Can ‘De-Influencing’ Be An Answer to Prevent Overtourism in Asia?

Photo courtesy: Experience Travel Group. Cambodia’s Angkor Wat was threatened by over-tourism in the lead-up to the Covid-19 pandemic.

We were considering writing about a guide to help sustainability-led travel brands on how to choose and work with value-aligned influencers to amplify impact.

But then, we started seeing the ‘de-influencing’ trend gaining traction on social media. For us, it only made sense to include this in today’s discussion.

The De-Influencing Trend on TikTok aims to get us to rethink what we buy. Then, we began asking if sustainable tourism brands could capitalize on this trend to help consumers make better travel decisions.

But First, What Exactly Is 'de-Influencing'?

People are increasingly using their platforms to tell their followers what not to buy. This is to counteract the growing pressure to spend money to hop on viral trends.

In the travel context, 'de-influencing' would imply that consumers banded together to encourage people not to visit Instagram-famous attractions such as Paul Smith's pink wall or Bali Swing, for example.

Does Asia’s Travel Sector Need ‘De-Influencing’? 

For years, social media influencers have played a key role in shaping travel trends and inspiring travelers to visit new destinations.

At the beginning of the social media boom, influencers were viewed as catalysts for brand awareness and thus business growth.

In fact, they were responsible for bringing small travel businesses back from the brink of collapse.

Take Bridestowe Lavender Farm (pictured below) in Tasmania, Australia for example. In 2010, the farm started harnessing the power of digital marketing to revitalize its business.

Soon after, a Chinese celebrity Zhang Xinyu posted a photo of herself cuddling the farm’s now-iconic Bobby the bear on social media.

That quickly sparked the Bobbiemania in China, boosting visitor numbers to the farm and also online product orders from Chinese consumers. This led Bridestow Lavender Farm to grow and expand in just a few years.

Photo by: Sydney Herald Morning. China’s President Xi Jinping received a Bobby bear at Hobart Airport, Tasmania on his trip to Australia in 2014.

“The bear has a cult-like status in China and it has done wonders for local tourism,” 

— Will Hodgman, former premier of the state of Tasmania in an interview with the Financial Times in 2016.

Conventional wisdom holds that increased awareness brings more visitors to a destination, which is beneficial to local businesses and communities.

No, not entirely.

The dark side of too much influencing: it suffocated a handful of Asia’s treasures.

According to a recent Nielsen report, with as much as 80% of Asia’s consumers likely to purchase products and services recommended by influencers, it is logical that brands and destinations have made content creator engagement an integral part of their marketing strategies.

As the saying goes, ‘be careful what you wish for.’

Some of Asia's iconic destinations and landmarks, such as Thailand's Maya Bay, Cambodia's Angkor Wat, and India's Taj Mahal, received unprecedented levels of "Instagram fame" and "WeChat popularity" in the run-up to the pandemic.

This was driven by tourism industry planners, tour providers, influencers, click-incentivized algorithms on social media, and travelers' fear of missing out (FOMO).

At various points in time, some of the region's most beloved cultural and natural heritages were overrun by visitors.

Photo by: Stuff.co.nz. Thai authorities closed Maya Bay, Thailand from 2018 - 2020 to recover from the environmental fallout of over-tourism.

What Asia’s Travel Industry Needs Is ‘re-Influencing’, Not ‘de-Influencing’

JoAnna Haugen, Founder at Rooted, suggests that instead of asking people to stop traveling if we adhere to the strict definition of “de-influencing,” we should encourage travelers to visit less-known places. 

The travel and hospitality industry was one of the hardest hit by the Covid-19 pandemic. In comparison to the same period in 2019, the Asia Pacific experienced a 95.3% drop in international arrivals from January to July 2021, the largest drop in international arrivals globally.

Underserved destinations and underrepresented communities were the hardest hit. In this period of recovery, they could benefit from renewed and redirected attention and visits from travelers and industry players alike.

In the post-pandemic world, more and more consumers want to be away from the crowds and avoid the increasingly popular ‘Instagram traps’, giving rise to the “Instagram vs. reality epiphany for many travelers.

Photo by: Polina M. Pompliano

Travel service providers will continue to need content creators to raise awareness and amplify their brand messages.

The key here is to work with those who are, or are willing to become, socially responsible and environmentally conscious influencers in order to shift the narrative and mobilize consumers.

