In an era where travel marketing content is at a saturation point, breaking through the noise requires more than clever visuals or copy. It requires emotionally resonant storytelling grounded in authenticity. Travelers desire to understand a place in a way that feels real, not admire a perfected version of it.
These expectations are reshaping what effective travel marketing needs to deliver in a landscape where crowded feeds, algorithmic ranking and AI-generated filler make it harder for anything genuine to stand out. People respond to honesty, storytelling and representation that means something.
Two recent studies reinforce this. Each one shows audiences moving away from surface cues and toward stories that resonate on a deeper level.
Six Ingredients That Inspire Travelers
That idea came into focus for me while reading Expedia Group’s recent article, Crack the Code on Travel Content: The Science of Wanderlust.
The research looks closely at what captures a traveler’s attention. More than 7,000 people across seven global markets participated, and the team used eye-tracking, emotional-response testing and surveys to understand what influences bookings.
The study highlights six elements that consistently matter:
- Video has the strongest influence: 71% of travelers say video shapes their decisions, compared with 24% for static images. This gap reflects a consistent pattern in traveler behavior: motion, sound and pacing make destinations feel real long before a booking decision is made.
- Authenticity earns trust: Transparency leads at 52%, followed by clarity and confidence at 46%, then authenticity at 45%. Messaging that communicates honestly performs better because travelers quickly filter out anything that feels manufactured or overly polished.
- Clear narratives drive engagement: Content with a defined beginning, middle and end outperforms disconnected visuals. Travelers follow stories more easily than they follow aesthetics, and strong visuals lose impact when the message lacks structure.
- Pacing helps people absorb the story: Scenes lasting 2–9 seconds provide the best balance for comprehension and recall. This range gives travelers time to understand what they are seeing without losing momentum, while rapid cuts often work against understanding the destination.
- AI works best as a support tool: 64% of travelers have noticed AI-generated content, yet only 41% prefer it when not shaped by human input. Comfort drops sharply when content feels entirely automated, indicating that creative judgment remains essential for credibility.
- Representation improves relatability and trust: 34% of travelers say inclusive messaging increases their trust in a travel brand. Representation strengthens impact when it aligns with a relatable message and feels naturally woven into the story rather than added for appearance.
Expedia’s larger message is that thoughtful creative choices matter more than pushing out higher volumes of content. In other words, AI slop won’t resonate.
This sixth insight on representation immediately reminded me of the research we published earlier this year at Noble Studios.
How Expedia’s Findings Connect to the Better and Wiser Multiethnic Travel Study
In June, Noble Studios partnered with Wiser Insights and Uniquely Driven to release Beyond Representation: Engaging Multi-Ethnic Travel Audiences. We surveyed twelve hundred U.S. leisure travelers, evenly representing Black, Asian and Hispanic respondents. The goal was to understand how these groups make decisions and what signals real inclusion.
A few insights rose to the top:
- Diversity is visible but not always meaningful: Travel marketing often shows a range of faces, yet many travelers do not feel included. Representation without understanding reads as surface level and fails to create a sense of belonging.
- Being seen is not the same as being understood: 76% of Black, Asian and Hispanic travelers say mainstream travel marketing does not resonate with them. Many describe feeling stereotyped, overlooked or excluded because the message does not reflect their lived experiences.
- Surface-level diversity is a missed opportunity: When campaigns rely only on varied imagery, engagement and trust weaken. Meaningful connection requires more than matching appearances, and travelers respond when brands move beyond visual cues.
- What multiethnic travelers want most is resonance: Emotional alignment, shared interests and authentic storytelling carry more influence than demographic matching. Travelers look for content that reflects what they value, not just what they look like.
The research points to a simple truth. Belonging is created through connection and not through visibility alone.
The Overlap Is Hard to Miss
When you line up the Expedia insights with Noble’s Better and Wiser results, the same themes start showing up again and again. Different audiences, different methods, yet travelers are asking for a lot of the same things. They want stories that feel honest, experiences that feel personal and representation that actually means something.
Representation Without Connection Falls Short
Our study shows that featuring diverse faces does not guarantee people will feel welcome. 66% of multiethnic travelers say much of today’s travel marketing misses the mark. Expedia’s findings support this. Representation can build trust, but only when the surrounding story feels grounded and sincere.
Interests Play a Larger Role Than Identity
Better and Wiser shows that multiethnic travelers look for experiences shaped by curiosity and passion rather than cues about who a campaign is for. Expedia’s study points in the same direction. Clear narratives, intentional pacing and a steady tone influence engagement more than the identities of people shown in the content.
Inclusion Comes From the Experience, Not the Setup
Travelers feel included when marketing reflects the way they move through the world. Seeing someone who looks like them can help but it does not carry the moment by itself. Expedia’s focus on authenticity, especially around narrative and scene structure, underscores that feeling.
Novelty and Emotion Drive Momentum
Many respondents in our study expressed a desire for cultural discovery, unfamiliar places and new adventures. Video naturally supports those emotions. With such a strong gap between video and static imagery in Expedia’s data, brands relying on simple stock-style photography risk losing the sense of excitement that draws people in.
Authenticity Outperforms Box-Checking
Both studies arrive at a similar conclusion: Travelers know when diversity feels added for show. They also notice when content leans too heavily on AI. Expedia’s finding that many prefer AI-assisted content with human involvement lines up with what we saw. Real inclusion requires a human point of view.
There Is No Single Multiethnic Traveler
Expedia’s traveler archetypes highlight that multiethnic audiences are not one group with one mindset. Better and Wiser supports this. People within these communities have varied motivations, interests and decision-making patterns.
What This Means for Travel Marketers
Looking at both studies together, the direction is clear. Representation helps, but only when the story around it feels real. That 34% lift in trust only works when the message connects on a personal level. Resonance is what builds loyalty.
For DMOs and travel brands, this means focusing on:
- Storytelling with a clear arc
- Video that creates emotional lift
- AI as support, not the creator
- Real moments of inclusion, not surface diversity
- Motivations over assumptions
Travelers want to feel understood. The brands that deliver that connection earn trust and repeat visits. If you want help translating that insight into action, contact Noble Studios to take the next step.
