They are all living proof that the travel funnel is being flattened, and social media is the bulldozer.

In the session I ran on “Next Generation: Aspirations, Influence & Commerce”, at the Preferred Hotels Global Conference in Singapore recently, my panellists and I unpacked how Gen Z, creators, and TikTok are transforming travel from top-of-funnel inspiration into full-funnel commerce.

What we found was this: travel is no longer searched. It’s scrolled, watched, with the intent to buy.

And although buying travel is not as easy as say, buying face cream, with time and better connectivity, that leap from intent to action will be made more easily.

The social food chain evolves

First, I shared my experience at AlUla in April where I happened to be there at the same time as Instagram’s first Creator Summit.

“Content creators have become the new sales force, and they too are evolving,” I said, sharing the example of Ali Almeshaal, a Saudi influencer, who has since launched his own travel agency, Sukun Travels, to meet growing demand from his followers.

It’s evolution in real time: from storyteller to seller.

In AlUla, amid ancient tombs and digital tribes, I also learnt of a new predator emerging in the social food chain – virtual influencers. Speaking at the summit, a Meta executive said that one in two of us are already following AI influencers, and they have 20-30% more engagement.

And, naturally, they are easier to work with. No sulking, no tantrums.

In Singapore, CapitaLand created Rae, Singapore’s first virtual influencer, during the pandemic and today, she’s since been licensed to a creative agency. She’s monetising and multiplying.

The message to creators at the AlUla Summit? Offload content creation to AI. Focus on your humanity.

Video is the new language of travel

Eason Zhang, Head of Apps, Strategic Accounts SEA, TikTok, then joined me on stage to dig deeper into the data. A former Skyscanner executive, Zhang made the leap from search to social, presumably because he saw where the future was going.

“Ten years ago, social media was about text and images. Now, 80% of content consumed is video,” he said.

To him, “video isn’t a trend, it’s the new language of travel.”

He said, “Sometimes when you’re on the street, you look at people who are scrolling, you don’t know which platform they’re on, but most platforms they actually come to are video. In the past, we say a picture says 1,000 words, but now a video is like a million words.”

Hashtags like #TravelTok have surpassed 30 billion views. TikTok now sees over 3.2 billion daily searches, many triggered not by a search bar, but by comments, reactions, and curiosity sparked from videos. “TikTok isn’t just pushing content,” said Zhang. “It’s now pulling, becoming a hybrid of inspiration and intent.”

Another trend is time spent on TikTok – 90 minutes on average a day in the region – and Zhang said social has become the full funnel, starting with inspiration and ending with commerce.

Citing TikTok Shop, he said, “You’re not just getting here to get ideas, but you actually get to purchase stuff online, you see a video, you think it’s really cool. Where do I buy it in the comments, so now the link is there for you to buy it.”

In a recent article, North Ridge Partners, sharing how “Bytedance is tearing up the online travel playbook”, wrote, “Douyin’s travel vertical is well-formed, with more than 100,000 hotels and 14,000 attractions flocking to the platform for self-broadcasting, often offering exclusive deals. Livestreaming is now estimated to account for ~70% of Chinese travel TTV, with influencers hosting virtual tours and flash sales. The platform’s pricing is sharp relative to other channels like OTAs. Douyin set a cat among the pigeons by undercutting Meituan’s commission rates and offering 4.5% (versus the 10–26% going rate) to attract merchants. It’s not clear you can put that genie back in the bottle…

“What’s the upshot of all this? Analysts estimate that travel commerce on Douyin generated up to $40bn in total transaction value (TTV) in 2024. While we don’t yet have hard numbers on TikTok’s travel revenues, we think it’s going to follow a similar pattern.”

I asked Zhang if we would see a similar trend in TikTok Shop for travel?

“I feel the trends will be similar, but the landscapes are really different. In China, everything is pretty unified – people only have one or two major payment systems and the user behaviour from south, north, east and west are pretty similar, but the rest of the world is so different.

“Different regions have different payment system regulations, and the suppliers are. really different. It’s a much more fragmented landscape. So, the timeline will be different as well.”

From cat lip syncs to life hacks

Zhang debunked the idea that TikTok is still all about teenagers and cat lip syncing videos. The biggest age group now is 25-34 and “on average we actually see more than half of the users are above 30 years old on the platform”.

As to what’s trending now, Zhang said, “Content is hyper-personalised. Your feed is different from mine.”

His current feed? “Sports, golf, and travel with kids.”

In fact, that’s one life hack he’s seeing a lot of – “travel with kids”, a space family-friendly hotels could play in.

“A hotel could create really good life hacks for families and say, if you come to my hotel. you can do this with your kids – 30 seconds to share that.”

He shared a personal anecdote: a recent family trip to Hotel Indigo in Bintan, discovered by his wife scrolling TikTok. “It was a 30-second video that convinced her,” he smiled. “That’s how the decision was made.”

“Shoot, then aim”: Tips for hoteliers

So how should hotels engage with TikTok and creators?

Zhang offered three simple (but punchy) tips:

1. Shoot, then aim. Then become a sniper. Start wide – test, learn, fail, repeat. Then narrow in on what works.

2. Don’t wear a business suit to a music festival. Translation: ditch the glossy brochure videos. “Be raw, fun, real. Authentic content works better than polished ads.”

3. Embrace ‘flawsome’. Show imperfection. That’s what users connect with. “Speak the same language as your users.”

He also urged brands to rethink content not as cost, but as a revenue engine. TikTok’s own data shows that high-performing creative can reduce cost per acquisition by up to 70%. AI tools are speeding up production. Olive Young, a Korean beauty brand, now converts product photos into thousands of videos, at scale, with emotion.

Influence is infrastructure

Whether human or AI, paid or organic, influencer marketing is no longer just branding. It’s infrastructure.

In the words of Gary Vee, “Why pay $5,000 to a human when a $5 AI influencer does what you ask, every time?” That may be provocative but it’s the reality brands must prepare for. And as Zhang summed up: “The question is no longer if you should work with influencers, but how.”

The travel funnel has flattened. The scroll is the search. The creator is the agent.

And the future of travel? It’s 15 seconds long – and counting.

by Yeoh Siew Hoon