How To Be A Successful Travel Creator in 2025
My journey as a travel creator started back in 2016. I created this blog to share my travel experiences, tips, and stories, hoping to inspire others to explore more and live boldly. Nearly eight years later, I’ve worked with some of the biggest names in the industry like Expedia, Qatar Airways, and Delta. I’ve built a community of over 200,000 people, and yes, I get paid to travel the world. But more than anything, I’ve built a platform that helps people become more confident and travel-savvy.
One question I get all the time is: “How?”
How do you actually build a successful travel creator brand in 2025?
The truth? It takes strategy, consistency, and heart. And while success looks different for everyone, whether it’s brand deals, press trips, income, growth, or impact, here are the tips that helped me get here.
How to Become a Successful Travel Creator in 2025
1. Find your niche
Don’t be afraid to get specific. Whether it’s solo female travel, sustainable adventures, luxury getaways, or focusing on one region, niching down helps you stand out and build a loyal audience. Trying to speak to everyone will water down your message.
2. Create high-quality content
You don’t need the fanciest gear, but you do need to care about your craft. Learn photography and video editing. Take time to write thoughtful captions or blog posts. Quality makes a difference in a crowded space.
3. Engage your audience
People follow people. Respond to comments, create space for connection like a Facebook group or live sessions, and let your audience feel seen. A strong community sets you apart and makes you more valuable to brands.
4. Promote yourself
You are your own marketing team. Don’t just post and move on. Share your work, pitch yourself, and collaborate with other creators. If you don’t talk about what you do, people may never discover you.
5. Stay passionate
Passion will carry you through the slow seasons. Remind yourself why you started and keep that energy front and center.
6. Be authentic
You don’t have to fake luxury or perfection. Be honest about your experiences and only promote things you believe in. People can tell when it’s real.
7. Stay adaptable
I used to only share photos, until I realized video was the future. So I learned. If you’re not willing to evolve, you risk getting stuck. Don’t chase every trend, but do keep growing.
Making Money as a Travel Creator in 2025
The truth is, you can be a travel creator and not make any money from it at all. It’s a real thing. Making money as a travel creator in 2025 is intentional. It’s a deliberate process that usually requires strategy, effort, and clarity.
As someone who has made over $300,000 as a travel creator, I know exactly what it takes to turn your passion for travel into real income. Here are some of the most common ways travel creators are getting paid today:
1. Brand Partnerships
This is one of the most visible and lucrative income streams. I’ve worked on six-figure campaigns with brands like Expedia and Qatar Airways. But how does it work?
A travel brand or tourism board pays you to promote their destination, product, or service. This could be through an Instagram post, a TikTok, a YouTube video, or even a full multi-platform campaign. These partnerships often come with deliverables, usage rights, and a fee that reflects your reach, engagement, and content quality.
Brand deals have been one of my biggest income sources over the years. But the real key is knowing how to position yourself, how to attract these opportunities, and most importantly, understanding what brands are actually looking for.
If you want a shortcut to finding the right brand deals, I created a guide that shares 90+ travel brands working with creators in 2025. You’ll find the brand names, categories, and pitching tips to help you get started.
👉 [Click here to get it for $37]
2. Press Trips and Sponsored Travel
I’ve worked with over 20 tourism boards including Australia Tourism, Saudi Arabia Tourism, Bermuda, and El Salvador. These are the kinds of partnerships where you’re invited on fully covered trips in exchange for content. In the beginning, these trips are not always paid, but they’re valuable.
They help you build your portfolio, grow your network, and often lead to bigger opportunities down the line. Many of my early trips were unpaid, but now I charge an international rate and a content promotion fee, many of which end up in the five-figure range.
Press trips can be very lucrative. Plus, you get to experience incredible places without paying out of pocket.
If you’re just getting started, this is one of the best ways to build credibility and relationships in the industry.
3. Affiliate Marketing
Affiliate marketing is when you earn a commission every time someone books or buys something using your link. This could be a hotel, a piece of travel gear, or even a digital product.
You can add these links to blog posts, social media captions, YouTube descriptions, or your email newsletter. It’s a great way to create passive income, especially when you’re recommending things you already use and love. Over time, those small commissions add up.
4. Digital Products and Courses
If you’ve got knowledge or experience others can learn from, package it into a digital product. This could be an eBook, a PDF guide, a toolkit, or a full course. It’s one of the most scalable ways to earn money because you’re not trading your time for every dollar.
This blog post you’re reading? It’s an example of how I naturally promote my digital products while still offering value. I teach travel creators how to land brand deals, pitch themselves, and build a standout personal brand. And I do that through resources like the one I mentioned above, as well as my mentorship program.
5. Ad Revenue from YouTube or Blogs
If you have a blog with strong traffic or a YouTube channel with consistent views, you can monetize through ads. It’s not instant money, but over time it becomes a reliable source of income, especially when combined with affiliate links and digital products.
To succeed here, you’ll need to focus on SEO, consistency, and creating content people are already searching for. It’s a long-term play, but it works.
6. Freelance Content Creation
Some creators don’t even post the content on their own pages. Instead, they create reels, videos, or photography packages for brands to use on their channels. If you’re good at storytelling but don’t want to build a personal brand, this is a great income stream.
You can position yourself as a UGC (user-generated content) creator or freelance content creator and land brand gigs, even without a large audience.
Steps to get started as a travel creator
What qualifies you to be a travel creator or blogger? Well, creating travel content. There is no barrier to entry and anyone can become a travel creator. You just need to have a passion for travel, a flair for photography or video, and some good storytelling skills.
- Platform choice. Choose your primary platform where you will be creating content to. Don’t try to do too much simultaneously, or you will burn out and be overwhelmed. It can be a blog, Instagram, Twitter, etc. But choose one platform, master it and then you can expand your platforms.
- Discover your niche and target audience. Who are you creating content for? And don’t say everybody because your content can’t please everyone. Determine who you are creating content for and serve them with valuable content every time.
- Start small: You don’t need to have a substantial following or expensive equipment to start creating travel content. Start by creating a blog or social media account and sharing your travel experiences with a small group of friends and family. As you build your audience and gain confidence, you can expand your content and reach.
- Learn the basics of photography and videography: Learning the basics of photography and videography will help you create high-quality content that stands out. Take a class, watch online tutorials, or read photography and videography books to learn the basics.
- Create a content strategy: Before creating content, it’s important to have a clear content strategy. Decide on your niche, target audience, and goals for your content. This will help you stay focused and consistent as you create and promote your content.
- Start building your network: Building a network of other travel creators, travel industry professionals, and brands is crucial for success as a travel creator. Reach out to other creators, attend travel industry events, and join online groups to start building your network.
Becoming a travel creator isn’t always easy, but it is possible. You don’t need luck. You need clarity, consistency, and courage.
