Latest travel trend: How Instagram influencers are becoming the preferred companions for offline adventures

An Instagram post popped up on Tapasya Sharma’s feed in June: “Travel with me to South Korea.”

A week later, the Delhi-based entrepreneur committed to spending 10 days in Seoul with complete strangers. Within two months, she was donning the traditional Korean dress, hanbok, and travelling to the locations of the latest Korean series, Lovely Runner. Sharma, 35, was surrounded by seven women she had never met before, bound by a shared love for K-dramas.

Welcome to travel’s latest trend. Strangers, rounded up by Instagram influencers, are the preferred companions for offline adventures. In the Philippines, they dive with sharks, and marine enthusiasts they had never met before. They drive through the arid landscapes of Bardenas Reales in Spain and ring in Thailand’s New Year, Songkran. The old group tour has evolved into a growing movement where social media connections turn into real-world companions, and travel content creators become the new tour guides.

“I’m at a stage in life where I earn well and have a stable personal life, and I want to experience as much as I can before I grow older,” says Sharma, about choosing to travel with strangers rather than wait for friends to match their schedules. Her decision points to a shift among professionals aged between 25 and 35 years.

And it is something Cherry Jain, a 30-year-old lifestyle and travel creator with about 229,000 Instagram followers, has recognised. “Many young women are eager to travel, but they often find themselves searching for a travel buddy. Their friends aren’t on the same page or just don’t say yes to a trip. A lot of people can do it individually, but it takes so much time to plan,” says Delhi-based Jain, who started organising girls-only tours this year. She has taken women, including Sharma, to South Korea, Europe and Turkiye.

SOCIAL VOYAGES
Travel influencers are curating trips independently or collaborating with agencies for a commission, aiming to take the community travel experience to the next level.

Mohnish Doultani wants to build a community of travellers out of his 291,000 Insta followers. He organised a trip to the Songkran festival for nearly 20 people. “The festival is wild. Imagine Holi without the colours, but with way more parties and an entire city with water guns,” he says. “Many Indians aren’t even aware of Songkran, and no one was organising such trips. That’s where I came in.”


Doultani says his approach to travel differs from the hectic itineraries of travel agencies, which could be the draw for young travellers. “We travel differently. We slow travel and immerse ourselves in a place rather than hop between touristy spots on a packed schedule.” His Thailand trip expanded to include the halfmoon party on Koh Phangan Island and beaches in Phuket.

Adnan Shaikh, a 29-year-old from Mumbai, says he wanted to travel but found it hard to find companions as his friends had drifted to different cities after college. “The usual travel packages felt like a sprint,” says Shaikh, who went to Himachal through Pink Experiences, an Insta page on travel by Vanika Sangtani. At Rs 15,000, he says, the trip offered something the expensive, over-scheduled tours couldn’t: “A vacation that actually felt like a vacation.”

Travel curation isn’t limited to influencers with a huge following. Saakshi Jain, a 31-yearold digital marketing professional with 9,000 Instagram followers, is collaborating with Barcelona-based Kulgana Travels and offering a 10-day trip through Northern Spain’s lesser-known treasures for Indians—the semi-desert region of Bardenas Reales in Navarre and the Basque Country. “It took us three months to create a unique itinerary,” says Jain.

“People are craving real-life experiences as they delay marriage and enjoy a rising disposable income,” says Gayatri Sapru, founder of Folk.

Frequency, a Mumbai-based cultural strategy consultancy for new-age brands and businesses. The trend is particularly significant among women, who are now leading India’s solo travel movement, she adds.

“People are also more comfortable trusting internet strangers than they used to be,” says Sapru, pointing to a shift in how young Indians look at travel and trust.

Social media-driven travel revolution is not limited to Insta influencer-led trips. Platforms like Threads and Facebook are bustling with strangers banding together to create their own adventures, bypassing traditional agencies.

“For some, it is about cutting costs. For others, it’s the thrill of trying something new after exhausting traditional travel formats,” says content creator Vanika Sangtani, who has 426,000 followers on Instagram and curates trips through her community page Pink Experiences.


