23 Predictions for Destination Storytelling in 2023
We made it; 2022 is in the rearview mirror. But we’re not here to look back. With new technology, currencies, and creative ways of storytelling, there’s no doubt that 2023 will be a momentous year for travel. With the help of industry experts, we’re here to share our top destination marketing trends and predictions for 2023. But first, what is a destination storytelling?
What is Destination Storytelling?
Destination storytelling is the art of crafting engaging narratives to promote a location and to drive tourism revenue. A destination storyteller effectively captures a location’s unique atmosphere, culture, and experiences through vivid descriptions, captivating anecdotes, and compelling visuals. Destination storytellers aren’t limited to folks at destination marketing organization (DMO). They are everywhere - from content creators on Instagram sharing engaging reels about a tropical paradise to content marketers in hospitality - using storytelling techniques to raise the visibility of their hotels. Destination storytellers contribute to destination marketing efforts by creating a strong emotional connection between potential travelers and the location.
23 Predictions for Destination Storytelling in 2023
Now that we know what destination storytelling is and how storytellers contribute to destination marketing efforts and strategies, let’s dive into 23 predictions for destination storytelling in 2023. Where is it headed and what can be expect for the year ahead?
1. Nano-Influencing & Authenticity
73% of brands actively use influencer campaigns as a powerful tool in their marketing toolbox, but we’ll be seeing a giant shift to micro influencing in 2023. What does that mean? Instead of targeting influencers with millions of followers, brands and destinations are actively seeking smaller creators who have between 1,000 and 10,000 followers.
Partnering with nano-influencers comes with endless benefits. Nano-influencers often have high rates of engagement, are eager to deliver, and come at a lower price point compared to their mainstream counterparts. The biggest driver, though, is authenticity. Nano-influencers are deeply connected to their communities and mastered the art of creating content that keeps people coming back. Because of that trust, over 82% of surveyed consumers said they were likely to buy something a nano or micro-influencer recommended.
Travel influencer Courtney the Explorer explains: “I’ve seen a lot more DMOs reaching out for content creation in the last few years, and I think that trend is going to continue in 2023.” When it comes to partnering with DMOs, she looks for shared values first. “For the last 5 months, I’ve partnered with Chicago’s DMO, Choose Chicago, on a local neighborhood campaign. They wanted a true local, and it was so fun to create content about the places I love in Lakeview, my own neighborhood.”
2. Short Form Video Reigns Supreme
2022 was a giant year for short-form video. From bite-sized news clips to viral dance trends, TikTok and Reels dominated consumer feeds. “Consumers, on average, spent about 323 minutes per week watching video content, and that is on mobile phones alone,” Mackenzie Bromley, Director of Social Media, reported for MMGY Global.
The travel industry has long-used video to bring destinations to life by highlighting a place’s unique spirit, sound and sights. In 2023, we’ll be seeing more destinations like Experience Kissimmee and brands like Carnival leverage short-form video to build brand loyalty, engage new audiences, and attract new visitors.
To find success, DMOs need to rethink how they market to TikTok and Instagram. “Around 40 percent of travelers over the age of 30 prefer TikTok over Google as a search tool in travel”, according to a Portrait of American Travelers survey. By creating unique content and mastering TikTok and Instagram’s built-in search engines, smaller destinations and attractions finally have an opportunity to compete for visitor attention.
3. QR Codes Are Here to Stay
When the pandemic hit in 2020, travel safety became top priority. Almost overnight, we saw QR codes become a mainstream tool for managing Covid-safe “don’t touch, contactless payments” across the globe. In 2022 alone, “dynamic QR codes generated by users accumulated a total of 6,825,842 scans from global users—a 433% increase over 2021 figures,” QRTIGER details. Lucky for us, QR codes are here to stay in 2023.
Beyond payment management, QR codes come with obvious advantages for the tourism industry. They’re flexible, they're editable, they reduce friction, they increase visitor engagement, they speed up processes, and, best of all, they’re environmentally friendly. There are endless places to display QR codes in a destination, hotel or attraction to connect with visitors throughout their journey.
At the Tampa Zoo, marketing teams designed a new experience for zoo visitors using mobile-friendly QR codes. 10,000 app users were reached in the first month, and 25% of those were from QR code scans.
