Something has shifted in how people make travel decisions, and the shift is large enough to demand a different approach to PR and communications strategy for any brand operating in the travel and experience space.
It is not that people stopped caring about where they go. It is that the decision framework has changed. The question used to be: what destination do I want to visit? The question now, for a significant and growing share of travelers, is: what experience do I want to have, and what is the most compelling version of it available to me? That shift from destination-first to experience-first planning has changed the media, the influencers, and the content formats that actually drive discovery and consideration. Most travel PR agencies have not caught up to it.
This article examines what the experiential travel trend actually means at a strategic level for PR practitioners and brand communicators, why the traditional earned media playbook underperforms for experience-led brands, and what a modern integrated PR strategy looks like when the product is inherently social, visual, and discovery-driven.
The experiential travel market is growing fast and the consumer data behind it is consistent. According to research data cited by DataIntelo, the global experiential travel market was valued at approximately $250 billion in 2023 and is projected to reach approximately $470 billion by 2032, growing at a 7.1% compound annual growth rate.
The behavioral data is even more striking. According to Arival, US travelers booked 4.7 tours and activities per trip in 2023, up from 2.7 per trip in 2019. In-destination experiences are now the category travelers are most likely to splurge on even when cutting costs elsewhere, according to the Deloitte 2024 Travel Outlook.
The discovery patterns have shifted too. According to GWI, 35% of global consumers now turn to social media for travel ideas, compared to 29% who use traditional travel agents. For Gen Z, 53% use social media as their primary travel discovery channel. According to Statista data, 85% of American adults have acted on a travel recommendation from an influencer.
What this means at a strategic level: for a brand operating in the experience economy, the audience you most want to reach is not finding you through traditional editorial channels alone. They are finding you through creators they follow on TikTok and Instagram, through content that friends share when they visit your experience, and through the stories that spread organically from people who were genuinely moved by something they encountered.
Traditional travel PR was designed to sell places. The mechanics are built around the idea that a destination has features, the features can be described, and the right publications will carry those descriptions to an audience that makes booking decisions based on what they read.
That model works reasonably well for hotels, airlines, and tourism boards with clear feature sets: the amenities, the location, the price points, the awards. It works poorly for brands where the value proposition is experiential and sensory, where what you are trying to communicate cannot be fully described in text, and where the decision to visit depends almost entirely on whether the audience can imagine what it would feel like to be there.
An immersive installation, a brand-designed retreat, a destination entertainment concept, or a food and beverage experience engineered around atmosphere and culture: these are not products you can press release your way to success with. The traditional PR approach of building a media kit, pitching the top travel titles, and securing a feature in Conde Nast Traveler will generate some awareness. But it will not create the social proof, the peer validation, and the visual vocabulary that makes someone decide they need to experience this themselves.
The gap between traditional PR output and actual discovery behavior is growing wider as more of the discovery process moves to social platforms. According to TikTok data cited by National Geographic, travel content views on TikTok increased 410% between 2021 and 2026. According to Taggbox, 32% of TikTok users have booked stays they discovered on the platform.
Experience-led travel brands need PR strategy that was designed for three realities: the experience must be shown, not described; the social proof has to be organic enough to be credible; and the discovery cycle does not end after launch.
Narrative built around emotional outcome, not logistics. The brief for earned media and creator content has to start with the question: what does a visitor feel when they walk in? What moment surprises them? What do they tell their friends when they leave? Every media pitch and creator brief should be grounded in that emotional outcome.
Press previews designed to generate content, not just coverage. The press preview for an experiential travel brand needs to be designed for dual output: editorial content from media and organic creator content from influencers. Both audiences should be invited, but briefed differently.
Creator strategy that shows the experience without scripting it. The biggest mistake brands make in experiential travel creator campaigns is over-controlling the output. The content that drives real consideration for an experiential brand is content that makes the viewer feel like they are watching a genuine reaction.
Sustained PR that outlasts the opening. For a traveling or temporary experience, the PR strategy should treat opening week as the beginning of the campaign, not the peak. Second-wave angles, seasonal hooks, creator waves timed to cultural moments, and profile features can all sustain media and social presence throughout the run.
The traditional press trip model sent journalists to a destination, gave them access to the experience, and hoped they would write something favorable. The economics made sense when a feature in a major travel publication was the primary way a certain demographic learned about a destination.
That model still has value, but it no longer describes the primary discovery pathway for the demographic that drives the majority of experiential travel decisions. For the audience most predisposed to seek out a new experience, the creator trip has largely replaced the press trip as the primary earned content moment.