Leading travel content creators on Instagram are taking it a step further by launching their own travel companies. Brinda Sharma, who has 1.2 million followers on Instagram, cofounded the travel company Keego a year ago, while Anunay Sood, who has 1.1 million Instagram followers, got on board as one of the cofounders of The Nomadic Trails, a company specialising in influencer-led travel.

Such moves, says Doultani, hold financial potential for content creators. “If a travel creator can build a business, that’s where real money lies. Doing one trip every few months doesn’t make a significant impact; brands pay far more than that,” he says. Doultani, who is hosting trips, will consider formalising the operation if these become successful.

YOU MAY TRIP, TOO
However, trusting strangers online with one’s travel plans and money can be tricky. Scammers offer phantom tickets and disappear after collecting advance payments. “Online personas can be vastly different from reality,” warns Sangtani, cautioning first-time travellers who might overlook red flags.

“Travelling with strangers might sound adventurous, but it requires careful vetting. There’s no guarantee of safety, compatibility, or shared travel styles,” she says.

Sapru says influencer-led trips are not without issues, as some travellers report mismatched expectations and underwhelming experiences. On Reddit, there is even a thread called, “PSA: Don’t Travel with an Influencer”, which highlights concerns such as exorbitant prices and overemphasis on content creation in curated travel.

TRAVELLERS CLICK
Travellers are taking these trips for various reasons. Some see it as a step toward solo travel, others as a much-needed escape from their daily routines, while many are drawn to the prospect of forming new connections. They rely on the travel creator’s ability to assemble cohesive and like-minded groups for these adventures.

For Tanvi Bhargaw, a 26-year-old UX designer from Nashik, a three-day trip to Goa with strangers, organised by Sangtani, became a gateway to solo travel. “None of us wanted it to end—we all extended our stay. I even met my best friend there,” she recalls. It also led her to solo adventures through Varanasi’s spiritual lanes, Bir’s paragliding heights and Varkala’s serene beaches.

For others, these become personal journeys rather than sightseeing trips. Harshitha Shetty, a 27-year-old project manager from Bengaluru, joined a trip organised by content creator, Ashvini Sihra, who has about 112,000 followers on Instagram. Shetty says she went to Wayanad during a challenging period in her life. The adventure, costing Rs 12,000, became more than just a getaway. Says the self-described introvert: “The trip helped me feel better and motivated me to try new things. Watching people who were active and outspoken made me realise I could change a little, too.”

Sometimes, shared interests or mutual enthusiasm for a destination is not enough. Content creators say they keep group sizes small and often spend time talking to potential travellers to conduct “vibe checks” to ensure compatibility and foster a cohesive group dynamic.

That said, things can end up the wrong way for travel curators. Heena Raheja, a travel and lifestyle creator, who hosted group trips before the pandemic, recalls one in which a few men drank hard and behaved rudely, putting off other participants. “That was tough,” she says. “Eventually, they started bullying me, and I realised the only way to go through the trip was to ignore them and focus on the rest of the group.”

“It is no walk in the park,” agrees Jain, who is sifting through 400 applications and conducting video calls—some stretching two hours— to choose 14 people for the trip to Spain. While Kulgana Travels handles the logistics, her role is to ensure that their band of travellers returns with immersive experiences. These type of collaborations typically offer hosts free travel as well as a commission per participant. The margins on trips sold by creators often range between 20% and 30%.

Tour operators are increasingly partnering with influencers, recognising the connection they share with their followers. Sangtani says, “When you have a person the audience trusts, the conversion is higher and faster. If you are selling through an influencer, the possibility of getting like-minded people increases. This is unlike a travel company, where the travel agent will bring in different kinds of people.”

Abraham Alapatt, president and group head, marketing, Thomas Cook (India) and SOTC Travel, says creators can help travel companies create niche and personalised trips around themes such as wellness, adventure and food, depending on the influencers’ expertise. “Influencers have played a huge role in creating inspiration for travel and travel-related experiences, especially among younger consumers,” says Alapatt.