Once you’ve come to grips with what an influencer is, it’s time to think about how best to leverage their talent for business. If you want to create dynamic marketing campaigns, having a great influencer as part of your efforts can help. There are many great platforms where you can leverage influencer talent for your marketing efforts, and we’ll go through some of the best travel influencers you can work with for this article.
What is a travel influencer?
A travel influencer is someone who travels to destinations a lot and records their adventures. Some choose to write blogs about their experiences or post photos and videos on platforms like Instagram and YouTube (or a combination of both). They may also choose to document a niche category, such as luxury travel, or focus on a specific region. They can also work on other platforms such as Cameo (more on what Cameo is) to connect with followers.
The travel influencer industry in 2022
Travel influencers have become a mainstay in the social media world and a preferred marketing partner within the travel industry. Depending on the travel destinations, the hospitality industry, tourism agencies and tourism brands are increasingly working with travel influencers to gain an organic following and create exposure for travel destinations.
Why you should consider partnering with a travel influencer
Working with top travel influencers can benefit your marketing campaign for the following reasons:
- New target groups: By partnering with travel Instagram influencers and other platforms, you can connect with new audiences.
- Awareness: Influencer marketing has steadily become one of the best ways to get companies known
- Organic Range: Partnering with a travel influencer gives you organic reach to new networks instead of using paid advertising
- Increase sales: You can acquire new leads and close sales by partnering with travel influencers to offer exclusive travel promotion deals.
- To trust: Audiences are more likely to trust their favorite influencer’s content than ads.
Top travel influencers at work in 2022
If you’re not sure which travel influencers to work with, we’ve put together a list of some of the best influencers in the space and the social media channels they’re popular on to make the selection process easier.
1. Bucket List Family
The Bucket List Family is known for their successful YouTube channel that focuses on family travel vlogs, such as their experiences of forever roaming as a family.
niche: Family traveler content
Main social media channel: YouTube, @thebucketlistfamily
Followers: 1.39 million followers
2. Lauren Bullen
Lauren Bullen has an Instagram account for travel with an emphasis on wellness, and Elsa, her twin sister’s Instagram account, focuses on leading a healthy lifestyle.
niche: Wellness travel adventures
Main social media channel: Instagram, @gypsea_lust
Followers: 2m
3. Brian Skerry
Brian Skerry is an amazing, world-renowned photographer for National Geographic who documents his tropical and ocean adventures on his Instagram feed for others to enjoy, including destinations around the world.
niche: sea photography
Main social media channel: Instagram, @brianskerry
Followers: 942k
4. Expert Vagabond travel blogger
His blog is run by Matthew Karsten and features adventure travel and photography as he likes to visit crazy places. It documents his experiences, travel tips and beautiful photos from his many travels.
niche: Adventure travel and digital nomad lifestyle
Main social media channel: Instagram and YouTube, @expertvagabond
Followers: 140k followers on Instagram, 60k followers on YouTube
5. Fearless and Far Away
Fearless and Far is a leading YouTube influencer for travel. His YouTube channel focuses on adventure, food and experiencing new cultures.
niche: Epic Adventure Travel
Main social media channel: YouTube, @MikeCorey
Followers: 1.05 million
6. Atlas and boots
Atlas and Boots was named one of the best travel bloggers and travel writers. They extensively document their travels to exotic destinations, including research and background information about the destinations combined with landscape photography.
niche: Traveling outdoors
Main social media channel: Blog on website
Followers: 250k
7. The Poor Traveler travel blog
If you’re looking for an influential traveler in the budget travel niche, The Poor Traveler is a great place to start. They have been featured in many famous publications for their budget-conscious approach and free travel guides.
niche: Budget travel
Main social media channel: Facebook, The poor traveler
Followers: 800k
8. Chris Burkard
Chris Burkard is a successful travel influencer who is also a professional photographer. Chris Burkard on breathtaking natural shots from around the world such as beautiful scenery, amazing beach and other beautiful locations. His social media feed also includes lifestyle, surfing, outdoor and more for the places he’s been to such as Costa Rica, Kazakhstan and many others.
