How 5 Travel Brands Inspire Dreams With Powerful Storytelling

Exciting destinations. Luxurious accommodations. Friction-free coordination. Memory-making experiences.

For consumers, these are the things travel dreams are made of.

For content marketers, empowering aspiring travelers to realize those dreams is their job.

“Job” is the operative word, as storytelling in this crowded space takes more than associating the brand with a pleasant and purposeful journey. To influence travelers’ choices, marketers must walk the extra mile in their customers’ shoes.

The following brands may share a vertical industry, but they all address the universal challenge of connecting with consumers distinctly. Their work, which earned 2024 Content Marketing Awards, illustrates some best practices marketers can apply.  

Support your partners in business success

One of the largest cities in the United States, Chicago is home to many world-renowned tourist destinations. Business travelers and vacationers likely know its biggest attractions, like the Magnificent Mile and Millennium Park. However, they may not know about its 77 neighborhoods.

Choose Chicago — The 77: A City of Neighborhoods

To position Chicago’s lesser-known communities as premier destinations, the city’s tourism board, Choose Chicago, developed The 77: A City of Neighborhoods.

The centerpiece of this content initiative is a video travel series showcasing five of Chicago’s most culturally and geographically diverse neighborhoods: Uptown, Little Village, Bronzeville, Humboldt Park, and Pullman and Roseland. (A sixth neighborhood, La Villita, was added later.)  

Each episode dives into a neighborhood’s culture and history through personal stories shared by residents and small-business owners. But the series doesn’t shy away from addressing contemporary challenges. For example, the segment focused on Uptown (above) notes its history as a refuge for immigrants and LGBTQ+ communities, pointing out the impact of this cross-cultural enclave’s popularity — a shortage of affordable housing and ongoing gentrification.

Of course, awareness is only half the battle, so Choose Chicago directly supported the neighborhood businesses and their owners. Several content creators from its ongoing resident influencer program interviewed the business owners, and over half of the initiative’s production budget went to women and minority-owned contractors. Some of the spotlighted businesses catered a red-carpet premiere screening of the docuseries. Choose Chicago also hosted screenings in each featured community.

The 77: A City of Neighborhoods won the Best in Travel and Tourism category at the 2024 Content Marketing Awards.

Take consumers inside your distinctive offerings

Cruises are ideal for travelers looking to explore multiple destinations while having all their needs catered to along the journey. Highlighting what it takes to make every customer feel at home while away can help create a distinct experience — and increase affinity for the brand delivering it.

Norwegian Cruise Lines — Embark

Travelers often want a lot of information to help them choose the best cruise line operator and ship offering for their interests. But poring through detailed booking brochures is tedious and doesn’t always make for easy distinctions.

With its EMBARK With NCL travelogue series, Norwegian Cruise Lines sets itself apart by giving cruisers a uniquely appealing and insightful brand experience before they set sail.

EMBARK takes audiences on an all-access tour of NCL’s Guest F1rst Experience, including the meticulously planned operational details executed for each cruise to be successful. It tells stories about the people who work below deck, and satisfied passengers provide testimonials.

EMBARK vividly showcases the brand’s breathtaking destinations and signature experiences. For example, in the video above, host Zay Harding takes viewers on a tour of Hawaii’s coffee and cacao farms and a quick hula lesson. Afterward, he hits the island of Kaua’i to catch some waves and rides a UTV across its lush mountainous terrain.

But the wind really hits the sails when the series brings viewers back on board for glimpses into the lives of crew members. In the video above, Zay also talks with general manager Kai Turuneu about why he’s worked at NCL for over 16 years.

The EMBARK campaign was a finalist in the Best Travel and Tourism category in this year’s Content Marketing Awards.  

Enable equitable enjoyment

Traveling can broaden horizons and shift perspectives. But for people with disabilities, it can also present unexpected obstacles that prevent them from accessing attractions or taking full advantage of the amenities.

No matter whether you work in a tourism business or another industry, creating detailed guides, checklists, and assessments can go a long way toward earning consumers’ trust, appreciation, and booked business.

Visit Lauderdale — Wheel the World

Florida might not leap to mind as a beacon of inclusivity. However, Visit Lauderdale aims to change that by highlighting Greater Fort Lauderdale as an accessible destination for travelers with disabilities.

