Top Platforms for the Luxury Travel Industry

Key Takeaways

‍Audiences on organic channels for Luxury Travel brands are saturated on Instagram and Facebook.

• ‍Recommendations
  Leverage TikTok as a platform to engage with the substantial audience interested in high-end travel content, as demonstrated by Rimowa's success with 457K followers. 

TikTok & Instagram are leaders in viewership and engagement for Luxury Travel content. 

• Recommendations
  (i) Focus organic efforts on TikTok and Instagram.
  (ii) Experiment on YouTube (the platform that saw the second highest video views) by repurposing existing video content into Shorts, aiming to replicate the success witnessed on TikTok and Instagram

Advertising is focused on Facebook, Instagram and Display channels.

• Recommendations
  (i) Top luxury brands emphasize spending on traditional marketing channels, such as Facebook and Instagram. Mirror their efforts on these platforms.
  (ii) Explore advertising on Snapchat, leveraging the whitespace opportunity identified with Rimowa's substantial $1.8M spending over the past year.

There is a small existing market specific to Luxury Travel Podcasts, predominantly run by brands, with an audience of 33K.  

• Recommendations
  (i) Venture into podcast ads or partnerships, which are less saturated than other channels. 
  (ii) Consider partnering with general Luxury podcast hosts instead of creating a show of your own, this audience has roughly 176M listeners.

The top performing post shared partnership content on their main account. Despite its proven effectiveness, 63% of brands did not utilize the strategy.

• Recommendations
  (i) Share partnership content on a brands main account while tagging the influencer.
  (ii) Form partnerships with high-impact influencers like Tara Milk Tea that generated an average of 227K views per branded post. ‍

Luxury brands sponsor a variety of prestigious events across sporting and cultural domains.

• Recommendations
  Align sponsorship and partnership efforts with high-profile events, such as Wimbledon or the Met Gala, that resonate with the luxury-seeking audience. 

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Luxury travel brands have the largest audience size on Instagram, followed by Facebook.

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However, TikTok is generating the highest volume of video views for luxury travel content, with 784M views in the past year.

Instagram view data is currently unavailable

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Instagram is generating the highest volume of video engagement for luxury travel content, with 122M engagements in the past year.

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Luxury travel brands are spending the most on Facebook ($6.3M) and Instagram ads ($3.9M). 

*Display ads | ** OTT ads

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Partner with general luxury podcasts instead — they have 176M listeners. 

The luxury travel podcast market is niche with only 33K listeners.

• There is a small existing market of podcasts specifically serving the luxury travel audience, with roughly 33K listeners in total.
• There is a larger market for general luxury*, with about 183K podcasts amassing a total audience of 176M listeners.

Existing Luxury Travel Podcasts:

This includes podcasts ranking for “luxury or rich”.

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The following creators are effective YouTubers, Instagram Influencers, and Bloggers within the luxury travel niche:

• Luxury travel creators amassed 249M total views, 11M total engagements, and 2.6M website visits from October 2022 to September 2023. 
• Tara Milk Tea is the influencer with the most brand partnerships within the competitive set. Let's dive deeper into these brand partnerships. 

Top Luxury Travel Creators: 

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Tara Milk Tea

Consider forming partnerships with high-impact influencers.

Tara Milk Tea partnered with 12 brands from Sep. to Oct. ‘23. 

That’s around 1.5 partnerships per week!

• Only 37%* of brands shared Tara's partnership content on their main Instagram accounts, while the remaining 63% of brands did not mention Tara on their accounts at all.

* Asterisk indicates the brands that cross-posted Tara’s partnership content.

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Tara Milk Tea amassed 2.5M views on her 11 branded posts in the past 2 months.

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Brand Sponsored Events

• Luxury brands sponsor a range of events, encompassing both the sporting & cultural spheres. 
  ‍In the world of sports, their sponsorships extend to tennis, golf, equestrianism, yachting, and motorsports events. 
  On the cultural front, they lend their support to prestigious art and fashion events such as the Met Gala & Sundance Film Festival.
• Use events such as Wimbledon or New York Fashion Week to connect with potential customers, as they are platforms which naturally attract a more affluent audience. 

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Other Methods of Targeting High Net Worth Individuals: 

• ‍Advertise & Rank on Google Search: Google, both paid and organic, remains a potent channel to reach High Net Worth Individuals — they search for their specific needs just like everyone else. 
• ‍Partner with Musicians, Athletes, and Creators: BUT, be sure to conduct research to pinpoint those whose audience has a large proportion of HNWIs. If helpful, RightMetric research can help identify these creators.
• ‍Display Ads on Luxury Sites: Consider running display ads on luxury content-oriented sites. If helpful, RightMetric research can help identify these sites.
• ‍Geo-targeting: Focus on cities/regions where wealthy individuals reside or frequently visit, included tax advantages geos.