5 New Travel Startups Helping Brands Work With a Universe of Influencers
Photo Credit: This week we look at startups helping travel brands connect with influencers. Pictured is Instagram influencer Ben Brown on a trip in Alberta, Canada. Instagram
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While influencers help many brands break into communities they want to reach, travel brands shouldn't forget that ordinary travelers also post millions of photos and videos that help people decide where to book their trips.
As more travelers get trip inspiration from platforms like Facebook and Instagram, travel brands have linked arms more aggressively during the past year with the people that help make these platforms appealing -- the influencers that travelers identify with.
Influencer marketing takes many forms but one thread runs through all of them and that is brands' desire to speak to travelers that value what an influencer has to say and, in turn, respect their opinion of a brand.
Nearly half of U.S. marketers, for example, will increase their influencer marketing budgets in 2017, according to influencer marketing agency Linqia. At the same time, this year travel marketers will consider if influencers have actually yielded a return on investment. "I think that 2017 will be a year of reckoning for influencer marke
