Attention to travel trends, partnerships crucial for successful tourism marketing

Veteran destination marketers and communicators urge attention to trending travel motivations, partnerships to drive awareness and bookings, and the use of AI to sharpen messaging and reach

• Travel marketers and communicators are paying attention to sustainability, wellness, and quality experiences when building their products and messaging
• Destinations and tourism brands should play up existing charms through creative and mindful marketing and communications
• Partnerships between destinations and travel specialists will be especially precious for building awareness and bookings

Travel and tourism marketers are keeping many travel trends and growing traveller preferences in mind as they shape their business and branding strategy for the year ahead.

Benoit Badufle, founder of Horus Development & Consulting, which is engaged to market destinations like Monaco and Brisbane in Asia, told TTG Asia that recent interactions with clients and travel advisors across Asia have underscored several travel trends that command attention in 2025. They include experiential luxury, wellness, sustainability, personalised experiences, multi-generational travel, and bleisure travel.

Besides attention to these travel trends, destinations must also focus on personalisation and digital engagement. He said these areas of focus are crucial, as “travellers from Greater China, South-east Asia, and South Korea are increasingly seeking authentic journeys that align with their values and aspirations”.

Similar observations are also made by Joleena Seah, managing director for South-east Asia with GHC Asia, one of the region’s most recognised PR specialists for hospitality and lifestyle brands.

“From luxury hospitality to cruises, almost every client had similar iterations of these three themes: sustainability, wellness, and locally immersive guest experiences. It’s evident that these words are no longer considered as trends, but an essential element of the guest journey towards living well,” Seah told TTG Asia.

Seah’s participation in Further East 2024 in November also brought home a realisation that luxury travellers are choosing to go “completely off the grid”, creating demand for secluded and private travel experiences that are known to a privileged few.

“This is aligned with recent reports on the growing demand for quiet luxury in high fashion brands – affluent travellers want bespoke experiences that only they can enjoy. Keywords like private islands, private charters, and complete buy-outs were repeated quite often during Further East this year,” Seah elaborated.

She added: “The desire to go off the beaten path also applies to growing demand for conquering extreme frontiers of tourism. More people are now investing huge sums of money for once-in-a-lifetime experiences, like expeditions to Antarctica, Amazon River quests, and even space travel. I’m very excited about the PR opportunities that innovative brands will offer in 2025!”

Play up strengths
To respond to these trending travel motivations, destinations should identify and enhance available charms and convey these points of appeal through creative marketing and communications.

Monaco, as an example, is a destination that is attuned to these critical considerations while its tourism infrastructure and facilities are well positioned to cater to new travel motivations. Monaco has established spas, wellness retreats, and nature-driven experiences while the country’s leadership has long been prioritising sustainability, inspired by Prince Albert II of Monaco’s far-sighted environmental vision spelt out two decades ago. The destination is also ready to welcome multi-generational travel groups and bleisure guests, thanks to its variety of leisure attractions and business facilities.

While Monaco is no stranger to creating exclusive and unforgettable moments for visitors, Badufle revealed plans to collaborate with travel influencers in 2025 to amplify its promise of experiential luxury.

To be successful in the new year, Seah encourages brands to “manifest the ‘travel is a force for good’ message in a holistic way by curating experiences that benefit the environment, local community, and self-care for the traveller”.

She said: “Brands which can demonstrate their appreciation for genuinely mindful and healthy travel experiences will do well in the years ahead.”

Leverage AI
Both Badufle and Seah acknowledge the use of AI applications in their work across sales, marketing, and communications.

Badufle believes that “incorporating AI-driven personalisation, interactive virtual tours, and mobile-friendly campaigns can enhance engagement”, especially in a region populated by tech-savvy consumers.

He said: “Monaco Tourism Board is currently working on an entirely new version of its website, which will integrate such tools, and we will continue to leverage influencers and digital campaigns on platforms like WeChat, Instagram and TikTok to capture international attention.

“Strengthening Monaco’s digital presence is also essential. With AI-driven travel planning and social media platforms like WeChat and TikTok influencing decisions, Monaco is now putting more emphasis on innovative strategies such as virtual tours, personalised content, and seamless booking systems to engage travellers effectively.”

In the space of public relations, generative AI can create visual assets like videos and images within minutes, saving communications practitioners precious time so that more effort could be directed to strategy, ideation and raising the quality of work, reflected Seah.

Go together to go further
With travellers expected to add less crowded and lesser-known destinations to their 2025 holiday itinerary, Expedia Group’s chief commercial officer, Greg Schulze, told TTG Asia that partnerships between destinations and travel specialists will be especially precious for building awareness and bookings.

“We at Expedia Group have to think about how we can help travellers discover secondary and tertiary destinations, perhaps by building new experiences into our product range or working with destinations to promote their cities and regions to our customers,” said Schulze.

One of such partnerships is with Australia, where Expedia Group works with Tourism Australia and several states in the country to help travellers discover more of what the country and its different destinations can offer.

Expedia Group also has a campaign to drive more tourism traffic to Fukuoka, Japan.

“Nearly every campaign that Expedia Group runs for destinations has resulted in incremental bookings. Some of the outcomes are simply discovery – we educate travellers about their options so that they can make the right decisions,” he added.