“Prior to QR Codes we relied heavily on physical signage, printed flyers, and paper maps for in-park communications. Tracking consumption of physical and printed signage was difficult or impossible in many cases. By utilizing QR Codes, our marketing efforts have become more aligned with our mission and vision of protecting wildlife and the environment,” said Steve Marsicano, Manager of Digital Marketing & Content at ZooTampa at Lowry Park
4. Crypto Tourism Is a Thing…Maybe
Cryptocurrencies have seen a rapid and remarkable rise over a very short period of time. They’ve gone from being a speculative asset to one that is gaining mainstream adoption. In 2022 alone, Moneyzine reports that there were more than 18,000 cryptocurrencies on the market and 16% of US citizens owned cryptocurrency at least once. The travel industry is slowly warming up to the idea of digital currencies, and a new type of tourism has slowly emerged: crypto tourism.
Crypto tourism can be divided into two key segments. The first encompasses all of the travel that is paid for using crypto. Several airlines, booking sites, tour operators and travel aggregators like Expedia, Travala and CheapAir have started accepting crypto payments. The second is a bit more specific, referring to trips and travel packages where conferences or classes about the future of cryptocurrency are a big part of the trip's itinerary.
While the pros for crypto tourism include smooth integrations with sites like Shopify and WooCommerce for better booking and shopping experiences, compatibility with QR codes, and accessibility, the cons are plentiful. Crypto is still very young and has proven volatile.
5. Drones Dominate Destination Photography
Credit: Christine Lozada
After receiving a big welcome embrace from the photography world, especially in the travel and tour industries, drone technology has really gone mainstream. For destinations, drone footage can offer instant impact at a fraction of the price of traditional aerial photography.
Why should destinations hop on the trend in 2023? Drone expert Christine Lozada told Seeker: “With the consumer drone industry set to hit 11.5B in 2030, high quality drones are launching faster than we can keep up with, and it’s becoming more accessible than ever as prices go down.”
In the near future, drone laws are about to get stricter. Lozada predicts: “People are already starting to get fined for not having TRUST,” – a government safety test drone pilots need to pass before they are legally allowed to fly– “Drone laws are changing faster than anyone can keep up with.”
To leverage this growing trend and stay above the law, make sure to research your state’s drone regulations before taking flight.
6. Travel Anywhere in the World, Virtually
For destination marketers in 2023, it’s going to be virtually impossible to ignore the benefits of virtual reality. Virtual reality (VR) is an artificial environment which is experienced through sensory stimuli (sights and sounds), provided by a computer, and allows the user to partially determine what happens in the environment.
DMOs have been quick to adopt VR technology, and for good reason. Typically, their customers are looking to purchase experiences rather than products, and virtual reality offers an impactful way for marketers to give them a taste of what they can expect. VR provides vital information for potential customers before booking: they can test hotel rooms, peruse a museum lobby, or check out a restaurant before spending any money.
Beyond becoming one of the best tools for modern booking, VR speaks to travelers at their core. It offers opportunities for travelers, regardless of ability or budget, to experience wonders of the world without stepping foot out their door. National Geographic’s Explore VR allows virtual visitors the opportunity to climb massive ice shelves and search for penguins in Antarctica, visit Machu Picchu and encounter alpacas in Peru, and more.
7. Augmented Reality Revolutionizes Travel Experiences
Augmented reality (AR) is the integration of digital information with the user's environment in real time. Unlike VR, which creates a totally artificial environment, AR users experience a real-world environment with generated perceptual information overlaid on top of it. Think: PokemonGo or Snapchat filters.
Destinations are working hard to transform travel experiences, so we can expect things to look very different in 2023. AR enables destinations to enhance the physical environments they are promoting while sweetening the deal with add-ons like immersive navigation and gamification.
A great example of AR in the tourism industry is City Guide Tour. They use object recognition to offer on-screen information about museums, galleries, landmarks, parks, and other sights as a tourist strolls through a city or town.
8. Mobile Booking For Literally Everything
Customers aren’t just researching travel on mobile; they’re also booking. The 2022 Travel eCommerce Stats & Trends Report by SaleCycle reported that online travel sales peaked at 44% in 2021 (up from 31% in 2019), proving its relevance and predicting continual traction over the next few years.
