How can I make working with influencers, work for my business?

You could ask this question to GPT. In fact I did, and here is what it said:

✅ 1. Define Your Goals Clearly

Are you trying to:

• Get more bookings during low season?

• Build brand awareness?

• Attract a certain type of traveler (e.g. Gen Z, luxury, adventure seekers)?

• Build a library of great photo/video content?

Each goal may need a slightly different influencer strategy.

✅ 2. Choose the Right Influencers (Not the Biggest)

Go for micro- or niche influencers (5K–50K followers) who:

• Focus on travel, particularly your region or similar destinations

• Have engaged audiences, not just big numbers

• Are trusted voices (check comments for real fan engagement)

• Fit your brand values and travel style (luxury, adventure, cultural, eco, etc.)

✅ 3. Offer Experiences, Not Just Freebies

Most influencers will work in exchange for:

• Free tours/experiences

• Accommodation or transportation support

• Some may require a small fee depending on their reach and quality of work

Make it clear what you expect in return:

• X number of Instagram posts/reels/stories

• TikTok videos

• Blog or YouTube coverage

• Rights to reuse their content on your own channels

✅ 4. Treat Them Like Partners

• Give them a brief with what makes your tour special and what you'd like covered

• Share your ideal audience and tone

• Suggest highlights they should focus on

• But don’t script too much—authenticity performs better

✅ 5. Repurpose Their Content

You can get more mileage by:

• Posting their photos/videos on your website

• Using them in ads (with permission!)

• Sharing them in newsletters

• Tagging the influencer when you repost—it helps both sides

✅ 6. Track ROI (Even If It's Not Perfect)

It’s not always easy to track bookings from influencers (editors note: unless using Videreo), but you can:

• Use unique discount codes or trackable links

• Ask where guests found you when they book

• Watch for upticks in traffic/social engagement

✅ 7. Start Small and Build Relationships

• Do a trial with one or two influencers

• Learn what works for your audience and business

• Build long-term partnerships with those who really get your brand

Actually, this is a really great starting point. But it leaves open a lot of new questions like:

How much should I pay? GPT missed the point that repurposing content will almost always have a cost.

Where should I find these influencers?

How will I know if it is working? Maybe it is easy to track ROI after all!!

If these are questions on your mind, then we’ve got answers for that too. Videreo + Atlaseek have put together a live webinar where you can get this information and ask any other questions you might have. It is free - sign up here. the webinar will occur on 🗓️ 23rd April 2025, 12pm GST | 9am BST | 6pm AEST, online

This content is provided by the newsletter sponsor Videreo.com

Genspark Super Agent will plan your trip AND phone around the restaurants to book you in

A great video was shared this week in the Everything AI in Travel slack group about new super agent platform Genspark.

Like all these cool new tools, they can’t help but use the coolest use case there is: travel! ✈️ 

The trip planning itself didn’t really stand out by itself compared to others we’ve seen but what this one go to the next level was when the agent started calling the chosen restaurants, on the phone and booking in the party for agreed time and date.

With those I shared this with on my own LinkedIn, there wasn’t a super amount of joy actually. Mitch Bach said “that poor person who has to now sit there and answer bot calls all day long...”

My take is this is the new table stakes for your in-destination concierge in travel.

If you don’t see how this could earn loyalty for your brand if you captured the customer higher in the funnel - then pack up shop now.

AI agents make things cheaper & better?

Sticking with agents for a moment, ex Googler Raphael Cohen this week played out a theory on LinkedIn about how AI agents could end up losing Google a lot of money whilst making both the consumer and supplier life happier.

The theory is that agents disintermediate the current middleman by becoming the new middleman - who is willing to have a lower take rate because the effort involved is less. Oh and the user theoretically gets a better price too.

There are plenty of versions of this already in existence, like travel clubs who get better pricing behind log-in walls etc.

The difference here however is that there isn’t all that (human) friction of remembering to go there to save your money.

The real gold comes at the end of the post:

“Sometimes Booking will make an LTV-based bid for a high-value user. “This is a good user, if they come back 3 times, we can recoup our investment quickly - let’s invest $50 to make sure they don’t go to Kayak or Hotels .com.”

So you still pay $100 for the room. But now Booking takes a $20 fee and pays $50 to Google.

Booking is now in debt and will make money only from this user’s 4th visit.

These $50 are Google’s margin that becomes the industry’s opportunity.”

Trip Planning moves into the seat back

I thought this new innovation from AirFi with its “Wingman” product was a good one.

Most of us are lazy in our trip planning and I don’t think having fast trip planning tools will ultimately trump laziness.

But once we are sitting in that airline seat and winging our way to destination, well now we are highly motivated to know what it is we should be doing once we touch down in a few hours time.

