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Travel records the 2nd highest growth in creator marketing spending – now at $1.3B

Travel is the second highest growth category (+31%) in creator spend from 2024 to 2025.

IAB estimates the total spend in travel (US only) at $1.3B out of a total spend across all categories and industries (US) being $37B.

So travel is growing fast but is still anemic really compared to the overall sector.

This is possibly explained because the pipes for creator marketing to work like other media buying and performance marketing are only just being built and for now it is just the early adopters scooping up the growth to be found in this channel for their business. (See Qatar Airlines story below)

In other sectors, Unilever has already pledged to move 50% of total marketing budget into the creator channel. Half! FMCG companies have worked out that marketing is most effective by not pointing the spotlight on yourself, but having others point it at you.

Who in travel will be the first to really seize this opportunity?

We’ve seen Airbnb have been doing a lot of internal hiring – so they are one to keep an eye on but others who adopt the right technology can skip the hiring glut – because the process to scale here is becoming 90% less manual through AI technology like ours at Videreo.

Those who understand and embrace this first will quickly outpace those who continue to do the process manually with long outreach processes, protracted negotiations and spreadsheets no-one will really ever look at.

For companies like Intrepid &, Carpe Diem we hire vetted travel creators fast and safely, at scale (in creator programs like Get Your Guide run) and give the results instantly in a presentation ready dashboard – just like you have with paid ads with Meta/Google or in media buying with TravMedia. Finally, creator marketing has its ROI stats right at hand.

Creator marketing in travel is growing up fast thanks to AI. And just in time because the regular growth channels brands have traditionally relied on, like SEO and even paid ads are all starting to tank.

Videreo is the place where creator marketing is being made as simple as other media buying including the dashboarding of results from which you can test, learn and double down on what works.

Contact me to learn how we can make this happen for you.

This content is provided by the (interim) newsletter sponsor Videreo.com

Microsoft drops in to solve your AI agent sprawl

Just weeks after the headline story here talked about keeping a watch on digital sprawl within your company thanks to everyone, everywhere, creating their own agents and bots to do whatever little job they need, this week Microsoft have chimed in with a solution: A digital control plane for your agents.

Microsoft says you should and can manage your agent fleet just the same way you manage your people. “The clearest path forward is to manage agents the way you manage people, using the same infrastructure, apps, and protections that power your business today.” This includes the 5 phases of “Registry, Access Control, Visualization, Interoperability, and Security.”

According to Microsoft, “Agent 365 delivers unified observability across your entire agent fleet through telemetry, dashboards, and alerts. IT leaders can track every agent being used, built, or brought into the organization, eliminating blind spots and reducing risk.”

I haven’t been exposed to Agent365 yet – so I’ll reserve personal judgement but given my experience trying to log in as a consultant to companies in the 365 universe, I can pretty much guarantee that Access and Security will work extremely well so long as you don’t want anyone to have access therefore keeping you totally safe (and stationary).

An interesting week for Google + Travel + AI

After a furious PR blitz and being the headline story here last week – it has been an interesting week for Google.

On one hand, they were quick to walk back any suggestion of them pushing into travel booking directly and becoming an OTA. As Greg Duff reported in his weekly column on the industry: “Facing questions about its long term industry intentions and possible OTA (also known as ADVERTISERS) disintermediation (and loss of market value) following its announcement of forthcoming agentic flight and hotel booking agents, Google was quick to clarify (walk back) its intentions. In a follow up interview with Skift, Google’s vice president of engineering for Travel and Local, Julie Farago, tried to clarify Google’s intentions – “Google has no intention of becoming an online travel agent.””

Oh to be a fly on the wall for some of inbound phone calls they must have received to be getting that correction out nice and quickly.

I saw some other reporting where Google said things would work pretty closely to how things work now…

Of course, this is the pressure point between AI capability and what might be the strategic best step for the AI’s master. It’s a tricky balance between cuddling the golden goose and checking its temperature to see whether it is going to keep on being as golden as it once was.

Here is where Google and OpenAI maybe head off in different directions but surely there could only be one winner in the long run on that divergence? No-one I know, wants their AI to choose an ‘advertiser’ over the best option for themselves.

Meanwhile in another part of Googleland, they continued to innovate product towards more delightful user and traveller experiences by adding “insider tips” inside the maps experience.

