Here's how I explain hashtag strategy, using my dog. If I post my cavapoo under #dogs, millions upon millions of posts, she's invisible in seconds. But #cavapoo? An active, passionate, modest-sized pool where a good photo genuinely surfaces and the people searching are exactly the people who care. Your travel content works identically: the giant hashtags feel important and deliver nothing.
“Girl, you good? Start posting now.”
The medium-pool method
- Skip the oceans: #travel and #luxurytravel are so crowded your post's lifespan is measured in seconds.
- Find the medium pools: specific destinations, specific niches, specific experiences, tags with real activity but a browsable page. That's where discovery actually happens.
- Ask AI for the list: describe your post and audience, and have it generate medium-pool hashtag sets per destination. It's a chore AI does gladly and well.
- Watch which tags actually deliver, your insights will show it, and build your recurring sets from evidence, not vibes.
Pair this with posting natively (third-party schedulers can quietly suppress reach) and daily consistency, and the compounding starts: medium pools are small enough that regulars begin recognizing you. That recognition, not the vanity of a giant hashtag, is what turns a feed into a following, and a following into inquiries. Post the cavapoo where the cavapoo people are.
Claire's own numbers
The framework, step by step
- 1
Skip the oceans
#travel and #luxurytravel are so crowded your post's lifespan is measured in seconds.
- 2
Find the medium pools
specific destinations, specific niches, specific experiences — tags with real activity but a browsable page. That's where discovery actually happens.
- 3
Ask AI for the list
describe your post and audience, and have it generate medium-pool hashtag sets per destination. It's a chore AI does gladly and well.
- 4
Watch which tags actually deliver — your insights will
show it — and build your recurring sets from evidence, not vibes
Claire's own framework from this essay, in the order she teaches it.
Source: Claire B. Soares, from her own travel business and live trainings.
Common Questions
Which hashtags work best for travel content?
Medium-sized, specific ones. The giant tags bury your post in seconds, while a smaller active pool is browsable and the people searching it actually care.
How do you find the right hashtags?
Describe the post and audience to AI and ask for medium-pool sets per destination, then keep the ones your insights show actually deliver reach.
Do third-party schedulers hurt reach?
Claire's position, from her own results, is to post natively using the platform's tools rather than schedulers she believes suppress reach.
Written By
Claire B. Soares
6× Condé Nast Top Travel Specialist, Certified AI Consultant, and founder of Travel AI University. $3.4B+ in enterprise travel software sold to Google, IBM, Boeing, the federal government, and the DoD; $16M+ in luxury travel sales with Up in the Air Life.
About Claire
