“I saw it on TikTok”: words spoken countless times a day, often to be met with disapproving, rolling eyes. The ground-breaking social media platform may not be the most reliable source for news or politics, but when it comes to travel, you may want to rethink any assumptions. At 20 years old, I still have much to learn about travelling and even more of the world left to explore – but as a budding travel writer and Traveller’s summer intern, I can confidently speak on TikTok.
As part of the generation dubbed ‘digital natives’, I’ve grown up in a world where any destination is just a few clicks away, and now TikTok is elevating my – and my peers' – holiday-planning game. It’s not just me using the tech giant for travel either. TikTok recently reported that 71 per cent of its European users were booking holidays using recommendations from the platform.
Experienced Gen Z traveller Abena, who has an impressive 230K following on her TikTok account @travellingtuesdays , can vouch for the app too. “TikTok is where I can find recommendations that I wouldn’t necessarily discover through Google,” Abena explains. “It has actually helped me go off the beaten path and avoid crowds.
” Gone are the days of planning holidays based on blurry pictures and unverified reviews. Instead, you can find concise insider tips, itineraries formed for every occasion and immersive videos that make you feel as though you've already arrived at your destination. The catch? You nee.