niche: Lifestyle and nature photography
Main social media channel: Instagram, @chrisburkard
Followers: 3.8 million
9. Breathe Dream Go
Slow travel is another growing niche, and Breathe Dream Go. Their travel blog is focused on creating conscious travel guides for the travel enthusiast. Breathedreamgo has worked with major travel brands around its unique travel experiences in India and in other parts of the world such as Canada and Asia on social media platforms.
niche: Travel slow
Main social media channel: facebook, breath dreamgo
Followers: 14k followers
10. Murad Osmann
Murad Osmann is arguably one of the most prominent Instagram travel influencers out there and has a huge audience. He started the famous trend of the ‘follow me’ travel photo that went viral. His followers on Instagram are in the millions, and he is known for his great locations and aesthetic sense. His content took off as local brands got closer, and his feed now features some of the most coveted hotels.
niche: Exotic locations combined with a unique sense of photography
Main social media channel: Instagram @muradosmann
Followers: 3.5 million
11. Pavement Free with Cory Lee
Curb Free with Cory Lee takes a different approach to travel blogging compared to others on the list. Cory’s travels include his experiences traveling in a wheelchair and shed light on wheelchair accessible travel for others. He has been featured in numerous TV shows and publications due to his approach to travel.
niche: Traveling in a wheelchair
Main social media channel: facebook, curb-freewithcorylee
Followers: 28k
12. Angelica Blick
Angelica Blick is a travel blogger and successful fashion icon. As an Instagram travel influencer, she has created a brand around travel and breathtaking fashion designs. Her feed features fantastic photos of the tropical world, fashion shoots, brand deals and more. She is also the recipient of Veckorevyn blogging awards for her travel content.
niche: Fashionable travel
Main social media channel: Instagram, @angelicablick
Followers: 1.1. m
13. Jack Morris
Jack Morris is another great travel blogger who has created a huge following. His photos are all about dreamy escapes to distant locations and show the warm culture of the destinations he visits. He is one of the biggest travel bloggers and is growing steadily.
niche: To travel
Main social media channel: Instagram, @jackmorris
Followers: 2.5 million
What makes a good travel influencer?
If you’re not sure how to identify the right travel influencers for your brand, here are some considerations to keep in mind during the selection process:
- Number of followers: Look at the number of followers they have and whether there is constant growth
- Engagement: They may have a large following, but how involved are they? Look at video views, Instagram likes, and comments to get a sense of engagement.
- Brand Ambassador and Partnership: What kind of content do they post and what brands do they usually work with? That will give you an idea of whether they can help your marketing campaign and their experience.
- Contents: What kind of content do you want to showcase (e.g. travel posts on Instagram or experience-driven long content), and is that compatible with the travel influencer offerings?
- Feedback: You should ask travel influencers you’re considering what kind of feedback and metrics they’ve gotten with past marketing campaigns and how a partnership could benefit both of your brands.
How to work with a travel influencer
There are many ways you can get started and work with a travel influencer, depending on your needs and budget:
- Contact the influencer directly through their Instagram page using the direct message feature or contact details listed in their bio
- You can comment on their Instagram posts and ask them to check their posts to make sure they see it
- Based on the initial range response, you can ask them questions about different packages or deals they offer and provide more information about what you’re looking for and your timeline.
- Once the content, deliverables, and timeline are approved on both sides, you can draft a contract outlining the discussion and deliverables.
- You can choose to check in at different times during the campaign to make sure everything runs smoothly and have a debrief at the end to understand the stats and results.
Who is the best travel influencer in 2022?
The best travel influencer is Jack Morris @jackmorris† He currently has a large following on Instagram of 2.5 million users through an incredibly successful Instagram account that showcases his adventures around the world.
Which travel influencer has the most followers on Instagram?
The best Instagram travel influencers include content creators like Murad Osmann @muradosmannwhich has one of the largest followers on Instagram with 3.5 million users and has been named one of the top travel influencers by publications like Forbes.
Image: Depositphotos
