THR's opinion

TikTok and Twitch for Destination Marketing

Introduction

Demand for video content in the tourism space is on the rise. To date, 6 out of every 10 individuals prefer streaming platforms over traditional television, with the average user spending 50 minutes daily on the former. New technologies are redefining how marketing is done, with more interactive networks becoming the most common vehicles for content creation and diffusion.

Benidorm, a Spanish beach destination, is utilizing new social media platforms to reposition its tourism offering and thus attract new tourist segments. As one of its most recent initiatives, the destination’s tourism board has been delving into TikTok and Twitch for its marketing purposes, becoming an early adopter of video marketing initiatives in Spain.

These two social networking services remain relatively unexplored in their applications for the tourism sector. Consequently, destinations which are seeking to reposition or simply promote themselves more effectively can take advantage of the opportunities that the low saturation of the market offers to gain visibility.


Case Study: TikTok

TikTok was founded in 2014 as a social networking platform to create humor-based short-form user videos. Over time, the app has undergone a rebranding and is slowly diversifying the type of content available. This has allowed it to expand to a larger audience with a variety of interests. Currently, very few destinations use TikTok, but its growing popularity, with 800 million users worldwide and a 20% year-on-year growth, make it a very appealing promotional platform.

Despite the majority of users pertaining to the Gen Z age-group and thus being relatively financially limited to fund their travels, this social network can be used as a tool to raise awareness about the touristic offering of different destinations and influence the decision-making processes of peers. This, added to the fact that to date 59% of people over 25 years of age watch videos on TikTok, makes the platform an interesting option for destinations.

Currently, users that use TikTok for tourism purposes can principally be divided into two groups:

• Official tourism portals, such as 'Vive Mexico', 'Visit Singapore', 'Visit London' or 'Turismo Argentina', which group tourism service providers of a destination. In Spain, 'Visit Spain' is following in Benidorm’s footsteps and beginning to use the platform as a tool for the promotion and repositioning of other mature destinations.


• Individual users such as influencers ‘los Gemelos Viajeros' (the Traveling Twins) who use TikTok to broadcast videos of their travels around the world. These users give travel tips and/or share curiosities of each place in order to inspire their followers to choose their next destination.

Few resources are needed to begin using TikTok, since creating a profile is free and the content typology of short, eye-catching videos makes creating and sharing content relatively simple. However, a constant creative effort is required to attract a follower base. To maximize their reach, destinations must make use of advertising. This is done by creating particular hashtags, which are then used by influencers that entities, such as DMCs and airlines seeking to promote their services, partner with.
One challenge of TikTok is that the algorithm that determines the type of content users will be exposed to is extremely targeted to their preferences, which makes it difficult for new content, such as tourism advertisements, to reach a large market. However, despite its limitations, since the algorithm segments the market based on interest rather than demographics, it can facilitate the positioning of tourism services towards those tourists who have interests in line with the destination’s value proposition.

For posts to be successful, the content must be tailored to the audience it is directed to and the platform functionalities. Some examples of video content created for destination promotion have been:

• Airlines: The low-cost airline Ryanair has created a series of videos in which a caricature of one of its planes laughs at the everyday situations of passengers, rival airlines and even itself.


• Cultural promotion: Some destinations contrast footage of their offering with the most viral songs in their country as a way to create memorability and appear in the search list for these songs.

Overall, although the algorithm and user demographics pose a potential obstacle to destination promotion, data analytics tools like Travellyze show that TikTok is increasingly becoming a source of inspiration when choosing a destination across young user groups.


Case Study: Twitch

Twitch is a social network that was created for video game live streaming, but which has gradually expanded to other sectors and types of content. Recently, and accelerated by the pandemic, the sports world has begun to use Twitch as a tool for broadcasting and commenting on international sporting events such as La Liga, the Tour de France or the Olympic Games.

Although the content generated on the platform remains very focused on certain interests, its growing user base, currently at 17.9 thousand daily users, presents an opportunity for destinations to experiment with different content formats to attract this niche market.

The broadcasted programs are live videos running for at least one hour. This requires substantial preparation time and very good equipment, such as sets and recording devices. However, despite the high cost, Twitch has the advantage that, during collaborations, the community of followers can be shared among the participants, thus increasing the visibility of the brand.

At present, the videos used to promote destinations include webinars or sponsorships with third parties. In these cases, the content creator acts as a sponsor of the destination, either by mentioning it in the program, featuring an item related to it or hosting the program at the destination. For example:

• The broadcast of the finals for the ‘Copa de América’ took place at the Spanish theme park PortAventura, indirectly promoting this attraction to those viewing the live broadcast.


• For Singapore's gastronomic week, third parties and gastronomic experts participated in a webinar showcasing the gastronomic culture of the Asian country in an innovative and interactive way.

The THR team of experts suggests the following initiatives to maximize the reach and benefits that tourism brands can reap when using Twitch for their marketing purposes:

• Introduce new formats, such as videos of varying lengths, to make it more enjoyable and engaging.


• Take advantage of the boom in experiential tourism by broadcasting an experience, such as skydiving, live on a GoPro.

In short, although it is costly and complicated to create content for destination promotion, Twitch is a tool with great potential due to the growth of its audience, the low saturation of tourism companies that use it, and because it belongs to Amazon, an established expert in monetizing opportunities and creating communities.


Initiatives proposed by the THR Team

The THR team has come up with several initiatives that could take advantage of the functionalities of these platforms and the growth in demand for video content:

• Partnerships with third parties. To maximize the reach of the content created, the content must go viral. Destination representatives should use these networks through third parties, working with content creators with an established follower base, and thereby capitalize on their fame.
  o The choice of the influencer with whom the entity collaborates is crucial since they must be aligned with the brand's main values to transmit an appropriate message.


• Include tourists in the creation and dissemination of content. Destinations such as Spain and England, among others, receive a large number of tourists throughout the year. Taking advantage of these numbers, it is in the interest of the destination to help tourists become good creators of video content and share them on their TikTok, Twitch or any other social network profiles:
  o The destination could hold a video contest among its travelers and reward the most original one. This way, tourists will be encouraged to participate, and the destination will benefit from more engaging and relatable content that attracts a wider audience.
  o The destination could invest and develop its tourism products to match emerging trends and offer innovative experiences that encourage tourists to share their experiences on social networks.


• Include purchase links within publications. In posts related to the destination and its attractions, it should be possible to integrate direct links to websites where you can book a flight, accommodation or rental car. This initiative not only facilitates the transaction, but also provides a mechanism to quantify the return on investment of each post.

Conclusion

The potential of new social media tools for destination marketing depends on both the type of destination and the target audience. The main challenge presented by networks such as TikTok and Twitch is to reach a large enough community of users and develop new and original content to convert their posts into user action. The content should be more visual, in the case of Tik Tok, and the experience more interactive, especially on platforms such as Twitch.