Worldwide, social media has proven beneficial for companies to develop a customer base and to reach new consumer groups. In the travel and tourism industry, social media can also provide a competitive advantage by indicating future travel trends. Based on the searches conducted by social media users, travel trends such as staycations, rural tourism and camping trips appear to become more popular, for instance.

Basic trends that will boost social media for promoting the travel and tourism Industry over the next 12 to 24 months are divided into technology trends, macroeconomic trends and regulatory trends. The increasing popularity of artificial intelligence (AI), content moderation, the metaverse, gaming, super apps and internet TV are key technology trends. Economic uncertainty, changing business models, digital authoritarianism, and impact from emerging economies are part of macroeconomic trends. Finally, data privacy, copyright, human rights, online harm, and antitrust are a few of the regulatory trends.

Holiday inspiration will increasingly be created by travel content on social media platforms. With the continuous evolution of smartphones and a tech-savvy generation coming, the global app marketplace is expected to grow enormously and play a leading role in promoting the travel and tourism Industry.