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Meta Travel Summit Hong Kong reveals latest traveler social trends for brands to seize recovery opportunities

  • Industry Panel: Kevin Shui, Kyle Fu, Tim Hung, Phyllis Ma (left to right)
  • Kenny Sham, General Manager, Hong Kong & Macau, Klook.
  • Patrick Pan, Head of Taiwan and Hong Kong at Meta.
  • Meta most tagged locations outside Hong Kong.

Event highlights value of social media and short-form videos in driving travelers’ awareness and purchase intent.

HONG KONG – Understanding the latest travel trends and what travelers are looking for as the world opens up again is crucial for brands to grow in 2023. At the Meta Travel Summit Hong Kong, industry leaders, marketers and creators gathered to share insights into the recovery of the local travel industry and strategies to capture the gradually rebounding post-pandemic travel demand

Guest speakers and panelists discussed how brands can accelerate business recovery by capitalizing on Hong Kong travelers’ motivations through full-funnel marketing strategies and AI-powered ad solutions, as well as popular content formats such as short-form videos. Those who offered their insights include Patrick Pan, Head of Taiwan and Hong Kong at Meta; Paul Kim, VP, International Business Development and Operator Partnerships at Meta; Kyle Fu, Area Manager, Booking.com; Tim Hung, Assistant Vice President, Media and Social at Shangri-La Group; Phyllis Ma, Senior Manager, Marketing at Disneyland Hong Kong; Kenny Sham, General Manager, Hong Kong and Macau at Klook; and Kevin Shui, Executive Director at Travelzoo Asia.

Hong Kong travelers’ top travel destinations in post-pandemic era

The demand for international travel has surged 104% year-on-year; Asia-Pacific has witnessed the most significant growth, with an increase in traffic by over 370% year-on-year1. As reflected by the latest social trends unveiled by Meta, Hong Kongers are also resuming international travel. Geotagged locations by Hong Kong Instagram users over the past three months revealed some of the most visited places outside the city, these included:

  • Bangkok, Thailand
  • Kyoto, Japan
  • Seoul, Korea
  • Taipei, Taiwan
  • Tokyo, Japan

Listed in no particular order. Based on locations geotagged by Hong Kong Instagram users between Feb – May 2023.

Shift toward more planned trips

Travelers are planning far in advance these days due to the surging travel demand. According to a study commissioned by Meta and conducted by Kantar Profiles2, most travelers take at least four weeks from discovery, to decide on a travel destination. Top search keywords used by Hong Kong’s Instagram users over the past three months to explore travel destinations included:

  • Bangkok trip
  • Osaka travel
  • Spain
  • Seoul travel
  • Tokyo travel

Listed in no particular order. Based on search keywords used by Hong Kong Instagram users between Feb – May 2023.

Hong Kongers also explored travel activities on Instagram over the past three months, using popular search keywords such as:

  • Adventure
  • Beach
  • Spa
  • Travel photography
  • Travel reels

Listed in no particular order. Based on search keywords used by Hong Kong Instagram users between Feb – May 2023.

Attention-grabbing videos entice travelers

As travel demand increases, it’s becoming a highly emotive and visual topic, with keywords like “travel photography” and “travel reels” dominating searches on Instagram amongst Hong Kong users from Feb to May 2023. Diversifying creatives with personal touches and customizations can help travel brands find the right audience. Word-of-mouth among friends, family, and influencers make up the driving force behind travel inspiration, and social media content can aid this discovery.

At the Meta Travel Summit Hong Kong, Hong Kong-based creators Spoon Chan and Derek Tang revealed that by sharing their travel experiences via creative Reels, they were able to better engage their followers and reach untapped audiences. Creative short-form video content that feature travel tips and activity recommendations are driving viewership of Hong Kong creators’ travel-related Instagram Reels, including:

  • bonnieszeng – Tokyo matcha ice cream in Tokyo
  • derek_tch – A beautiful trip in Vietnam
  • khengchan_ – What I ate in Tokyo Disneyland
  • veeceecheng – Cherry blossoms in Seoul
  • yewwooi – Late night snack in Osaka

Listed in no particular order. Based on play counts of public Reels between Apr – May 2023, created by Instagram users who self-identified as based in Hong Kong.

Social discovery influences travel decisions

Enabling discovery with the right inspiration is key to connecting a brand with its current and potential audience. Using the right hashtags can resonate one’s travel desire and reach the target audience. Hong Kongers love to explore on Instagram for inspirations, popular travel-related hashtags on Instagram over the past three months included:

  • #adventure
  • #hikingadventure
  • #roadtrip
  • #travelgram
  • #vacation

Listed in no particular order. Based on hashtags used by Hong Kong Instagram users between Feb – May 2023.

 

1 International Air Transport Association, Jan 2023
2 Travel Consumer Journey Study by Kantar Profiles (Meta-commissioned online survey of 1,469 respondents aged 18-64 in the United States, 2022

News Editor - Travel Media Applications | Website | + Articles

Tatiana is the news co-ordinator for TravelDailyNews Media Network (traveldailynews.gr, traveldailynews.com and traveldailynews.asia). Her role includes to monitor the hundrends of news sources of TravelDailyNews Media Network and skim the most important according to our strategy. She holds a Bachelor degree in Communication & Mass Media from Panteion University of Political & Social Studies of Athens and she has been editor and editor-in-chief in various economic magazines and newspapers.

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