Big Surge in Demand for Travel Videos on YouTube

The influence of video in the traveler's path to purchase has surged over 100% in the past 12 months

In "Way to Go", Travel research specialists, MyTravelResearch.com report that the latest statistics from Google show that two out of three US consumers now watch online travel videos when they're thinking about taking a trip.

Views of travel-related content are up 118% year over year on YouTube. Travel video watching is up 97% on smartphones and 205% on tablets.

Eighty-eight per cent of YouTube travel searches focus on destinations, attractions, points of interest and general travel ideas – in that order.

MTR says that viewers now want to connect with creators and travel brands, not just by watching once, but by subscribing to continue viewing. Authentic, real life stories are especially popular. Nearly half of the travel subscriptions are to video blogs that feature personal travel experiences – warts and all.

"If an image is worth a thousand words, a good video is worth tens of thousands of dollars," says Bronwyn White, co-founder of MyTravelResearch.com. "As video becomes a bigger part of the traveler's path to purchase, the tourism industry needs to embrace video with a passion."

White says successful tourism entities are turning to video to tell stories about people and experiences. The best ones are "authentic and real."

"Show your secrets. Make videos with professionals – or start of doing it yourself by making videos using images from your smartphone."

Bronwyn White

In the research, Google notes that the majority of travel-related views (67%) are for brand or professionally released videos. Some 71% of travel related searches on YouTube are for destinations (e.g. "London," "Sydney," "Phuket").

The MyTravelResearch.com summary and video brief of the latest trend is available here. The full Google report is online here.