“Travellers access the web-based WingMan portal directly from their seat using their wi-fi enabled mobile device. WingMan then prompts users to give details such as destination, trip duration, group size, budget and other personal preferences, in a multiple-choice format.”

Something to be said for meeting the customer in their moment of need!

“The user’s responses are then merged by WingMan to form a query, which is sent to the ground and processed through an AI algorithm. A customised itinerary for their trip is then supplied, which the user can save or share with their companions.”

Expedia set up agentic playground for staff

This fascinating report which first surfaced in CIOdive.com looked into how Expedia are approaching the fast-coming agentic future.

“The travel company has partnerships with some of the largest technology vendors and frequently checks in on their road maps to get a sense for what’s coming.

“There’s so much hype on agents, and I want to caution ourselves,” Shiyi Pickrell, SVP of data and AI at Expedia Group said. “If you just jump straight to agents, you could not be mindful of existing flows or you may take the human out of the loop.”

To continue to move fast but also to keep the checks and balances in place, “the travel company built a generative AI playground for employees where they can experiment with around 19 large language models via a secure interface that tracks costs.”

Despite vendor promises of transformation, Expedia Group has kept things simple when it comes to agents, Pickrell said. The technology is explained to employees in three phases:

• First: A technology that completes a task, such as searching for images or fetching information.

• Second: A technology that completes a series of tasks.

• Third: A technology that can orchestrate or manage a chain of tasks.

Dubai visas now come in 2 minutes, thanks to AI

A report this week on how AI is really changing the hard stuff to the easy stuff with things like visa applications.

“Dubai has introduced ‘Salama’, an AI-based digital platform for renewing a residence visa in a few clicks. The General Directorate of Residency and Foreigners Affairs (GDRFA) said residents can renew their visas using Salama in under two minutes. They can download the updated documents directly from this platform and avoid waiting in long queues to get the paperwork done.”

The program is now being rolled out to visiting tourists.

For those of us with easier access passports, this hasn’t been a burden most places now for a while, but if you are coming from less fortunate parts of the planet - this is a MAJOR headache.

I had a call earlier this year with someone in India who told me they get 40%+ cancellation on their booking platform due to visas not coming through in time.

Hopefully measures like these make it simpler for everyone.

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:

Marketplace Spotlight: Propellic

Brennen Bliss from Propellic this week pointed out that LLM’s looking for content to surface in the answers they give to those asking questions there, might not be able to read a lot of the content on your website! 😱 

“(M)any AI models and chatbots can't process JavaScript-dependent content when indexing the web. This creates a serious blind spot. If your beautiful React, Vue, or Angular-powered travel website relies on client-side rendering for critical content, there's a good chance the latest AI models aren't "seeing" your expertise, offers, or unique value propositions.”

Brennen offer a 30 second way you can check if your own site might affected in his post. 

You might want to go do that now.

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.

Half of travelling Brits think reviews are now AI generated fakes

Iceland Air research this week found “over half (54%) of respondents expressed concerns about AI-generated or fake reviews when researching trips, and 44% noted they have become more wary of travel reviews due to AI and bots than previous years.”

Reviews have been the backbone of the online trust economy for nearly 2 decades. Now that seems to be melting away under the AI heat.

Bogi Nils Bogason, CEO of Icelandair said “What you see is what you get in Iceland – authenticity and transparency are fundamental elements of our culture.”

Doesn’t hurt that Iceland is already stunningly beautiful without the need for touchups either.

So Iceland Air is publicly putting forward its policy around AI imagery and let’s hope it is the bar that all others in travel set as well:

Here’s what you can expect from Icelandair:

No AI images. Only real photos captured by locals, travellers, and photographers who have experienced Iceland for themselves.

Honest visuals. No wild edits – just minor tweaks to show you what the human eye sees, without making it look like something from a sci-fi movie.

Transparency. What you see in Icelandair’s ads? That’s what Iceland really looks like. No surprises – except for how breathtaking it is in person.

Slack Group!

Shorts

Every week a lot of stuff is left on the cutting room floor. I thought maybe I’ll just lest those here for anyone interested in digging more:

• TikTok meets AI: Unravel raises $7M for a completely new travel booking experience, backed by former Booking.com executives (if you missed getting in on this one and it is a space you are interested in, Videreo is currently raising its pre-seed round now - reach out for more details)

• Dayton International Airport unveils AI parking technology, drive in, drive out - thanks to AI

• The Great Commoditization of AI - video by Gilad Berenstein

• Thrust Carbon Launches AI Tool for Contextualizing Emissions

• Someone tried out all the new Google tools and did a report

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!

The most recent edition is with Jeremy Jauncey from Beautiful Destinations which is probably more impactful now, given the $7M raise by Unravel mentioned above.

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Most clicked last edition was the link to the Perplexity founder’s post about them moving into hotel sales.

That’s it - you’ve made it to the end of this edition. 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