Airlines
TikTok’s Short-Form Video
Revolution Gains Traction in
Search for Destinations
Dawit Habtemariam
Oct 14, 2022 2:00 am
Skift Take
A
s short-form video becomes more
important to marketing,
destinations will need to step up
their creativity and adjust their mindset to
the new medium, or they will be forced to
spend money on hiring those who can do
it.
— Dawit Habtemariam
Destination marketing organizations are facing
new pressures to adopt digital strategies as
TikTok continues to grow and popularizes shortform video marketing in tourism.
Short-form video marketing is becoming more
important than ever. “It’s definitely an evolution,”
said Amir Eylon, CEO and President of research
firm Longwoods International. “It’s definitely
becoming more and more important medium for
destinations to get their message out there.”
Digital platforms are pushing short-form video
content to users than ever before. Meta and
Instagram are prioritizing Reels, YouTube is
prioritizing YouTube Shorts and Google is
prioritizing video content in its search results.
All these new features are following in the
footsteps of the short-form video platform
TikTok, which has become a strong player in
travel shopping. It’s even taken a chunk of
❤
Google when it comes to search
in travel.
!
Around 40 percent of travelers over the age of
30 prefer TikTok over Google as a search tool in
travel, according to a Portrait of American
Travelers, an annual survey by MMGY Global, a
travel and hospitality marketing agency.
“Early decision-making is where a lot of our
respondents talk about how TikTok influences
their decision of where to go and where to stay,
whereas Google, especially as they get more
aggressive against online travel agencies, has
moved down in some ways,” said Clayton Reid,
CEO of marketing firm MMGY.
Short-form videos can be e!ective at enabling
marketers to get their message across at the
time customers when they are their most
receptive, according to Longwoods’ Eylon.
More destinations are waking up to this reality.
Visit Norway and Visit Morocco, for example,
starting posting videos last year. Visit Berlin
posted its first video in August this year.
175
18
17
Watch more exciting videosWatch
on TikTok
now
Watch m
@visitberlin
Hi, we are finally on TikTok
Follow us for
Berlin tips!
#visitberlin #berlin #berlincity
#visitgermany #travel
G.A.B - Official Sound Studio
A greater share of destination marketing
organization (DMOs) budgets are going toward
marketing on TikTok. “Of our own clients, we’ve
seen a 71 percent increase in third quarter 2022
vs. third quarter 2021 in budget allocation,” Reid
said. About one fourth of the firm’s total paid
social media spend on behalf of clients is now in
TikTok.
To succeed, however, DMOs need to rethink
what TikTok as more than just social media,
which emphasizes sharing of carefully crafted
images and text by influencers or between
peers. “It is a short-form streaming more than
social media,” said Ross Borden, CEO and
founder of Matador Network, a travel content
creator community which also has a TikTok
account with over 6.8 million followers and
helps DMOs grow theirs.
TikTok is more than just Gen Z users sharing
videos with each other. A rising share of users
are from the over the 30 segment and most
users are content consumers instead of
creators, according to MMGY’s Reid and
Matador’s Borden. TikTok’s algorithm zeroes in
on their interests and pushes that content in
front of them on the ForYouPage.
This presents an opportunity for them to be
organically discovered by aspiring tourists, but it
also means DMOs now have to develop original
content. “There’s a demand on TikTok to do
more creative and original content so clients
have to allocate budget on the creative side. You
can’t just repurpose old content,” MMGY’s Reid
said. DMOs have to come up with ideas
themselves or pay creators with large followings
on TikTok.
DMOs won’t succeed with an Instagram
mindset, under which perfection on very often
staged imagery is heavily emphasized,
according to Matador’s Borden. Authenticity is
the asset that should be a be embraced. “Things
don’t have to be perfect,” Borden said. “They
just have to be unique and interesting.”
Users want to be entertained and inspired. “It’s
finding a way in short-form content to build
brand equity and to build a message that
resonates in an authentic way,” he said.
Small destinations and attractions have an
opportunity to better compete for visitor
attention with their bigger counterparts with
e!ective storytelling, according to Borden.
DMOs can also spotlight more stakeholders,
attractions and their destination’s hidden gems.
776
4
26
atch more exciting videos on TikTok Watch
Watch
nowmore exciting
@visitmontana
Mondays are for Monsons #montana #beer
#visitmontana
Cowboy Western - martynharvey
“Five years ago if you are going to go and spend
your video budget on one or two long form
spots, there’s only very few places,” said Borden.
“Now we are able to cover, see more places and
get more experiences.”
There’s also an opportunity for destinations to
lean on their unique cultural heritage. In a
summer campaign for the annual Grand Prix,
Singapore Tourism Board partnered with the
popular TikTok Australian trio Swag on the Beat
to feature three local grandmothers who shared
what they enjoy most about living in Singapore.
Some of their videos have garnered over a
million views.
@visit_singapore
Hot stu! (and a hat)!
with Gran
Helen #VisitSingapore #GranPrixSG
♬ original sound – Visit Singapore – Visit
Singapore
Borden thinks the success of TikTok is only the
beginning. He expects short-form video to be
the most important form of marketing in the
next decade as smartphone remain in use. “Our
prediction is that people are going to rely less
on articles and more on getting not only
inspiration but information on short-form
vertical video,” he said.
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Photo Credit: TikTok on a phone display.
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Categories: Tourism
Tags: destination marketing, instagram, singapore, social
media, tiktok, tourism
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