Travel attracts one of the most engaged audiences on Instagram, according
to an executive from the Facebook-owned image-sharing service.
Insight from Instagram, revealed during a Travel Perspective session at
World Travel Market earlier this month, shows travel lovers return to the
service about 28 days a month.
Neasa Bannon, head of travel for EMEA for Instagram, also says that travel fans
watch three times more accounts than any other audience, seven out of 10 follow a brand and they are twice as likely to watch video content as any other
audience.
“They are a curious, interested community that likes to give back,”
according to Bannon, who adds that a million travel-related hashtags are
searched for every week.
For the two months from February to March last year, #hiddengems was
searched for 290,000 times.
About three quarters of travel fans and followers are also likely to
take action on videos they see, Bannon says, either swiping up (for more
information), sharing with a friend, visiting a website or downloading an app.
The Stories element of the service has also become increasingly popular
with brands, travel and others, despite initial thinking that it would be more
a one-to-one space. A third of Stories viewed are from businesses, says Bannon,
highlighting brands such as Airbnb, Hostelworld and Virgin Holidays who have
taken advantage of the format.
She says the shift of users to Stories has been
the biggest change in user profiles since the shift to mobile, with 400 million
going to Stories daily.
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Despite the insight around engagement, some travel companies in the
audience said they had seen declining engagement with posts and sponsored
content and finding it more difficult to grow their audiences organically.
One questioned whether features such as “swipe up” on Stories that are
restricted to those with at least 10,000 followers might be opened up.
Bannon says that the growth of the platform means more and more brands
are competing.
“I would advise using IGTV and Stories and trying to stay ahead of the
trends in terms of how users are consuming our platforms - that’s a good way to
stay in the organic space for longer.”
She also advises travel companies that the platform is “constantly
evolving,” so they need to adjust their audience, placement and content
accordingly.
“It’s very much a test-and-learn platform so you need to relook at
audience and content. What worked six months ago might no longer work.”