Community and Commerce: How We’re Creating Travel’s Next Billion-Dollar Engine

Travel never stands still. From the rise of OTAs to the mobile-first era, every few years we find ourselves reinventing how people explore the world. Now, we’re standing at the next threshold: social commerce.

Valued at $1.2 trillion in 2025, this shift is reshaping how we inspire, connect and convert. Stories, scrolls, and creators are no longer just marketing; they are the front door to travel discovery, and the engine driving this change.

And this impact is massive. For brands, the emergence of this channel is a new way of how demand is created and fulfilled. The future of travel is indeed social. The question is: are we, as an industry, moving fast enough to keep up?

Rise of the Scroll Effect 

For decades, the path to booking a trip was linear. We flipped through guidebooks, searched online, compared prices, and finally hit “book.” That model is long gone.

Today, travel is being discovered, dreamed, and booked all within the infinite scroll of a social feed. I call this the scroll effect. It’s where social media doesn’t just spark inspiration at the start of the customer journey; it is the entire journey in one continuous loop.

We see this shift clearly at Klook. Four in five Gen Z and millennial travelers have booked a travel activity based on a social media recommendation. What used to be discovery has become direct commerce, shifting travel from a considered purchase to an impulse conversion, and it’s happening at the speed of a swipe.

Social media has evolved beyond mere content creation into having real influence. When "BookTok" can determine the next literary bestseller, and a short-form video can turn a destination into a travel hotspot, social commerce is not just a phase but here to stay.

Travel discovery is now a living, breathing ecosystem of influence and intent, and it’s crucial for us to move beyond traditional marketing to ride on this shift.

From Storytellers to Sellers

Our work with content creators is not new. It started simply as a way to share the beauty of travel through authentic stories. But in recent years, that definition has changed dramatically. Travelers now crave content that feels real, relatable, and accessible. It’s quickly clear that content creators aren’t just storytellers, they’ve become the new travel agents of this generation.

With social media dominating travel bookings, who can successfully bridge the gap from inspiration to action? That rift led us to launch the Klook Kreator Program. It goes beyond a social media marketing initiative; it’s a new growth engine for social and travel. With a community of over 28,000 creators across 87 cities worldwide, we’re creating a movement that turns inspiration into real-world bookings.

But as this ecosystem grows, a deeper question emerges: where does authenticity end and commerce begin?

Balancing Community and Commerce

The power of social commerce lies in its authenticity. The future isn’t about ads interrupting your scroll, it’s about your scroll becoming the ad, the itinerary, and the inspiration all at once. When content and commerce merge seamlessly, everyone wins: our Kreators earn, travelers discover, and we grow. But when that balance tips too far toward commercialisation, trust can become fragile.

If content creators see platforms only as short-term monetization tools, we risk building a marketplace instead of a real community. And a marketplace alone can’t build loyalty or longevity. It’s a dilemma on how we can power this change, while not letting it consume us.

That’s a balance we must find and protect. At the heart of this transformation lies one principle I hold close: community is our growth engine. The magic happens beyond algorithms; through people who share their genuine experiences, and inspire their audience wanting to live those stories for themselves.

Building for Longevity

We’ve proven that content can sell, and now we must prove it can sustain. A real community isn’t built top-down; it grows from the ground up when people are empowered to own their stories and impact. That’s why we’re focused on equipping our Kreators to turn inspiration into income, while keeping authenticity at the heart.

Our approach centers on three pillars:

• Kreator-led learning such as mentor programs, skill-sharing and feedback loops that lets the community grow together.
• Curation via products like Kreator Shops with personalised, social-first storefronts allowing our Kreators to sell the products they feature directly within their social platforms.
• Access to our hundreds and thousands of experiences, including first dibs and exclusive previews.

The principle is simple: design for emotion as much as efficiency. It’s how we empower our community of Kreators to thrive, and ensuring that our engine doesn’t just drive bookings, it sustains inspiration.

The Hard Truth: The Ecosystem Isn’t Moving Fast Enough

And it’s not a perfect ecosystem just yet. The reality is that while travelers have rapidly moved ahead, many suppliers i.e. tour operators, activity providers, and local experience owners, have not fully caught up. Too many are still optimizing for today’s sales instead of building for tomorrow’s traveler.

That gap creates friction. When a Kreator’s video generates a surge of demand, the supply must be able to absorb it immediately. If the ecosystem cannot satiate this demand, the conversion fails. And that’s where opportunity is being left on the table.

As an industry, we need to connect discovery and fulfilment seamlessly. Inspiration is always found in things to do, and we need to ensure these experiences are available and can be booked seamlessly. It’s about embracing change in the right direction: curating shareable experiences, investing in creator-driven storytelling, and staying relevant in a social-led era.

The Future of Travel Is Social, But It Must Remain Human

Ultimately, this movement goes beyond commercials. Social commerce doesn’t just drive transactions; it reshapes how people experience travel itself. But as we build faster systems and smarter tools, we can’t lose sight of what makes travel magical: connection, curiosity, and community.

The future of travel belongs to the creators, and it’s bright. But for that future to thrive, the rest of the ecosystem must continually evolve alongside them. When we do, we won’t just be driving bookings, we’ll be redefining how the world discovers and experiences travel together.