BRISTOL, TN / ACCESS Newswire / December 10, 2025 / A traveler watches a TikTok video about Santorini. Three weeks later, she books a Greek island vacation. The hotel pays $847 in commissions and fees.
Nobody knows if the TikTok video influenced the booking.
This is travel's $8 billion problem. Companies are doubling their digital ad spend-from $4 billion to nearly $8 billion in just two years-but they can't prove which content actually drives bookings. Travelers consume 303 minutes of travel content across multiple platforms before booking. That's five hours of touchpoints scattered across TikTok, YouTube, Instagram, travel blogs, and streaming platforms, with zero attribution connecting inspiration to transaction.
NextTrip, Inc. (NASDAQ: NTRP) believes it has the solution. While Google and Meta solved attribution for e-commerce, travel remains a black box. The booking happens weeks after the inspiration, often on a different device, through a different channel, making traditional pixel-tracking worthless.
NextTrip's bet is that the company which solves attribution doesn't just win their own bookings-they become the measurement layer for the entire industry.
The Proof That Nobody Can Measure
Expedia Group's "Science of Wanderlust" study-conducted in July 2025 with 7,000 global travelers using eye-tracking and facial scanning technology-proved what the industry suspected: video content influences travel decisions nearly three times more than static images (71% versus 24%).
The study identified exactly what works: long-form videos with transparency (52%), clarity and confidence (46%), and authenticity (45%). Social media dominates influence at 75%, surpassing TV/news (64%) and even family recommendations (47%). On TikTok specifically, 77% of users say the platform influenced their last trip purchase.
But here's the problem: Expedia can tell you video works 3x better, but they can't tell you which specific video drove which booking.
Neither can anyone else.
The average traveler's journey looks like this: discovers destination on TikTok (mobile, logged out), watches a YouTube documentary (laptop, different account), reads blog posts (tablet), checks Instagram for hotel photos (mobile app), then books on an OTA website three weeks later after comparing prices across five different tabs.
Traditional attribution dies at touchpoint two.
Why Google's Attribution Model Fails for Travel
Google's attribution works because the customer journey is compressed. Someone searches "running shoes," clicks an ad, lands on a product page, and buys within minutes. Google tracks the entire flow with cookies and pixels.
Travel doesn't work that way.
The consideration period stretches 45 days on average. Travelers switch devices constantly-inspiration happens on mobile, research on desktop, booking on tablet. They move across walled gardens (TikTok, YouTube, Instagram) where cross-platform tracking is intentionally blocked. Most critically, the emotional decision (where to go) happens days or weeks before the transactional decision (which hotel, which flight).
Traditional last-click attribution gives 100% credit to the booking platform and zero credit to the content that created the desire to travel in the first place.
This creates a market failure. Travel advertisers know video content works-Expedia's study proves it-but they can't justify spending on inspiration-focused content when all the credit goes to the final booking site.
The $8 billion in ad spend flows disproportionately to last-click conversion tactics (retargeting, price comparison, booking incentives) rather than top-of-funnel inspiration, even though 303 minutes of content consumption proves inspiration is where travelers actually spend their time.
NextTrip's Attribution Infrastructure: Connecting 303 Minutes to Booking
NextTrip's approach solves attribution by collapsing the multi-platform journey into a single, measurable ecosystem.
With the pending GoUSA TV acquisition and joint venture with KC Global Media (led by former SONY executives Kaplan and Chien), NextTrip will control a significant library of original and licensed content distributed across major platforms and apps into over 100 countries, reaching approximately 250 million viewers.
But distribution is table stakes. The differentiation is in the attribution layer built into the content itself.
NextTrip's proprietary overlay technology enables interactive elements within video content-QR codes, clickable hotspots, destination-specific booking prompts-that track viewer engagement from first exposure through final booking.
A viewer watching a JOURNY documentary about Morocco sees a QR code. She scans it, lands on a curated itinerary page, browses options, and bookmarks several hotels. Two weeks later, she returns on a different device and completes the booking.
NextTrip's attribution system connects all three touchpoints: the documentary view, the QR scan, and the booking. This creates a closed-loop measurement system that can definitively answer the question traditional attribution can't: which content drove this booking?
Ian Sharpe, NextTrip's Chief Operating Officer of Media, spent 25 years building engagement ecosystems at Atari and EA Sports. He brought gaming's data-driven lifecycle management framework to travel, benchmarking their interactive overlays and QR codes against standard travel newsletters. The result: 4-10x higher engagement when messaging aligns with content context.
The Consumer Friction Problem: Why Travelers Hate the Research Process
Here's what the $8 billion attribution problem actually means for travelers: a fragmented, exhausting research experience that turns the joy of trip planning into work.
You watch a documentary about Morocco and feel inspired. Now you need to figure out which cities to visit, where to stay, how to get there, whether you need a guide, and what the whole thing costs. You open twelve browser tabs. You check TripAdvisor, Booking.com, Expedia, Google Flights, travel blogs, Reddit threads, and Instagram hashtags.
