Yes, she shares breathtaking Instagram reels from different countries, like during her recent trip to Ireland, but she may also get hit by more basketballs than the average influencer. The 34-year-old works as a physical education teacher in Abu Dhabi, where she’s lived for the past eight years.
The work doesn’t stop when she reaches home; after 5 p.m., she books flights and hotels for clients around the world as a travel agent.
“I wanted to influence people in a different way, and this is one of the best ways for travel creators to supplement their income,” Cooper told Business Insider. “Being a travel agent is just another way of using your travel knowledge to help other people and build a community.”
Since working for an online travel advisor company over the past eight months, Cooper, who is certified as a travel agent for destinations from Disney parks to the Caribbean, has sold over $100,000 worth of trips to clients, according to documentation viewed by BI. She offers different tiered packages, such as a VIP concierge experience, and earns a commission that ranges from $200 to $600 per person.
These days, people aren’t only using travel agencies to plan their next trip or tapping friends and family for recommendations. In the past few years, they’ve started using platforms like TikTok and Instagram to find the best places to visit by following creators on their adventures.
Creators like Cooper are leveraging these followers to build lucrative side hustles or full-time businesses. In addition to that, startups like Jerne, which connects travel creators with hotels, airlines, and cruise companies to work with, are helping influencers monetize their online communities while streamlining the booking process.
“The lines are blurring between the travel advisor and the travel creator profession in that today to be a successful travel advisor, you also have to be social-media savvy, as you do for any business,” Tim Morgan, Jerne’s CEO, told BI.
BI spoke with five travel influencers and industry experts about how the sector is being shaped by the creator economy — from helping followers book new trips to organizing group excursions with their online communities.
DMs persuaded some travel creators to arrange group trips with their followers
Travel creator Gabby Beckford led her first group trip with her followers in August 2021.
The 28-year-old, who started traveling solo when she was 17 and has amassed 500,000 followers across social media by documenting her experiences, estimated she’d gotten hundreds of Instagram messages over the years from people asking for travel recommendations — and to go on trips with her. Those inquiries inspired her to organize a weeklong visit to Croatia; she handled the logistics, including booking flights and accommodations and planning an itinerary for 30 people.
Today, Beckford partners with brands to plan more of these types of trips. She works with tour companies like Intrepid Travel, which arranges transportation and accommodations as well as handles issues like customer re-bookings and reviews. Beckford gives input on the travel itineraries, helps find people to attend, and leads the trips.
“Group trips are becoming a lot more popular because seeing a country through a travel influencer’s eyes is what people want,” she said. “Followers, especially in my generation, want to meet the people they’ve been following.”
Nabila Ismail, who has 112,000 TikTok followers, organizes trips through her company, Dose of Travel. The creator and pharmacist, who quit her six-figure job in 2021 to build her travel business full-time, has led group trips to countries like Mexico and Indonesia.
“People told me they loved seeing the representation I bring as a Pakistani-American woman because the solo travel industry isn’t very diverse,” she said. “It’s what inspired me to start a business that prioritizes taking people of color to countries I’ve been to before.”
Ismail initially worked with the group travel company TrovaTrip, which handled the logistics. Now, she’s hiring people who have participated in her past trips to lead future ones.
As more travel creators build communities to travel with, startups like Jerne are popping up to help support their businesses. Brand partnerships have long since been an income source for travel creators, so CEO Morgan built an online platform to help them partner with companies including Virgin Voyages. Morgan said quite a few creators are now using Jerne to find brands to sponsor group travel, as well.
“Travel advisors have been hosting group trips for as long as they’ve existed,” he said. “Now, with greater access to travel booking technology and the massive communities creators are building, it’s no wonder why travel influencers are turning to trips.”
The travel-influencer-to-agent pipeline can build deeper communities
Cooper, the creator who works part-time as a travel agent, said she started planning trips as a way to supplement her income and work more closely with her followers.
“I don’t think enough creators realize how much money there is to be made,” she said. “These days, people want travel experts they trust to book their trips, and as creators, we naturally build that trust because of the content we post.”
Cooper said it was easy to get started — one of her mentors walked her through the certification process — and she thinks the travel-influencer-to-agent pathway will “start booming” as more people open up to this opportunity. She said creators only have to pay for their credentials, find a travel agent company that offers flexible working hours, and commit to that job a few hours a week.
“It’s helped me build a deeper community for sure because when you’re responsible for someone else’s travel experience and they’re paying you for it, there’s a level of trust that you don’t take for granted,” she said.
Some travel startups, including Dharma, are also framing their businesses around global communities, centered on influencers. Dharma plans and sells trips hosted by creators and brands.
“Communities were built around physical proximity in the past, and now we’re in a position where you can build your community around the interest around passion points — around the individual,” CEO Charaf El Mansouri said. “That’s what creators are: they’re lighthouses that are able to build community across borders.”
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