Why TikTok is the platform of choice for travellers across the region

Travel leaves you speechless and then turns you into a storyteller, said the great Islamic scholar and traveler Ibn Battuta.

Centuries after his observation, Ibn Battuta’s words seem to have taken on a different dimension altogether amid an evolving landscape that has radically changed the traveler’s journey and created exciting contemporary trends in Travel and Tourism.

In Saudi Arabia, for instance, residents start dreaming about travel 10 weeks prior to their journey with video and digital platforms inspiring 50 per cent of their choice of destination – and more than 70 per cent of people look at TikTok for discovering travel ideas, while 64 per cent book a trip by getting inspired from TikTok content.

This generation of “always-in market” travellers – dreaming, considering, or booking a getaway throughout the year – has also developed a strong penchant for a real and authentic travel experience, and that’s why they love going to their community for trustworthy travel inspiration.

If that’s not all, today’s intrepid travelers are just as keen to share their compelling stories and authentic visuals of journeys on entertainment platforms like TikTok, rounding off a creative cycle that in turn inspires countless others. In fact, a study by Amp Agency found that 84 per cent of millennials and 73 per cent of non-millennials today are highly likely to plan a trip based on someone else’s vacation photos or videos or social media status updates.

Travel and tourism sectors leveraging TikTok
These authentic vignettes have re-ignited the demand for travel and significantly altered how destinations are being marketed globally, with travel and tourism marketers increasingly leveraging the opportunity presented by this new breed of digital platforms.

This is a journey in which TikTok has taken the global lead as a disruptive platform with undeniable potential and momentum – and the Gulf and the Middle East markets are no exception.

With travel and tourism being a key segment of interest for a global and expansive hyper-engaged community of more than 1.8 billion users that straddles all markets and is growing at an astounding rate, this provides the perfect backdrop for TikTok to emerge as the platform where the community is primed not only to consume, but also to express themselves and tell their stories through authentic, visual, and geo-tagged content that is at once enticing and liberating. This is enabled by easy-to-use editing tools, native content on the platform, and creators that fuel dynamic content.

Immersive moments presented
For instance, TikTok has become wildly popular for showcasing immersive travel moments – ranging from creators interacting with nature in many ways, to curating extravagant destinations, exploring various cultures, simply tasting street food, or trying their hand at uniquely local experiences – that would-be travellers seem to relish.

This powerful combination of the medium and the message amplifies TikTok’s power as a creative platform and enables it to be the internet’s repertoire of travel and tourism inspiration. TikTok is that intimate, accessible, and inspirational window through which travellers take a trip before deciding if it’s worth it – the trip before the trip.

This interplay of imagination and reality is further amplified by the simplicity of using TikTok as a creative platform: whether it’s an Eid break, a family holiday or a spiritual journey, users can publish original posts with a wide variety of sound, effects and other creative tools – which also offers a fabulous opportunity for destinations and hospitality brands to highlight themselves on the platform. There are also plenty of examples of TikTok’s effectiveness in driving a surge of interest to hitherto unknown destinations which led to a dramatic rise in tourist footfalls overnight.

In a world where travel is accelerating, TikTok presents an unbeatable opportunity for brands to be at the forefront of traveller’s wish lists and plans, and trigger deeper and meaningful travel conversations – and granular data gathered from regional travel powerhouses such as the UAE and Saudi Arabia bear testimony to this.

Figures to back it up
At least 83 per cent of Saudi residents have either gone or plan to go on an international trip in the next six months with Egypt, UAE and Turkey being top short-haul and France and Germany being top long-haul destinations. More significantly, 74 per cent of users were found to look for travel discoveries on TikTok and 73 per cent were found to have impulse purchased their trip in a short span of time.

Similarly in the UAE, more than 7 out of 10 people looked at TikTok for discovering travel ideas and 59 per cent booked a trip by getting inspired from TikTok content – and TikTok users were found to travel for a longer period as compared to non-users. At least 86 per cent of UAE residents were found to have either gone or plan to go on an international trip in the next six months with keen interest towards short-haul destinations such as Georgia.

Whether it’s the assortment of clever hacks, unadulterated advice, safety tips or the sheer visual appeal of short-format videos, the power of TikTok in shaping and inspiring the region’s travel trends is therefore an opportunity that could become a model for authentic and organic tourism in the years to come.

Joanne Chehab heads Business Partnerships for Managed Services, Global Business Solutions, MENA – TikTok