“Now, when you search for places in Maps like restaurants, hotels or concert venues, scroll down to find new "know before you go" tips — it’s like having a knowledgeable guide show you the way. Using Gemini capabilities, Maps does the research for you: It uses reviews and helpful information it finds online to surface top insights, like the best way to book a reservation, what the secret menu items are, parking tips and more.”

The explore tab in Maps is also getting an upgrade.

“The updated Explore tab in Maps can help you find your next move in seconds. Swipe up to see trending and popular restaurants, activities and sights near you — from the cozy cafe that just opened down the street or a quirky art gallery around the corner. It’s also easier to find curated lists from trusted sources like Viator, Lonely Planet and OpenTable, in addition to local influencers like Sisterssnacking so you can discover your new favorite spot.”

Great to see influencers getting involved here alongside advertisers………… sorry, trusted (cough) sources.

A bunch of stats out this week but which ones are the right ones?

I saw a bunch of different stats from different sources coming out this week. They all seemed to be telling sightly different stories however…

Phocuswire dropped some headline stats around AI and search. As Mike Coletta reported from their recent round of research: “This chart is a big deal! 39% of U.S. travelers are now using some form of AI for travel product research, and this year alone use of AI platforms specifically (like ChatGPT) has surged (as we're all aware – 6% to 15%) and social networks have notched up (17% to 19%) while use of general search engines (51% to 36%!) and travel review websites (34% to 27%) has fallen precipitously.” Click here to see the chart.

“Travel Product Research” seems to be the core term to understand these results. I’m not sure myself so I’ve asked Mike on the post and maybe we get the answer there.

Meanwhile a Siteminder report referenced in Greg Duff’s weekly email (referenced above) had:

Travelers are now more likely to begin their search for hotels on OTAs (26%) versus search engines (21%)
Of those travelers who begin their search with OTAs, an increasing number (18%) elect to book direct (3.3% increase over last year)

The Siteminder data comes from a survey of “12,000 travelers across 14 countries”.

Elsewhere Bain put out a great little interactive graphic that agreed with 40% using AI for “Trip Planning” and predicted that will rise to 65% by end of 2026.

Ultimately, I guess it is the trend lines that are most important here.

They also broke down the usage by stage of the digital travel journey. Curiously they broke the “Travelling” stage into two bits – departure and en route and mid to end of journey.

As above, they are predicting that AI planning becomes “entrenched” by end of 2026.

They are also predicting the 90% of US travel companies will be deploying AI agents by the end of 2026. “AI agents defined as chatbots, autonomous booking assistants, and AI-driven process bots in travel operations.”

The final prediction (and they are all doozeys!) is that ancillary revenues will make up 25% of revenues for “large” US travel suppliers. “Ancillary revenues include baggage fees, seat upgrades, hotel add-ons, and tours.” That is up from 15% in 2023. They indicate the rise is coming from AI powered personalisation of these offers.

AI Video in travel is just a fantasy

We’ve long pushed the line in this newsletter that if you are going to use AI for your video creation in travel, you need to lean into the “unreal” vs photorealistic.

This week Qatar Airways put two top directors onto a flight from Doho to the US and set them the challenge to use the free Wi-Fi to create an ad (each), completed and edited and ready to go before touchdown.

Here is effort 1.

Here is the second effort.

I like the first one because of the character in it that looks like me

What is clear is that top directors intuitively understand the need to lean hard into non-reality here. Concept first, creation second.

Combined the 2 videos have had nearly 15M views in a week….. This is creator marketing at its best.

These films were created using AI – Gemini VEO3.1 and Nano Banana on a laptop during the flight.

UBER is going deep on AI travel

Rafat Ali has done it again in his trawling of the job ads to uncover insights as to what is happening in major companies.

This time it is UBER who are recruiting people who know the travel industry intimately (travel advisors, tour operations people, destination planners, flight dispatchers) to work on a project for a client of UBER to help train an AI model (with their knowledge).

As Rafat explains: “They don't want people who love travel. They want practitioners who understand booking system dynamics, international regulations, re-routing during delays, complex multi-stop logistics. The work involves creating "complex research problems that challenge current AI model capabilities" and catching AI errors on travel rules and availability. Translation: Someone is paying Uber to build training data and evaluation benchmarks for an AI travel agent that can actually execute, not just inspire.”

Which leads us to the next most obvious question: “Who's the client? Google? OpenAI? Expedia/rivals preparing for an agent-first world? An airline betting on direct AI interfaces? Some well funded travel startup?”

