Travel Tractions

18/08/2026

One of our client's posts got the fewest likes and comments of the whole month but it also drove the most bookings.

Views, likes, and comments don't reliably predict revenue for travel businesses. If you're chasing them, you're optimizing for the wrong thing.

In our latest Youtube video Dakota Spillman shares the metrics that matter, DM automation scripts, the how, and the content types on social media that will fill your bookings.

Watch the full video here:

Apply to work with us:https://go.traveltractions.com/3tt8s5o1Your...

17/08/2026

This is the exact social media strategy I would use if I was building a travel brands social media presence in 2026.

This is just part of a 10 minute video we just posted on YouTube where I break down what’s working on TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube in 2026. Dm us or check our link in bio for direct link.

11/08/2026

This is how to get ChatGPT to recommend your travel business.

ChatGPT pulls first from your Google My Business first before ever crawling your website. When someone asks for a recommendation, if you don’t have a Google Business Profile setup AI recommendations will completely miss you.

Make sure you contact details, name, address, description, and photos are up to date and consistent with your website because those in particular are what AI uses to connect who is who.

Respond to every review and make sure you’re posting an update once a week to show Google you are an active business worth recommending.

Our CEO, Matt G Davison just posted a complete GEO (AI recommendation) strategy on Youtube. https://youtu.be/c5G2edhO3D0?si=W6vMx7gUSSf7XNaH

If you start making these changes today you’ll be leaps and bounds ahead of your competitors, 3, 6, 9 months from now.

10/08/2026

What works on Youtube in 2026 for travel businesses?

We’re giving it all away. Save this post to refer to later.

📆Post frequency
Shorts: 1x a day
Long Form: High quality video anywhere from 1x a week to once a month.

⏰The time you post on Youtube does matter. The first hour of engagement matters the most so make sure you are checking your analytics and posting when your audience is the most active.

For shorts, a series format does particularly well “I toured 21 wedding venues in Cape Town, so you don’t have to.” We saw a creator doing this exact prompt on Instagram, and it was also super successful there.

✅The best YouTube Shorts titles are short, punchy, and front-loaded. Keep the most important words within the first 40 characters so they are not cut off on mobile screens. Use a strong hook, add a relevant search keyword, and spark immediate curiosity to make viewers stop scrolling.

✅Description’s primary job is feeding the search algorithm context rather than entertaining the viewer. Keep it concise: front-load your core keywords in the first 1 to 2 sentences, avoid spammy keyword stuffing, and finish with 3 to 5 highly relevant hashtags (always include alongside your niche keywords, for Shorts).

📈Add a quick CTA like “Subscribe for more tips,” to download a free resource or visit a booking page.

👀70-80% of people on Youtube Shorts are watching with the sound off so put on captions, but on Youtube native fonts do not matter.

Follow Travel Tractions 🌍 Travel SEO & Digital Marketing for more travel marketing and social media education.

09/08/2026

The best social media platform for travel businesses is still Instagram. The platform that makes the path from “I saw this” to “I booked this” the easiest with the most options to hit every part of the funnel will always win, and for travel businesses that’s Instagram.

Your sales funnel on Instagram is as follows:

Top of the Funnel
• Reels & trial reels for new eyes and new audiences.

Middle of the Funnel
• Carousels and stories that nurture your existing audience
• Paid ads

Bottom of the Funnel
• DM automations
• Shoppable reels
• Product tags

We posted a full video on our YouTube channel going through what works on Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube in 2026.

Follow Travel Tractions for more travel marketing and social media education.

08/08/2026

What works on Instagram in 2026 for travel businesses?

We’re giving it all away. Save this post to refer to later, or send it to your social media manager.

📆Post frequency should be 3-7 times a week.

⏰The time you post on Instagram does matter. The first hour of engagement matters the most so make sure you are checking your analytics and posting when your audience is the most active.

Reels get you found, Carousels nurture your existing audience.

✈️Reels should be 4-7 seconds long with a long valuable or interesting caption so the video plays through multiple times as people read.

✈️For travel, Carousels should be valuable and worth saving.

❌No more hashtags.
✅But put your most important keywords in the first 1-2 sentences. As well as onscreen text and say it out loud if you are talking to the camera.

👀70-80% of people on Instagram are watching with the sound off so put on captions in native fonts (meaning add them with Instagram or Edits).

📈Trial reels still work. A great way to capitalize on them is to jump on trends (even if they feel silly) and post them as trial reels. Because trends tend to get more views, and trial reels go out to non followers, they are a great way to get in front of people who don’t already follow you and potential new follows.

‼️A full video on how TikTok, Instagram, and Youtube are working in 2026 was just posted on our Youtube channel. We’ve linked the full video on the comments.

07/08/2026

How trial reels work in 2026. Here is the exact trial reel strategy we used to get more followers on Instagram.

We posted 1 trial reel a day leaning into office humor.

If a trial reel got 10x the amount of views as followers, we graduated it to our main feed.

We quickly realized 2 things:

1. If a trial reel got a lot of views, and we used the same video with a different written hook it would also get high views, if not more.
2. And it was the same vice versa. We could use the same written hook on the screen and a different video in the background and it would still produce high views.

👀Hook with the most views: “nobody cares about your little business posts.”

📈Hook that gained the most followers: “Seeing if the algorithm prefers the content I spend hours editing or this video of me just standing here.”

❌No long captions, no hashtags.
✅Native fonts, and trending music.

✈️For travel, jump on trends and post them as trial reels. 1-3x a day max. Pay attention to your analytics and replicate the ones that perform the best. Keep this up for at least 21 days.

Watch the full free masterclass on what’s working on Instagram vs TikTok vs YouTube right now on our YouTube channel. Link is in the comments.

06/08/2026

How do trial reels work on Instagram in 2026 ⬇️

Trial reels push videos only to non-followers. Creators use them to test different hooks, protect their profile aesthetic, and scale organize reach without over spamming their existing followers.

Because when you post a reel to your feed normal you’re reel will go out to 10% of your most engaged followers first (this is why when you post on Instagram matters). Depending on how they react it will then show it to more of your following, in reels tab, and the explore page. If you post too much, that 10% will get fatigued and engagement reduces.

➡️ Trial reels in 2026

🧮 There’s a follower minimum.
Accounts generally need at least 1,000 followers to unlock and use the Trial Reels.

‼️Daily caps.
Creators are restricted to a safe limit (usually around 5 a day) to prevent algorithmic spam triggers.

👮Originality rules.
The algorithm checks for a strict “originality score”; completely identical, watermarked, or recycled clips get suppressed or risk temporary feature lockouts

Follow Travel Tractions 🌍 Travel SEO & Digital Marketing where we’re sharing growth strategies that worked, what metrics to track, our hooks that worked the best and which trial reels to graduate to your main feed.

05/08/2026

There are only two types of engagement you should care about on Instagram in 2026.

Saves and shares.

Saves because it is an intent signal that people will come back to you are your content. Yay.

And shares because the algorithm weighs them 3-5x heavier than a like or a comment when pushing your content farther.

What to do with this information ⬇️

Go check your analytics on Instagram and note the posts with the highest saves a shares

We post pretty consistently so taking a look at the last 90 days works well for us, but if you post very little look at Lifetime if you need. You want a sample size of at least 20-30 posts or if you’ve posted less, look at all of them.

Whatever stands out, make 5 variations of each - highest saved, and highest shared, and post 2 times a week alternating.

Follow Travel Tractions for travel marketing and social media education.