Women are leading the social media landscape and nowhere is that more evident than as travel influencers on Instagram.
This inspiring group of women has amassed a huge following while traversing the globe, capturing aspirational images and broadcasting to a captive audience of millennials and generation Z.
Their creative platforms which blend fashion, art, and hospitality services have the potential to upend the travel industry’s branding and marketing strategies as we know them – making these women all the more magnetizing, not only to their followers looking for ideas for their next getaway, but also to travel giants in hotel, airline, and automobile industries that want to remain relevant to millennials.
Top social media influencers, such as these travelistas, are having major success in partnering with brands looking to add novel engagement and excitement for their audiences. Here are our top picks for 2017.
1. Aureta Thomollari @aureta is a creative powerhouse and her frequent and extensive travels are filtered through avant-garde fashion, contemporary art, and push the limits visually. Her unique POV is absolutely fabulous, glamorous, and style-centric, interspersed with creative and visually arresting content that flows through the digital veins of Instagram.
2. Tessa Barton @tazzamb, based in New York City, is a fashion, food, and travel guru. Her creative content feels like you are literally listening to the music which is her life and having a badass time whether it be on the familiar streets of NYC or off to some far-flung jaunt you can’t take your eyes off OF.
3. Tara Whiteman @taramilktea Sydney based Singaporean-Austrialian has amassed over 800K followers with her eye on food, airlines, and hotels. She has been on the travel influencer scene partnering successfully with brands such as Cathay Pacific, using her camera and blog to promote brands to a global audience.
4. Jessica Nabongo, @thecatchmeifyoucan, is Detroit based with over 90 countries visited on six continents. She is also an entrepreneur of @globaljetblack – a boutique travel firm organizing individual and group trips throughout the African diaspora. Her final Jet Black Jaunts are Grenada, Haiti, South Africa, Cuba, Brazil, Colombia, and Senegal, which currently have availability.
5. Lauren Bullen, hailing from Northern Australian with over 1.9million followers, is currently deep in the South Pacific on the island of Aitutaki, sticking to her motto of getting “wander-fully lost.” She is an ultra travel influencer that generates evocative and viral content that suggests getting wander-fully lost is not such a bad idea after all.
6. Noor de Groot @queenofjetlags covers much of the globe, based out of Amsterdam, and is the self proclaimed #queenofjetlags. You can spot her at any number of airports thinking to yourself, “just who IS that girl?” as she blazes through effortlessly onto her next adventure in style.
7. Andrea Chong @dreachong is Singapore based, focusing exclusively on fashion and travel. Her clientele is so long it has to be alphabetized! There is no stopping this travelista power house.
8. Rocky Barnes @rocky_barnes is a model, fashionista, and brand ambassador for AmEx and MAC. Her amassed following of over a million followers has her positioned well to share her editorial-like content to her global audience.
9. Aimee Song @songofstyle has over 4.6 million followers that rely on her go-to style vlog for daily inspiration. Her focus on beauty, fashion, travel, and interior design has made her insta-famous and a New York Times Best Selling Author of Capture Your Style.
