ROI remains top of mind (& elusive) for travel marketers working with creators

This week Stay22 in association with Travel Massive launched a new report into the creator economy in travel including some insights into AI.

The core headlines are:

• $254B is the number the report estimates will be spent by travel on creators & content this year. Yes, that is Billion. With a B.

• content, influencer and affiliate marketing accounts for around 28% of marketing budgets in travel—including influencer marketing (5.5%), sponsored content (5.3%), podcasts (8.8%), and video (8.1%). Was surprised by the podcast number… especially being higher than the video number!

• Travel providers are currently looking to work as the first priority with content creators (29%) then journalists (27%) then influencers (17%).

• ROI is the main piece still missing for most travel suppliers to jump in with both feet

The report states: “Measurable success is by far the top method for defining success among travel providers. Among the ROI metrics they look for are: conversions, leads, bookings, reservations, visits, inquiries, and other trackable indicators of sales or intent to purchase.”

When it comes to AI, 38% of creators gave it hard “No” when asked if they utilise it.

30.5% of travel providers also explicitly forbid its use. I fear for all these people and businesses.

AI has been the unlock for being able to deliver the ROI brands desperately seek from their engagements with creators at Videreo. Only through AI is it scalable to match content creator videos to the travel provider products and deliver sales, which is exactly what the proprietary AI built at Videreo does.

Videreo is the place for brands and creators to meet & create a new sales pipeline together to deliver a definitive ROI to the brand.

Check out more here to join brands already in the vector database like global hotel meta-search business Vio.com or see Videreo in action from creator Mely in Paris.

Open your business to social commerce today. Performance based and no upfront costs.

Literally nothing to lose.

Contact Adrian for more details on how to get your travel product loaded.

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

Host AI rebrands as Conduit and raises $3.1M

In a post on LinkedIn this week, Cole Rubin from what is now Conduit announced the capital raise and the new rebrand.

Rubin said the rebrand was needed to fit the new scope of their direction. “What started as a tool for automating guest messaging in short-term rentals has evolved into something much bigger. The short-term rental (STR) industry pushed us in that direction.”

The crux is that the company now has STR as a subset and is going after the infinitely bigger pie of “real estate”.

“Conduit partners with enterprise property managers across all asset classes to power the future of real estate operations—with AI at the core. Real estate is a conversation-driven industry. Leasing, retention, maintenance, scheduling—it all runs on messaging and phone calls. But most operators are still stuck with fragmented systems and manual workflows. We saw a better way.”

World’s first AI travel companion with interactive avatar

Singapore based Buzz, the first “Agentic AI licensed OTA” in the region has released BAE the world's first AI-powered travel companion with an interactive avatar according to reports this week.

“BAE, a friendly virtual assistant designed to welcome and assist passengers with their travel needs” so that sounds pretty friendly.

The company has been through both Singapore and Saudi Arabia accelerator programs and has launched in both those destinations.

“Backed by Google, BAE serves as a personalized travel companion that evolves beyond traditional travel apps by offering real-time, location-aware recommendations and seamless booking capabilities. The AI companion learns user preferences to create tailored experiences that connect travelers with authentic local cultures, hidden gems, and like-minded explorers.”

Bell Beh, Co-founder and CEO of Buzz said "BAE represents a fundamental shift from transaction-based travel to experience-based exploration. Our technology doesn't replace human interaction; it enhances it by breaking down barriers between visitors and local cultures."

Well, it might replace the humans who previously supported breaking down those barriers?

Kayak gets conversational

Steve Hafner this week announced that Kayak.ai is up and running.

“On our traditional site and app, we don’t yet have a full picture of travelers’ intent,” Kayak wrote in a news release reported by Phocuswire.

“But with Kayak.ai and conversational search, the game changes. We’ll have a lot more context to understand the details of a search and therefore can provide even more relevant and helpful results.”

Great to see examples like this where the penny is dropping. So many in the industry are so off the conversational interface of the “chat bot”.

