In the age of ‘Euro Summer’, travel is a narrative—not a funnel

Every winter my Instagram feed turns into a European passport. Aperol clinks in Amalfi, there’s rosé all day in Santorini, and sails billow at sunset off the Croatian coast.

What once looked like casual holiday snaps now resemble full-blown editorial shoots—depending on the friend, anything from Vogue to Monster Children. But behind the curated posts and wanderlust reels lies a shift marketers can’t afford to ignore: today’s travellers are turning every trip into a personal narrative.

For marketers in travel—and adjacent lifestyle categories like fashion, beauty, and wellness—it’s a reminder that the most effective campaigns now feel less like marketing and more like discovery. That shift is not only disrupting the traditional funnel, but also forcing a fundamental rethink of how and where marketing budgets are spent.

In short, marketing as we know it is undergoing a reckoning.

The funnel is dead—consumers killed it

The trillion-dollar ad industry has long been built on a simple logic: spend more, shout louder, convert faster. But that mode is collapsing under its own weight. Customer acquisition costs have surged more than 200% in the past decade, and digital channels like paid social and display have become bloated, crowded, and easy to ignore. And that was before Generative AI threw a bigger spanner in the works, leading to Google’s overall share of web searches falling below 90 per cent for the first time in a decade.

Attention and trust have shifted elsewhere. Consumers no longer discover brands in linear funnels—they find them in loops, side quests, or because someone they follow just tagged them in a “hidden gem” post. It’s something that Unilever clearly understands given their recent (and massive) budget pivot to influencer marketing, with a stretch goal of having at least one influencer ‘in every zip code on the planet’

Trust is the new currency

This shift in trust was plain to see in a recent research study with Digital Travel Insights with over 100 senior marketing leaders across Southeast Asia, and over 1,200 active travelers in Australia, Singapore and China. The findings were striking. Paid advertising was the least trusted, with travellers tuning into real people—friends, influencers, review platforms—for decisions that matter.

For brands, this means social proof has shifted from being a nice-to-have to a critical signal that cuts through the noise.

It’s something entrepreneur Naomi Simson recently observed about the “experience ecosystem” when reflecting on her RedBalloon journey when she noted.  “We weren’t just creating a marketplace—we were connecting thousands of small experience providers with customers who wanted memories, not things.” The businesses that thrive today are those that collaborate. Tour operators who recommend the best local café. Hotels that partner with creators for behind-the-scenes content. As she concludes, “There is power in partnership”.

Brands need to catch up

Despite all this, and despite companies like Unilever beginning to significantly expand its investment, currently only 2% of global performance marketing budgets are currently allocated to partnerships—an umbrella that includes affiliates, creators, ambassadors and loyalty platforms. That’s a colossal gap. Especially when we know that partner-led marketing delivers not just efficiency, but longevity: lower acquisition costs, higher lifetime value, and stronger brand equity.

Partnership marketing also gives brands a unique advantage, especially with a category like travel where the content is immersive, emotional and visual. And, of course, it’s inherently social. The “TikTok Tourism” effect can transform a destination overnight. This was certainly the case for Sydney’s De Plessy Pralin & Otello Chocolates Patisserie earlier this year after a Chinese content creator posted a video on Douyin (Chinese TikTok) about meeting a woman who recommended her favourite patisserie in West Pymble. Soon, the owner reported queues around the corner, production of its ‘Japonaise’ cakes went through the roof and business has boomed ever since.

Helena Barroso Zarco

From audience to ally

If marketers want to be part of these types of moments, it requires a gear change from marketing ‘at’ people, to marketing ‘with’ them. That means stepping into trusted spaces, not with traditional ads, but through meaningful partnerships that prioritise relevance, authenticity and value. We’re seeing this shift happen every day in how brands collaborate with creators, affiliates, brands, publishers, and loyalty platforms to connect with consumers in more contextual and credible ways.

It’s about building influence, intent and trust in a way the traditional funnel never could.

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topics european summer travel marketing

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