S6/E14 TourRadar’s Social Playbook: How to Turn Followers into Bookings with Travis Pittman, CEO

Travel Trends - TourRadar - Travis Pittman

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The way travelers discover and book multi-day adventures is shifting fast, and TourRadar is leaning all the way in. In this “Captains of Industry,” episode, TourRadar co-founder and CEO Travis Pittman breaks down how a $200B category is rewriting its playbook around creators, mobile, and practical AI to turn social inspiration into real, bookable demand. From a new social commerce layer that links traveler reels directly to itineraries, to a mobile app already driving meaningful high-ticket transactions, Travis shares what’s working now and what’s still just hype.

We start with the hardest challenge in travel today: customer acquisition. With AI overviews reshaping search and SEO volatility hitting nearly every brand, the old playbook simply doesn’t hold. Travis explains how TourRadar diversified demand by investing in micro- and nano-creators, building an ambassador program that pays on value, and focusing on content that feels native to the trip. The hook isn’t a hotel shot—it’s the Serengeti moment, the river crossing, the sunrise market—and it’s now just one tap away from a bookable tour.

Behind the scenes, AI is doing real, measurable work. TourRadar’s chatbot resolves 80% of inbound chats thanks to clear guardrails and training data drawn from millions of past conversations. That backbone powers better FAQs, itinerary recommendations based on traveler patterns, and the infrastructure that agentic systems need: structured content, live availability, and payments that make LLM-driven planning truly actionable. We also explore why mobile matters for high-consideration trips, how B2B agents fit into the omnichannel model, and what it means to optimize for LLMs the way we once optimized for search engines.

If you’re interested in the future of multi-day travel, social commerce, or AI that actually drives performance, this episode offers a roadmap from creator partnerships to algorithmic distribution to the booking rails that tie it all together.

For more information, visit TourRadar.com.

👉 Listen to TourRadar’s Social Playbook: How to Turn Followers into Bookings Now

🔥 Special Thanks to our Season 6 Title Sponsors for their Support: Holafly, Propellic, PayCompass, Kaptio, Civitatis and WeRoad

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