Travel Advisor Marketing: How to Battle the Failing Attention Span Today

How shrinking attention spans and short-form video are forcing travel marketers to rethink everything

 

Written By: Tom Ogg, Co-Founder and Co-Owner – Travel Professional NEWS

 

We’ve been marketing on YouTube and other video channels for years with great success. Our channels host hundreds of training webinars that agents still use, proving that some content ages like fine wine rather than milk left in a hot car.

 

However, most travel videos I stumble across are older long-form productions, ship reviews, resort walkthroughs, attraction tours and they’re all remarkably similar. Picture this: enthusiastic folks wielding selfie sticks like medieval jousting lances, wandering around with cell phones, narrating their adventures with all the polish of a first-time karaoke singer. The audio? A delightful cocktail of howling wind, random strangers yelling, PA system announcements in three languages, and enough “umms,” “ahhs,” “uhhs,” and “likes” to make a drinking game dangerous.

 

Then TikTok happened. Instagram Reels arrived. YouTube introduced Shorts. Suddenly, the entire game changed, and those long-form videos started looking as outdated as a fanny pack at Fashion Week. (Though let’s be honest, fanny packs made a comeback, so there’s hope for everything.)

 

The Great Attention Span Collapse of 2024

 

 

Today, when I search YouTube and encounter those rambling long-form videos, I bail faster than passengers during a cruise ship safety drill. YouTube Shorts are always offered for my keywords, and I choose short-form over long-form every single time, like choosing an escalator over climbing never ending stairs.

 

Traditional video marketers in the travel industry are now experiencing what I call an “Oh crap” moment. The numbers don’t lie (unlike that photo you posted from “the Maldives” that was actually your cousin’s pool): short-form video content generates 2.5 times more engagement than traditional long-form video, and users are 1.5 times more likely to make a purchase after watching short clips versus longer content.

 

For travel advisors, understanding this shift matters because it’s changing where your clients look for inspiration and how suppliers are throwing their marketing dollars around. Major hotel chains and tour operators who once invested heavily in sweeping cinematic destination videos, you know, the ones with drone footage set to inspirational piano music, are now redirecting resources toward churning out dozens of 15-to-60-second clips. Carnival Cruise Line recently reported that their short-form content drove three times more bookings than their traditional video campaigns. Three times! That’s not a typo; that’s a revolution wearing a life jacket.

 

The Compression Challenge (Or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Edit)

 

 

The challenge for traditional marketers has been brutal: condense what used to require three minutes into thirty seconds while maintaining authenticity and storytelling power. It’s like trying to explain “Inception” in an elevator pitch, technically possible, but someone’s going to be confused.

 

Many have struggled with this compression, initially treating short-form as simply chopped-up versions of longer content. This approach fails more spectacularly than a cruise ship comedian at a funeral. The platforms reward native content that feels spontaneous, unpolished, and genuine rather than overly produced. Ironically, making something look effortless requires tremendous effort, kind of like those “I woke up like this” photos that required forty-seven takes and three filter apps.

 

Smart marketers aren’t abandoning long-form entirely; they’re using short-form for discovery and awareness while reserving traditional video for deeper engagement and conversion once interest is captured. Think of short clips as the handshake and longer content as the conversation that follows, or as I like to say, short-form is the appetizer, long-form is the five-course meal you only commit to after you’re already hooked.

 

Your Clients Are Scrolling While You’re Still Loading

 

 

For travel agents, this evolution creates both opportunity and obligation. Your clients are increasingly discovering destinations through these bite-sized videos, often from influencers rather than traditional suppliers. (Yes, that 22-year-old with perfect skin and a suspiciously unlimited travel budget is now more influential than a brochure. Welcome to the future. It’s weird here.)

 

Understanding this landscape, knowing which creators your clients follow, what platforms they use, and how short-form content shapes their expectations, is becoming essential to staying relevant in the conversation. Otherwise, you’re the travel equivalent of someone still using a flip phone and wondering why nobody texts back.

 

The travel marketers who are thriving aren’t fighting the short-form revolution. They’re embracing it while remembering that whether the video is fifteen seconds or fifteen minutes, the fundamental goal remains unchanged: inspire someone to go somewhere they’ve never been. (Preferably somewhere you can earn a commission.)

 

5 Important Elements of a Short-Form Video (Brought to You by Cali, Our Surprisingly Media-Savvy St. Bernard)

 

 

We were watching TV and flipping channels when we hit a program like “Cops.” There was a police dog getting ready to attack a criminal, growling, barking, and otherwise creating a symphony of chaos. Cali, our St. Bernard, launched herself off the couch like a furry missile, ran to the TV, and stood on her back legs to investigate. She watched with the intense focus usually reserved for squirrels and dropped food. I thought to myself, “What if we could create ads that had that level of engagement?” Granted, our target audience hopefully doesn’t include attacking criminals, but the engagement principle stands.

 

The First 1 to 3 Seconds are Critical: If you can’t hook the viewer within the first three seconds, they’ll scroll past you faster than you can say “like and subscribe.” And they definitely won’t think twice about it. Get creative and immediately grab them. Think less “gentle introduction” and more “surprise party in video form.”

 

Have a Clear and Concise Message: Your initial hook must align with your video’s precise message. Don’t bait and switch, that’s for fishing, not marketing. Reduce your message down to one specific, crystal-clear thought. If you can’t explain it to a St. Bernard, it’s too complicated.

 

Get to the Point!: It astounds me that many so-called “Short Form Video Experts” include lengthy intros, desperate pleas for likes and shares, follow requests, and more promotional fluff than a Black Friday mattress sale. Nothing will kill engagement faster than this nonsense, especially if you plop your long-form bumper intro onto a short video. People engaged with your content for what you promised, not for a ted talk on why they should subscribe. In as few words as possible, make your point as quickly and completely as possible. Imagine you’re explaining something to someone who’s about to sneeze, you’ve got seconds.

 

Be Authentic: Authentic emotion and movement work together to create short-form videos that feel alive and compelling, not like a hostage reading a script written by a corporate committee. The key is letting genuine reactions drive your physical presence. If you’re excited, let that energy explode through animated gestures and quick movements; if you’re delivering something heartfelt, slow down and use subtle, deliberate motions that draw viewers in. Avoid stiff, scripted delivery by speaking as you would to a friend, you know, like a human being having an actual conversation. Allow natural pauses, facial expressions, and body language to punctuate your points. If you look like a news anchor who swallowed a broomstick, you’re doing it wrong.

 

Have a Compelling Call-to-Action: You’ve captured your viewer’s attention, delivered a clear and concise message, and immediately gotten to the point in an authentic and emotional environment. Don’t ruin it now by morphing into a used car salesman at the finish line. Your call to action should flow naturally and feel authentically helpful, like a friend offering directions, not a pushy timeshare pitch in Cancun. The optimum CTA offers the viewer the next logical step to obtain more information should they want to pursue it with no urging, no pressure, no desperation. Think helpful suggestion, not hard sell. If your CTA sounds like it needs an exclamation point and three fire emojis, dial it back about forty percent.

 

Another Hot Tip: Using a popular or trending sound in your short-form videos and reels can significantly boost your reach. Platforms like Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube often push content that uses trending audio, helping your video get discovered by more people, even beyond your current followers.

 

Remember: In the attention economy, you’re competing with cat videos, celebrity gossip, cooking videos and the AI videos of sharks chasing massive tuna aboard fishing boats. Choose your battles wisely, keep it short, and may your engagement rates be ever in your favor.