Steve here lays out why it’s important. Conversation leads to better intent data which leads to better solutions for the user.

I meet people all the time who are gun-ho on “personalisation” but chat bot haters. I never understand that.

If you want to know what a person wants right now you can cobble together a trillion data points and take a guess or you can just ask them……….

The moment we’ve been waiting for - AI video is loose in the wild of travel

Well, maybe it’s just been me who has been waiting for it.

And I’m really happy that someone is giving it a go.

Even though I think it is a horrible mistake & doomed to fail.

This week JAL announced in partnership with Jellyfish that they are going to feed their airline customers AI videos of the destinations they fly to.

“We are always thinking of ways to help travellers curate memorable itineraries and learn more about traditional and unique travel experiences throughout Japan. The advances in text-to-video through Google’s Gemini models allow us to create content inspired by the incredible diversity of Japan’s destinations, offering a new level of engagement for our customers.” Minako Kent, Managing Director of Global Marketing at Japan Airlines.

Keywords are “create content inspired by”….

This isn’t just some AI editing of the content the company already has to cut up some new snappy sizzle reels (which would probably be a good use of AI).

This is AI, just producing whatever it thinks might be good (based on its training of course - phew). Which is absolutely not, what actually exists in real life.

You can see one of the videos here in the link.

Maybe I’m overreacting here. Maybe the majority are happy with the facsimile of reality?

Either way, the gates are now open and each brand can make their own decision.

It can only do wonders for the importance of authenticity of real footage, shot by real people, who are actually at the destination, which is already the gold standard for travel storytelling.

Of course, the fake stuff is cheaper. Can’t wait to see what you decide!

How HBX is using AI

More video action here as HBX COO Xabier Zabala takes us through how HBX is actually using AI in their operations, right now.

My favourite is when Zabala talks us through how human customer support agents are trained using AI calls that simulate all the many and varied reasons why a HBX customer might call up for assistance.

Again, this is great, smart use of the conversational and multimodal possibilities of AI.

Loads of other uses in there too!

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: Tripian

Tripian’s Chief Sales Marketing Officer, Robert Simon has been putting out some great content of late (follow him!)

I really loved his latest piece about travel itineraries and the rapid commoditisation of the itinerary thanks to the use of AI.

According to Simon, to stand out - you need more than words and links and maps which can now all be spun up by anyone in seconds.

Simon’s advice to build the itinerary for now and the future you need:

1. Interactive Engagement: Beyond Static POIs

2. Video: The Conversion Catalyst

3. Creator Partnerships: Authenticity at Scale

As Simon says (see what I did there 😀 ) “Travel content creators have become essential partners for destinations looking to personalize at scale. Their authentic storytelling transforms standard points of interest into compelling narratives that travelers can envision themselves in.”

If you haven’t taken a look recently, check out how Tripian is evolving in all these ways.

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.

Which AI model should you build with?

Phocuswire this week put out a great piece on a subject that many I think are wondering about, which AI model should they actually use in their business. (Well not the 30.5% who forbid the use of AI in their business 🙃 )

They got a range of opinions which can be neatly summed up as ‘it depends’. 😄 

Not every company is able to do this but “Booking.com has built an orchestration layer to make it easier for the company’s product and engineering teams to switch easily between models.” Ultimately this is always going to be the best approach.

The end of the article is when things got really interesting as each of those interviewed gave their thoughts around what is defensible against the general horizontal foundation models as they continue to evolve.

The answer is less and less every day!

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:

• OpenAI get a memory

• MCP or Model Context Protocol - the new acronym you need to know

• Travel Hack: How to book a €113 flight for just €56 - oh hang on…… 

• Digital identities start to get real

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!

After a huge Q1 we are taking a pause on the pod.

I am building the guestlist for the next round however so if you think you should be on it (or someone else you want to hear from) let me know!

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Most clicked last week was the link to the story about Expedia building an AI playground for their staff

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