Bianca Alba is Richmond’s ideal tourist.
She grew up in Northern Virginia, but this week is her first time visiting. She’s having a blast, and has already visited a sunflower farm in New Kent County, eaten at Ruby Scoops ice cream, and met a NASCAR driver.
But what tourism officials really love about her is that she’s broadcasting the trip to thousands of followers on her social media feed, “This Latina Travels.”
Alba is here as a participant in TBEX, which bills itself as “the largest community of travel creators and influencers in the world.”
About three times a year, TBEX gathers in a new destination. There is, of course, the glamorous travel life seen on Instagram and Pinterest. Participants are being wined and dined all week, and taken to see the region’s most photogenic sites.
But there are also classroom-style sessions at the convention center for the 400 attendees, where participants discuss the rigors of bookkeeping, the challenges of diversifying revenue streams and what to do about the rise of AI.
Influencers: They’re just like us!
Chasing eyeballs
Richmond has been working to land the TBEX conference for years, Richmond Region Tourism President Katherine O’Donnell said.
“Word of mouth is very important in travel,” she said. “Whether that’s coming digitally or from human-to-human interaction, both of those matter a lot.
“The amount of reach that will be gathered and earned and shared through all this content is something we would never be able to replicate on our own, through advertising or our own social media.”
She said other cities that have hosted the conference have told Richmond organizers the boost they received has lasted for many years after participants left.
Richmond Region Tourism funds its activities in part through a 2% hotel room tax that is collected regionally. That money is being put into initiatives like this week’s conference – RRT is throwing parties at the Jefferson, Richmond Raceway and L’Opossum.
Richmond is far from the only city hoping to get in on the action, though.
Inside the convention center, a full ballroom is devoted to booths from cities around the world hoping to entice influencers to visit.
Ithaca, New York had a waterfall, Alabama was offering trail mix, and Tempe, Arizona was handing out sunscreen.
“Epic weekends start in Wichita,” declared a booth promoting the Kansas town which held a TBEX last year. (“Wichita really pulled out all the stops,” one attendee said.)
The group goes international, too, with a trip to Almaty, Kazakhstan later this year.
Rick Calvert, TBEX’s CEO, said that 70% of the attendees are creators as their full-time jobs.
“We picked Richmond because we’re always looking for a place with great stories to tell,” he said. “I’m a history buff myself, so that was an easy sell for me. But what we didn’t know was the vibrant modern culture you have here in Richmond.”
A changing industry
Margot Lassalle led a work session on Thursday wearing a shirt that said “Travel. Monetize. Repeat.”
The job is glamorous, but the workload is intense as influencers try to stay on top of a competitive field, while also navigating changing algorithms at sites like Instagram and Google.
“It’s a hard job, especially to make a living at it,” Calvert said. “It’s a very tiny percentage of people who post on TikTok or Instagram or YouTube who actually make money doing it. And it’s a lonely job. We’re out there exploring the world, but the rest of the time we’re on our computer editing and preparing our content.”
He said one reason people return to the TBEX conference, which had a ticket price of $747 this week, was the opportunity to be around like-minded people.
During those sessions, AI was a major focus of the talks. Creators have seen website traffic plummet since Google began featuring its AI results at the top of search pages.
At one session, Christopher Mitchell of Stay22 cited research his group did showing 70% of creators use AI to help them produce their work. He, and others, remained optimistic though.
“I always tell people, AI will never replace authentic storytelling,” Alba said. “Algorithms change all the time, trends change all the time, but your story is unique. Your story is yours, and AI is not affecting it.”
Calvert agreed, noting the long-term staying power of the industry as it has transitioned from blogs to podcasts to videos. He said people who met at TBEX events are now married and are continuing to create compelling content.
“AI can’t yet taste a hamburger,” he said. “And younger generations are super AI-resistant, which is interesting.”
Their classroom time done, the creators then returned to the convention center hallway, where several Richmond institutions had booths promoting evening events – a once-in-a-generation opportunity for the attractions, and another day at the office for the influencers.
Contact Michael Phillips at [email protected].