Mobile booking provides destinations with unique opportunities to integrate analytics, offer a variety of payment options, provide excellent customer support, track availability in real time, and, better yet, accommodate last minute bookings.
The sector is only projected to grow. According to the 2021 Mobile Travel Booking Report, globally, the mobile travel booking market is expected to grow with a CAGR (compound annual growth rate) of 12.2% during the forecast period from 2021 to 2029.
9. Niche Marketing Moves Mainstream
Computer scientist and venture capitalist Paul Graham once famously told Airbnb co-founder Brian Chesky, "build something 100 people love, not something 1 million people kind of like." With an estimated net worth of 60B, that advice obviously worked for Airbnb. And we wholeheartedly agree.
In their annual High Growth Study, Hinge Marketing found that high-growth marketing firms (at least 20% growth year over year) are more likely to embrace niche marketing than their peers. Researching your niche market, finding your niche consumer, learning about what interests them most when traveling, and using what you learn to create content across channels is the best way to earn potential visitors’ interest and see year over year growth.
10. Increase in Inclusivity Marketing
Diversity can mean many things — race, gender, age, family, ability, and more — and should be a key consideration when developing a destination marketing strategy.
Expedia Group’sInclusive Travel Insights Report shows that consumers are paying attention to how inclusive travel providers are, and they want to see accessibility and diversity incorporated into their travel advertising.
According to the report, 78% of consumers said they have made a travel choice based on promotions or ads they felt represented them through messaging. For millennials, that percentage is even higher — 84% have made a travel choice based on representation in travel advertising.
To develop authentic advertising campaigns, destination marketing organizations should be drawing from the stories of real people in their communities.
One destination that’s embracing inclusivity in an impactful way is Visit Panama. Their video, “A Feast For the Senses” with Expedia Media Studios, follows a blind traveler as he pushes himself to his limits, challenges his senses, and explores all the adventure Panama has to offer.
11. Prioritizing Fun With Gamification
We already know that travelers are using their phones at a higher rate than ever before. But in 2023, mobile experiences are about to get a lot more fun.
Gamification in tourism can come in many forms, but one of the fastest growing areas are digital passports, such as Seeker’s Check-in Challenges. This type of tourism marketing uses gaming methods to virtually engage travelers and motivate them to achieve specific goals or objectives. Think: ale trails, wine trails, and taco trails.
With Check-in Challenges, destinations give their audiences a series of goals, keep score, promote leaderboards, and reward participation with digital badges and real life prizes.
Gamified passports and trails challenges activate, engage and mobilize both locals and tourists to visit a destination and its best attractions. They offer destinations a unique opportunity to educate visitors about what they have to offer. As participants engage with the destination, they take photos and videos, share and tag places within the destination, and drive organic growth and user generated content.
12. Self-Guided Tours & Experiences
Another pandemic leftover that’s here to stay is the self-guided tour. Amid the post-pandemic recovery, travelers continue to seek more affordable, private and small-group experiences.
A self-guided tour allows the traveler to make their way through a destination independently on their own time while experiencing similar benefits to a traditional tour. They can depart when they want, linger on a favorite experience, or move on when something doesn't interest them.
Self-guided tours are often low-budget, evergreen, and appeal to the more flexible, DIY traveler. With a low barrier to entry, self-guided tours should be at the top of your destination marketing must-haves in 2023.
13. Reviews & Ratings Remain Key
According to Travel Pulse, 83% of users say that online reviews play an essential role in deciding whether or not to book with a particular travel brand. Traditional review websites like Hotels.com, Booking.com, Trip Advisor, and Yelp provide reviews for hotels, airlines, tours, and services. TikTok and Instagram offer engaging, rich-media user generated content (UGC). Any way you slice it, using reviews as part of your destination marketing strategy will likely yield favorable results among your target audience.
Harvard Business Review confirms the consumers’ reliance on reviews to determine whether or not to do business with a company. They found that for every one-star increase that a business gets on Yelp, it sees a 5-9% increase in revenue. That said, if a brand has only positive reviews, it might come across as untrustworthy. 66% of consumers want to see a mix of positive and negative reviews, and 40% actually say that negative reviews help build brand credibility.
