The Travel Industry Social Media Benchmark Report
In the latest TikTok, Instagram and YouTube benchmark reports, uncover which KPIs are critical to travel brands’ social strategies.
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To win in today’s social media landscape, travel brands must understand what truly resonates with their audiences to maximize ROI and achieve lasting success. While metrics like follower count and growth rate remain essential, travel brands are focusing on metrics such as engagement, owned reach and posting cadence to gain a deeper understanding of how content is received.
Travel Industry Benchmarks and Statistics
Average Monthly Social Media Growth Rate for Followers/Subscribers
TikTok
5.6%
1.0%
Youtube
1.6%
* Follower growth rate data taken from the September 2024 Travel Industry Benchmarks. See the report for the full methodology.
The Average Monthly Growth Rate measures the rate at which a travel brand increases its follower count month-over-month. Brands can expect different growth trajectories per channel, with TikTok still seeing significant follower growth. Many brands in the travel industry have well-established Instagram presences, leading to a natural saturation in growth. YouTube has recently experienced growth as users increasingly shift from traditional media to social media for entertainment.
Travel Industry Highlights From Leading Brands
The travel industry capitalizes on engaging content across Instagram, TikTok and YouTube, demonstrating a strong alignment with audience interests. High engagement rates and the significant impact of video content underscore the industry’s success and potential for growth.
Southwest Airlines earns incredible TikTok engagement by blending humor and heartfelt stories from both crew and passengers. Its friendly and relatable content strategy effectively humanizes the brand and builds a community of engaged followers who love its content, ultimately earning customer loyalty.
Southwest Airlines outperforms the travel industry by 54.9%.
Morey's Piers achieves a high Instagram engagement rate by posting vibrant, fun-filled snapshots of its amusement park attractions and events. This content vividly captures the excitement of visiting the boardwalk park.
Morey’s Piers outperforms the travel industry by 115.8%.
Booking.com uses On-Demand YouTube for its fun and colorful ads, while its Shorts are cleverly designed to promote the site through relatable content in the short-form, vertical format that so many mobile users are used to.
Booking.com outperforms the travel industry by 191.2%.
In this Travel and Hospitality Industry Benchmark Report you’ll learn:
- The alignment of travel content with audience interests on Instagram, highlighted by high engagement and Entertainment Scores.
- TikTok is a platform where the travel industry's content thrives, indicating an audience eager for more engaging videos.
- The contrasting roles of long-form content and Shorts on YouTube in achieving visibility versus engagement, respectively.
- Opportunities for travel brands to increase content volume and tailor strategies to further enhance audience engagement and reach.
For the 2H 2024 Social Media Benchmark Reports, Dash Hudson pulled a sample of global companies across TikTok (n=1,150), Instagram (n=2,956), and YouTube (n=631), analyzing their activity between January 1, 2024 – June 30, 2024, to determine average performance against a predetermined set of KPIs. These benchmarks include handles with a minimum of 1K followers, from both customers and non-customers.