Do you know? Shoot me a message if you do. I won’t tell (many people).

Let’s hope Rafat never finds the job he looking for! These are gold.

If you think someone (or everyone) you know or work with could grow from being more informed on the topic of ai + travel (or could use the training above) then please forward this email to them and they can click the button below:

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Marketplace Spotlight: Tripian

In huge news, Tripian have recently partnered Visa!

You can hear Tripian co-founder Jeff Kishuk talk all about how the relationship developed in a recent episode of Travel around the Block which you can find here on YouTube.

Jeff Kischuk, co-founder & CEO at Tripian, explored their approach on AI, POI (Point of Interest) data, and why Visa recently partnered with them to enhance their travel portal, and how that journey developed.

If you have a B2B business underpinned by AI and looking for people to notice you, you can sign up to the marketplace for peanuts (top right corner, 5 mins, bring your logo).

I’ve priced for bootstrapped startups but also accepting larger companies too.

McKinsey lays out advice for Private Equity snooping around travel + drops advice for travel execs.

A couple of drops from McKinsey this week.

The first being a note to Private Equity who might be looking for opportunities in travel. Firstly the current state of play with “the largest private equity buyouts and growth deals have become smaller across most travel segments since 2022”.

McKinsey advises “To participate in this growth, US-based and international private equity firms need to understand today’s travel landscape and the marketwide shifts affecting it, such as AI and the changing preferences of younger generations.”

They dropped their own figure on the numbers using AI for travel research (see story above on stats). This time the number is 29%. (Adobe Analytics: Traffic to U.S. retail websites from generative AI sources jumps 1,200 percent,” blog entry by Vivek Pandya, Adobe, March 17, 2025. including travel inspiration, local food recommendations, and transportation planning).

In terms of tech investing McKinsey says: “Private equity firms can also look to companies enabling the transition from traditional to AI-powered technology. For example, consumer-facing AI- and voice-powered search functionality are giving rise to new companies and B2B service providers. With the growing role of AI-powered search and the decline of traditional SEO-driven search, private equity firms can invest in marketing technology companies leading the charge for setting businesses up to be recommended by AI.”

In the 2nd piece of information out from McKinsey this week was a webinar for travel execs to get up to speed on agentic AI. I haven’t watched it myself at the time of writing and as they use an embedded video player – I couldn’t figure out how to get a transcript fast so you’ll have to watch it yourself to get upskilled.

Slack Group!

Podcasts and Sponsors

Podcasts now on Spotify and Apple Podcasts:

New podcasts are now showing up on Spotify and Apple Podcasts for your easy listening pleasure!

This week I caught up with the wonderful Aimee Armstrong who has gone from racing and fixing Superbikes with professional teams to solving business travel management for SMB’s with AI.

The special FREE education series continued also this week with Santiago Rodriguez introducing us all to our very own market analysis AI. Jump in – follow along and get real usable and actionable insights for your business immediately and for free. Best to watch and listen all at once some maybe try this one on YouTube.

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Most clicked last week was the link to the Google announcements (since mainly walked back as above!)

That’s it – you’ve made it to the end of this edition. Happy Thanksgiving to those who are celebrating it! If you’re thankful for this newsletter – you can always buy me a coffee.

I’ll be putting the result of the most clicked post in next week’s edition so you can see where others are focusing. If I’ve missed something, you’ve got a tip or any feedback at all – you can simply reply to this email and it will come straight to me. I’m doing this for You so please don’t be shy to tell me what you think

Glossary

Artificial Intelligence (AI) Artificial intelligence leverages computers and machines to mimic the problem-solving and decision-making capabilities of the human mind. (source IBM)

Generative AI (GAI) is a type of AI powered by machine learning (ML) models that are trained on vast amounts of data and are used to produce new content, such as photos, text, code, images, and 3D renderings. (Source Amazon)

Large Language Model (LLM) is a specialized type of artificial intelligence (AI) that has been trained on vast amounts of text to understand existing content and generate original content.

ChatGPT – Open AI’s LLM; sometimes referred to by its series number GPT3; GPT3.5 or GPT4. These are used by Microsoft & Bing.

Gemini – Google’s suite of LLM.

If wanting to go even deeper into the AI lexicon – check out this handy guide created by Peter Syme for the tours & activity sector