Livestreaming in
travel has become one of the marketing success stories of the past decade,
driving billions in sales for companies like Trip.com and Alibaba.
Livestreamed content is
now the third most popular type of video content, after music and comedy
videos. In the third quarter of 2024, viewers watched 19.8 billion hours of
livestreamed content, dominated by YouTube, which accounts for around two
thirds of total viewing, according
to Streams Charts.
While video gaming dominates
livestreaming, and has driven the success of the Twitch platform, travel
content has also become popular, particularly in Asia Pacific and China. According
to the latest
report from the China Internet Network Information Center, 816
million people — around three quarters of the population that has access to
the internet — watching livestreamed content in 2023. Euromonitor forecasts that
livestreaming will generate $582.1 billion in e-commerce sales in China in
2025.
Marketing cornerstone
Trip.com has made a
huge success of livestreaming since launching it at the start of the COVID pandemic in 2020. In October of that year, the group’s chairman James Liang ran a special four-hour live program to coincide with the company's 21st anniversary.
Edison Chen, vice
president of destination marketing and strategic alliance at Trip.com Group, said that since then livestreaming has “become a cornerstone of our marketing
efforts, demonstrating how innovative content can drive not just engagement but
tangible business outcomes.”
He said the group’s
livestream series has now generated a total of $2.5 billion in sales,
with more than 16.68 million orders and an audience of two billion viewers globally.
Hotels and packages
are the best revenue generators, according to Chen.
“Watching a
livestream where a luxurious resort or a charming boutique hotel is showcased
with insider tips creates a sense of urgency and excitement to book,” Chen said.
“We’ve also
seen growing demand for bundled offerings, such as hotel stays paired with
complimentary dining packages, which not only enhance guest satisfaction but
also drive RevPAR.”
“Our campaigns in
Thailand alone, including Bangkok, Koh Samui, and Phuket, have consistently set
records in 2023 and 2024, generating RMB 52 million [$7.2 million] gross
merchandise value and booking over 56,000 room nights in a single event. These
numbers show how powerful this format has become—not just for driving sales but
for making travel feel more personal and accessible,” Chen said.
Subscribe to our newsletter below
Cruises, wellness
retreats and adventure travel are also doing well through livestreaming, he
said.
A recent Euromonitor global consumers trends for 2025 report also noted video as an effective medium to engage and inform consumers about products and services in an easy to understand format.
Trip.com has tweaked
its livestreaming format since the early days, adding real-time Q&A
sessions, interactive polls and games to make the streams more engaging. The company has also signficiantly improved the
production quality of the livestreams,
using better visuals, sound and storytelling techniques and introducing some professional
hosts and influencers, although
it still also uses internal talent.
As a result of its
success in Thailand, Chen said Bangkok was a “natural choice” for the August
opening of its first live streaming center. More than 85% of the population has
internet access, and Thais are among the most active social media users
globally.
Bangkok acts as a
regional hub for Southeast Asia, which includes high-growth markets such as
Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia, where interest in curated travel content is
rapidly rising. It generates content in Mandarin, Thai and English.
Fliggy, Alibaba’s
online travel platform, has invested in livestreaming since 2016, running both
“virtual travel” streams and sales events.
Streaming behavior
Zhang Chen, Fliggy’s vice president, said livestreaming
has become hugely popular because the consumer markets in China and Southeast Asia are highly digitalized,
with a strong presence of e-commerce covering both physical goods and lifestyle
services.
“The competition for
consumer products and services is fierce, which drives businesses to embrace
highly interactive and data-driven marketing strategies to engage with
consumers,” Zhang said.
Watching a livestream where a luxurious resort or a charming boutique hotel is showcased with insider tips creates a sense of urgency and excitement to book.
Edison Chen - Trip.com Group
“Cloud-based
livestreaming and other advancements in technologies such as AI have
significantly reduced the cost of livestreaming implementation while ensuring
great user experience that is clear, smooth and free from latency issues.”
“We find that
consumers often do not watch livestreams with a specific travel plan in mind,” he said.
“Instead, they tune in to discover appealing products that could
meet their future travel needs and then make purchasing decisions based on
these discoveries. This behavior has led to our sales-oriented livestreams
primarily focusing on pre-sale products using a ‘Buy Now, Plan Later’ approach.
With this sales model, consumers can buy travel products without the immediate
need to confirm travel dates or visa arrangements. They have the flexibility to
redeem these products when their travel plans are finalized. Moreover, if
consumers opt not to proceed with their trip, they are eligible for a full
refund.”
Fliggy has partnered
with tourism destinations including Thailand, France, the United Kingdom and Saudi Arabia
as well as individual attractions such as the
Colosseum, the Porsche Museum and Manchester City Football Club.
Fliggy is building a livestreaming
ecosystem with Alibaba’s e-commerce arm Taobao and guides its travel partners through
the establishment and management of their official livestreaming channels.
“We will continue to
expand our collaboration with Taobao and top, professional live streamers to
enhance our livestreaming capabilities and offer more resources to support the
livestreaming of our merchants,” Zhang said.
Livestreams regularly
generate more than $13.8 million, while one session in partnership
with Wanda Hotels & Resorts to promote ski packages generated $27.6 million. The highest number of viewers for a single livestream was
1.145 million.
Travel influencers
have also looked at livestreaming alongside regular vlogs.
YouTuber Karl Watson has amassed
an audience of around 325,000 viewers after quitting his job as a video editor
in 2013 and backpacking around the world. He turned the videos from his
nine-month trip into an 11-part TV-style travel documentary series.
“The two kinds of livestreams I've used were Live Q&As
on my YouTube channel and Zoom chats with my Patreon patrons. These were a
great way to engage with my audience during the pandemic when I couldn't create
new travel content," Watson said. "However, since the world opened up again, I stopped doing
the Zoom chats — people were so sick of Zoom after COVID — and I only do the
occasional live Q&A on YouTube, maybe two times a year now.”
Watson said the income from livestreaming is minimal, even with
hundreds of thousands of subscribers.
Others have found that
livestreamed content does not seem to be gaining traction in the way it has in
Asia Pacific.
Budget Traveller’s Kash Bhattacharya has
won awards for his videos on football
culture in Britain in partnership with Visit Britain and a recent
collaboration with Baja California Sur Tourism Board and HipTraveler.
“Livestreaming used to
be popular with bloggers a few years back. I did a fair bit during the lockdown
which were quite popular when the attention span was longer but I tend to find
the engagement on these quite low nowadays," he said. "The best livestreaming event I took
part in was #24hPeriscope with Skyscanner where every hour, one blogger would
livestream and show their city. Sadly, Periscope died a death.”
Meanwhile, Trip.com believes
that following its success in Asia Pacific, livestreaming travel can work in other
regions.
“Livestreaming is an
incredibly versatile format with immense potential to grow beyond its current
stronghold in APAC,” Chen said. “In the longer term, we see
exciting opportunities to introduce livestreaming in other regions where the
format continues to gain traction. Europe, for example, is a longer-term
consideration, but we believe livestreaming could play a key role in promoting
regional tourism and engaging with new audiences.”