How can cultivating reviews benefit your destination or tourism brand? First and foremost, marketing research. Reviews can offer a ton of free information about the people who engage with your destination or brand. As you collect reviews, your authority will increase, and travel writers will be more likely to feature you in their content if you have a higher ranking and score. And last, earned media. Reviews typically come with quotes, pictures and videos that can be used to further promote your destination on other platforms, like your social accounts and website.
14. Focus on the Future of Sustainability
According to the Sustainable Travel Study, sustainable tourism is another key element consumers are paying attention to when making travel decisions in 2023.
90% say that they look for sustainable travel options when traveling, and 70% say that they have avoided a travel destination or transportation option due to skepticism that the commitment to sustainable practices was real. Eco-minded customers want to know your values. So how do you develop messaging strategies that resonate with the sustainability-minded visitor?
Promote longer lengths of stay. Push green travel, or any type of travel with low carbon emissions. Let visitors know that their dollars have real value in the local economy and community. Market off-season, and in your messaging, talk about your destination’s maximum capacity. Share more information about how to access and give back to protected environments, like beaches, parks, and protected landmarks.
15. Memberships & Subscriptions
Are travelers subscribing to their next vacation? We think so. The subscription travel model, based on the concept of offering customers exclusive services and products via memberships, is predicted to grow rapidly in the next few years. Compared to 2021, the global subscription e-commerce market was forecast by The Business Research Company to increase by more than 64% by year-end 2022.
Two are the primary types of travel memberships and subscriptions. First is access-based, which focuses mostly on private and exclusive experiences. Think of luxury hotel memberships, private access to clubs, coworking spaces, etc. The second is savings-based. Here, we're talking about instant savings, discounted stays, benefits, personalized travel, and assistance.
16. Local SEO For Staycationers
In 2023, we’re finding that travelers still prefer to stay closer to home. So, for smaller destination marketing organizations, local SEO is going to be a vital travel marketing tool to reach their target audience: locals and staycationers.
Let’s not be confused. Destination marketers have been harnessing the power of local SEO to increase bookings for over a decade. But as travel continues to shift, local search is only going to become more important for destinations and small businesses. According to Hubspot, 46% of all Google searches are looking for local information. So how do you capitalize on that opportunity?
Optimizing content for terms like “what to do in [city] this weekend,” or “best things to do with kids near me” continues to be an excellent SEO tactic for DMOs. Optimizing for Google My Business is also a great way to dominate in local search since Google supports, verifies, and shares its own content.
17. Say My Name! Personalization
Personalization is the process of creating customized experiences for travelers based on their individual interests. Prior to 2023, destination marketing organizations (DMOs) relied heavily on demographic data to segment their audiences and create personalized messages. Today, DMOs now have access to a ton of information beyond basic demographics. This data will become increasingly important as destination marketing becomes more competitive.
Why does personalization matter? It’s all about showing the right message, to the right people, at the right time and right place. According to a Think with Google report, 57% of tourists believe that travel brands should personalize their experience based on their preferences, behaviors, and past choices.
Personalization can help a destination offer tailored content, create dynamic packaging based on specific activities, attractions, or interests, and market personalized itineraries. The better you know your consumer, the better you can speak to them.
18. Creative Storytelling
Why is storytelling important for branding? Not only are stories woven into every aspect of human experience, life, and history, but they are simply more memorable. Research shows that information conveyed as stories can be up to 22 times more memorable than facts. When told correctly, storytelling within a destination can create an emotional connection between the place and its target audience.
Through local, authentic, and creative stories, a destination can portray itself as human and trustworthy. Instead of buying into a product or idea, people want to connect with a story, especially when it comes to traveling. Travelers can sense when something isn’t real, especially in our digital world where user photos, reviews, and videos are such a significant part of the planning process.
19. Immersive Tourism & Experiential Travel
Go beyond show & tell with experiential travel in 2023. Immersive tourism takes visitors to a deeper level, below the surface of a destination. Immersive tourism includes sensory types of experiences that amaze, excite, and teach visitors the essence of the destination’s brand.”
