We Did This Twenty Years Ago With Twitter. Now We're Doing It With TikTok.
Twenty years ago, Sparkloft was a scrappy little social media agency that got very excited about a website called Twitter. We convinced Travel Portland to get on it. We launched what became known as the first "Twisitor Center" in the world — a live Twitter feed in a real visitor center — and Tourism Twitter as a category was born.
Then we did something arguably nerdier: we started tracking every tourism organization that joined the platform. First a list. Then an actual website with a map. Hundreds of DMOs, all their handles, all in one place. It was the kind of thing only people who genuinely loved the intersection of travel and social media would bother building.
That was then. Twitter is now a different place entirely. But the instinct — to track who's showing up, how they're doing, and what's actually working — that instinct ages well.
Enter TikTok.
Why TikTok, and why now?
Let's start with the numbers, because they're not subtle. TikTok now has 1.9 billion monthly active users globally and an average engagement rate of 3.70% — up 49% year-over-year, according to Socialinsider's 2026 benchmarks. For context, Instagram sits at 0.48%. Facebook at 0.15%. TikTok isn't winning the engagement conversation — it's having a completely different one.
But the more interesting story for DMOs isn't engagement. It's discovery.
41% of Americans say they've used TikTok as a search engine, according to Adobe. Among younger travelers, nearly 40% of Gen Z prefer searching on TikTok over Google for certain queries. TikTok is now the top channel for product discovery, according to Sprout Social's 2026 Content Strategy Report, with 42% of Gen Z consumers turning to TikTok specifically for product discovery. And once someone finds something they like, 92% of TikTok users take some kind of action after watching a video — searching for more information, sharing it, or heading straight to a booking page.
This isn't a social media platform anymore. It's a search engine that happens to be incredibly entertaining. For a DMO trying to show up in the moments when travelers are actively dreaming, planning, and deciding — that distinction matters enormously. Demand for TikTok SEO marketing services is up 116% in the US, according to Rise at Seven. The industry has noticed.
And now the timing just got better. TikTok's recent ownership transition away from Chinese control means a whole cohort of DMOs that were sitting on the sidelines — waiting for the legal and political dust to settle — can now get in the game. That's a lot of budgets about to move, a lot of strategies about to get written, and a lot of opportunities to either learn from what's already working or reinvent the wheel badly.
We'd prefer you learn from what's working.
So we brought back the habit. Starting with Q1 2026, we're publishing a quarterly analysis of U.S. State DMO performance on TikTok — built on data pulled directly from the TikTok API and analyzed using a proprietary AI tool we built specifically for this.
One thing worth saying upfront: metrics without strategy are an incomplete picture. We can see what's being posted and how it's performing. We can't see the goals, budget constraints, internal priorities, or deliberate strategic trade-offs behind any of it. We flag patterns and highlight what the data suggests — but the people running these accounts know things we don't, and that context matters.
With that said, here's a taste of what the data across 18 accounts and 500+ posts actually tells us about what works:
- Organic reach is alive — but content has to earn it. The posts that broke through without paid support shared a common trait: a hook that felt genuinely surprising. A restaurant with an unexpected twist. A hidden natural wonder. A local experience that made people think "wait, that's actually there?" Reach without budget is still very much on the table. The algorithm rewards content that stops the scroll, not content that fills the calendar.
- The content themes that consistently drive saves, shares and comments aren't complicated: experiential dining with a genuine twist, useful lists that reduce travel planning fatigue, emotional escape content that sells a feeling rather than a destination, sensory-rich visuals that make viewers feel transported, and time-bound content that creates urgency around seasons or events. Five categories. Repeatable. And notably, all of them map directly to how people use TikTok as a discovery and search tool — they're not just entertaining, they're genuinely useful to someone planning a trip.
- Comments reveal something views and likes don't. The posts that generated the most comment activity tended to fall into one of two buckets: content that triggered local pride and personal recognition ("I've been there," "that place is incredible"), and content that sparked friendly debate ("that shouldn't be on the list"). Both are enormously valuable signals. The first builds trust and social proof. The second drives algorithmic visibility. Content designed to provoke a reaction — not just admiration — performs differently than content designed purely to inspire.
- Saves are the most underrated metric in travel marketing. The posts that earned the most saves were almost always actionable: event roundups, destination lists, "things you didn't know existed" formats. Someone saving a post is someone building a future trip itinerary. That's not vanity — that's intent. For DMOs thinking about TikTok as a discovery and planning tool, saves deserve as much strategic attention as views.
- Paid amplification changes the game — but only if the content is already working. The accounts pairing strong organic content with selective paid promotion showed notably stronger overall results. The key word is selective. Boosting content that's already earning organic traction appears far more effective than promoting content that didn't connect organically. The lesson isn't "spend more." It's "spend smarter, and on the right things."
The full report is available now. It's free. It has actual data in it.
And because this is a living project — we're building it out quarter by quarter, the same way we built out that Twitter map two decades ago — we want your input. What should we be tracking that we're not? What would make this more useful for your team? What are we getting wrong? And if you're running a State DMO TikTok account we've missed, please let us know so we can include you in the next one.
The platforms change. The instinct to figure out what's working doesn't.