The most effective version of this is not a press trip redesigned with creators instead of journalists. It is a purpose-designed experience that combines both, with different briefing structures and different content expectations for each audience. The journalist is there for depth, credibility, and editorial reach. The creator is there for scale, social proof, and visual content that translates the experience.
When these are designed as a unified operation rather than parallel tracks, the output compounds: the editorial feature legitimizes the brand for an audience that discovers it through social, and the creator content makes the brand discoverable for an audience that would never have found the editorial.
The architecture of a modern PR strategy for an experience-led travel brand runs across four functions that need to be connected, not siloed.
Earned media relations built on relationships with the publications that actually influence your demographic: local city guides for discovery-driven leisure decisions, national lifestyle and culture media for destination positioning, arts and entertainment media for credibility, and travel media for broader awareness.
Creator and influencer strategy built around authentic access, narrative-led briefings, and creator selection that matches your audience geography and cultural positioning. Not just large follower counts but genuine audience fit and trust.
UGC infrastructure that captures visitor content, amplifies it through owned channels, and feeds the best organic content into paid social as high-performing creative. When visitors feel something real at your experience, they share it.
Performance measurement that connects media coverage moments to discovery behavior: branded search volume, website traffic from specific referral sources, ticket velocity patterns correlated with coverage spikes, and social share-of-voice trends over time.
Jive PR + Digital has built integrated PR and digital campaigns for experiential and experience-driven brands including Meow Wolf, Flyover, The Escape Game, Activate, and Color Factory, running earned media, influencer strategy, and events as a unified program from the same narrative brief.
What is experiential travel and why does it require different PR strategy?
Experiential travel refers to travel motivated primarily by a specific experience, activity, or cultural moment rather than a destination or accommodation. PR strategy for experiential travel differs from traditional travel PR because the value proposition is sensory and emotional rather than logistical, which means earned media strategy has to communicate feeling rather than features, and creator content is a primary discovery channel rather than a supplementary one.
How has social media changed travel PR?
Social media has shifted a significant portion of the travel discovery process away from traditional editorial media and toward creator content and peer recommendations. According to GWI, 35% of global consumers now use social media as their primary channel for travel ideas. For Gen Z, that figure is 53%.
What types of media coverage matter most for experiential travel brands?
Local city guides and lifestyle publications drive the most direct discovery behavior: Time Out, Thrillist, Eater, local alt-weeklies. National lifestyle and culture media build destination-worthiness. Creator content on TikTok and Instagram drives the peer validation that converts discovery into intent.
How should a press trip or press preview be structured for an experience-driven brand?
A press preview for an experiential brand should be designed as a content production operation, not just a media access event. Editorial media and creators should be invited simultaneously but briefed differently. The event should be designed with content capture conditions built in: lighting, spatial flow, moment design, and timing.
What metrics should experiential travel brands use to measure PR effectiveness?
The most meaningful metrics connect PR activity to discovery behavior: branded search volume growth following coverage moments, website traffic referrals from specific publications and creator accounts, ticket velocity patterns correlated with coverage spikes, and social share-of-voice in relevant cultural conversations.
When is the right time for an experiential travel brand to hire a PR agency?
At least three to four months before a major launch or campaign window, and ideally six months out for brands planning national press coverage alongside local market activation.
The growth of the experiential travel market is not just a trend for travel brands to follow. It is a structural shift in how consumers make decisions about where to spend time and money on experiences. For brands operating in this space, the PR and marketing strategies that worked in the destination-selling era are increasingly inadequate for the experience-driven era.
The brands that thrive are the ones that build PR strategy around the way their audience actually discovers and decides: through creators, through social proof, through earned media that communicates feeling rather than features, and through sustained campaigns that treat launch as the beginning rather than the peak.
Jive PR + Digital builds integrated PR and digital campaigns for experiential and consumer brands. If you are building or refining the strategy for an experience-led travel or entertainment brand, reach out to explore what an integrated approach would look like for your specific goals.
Megan Balyk is Vice President at Jive PR + Digital, where she helps consumer and immersive brands build cult‑level followings through integrated PR, social, and influencer marketing that drives measurable ROI. With 15+ years of experience across North America, Asia, and Africa, she has a strong track record of leading high-performing marketing teams and scaling companies (from start-ups to publicly traded companies).
A recurring source for outlets such as Business Insider, Megan is known for blending cultural insight with sharp performance thinking to help brands show up where Gen Z and millennials actually are—not just where the media plan says they should be. She also serves on the Advisory Board for the University of San Francisco School of Management’s Digital Marketing program, helping shape the next generation of marketers in the world of AI.
