturally significant spots to amazing art.  

Room Reveal: Videos that show the experience of entering a hotel room for the first time to reveal the luxury and beauty of the room.  

Travel Itineraries: “Good fortune is what happens when opportunity meets with planning.” – Thomas Edison. Propose itineraries for the planners who like to have everything figured out before they book their vacations. 

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TikTok Accounts Included in Analysis

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*Hotel is used interchangeably in this report for all forms of overnight accommodation (ex. resorts, bed & breakfasts, and luxury trains).

*For videos in this content category. View + Engagement data collected via direct social media platform API.

*Measured by Average Views + Engagements

Reference:

1. 20 Destinations That Are Even Better In Person (Than In Photos)