How Asia’s Sustainability-Led Travel Players Can Re-Influence Consumers  

Phase 1: Shift away from only using the 3Rs of influence 

Many marketers (the author's former corporate self included) will almost certainly advise brands to use the popular 3Rs influencer engagement strategy. In the nutshell, the 3 Rs are: 

• Reach: how many followers the influencer has, how many people one piece of content reaches

• Relevance: whether the influencer’s visuals match the brand’s identity, and has done activities that align / conflict with the brand’s value

• Resonance: Number of engagement the influencer can create with an audience relevant to your brand.

This matrix makes sense if you’re only focusing on increasing awareness and traffic to websites. But those Instagrammable pictures and reels may earn likes and views (many times by bots).

But all this is only one part of consumer engagement. 

What converts to a booking is trust. That is gained through user-generated content and other forms of authentic storytelling including word of mouth. 

The HBO documentary Fake Famous exposes the dark secrets of the number-obsessed competition on social media. It explores the journey and outcomes of three individuals’ attempts to become famous influencers by purchasing fake followers and an army of bots.

Phase 2: Add value to your brand with a 3Ps holistic influencer approach.

If you’re a sustainability-led brand that centers your businesses on the 3Ps (people, planet, prosperity) triple bottom line, your influencer engagement strategy should balance all these 3 factors.

To build greater trust with end consumers and amplify the impact of sustainable travel through influencer marketing, it all begins with identifying those content creators who have a genuine interest in and have advocated for sustainable travel in Asia. 

SELECTION:  Expand your ‘relevance’ definition with an out-of-the-box influencer selection strategy. 

It would be powerful to include climate advocates, community builders, and social activists in your influencer outreach. This will in turn connect your brand to their communities who would appreciate your brand. 

For example, Intrepid Travel’s Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion framework outlines the steps to increase BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, people of color) influencers.

COLLABORATION: Deepen influencer engagement with repeat visits and impact-led activities.

It makes sense for brands to invite different press and influencers for different trips to broaden their audience demographics. However, it is worth considering the idea of hosting repeat visits for influencers to provide a continuous narrative of the brand story. 

Secondly, your press and influencer trip itinerary should reflect a brand’s value. For example, Make it Malmö by Malmö Tourism is a campaign idea that promotes flight-free travel with social media influencers. Malmö Tourism would invite social media influencers and cover all their costs in exchange for publicity on social media.

EVALUATION & MEASURING

Prosperity - Economic Impact: 

The common starting point is to track how much website traffic, the number of bookings and the revenues an influencer trip creates for your business. 

It is also important to understand how much exposure that surrounding local businesses have received from an influencer trip, and whether it has helped bring in any revenues. 

People - Social & Cultural Impact: 

It is important to measure the influencer's ability to facilitate a social connection between your brand and a wider audience that includes underserved demographics, and foster cultural preservation such as traditions and heritage of visited communities. 

Intrepid Travel’s Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion framework guidelines increase the involvement of BIPOC, LGBTQIA+, and plus-size influencers in their content creation process to reach and inspire the communities that these influencers represent. 

Planet - Environmental Impact:

Measures the influencer's ability to promote sustainable travel practices that minimize the environmental impact of travel. This includes metrics such as carbon emissions, waste reduction, and resource conservation. 

A recent article by TravelFish’s Founder Stuart McDonald reveals the realities of carbon emissions associated with travel. This could serve as a great reference on how brands could work with influencers to track, share, and educate consumers on making low-carbon travel. 

TL:DR

• ‘De-influencing’ is about getting people to stop consumption. In the tourism context, it would stop visiting and traveling.

• It may be attempting to ask people to do so to avoid over-tourism, but Asia’s travel businesses were greatly impacted by the Covid-19 pandemic.

• Asia’s travel sector needs ‘re-influencing’ to encourage people to travel off the beaten track and visit underserved areas.

• Travel businesses should move away from conventional influencer engagement strategies and adopt a holistic approach.

• Selecting non-obvious influencers such as community builders and climate advocates can help connect with new audiences.

• Collaboration ideas must help deepen engagement and reflect the values that a brand leads by.

• Evaluating and measuring success must include social and environmental impacts in addition to commercial gains.

Interested in receiving more stories like above? Subscribe to Asia Sustainable Travel Briefing and be among the first to receive agenda-setting analysis and advice in your inbox.