Three hours later, you're more confused than when you started.
The Expedia study revealed something telling about traveler psychology: 64% of travelers have noticed AI-generated travel advertisements, and their response is overwhelmingly negative. Fully AI-generated influencers and landscapes sparked unease, skepticism, and annoyance.
What travelers actually want is authenticity (45%), transparency (52%), and clarity (46%). They want real people sharing real experiences in a way that makes the path from inspiration to booking obvious, not algorithmically generated content pushing them toward price comparison engines.
This disconnect explains why travelers spend 303 minutes consuming content but still struggle to book. The content inspires, but it doesn't guide. It creates desire without providing the bridge to action.
How Attribution Technology Eliminates Consumer Friction
NextTrip's attribution infrastructure isn't just about tracking for marketers-it's about creating a seamless experience for travelers.
The company expects to monetize through conventional and specialty advertising while driving bookings to its own travel assets. Additionally, NextTrip could use their attribution technologies and engagement tools to channel transactional business to specialty travel advertisers.
But the consumer benefit is straightforward: when you're watching content about a destination, the path to booking that destination appears in the moment of inspiration.
You're watching a JOURNY documentary about Morocco. A QR code appears on screen tied to the specific segment about Marrakech. You scan it. Instead of landing on a generic Morocco page with 400 hotel options, you see a curated itinerary matching what you just watched: the riad featured in the documentary, the guide who led the tour, the restaurant where they ate, available dates, and transparent pricing.
No browser tabs. No comparison shopping. No decision fatigue.
This only works because NextTrip's attribution system tracks what inspired you. The technology knows you watched the Marrakech segment, not the coastal cities segment, so it serves relevant options instead of overwhelming you with everything Morocco offers.
The generational divide in travel research reveals why this matters. Gen Z (66%) and Millennials (65%) turn to social influencers and platforms for inspiration, valuing videos and influencer content. But they still book through traditional OTAs because there's no direct bridge from inspiration to transaction.
NextTrip's overlay technology creates that bridge. The attribution layer isn't invisible tracking-it's visible, useful guidance that reduces the 303 minutes of research to a few seamless interactions.
Event-Anchored Booking: When Timing Creates Urgency
One of NextTrip's most consumer-friendly attribution features is event-anchored offers-promotions tied to specific moments that travelers are already planning around.
World Cup matches. Concerts. Destination weddings. Family reunions. Even major cultural events like Carnival in Rio or cherry blossom season in Japan.
Generic travel offers drown in options. "Visit Italy" doesn't create urgency. "Book your Italian villa for the Venice Film Festival-only 6 properties left for these dates" does.
NextTrip's attribution technology tracks not just what content you watched, but when you're likely to travel based on engagement patterns. If you're watching content about destinations with upcoming events, the system surfaces time-sensitive offers that align with your apparent intent.
This solves a core consumer pain point: decision paralysis from infinite options.
The company produces content formats like "I Do," which follows families gathering for destination weddings. Viewers aren't just watching entertainment-they're researching real venues and logistics while emotionally connecting to authentic stories. The attribution layer captures that intent and presents relevant booking options.
This isn't algorithmic manipulation. It's intelligent assistance. Travelers want to go to these places-they're already spending 303 minutes researching. NextTrip's system makes the path obvious instead of requiring them to assemble information from a dozen different sources.
Market Dynamics: Why Travelers Choose Seamless Over Cheap
The global online travel market was valued at $512.5 billion in 2023 and is expected to reach $1.26 trillion by 2032, representing a compound annual growth rate of 12.99%. Within this market, over 90% of travelers research online, and 82% end up making their booking online.
But here's what the numbers don't show: travelers are exhausted by the research process.
Over 90% research online not because they enjoy it, but because there's no alternative. The current model forces them to become their own travel agents, piecing together flights, hotels, activities, and logistics across multiple platforms.
Travel sits at the top of discretionary spending priorities-above kitchen renovations, above new iPhones. People are willing to pay for experiences. The question isn't budget, it's trust and convenience.
NextTrip's attribution-driven approach creates multiple consumer benefits:
Curated options based on the specific content that inspired you
Transparent pricing without hidden fees or bait-and-switch tactics
Event-anchored offers that create genuine urgency
Seamless booking without leaving the inspiration environment
The distinction between NextTrip and traditional OTAs is fundamental. Expedia, Booking, and Kayak optimize for choice and price comparison. NextTrip optimizes for reducing decision fatigue through intelligent curation.
For travelers overwhelmed by 400 hotel options in Barcelona, intelligent curation based on what inspired them is more valuable than comprehensive listings sorted by price.
The Conversion Architecture: Closing the 303-Minute Gap
Remember those 303 minutes travelers spend consuming content before booking?
Most travel companies lose track of users across that journey. They might inspire someone on YouTube, retarget them on Facebook, and hope they eventually land on their booking site. Each handoff creates friction and attribution gaps.