For its Wheel the World content initiative, Visit Lauderdale partnered with Aqua Marketing and Communications to conduct detailed accessibility assessments of 70 hotels, restaurants, and attractions.

The verified details were compiled into a comprehensive online guide and shared via a co-branded website featuring blog posts, FAQs, travel tips, and e-learning training. A series of sizzle reels and social media videos bolstered the campaign’s reach.

For example, the video above shows travelers enjoying wheelchair-friendly activities like feeding the birds at Flamingo Gardens, touring the Florida Everglades in an airboat, and cruising the Jungle Queen Riverboat.

By showcasing Fort Lauderdale’s inclusive nature through compelling storytelling and detailed guidance, the campaign reinforced the area’s reputation as a welcoming place for all travelers. It enabled consumers to choose suitable activities and accommodations with greater confidence.

The extra effort taken by Visit Lauderdale to support specialized needs also proved it worthy of recognition as a finalist for Best Use of Social Media in the Content Marketing Awards.

Show off big benefits in smaller packages

Summer may be the high season for extended vacations. But with the right content, travel brands can tempt consumers into taking shorter but equally appealing trips at any time of year.

Connecticut Office of Tourism — Find Your Vibe

Though Connecticut offers the same quaint charm and multi-seasonal activities as other New England states, it’s known more for its wealthy suburban neighborhoods and traffic-filled roads on the way to more exciting destinations.

However, this compact state has many more traveler-friendly offerings than meets the eye, even if the same can’t be said about its tourism budget. So, the Connecticut Office of Tourism partnered with marketing agency Adams & Knight to emphasize the former while working within the confines of the latter.

It resulted in Find Your Vibe, a series of articles, directories, and short videos built around a central message: Connecticut’s compact geography means visitors can pack a lot of leisure activities into a quick getaway any time of year.

For example, a video highlighting autumn fun (above) previews outdoor activities like hiking with llamas and horseback riding, plus opportunities to shop at local boutiques, attend arts performances, and visit animals at the state’s aquarium and zoo.

Find Your Vibe is also part of a larger initiative — CTVisit — that includes a dynamic content hub and weekly broadcast programs in partnership with news stations in Connecticut’s tri-state area. It enables the tourism board to promote many more experiences and businesses and continually update locals and vacationers alike on new experiences they can explore in the upcoming season.

The effort has helped support tourism in Connecticut and achieved finalist status in the Travel and Tourism category at the Content Marketing Awards.

Serve up a gen-ex(perience) to connect with youthful audiences

Younger-generation consumers can have vastly different expectations than their older or family-focused counterparts. For them, “catching a tour” is likely more about music than museums.  

Content gets and stays on their radar when it fuels their interest in immersive experiences and makes personal connections to their passions.

Marriott Bonvoy — The Road to Beautiful with Rolling Stone

Marriott Bonvoy wanted to enhance the perception of its portfolio among next-generation experience seekers. The brand found the perfect opportunity in a partnership with Rolling Stone — the magazine with a storied history for engaging young music lovers and festival goers.

In advance of the Life is Beautiful festival in Las Vegas in 2023, Rolling Stone and Marriott Bonvoy teamed up to join three of the festival’s performers on their tours and created The Road to Beautiful, a series of up-close interviews captured at Marriott properties reflecting each artist’s unique style.

The interviews were shared through articles and photos published on Rolling Stone and in short clips posted on YouTube and TikTok. But the conversations go deeper than the average band promotion by digging into the personal connections these artists feel for the interview setting.

For example, in a clip filmed at The Blackstone hotel in Chicago (above), the members of musical collective Franc Moody check out a local music store, talk to local DJs, and discuss how the city’s eclectic musical influences inspired their signature sound.

The Road to Beautiful also led to an additional achievement for Marriott International: being named a Content Marketing Award finalist for Best Use of Native Advertising/Sponsored Content.

Reach for the skies

These brands show the power of storytelling in all formats, from behind the scenes to deep immersions. No matter what consumers want to achieve through travel, your brand’s robust content efforts can connect them to their passions, ease the path to experiencing them, and inspire them to bring your brand along for the ride.

Let us know on social with #CMWorld if these efforts have sparked new content ideas to help your business reach its desired marketing destinations.

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Cover image by Joseph Kalinowski/Content Marketing Institute