The VM2026 Creator & Content Playbook

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Where Are Travelers Discovering Malaysia in 2025?

A data-driven roadmap for winning Visit Malaysia 2026. We analyzed over 1,000 travel posts across TikTok and Instagram to reveal where travelers are looking, who they trust, and how to capture their attention in 2025.

Executive Summary

Key Insights at a Glance

The digital travel landscape has split. Our analysis of 2025 data reveals that a "one-size-fits-all" social strategy is no longer effective.

The Platform Divide

TikTok is now the "Global Billboard", while Instagram is the "Digital Brochure." Successful brands use TikTok to launch destinations and Instagram to validate them.

The Destination Personality

Not all spots are marketed equal. Sabah and Langkawi dominate on "Aesthetic" (Photo) content, while Penang and KL win on "Action" (Video) content.

The Engagement Gap

We found a massive difference between "Viral Reach" and "Authentic Trust." Brands must choose between creators who generate millions of views versus those who drive actual itinerary saves.

Deep Dive: The Data Behind the Strategy

Explore our series of in-depth analyses on the specific pillars of tourism marketing.

TikTok vs. Instagram: The Two Faces of Malaysian Tourism Marketing

Preparing for Visit Malaysia 2026? We analyzed 1,000+ posts to reveal the real performance difference...
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Beyond KLCC: Which Malaysian Destinations Are Actually Winning Online?

We analyzed 1,000+ travel posts to rank Malaysia's top destinations. See why KL dominates, why...
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Viral Reach vs. Authentic Trust: Finding the Right Travel Creators for VM2026

Do you need 1 million views or 1,000 saves? We analyzed the top Malaysian travel...
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How to Win Visit Malaysia 2026: A 3-Step Data Strategy

How should tourism brands prepare for VM2026? We synthesized 1,000+ data points into a 3-step...
Read More

How We Track the Market

Market Coverage

We track Malaysia’s top destinations, viral travel hashtags (#VisitMalaysia, #CutiCutiMalaysia), and the region's most influential travel creators.

Data Sources

Our insights are powered by real-time data from TikTok (for viral trends and reach) and Instagram (for aesthetic trends and creator curation).

Methodology

We analyzed over 1,000 public posts from Jan-Nov 2025, measuring engagement rates, view counts, and content formats to decode traveler intent.

Who Needs This Intelligence?

State Tourism Boards

To benchmark your state's digital "Share of Voice" against neighbors and identify under-served international markets.

Hotel & Resort Chains

To find "Aesthetic" creators who can turn your property into a viral visual destination.

Airlines & OTAs

To spot rising "hidden gem" destinations early and align route promotions with viral demand.

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Unlock Your Creator Strategy for VM2026.

You've seen the trends and the destination data. Now find the right creators to execute your plan. Request a custom sample report to identify the perfect influencers and launch your next viral campaign.

FAQ

Frequently Asked Questions

It's a simple three-step process:

  1. Tell Us Your Goal: First, fill out the form on our Get Free Report page. Let us know your main objective and the brand, topic, or competitor you're curious about.
  2. Our Team Gets to Work: Our analysts will then review your request. For qualified businesses, we'll use the Mediapod platform to generate a custom report that's tailored to your needs.
  3. Receive Your Insights: Within 3 business days, you’ll receive a private link to your complimentary report via email.

They are designed for different goals. The Industry Pulse gives a broad, high-level view of an entire market. The Market Intelligence report is a deep dive into your brand versus your direct competitors. The Creator & Content report is a specialized tool for finding influencers and content ideas.

Our reports synthesize data from the platforms where real conversations happen, including Google News, Reddit, YouTube, Instagram, and TikTok.

Our data is updated daily for most of the reports. Your report's historical data begins accumulating from the day your subscription starts, allowing you to track your performance and trends from that point forward. If you require a specific historical data analysis from before your start date, please contact us for a custom project.

Our platform is designed to capture a robust and representative sample of the most recent and relevant public conversations for your "Tracked Terms" every single day. We prioritize the freshness and relevance of the data, not just the raw volume, to ensure the insights you receive are timely and actionable.

As you remain subscribed, this data accumulates over time, building a powerful and sizable historical record of your market's conversation from your start date forward.

We use a powerful, AI-driven Natural Language Processing (NLP) model to analyze the emotion and feeling within each mention, classifying it as positive, negative, or neutral.

Our platform can perform sentiment analysis on a wide range of languages, including Arabic, Chinese (Simplified & Traditional), Dutch, English, French, German, Indonesian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese (Brazilian & Continental), Spanish, Thai, Turkish, and Vietnamese.

For dynamic platforms like Instagram and TikTok, our system can auto-detect the language in content for seamless multilingual analysis. For other sources like Google News, Reddit, and YouTube, we typically configure your report to focus on a primary language during onboarding to ensure the highest accuracy.

While Bahasa Malaysia isn't officially listed by our AI provider, the model for Bahasa Indonesia is highly accurate for Malaysian content due to their similarities. We can set up your report to leverage this for a comprehensive local analysis.

Yes, absolutely. Mediapod is designed to provide intelligence at both a global and a specific country level. We use a multi-faceted approach to ensure the insights in your report are highly relevant to your target market.

  • For News & YouTube: We can tailor the search to focus on a specific country's edition or locale (e.g., Google News Malaysia).
  • For Reddit: We focus our analysis on country-specific subreddits (like r/malaysia or r/singapore) to capture local conversations.
  • For Instagram & TikTok: We track location-specific hashtags (like #MYfoodie) and monitor content from top creators in your chosen country.

During the onboarding process, we'll work with you to define the exact geographic market you want to focus on.

Our reports are a powerful blend of AI-driven data collection and human-led analysis. Our team of analysts configures each report and reviews the insights to ensure you receive the highest quality, most relevant information.

You can track as many competitors as you like! Our pricing is based on a flexible unit called a "Tracked Term," and each competitor you want to monitor simply uses one of your plan's available slots.

For example, if your plan includes 10 Tracked Terms, you could use them to track your own brand, 5 competitors, and 4 industry topics—or any other combination that fits your goals. The total number of terms you can track depends on your subscription. Please see our Pricing page for full details.

No hidden fees or complex enterprise contracts. Just clear, accessible value.