NextTrip's ecosystem keeps users within its content and booking infrastructure. A viewer watching a JOURNY episode about Italian coastal towns can scan a QR code to explore curated itineraries, compare options, and book-all without leaving NextTrip's ecosystem.
The gaming industry proved this model works. Players discover games through content, engage through communities, and transact within the same platform. The travel industry has been trying to replicate this with limited success because most companies either own content or booking infrastructure, but rarely both at scale.
Risk Factors and Market Realities
NextTrip's strategy faces several challenges.
The GoUSA TV acquisition is pending, and integration of media assets with booking infrastructure is complex. The company is competing against established players with significantly larger marketing budgets and brand recognition.
Content production at scale requires substantial investment. While NextTrip has access to a library of original and licensed content, maintaining freshness and relevance across 250 million viewers demands ongoing resources.
Attribution technology sounds promising, but proving direct causation between video views and bookings remains technically difficult. Many factors influence travel decisions, and isolating the impact of specific content pieces requires sophisticated analytics.
The Broader Industry Shift
NextTrip's approach represents a broader trend in travel: vertical integration of content and commerce.
Traditional travel companies built booking engines and bought advertising. New entrants are building media companies that happen to sell travel. The distinction matters because it changes the economics.
Media companies generate revenue from advertising whether or not viewers book travel. When viewers do book, that's additional margin. Traditional online travel agencies pay for every click and conversion, with no revenue if the user doesn't book.
This model shift could reshape competitive dynamics in the industry. Companies that own both content distribution and booking infrastructure can afford to operate at lower margins on bookings because they're monetizing attention, not just transactions.
The Consumer Value Proposition: What Travelers Actually Get
NextTrip's attribution technology creates value for travelers in three specific ways that traditional booking platforms can't replicate:
1. Context-Aware Recommendations
When you scan a QR code during a documentary about Moroccan riads, you see riads-not generic Marrakech hotels, not resorts, not hostels. The system knows what inspired you and shows relevant options.
2. Reduced Decision Fatigue
Instead of comparing 400 properties across five different booking sites, you see 8-12 curated options that match the specific experience you just watched. Fewer choices, higher relevance, faster decisions.
3. Trust Through Transparency
The content you watched featured real places with real people. The booking options connect directly to those places. No bait-and-switch. No misleading photos. No hidden resort fees discovered at checkout.
This addresses the core finding from Expedia's study: travelers want transparency (52%), clarity and confidence (46%), and authenticity (45%). NextTrip's attribution system delivers all three by maintaining continuity from inspiration to booking.
Compare this to the traditional OTA experience. You watch a YouTube video about Santorini. You open Booking.com. You see 327 properties. You spend two hours reading reviews, comparing prices, checking locations on Google Maps, and cross-referencing Instagram photos to verify the views are real.
NextTrip's bet is that travelers will choose seamless curation over exhaustive comparison.
What This Means for Travelers and the Industry
The $8 billion in digital advertising exists because travel companies are desperate to influence the 303 minutes travelers spend researching. But all that ad spend creates noise, not clarity.
More retargeting ads. More price comparison emails. More "limited time offers" that aren't actually limited. Travelers are drowning in marketing designed to capture their attention, not guide their decisions.
NextTrip's attribution-driven approach flips the model. Instead of interrupting your research with ads, the system makes your research more efficient by connecting inspiration to action.
For the travel industry, this represents a shift from advertising-driven acquisition to content-driven conversion. Companies that create genuinely valuable content and make booking seamless will win. Companies that rely on retargeting and price wars will struggle.
For travelers, the implications are simpler: the 303 minutes of research could shrink to 30 minutes of curated exploration.
Watch content about places that inspire you. Scan when something resonates. Book without leaving the ecosystem. Go on your trip.
The technology makes travel planning feel less like work and more like the adventure it's supposed to be.
Whether NextTrip executes this vision depends on content quality, technology reliability, and competitive pricing. But the value proposition for consumers is clear: attribution technology eliminates the friction between wanting to go somewhere and actually booking the trip.
That's worth solving. And it's worth the $8 billion the industry is currently wasting trying to track something they can't measure.
Read more at The Vanderbilt Report
About Vanderbilt Report
Vanderbilt Report is a financial news and content platform. The information contained in this release is for informational purposes only and should not be considered an offer to buy or sell securities. All material is provided "as is" without any warranty of any kind.
Media Contact
Kristen Owens
info@vanderbiltreport.com
Forward-Looking Statements
This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended. Forward-looking statements, including those regarding the Company's strategy, market position, and future performance, are based on current expectations and are subject to risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results to differ materially. Such risks include, but are not limited to, market volatility, technological development challenges, and regulatory changes.
SOURCE: Vanderbilt Report
View the original press release on ACCESS Newswire:
https://www.accessnewswire.com/newsroom/en/publishing-and-media/nexttrip-tackles-travels-biggest-frustration-why-finding-a-hotel-takes-longer-1116292