An example of a brand that’s mastered the art of immersive tourism in their marketing strategy is Airbnb. Airbnb’s 2022 “OMG!” campaign features travelers visiting homes from across a range of categories, from staying in a giant potato in Idaho, to over nights in castles, to homes with amazing pools, to the Arctic. Airbnb’s 2019 Experiences campaign featured “Make pasta with Nonna Nerina,” a TV and web commercial that highlighted that destinations are only as good as the experiences you have in them.
20. Consolidation & Cross-Industry Partnerships
Sometimes, more is actually better. When destination marketing organizations successfully partner with other local DMOs, DMCs, CVBs, or brands through consolidation and cross-industry partnerships, they can offer a “two-in-one” experience opportunity.
Consolidation and cross-industry partnerships aren’t just about teamwork; they can be a helpful way to combat declining governmental support and low funding. DMOs can also partner with brands and businesses in other industries that benefit from active regional tourism.
A successful example of a destination leveraging cross-industry partnerships is London & Partners, the business growth and destination agency for London. Their mission is to create economic growth that is resilient, sustainable and inclusive and tell London's story to an international audience. They actively partner with organizations and people who have a stake in London's promotion.
Since 2011, London & Partners has helped to add £2.2bn to London’s economy, supported or created more than 68,000 jobs, and helped more than 2,000 overseas companies to set up or expand in London.
21. Break Through the Crowd With Brand Blogs
When it comes to destination marketing in 2023, one thing is abundantly clear: blogs still drive traffic. Not only is blog content more likely to show up in search engines, but it ages well and can provide value for years to come.
When it comes to the power of blogs, the stats don’t lie. Roughly 70 million new posts are published on WordPress each month. And according to ReportLinker, from 2021 to 2025, the global content marketing industry is expected to grow by $417.85 billion. And as of 2020, 89% of marketers used blogs in their content strategy.
The best way to leverage your blog is to know your audience, be consistent, capture data, and actively distribute your content across all of your channels. When creating your blogging strategy, it’s important to set measurable objectives, keep an editorial calendar, and to partner where possible.
22. User Generated Content: The Internet’s Word-of-Mouth
User generated content (UGC) is any form of content, like images, videos, text, audio, blog comments and reviews, shared by users on community-based platforms such as review sites and social media. Factor in UGC as part of your travel marketing strategy to build brand authenticity and customer loyalty.
Customers used to turn to their friends and family for recommendations when it came to travel. Today? The space has completely changed. Customers now turn to the internet’s “word-of-mouth”, i.e. UGC recommendations before they confirm any booking.
UGC turns your customers into the stars of the show, increases the reach of your communication, reduces marketing and acquisition costs, and offers massive insight into your customers needs, wants and opinions.
23. The Rise of the Bleisure Traveler
Bleisure travel, or travel combining business and leisure, is on the rise as the remote workforce continues to grow. Recent research on the future of work estimates that 40.7 million US professionals will work fully remote within the next five years.
According to a recent GBTA study, around 40% of business travelers are bleisure travelers, since they extended their business trips for leisure purposes. That same study also found that millennials were the most likely group to extend a business trip for leisure, with 48% of millennial respondents having done so in the last year.
Unlike normal tourism, where travelers typically plan ahead, Bleisure marketing must grab a business traveler’s attention while they’re booking a stay and during their trip. Compared to leisure travelers, business travelers may not have specific goals for their stay and are heavily influenced by last-minute deals and offerings.
Other things to keep in mind if you’re looking to market toward the bleisure traveler’s unique needs are: strong wifi, designated workspots, coworking spaces, and last-minute booking for activities like specialized services and tours.
Bonus Trend: AI-powered Tourism
We couldn't talk about trends in 2023 without mentioning artificial intelligence (AI) and travel. ChatGPT made major waves when it released its first version on November 30, 2022 and started a new era of AI with the release of its generative AI product. There’s no doubt that artificial intelligence has the potential to revolutionize the tourism industry - from AI powered trip planning and assistance to streamlining content production and marketing operations. This new wave of chat bots that have entered the market use artificial intelligence and natural language to respond to queries in a freakishly accurate way. Don't believe us, try it yourself. The potential applications in the travel industries are numerous.