Queen Latifah Endorses Pinterest For Trip-Planning

Pinterest, which just took in a fresh round of $225 million, believes its users can tap into its photo boards for vacation planning. Rapper, actress and TV personality Queen Latifah endorses the idea, as well.

On a recent Queen Latifah Show, with Pinterest as a wedding sponsor, Latifah told a new groom that Pinterest will cover his trip to visit Kobe Bryant and the Lakers, adding about Pinterest, “They are such a great tool for planning trips.”

The trip to La-La Land was the groom’s reward for ambushing his fiance so romantically with surprise nuptials.

Pinterest also sponsored Ryan, the groom, and Amanda’s surprise wedding. Ryan recalled he used Amanda Roman’s Pinterest board to clandestinely plan the wedding.

Ryan pointed out that Pinterest enables users to create their own My Dream Wedding boards, which aided his planning.

Pinterest indeed has ambitions in travel, although after reiterating that Pinterest has 660 million pins in the travel category, spokesperson Annie Ta tells Skift “we don’t have specific plans to share.”

Still, Pinterest was a sponsor of the Queen Latifah segment, and assuredly Latifah didn’t endorse Pinterest as a trip-planning resource against the sponsor’s wishes.

There are a lot travel brands active on Pinterest, including American Airlines, Southwest, Virgin America, Virgin Atlantic, Air France, Air New Zealand, Cathay Pacific, Four Seasons, Hilton, Omni, Airbnb, Ritz-Carlton and Lonely Planet, for example.

Although these brands’ Pinterest boards offer plenty of travel inspiration — images of destinations to experience, hotels and restaurants to try — users still have to go elsewhere to make their bookings once Pinterest provides the planning and inspiration.

Considering Pinterest’s user base and levels of engagement, the potential for transactions is enormous.

Here’s the video with Kobe Bryant informing Ryan about his Pinterest-sponsored trip to the Lakers, and Latifah touting Pinterest as a great trip-planning resource.