The Impact of Social Media on Travel and Tourism

Technology and social media is evolving very fast these days. Social media is growing very fast in particular. Social media websites such as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube are very popular websites with a big influence on the world but out of all three, Facebook is the winner. Because these websites are very popular, there is a huge influence on Travel and Tourism industry. The travel and tourism agencies are able to make announcements about their offers and travelling destinations with ease.

•  Social Media

When people search for a new travel destination they usually get recommendations from friends or family, but mostly from social ads. Because of social media websites, the travellers post their pictures and videos from their vacation. They can check-in to several locations and also post online reviews of the place they were visiting. After the vacation, people post more pictures on Facebook, Twitter or YouTube.

Social media is affecting the travel and tourism industry in a very positive manner. Exquisite destinations are now made famous by friends and family, giving tourism agencies more clients owing to free advertisement of these unexplored destinations.

• Blogging helps travelling

The new trend in today's society is blogging. A blog is a website that is more personal. There are a lot of people that have a blog on on tourism. These blogs describe locations vividly starting from the hotel that they stayed at to the travel agency they used. This is again free advertising which helps the travel and tourism companies a lot. A survey showed that companies with a travel blog generated 88% more inbound leads than those who did not have one.

Social Media Impacting Travel and Tourism

With today's technology, there is an app for almost everything, especially for hotels, restaurants, tourist attractions and museums. A lot of different surveys showed that a significant amount of people use apps for travel information and to have a better knowledge about a certain place. They may ask a friend, a forum, a family member, or look through different travelling and tourism apps. Owing to these different apps and because of social media, more and more people will find out about a different location. They can read some reviews about the place, or read some blog posts.

• Reviews

Another thing that is very popular today is writing reviews. A lot of people write reviews about the place they went to. You can find reviews about locations, the hotel, activities, restaurants and a lot more. A study showed that over 74% of travellers write reviews because they want to share with other people the travelling experience they had. Also 98% find Trip Advisor reviews to be the most accurate and the most helpful. 53% of travellers, will not book a hotel that doesn't have any review. Written reviews are infact very popular and very influential. A lot of people decide where to go simply by reading reviews online.

If a person wrote a review about a bad experience, a lot of people will not want to go to that place or they can reconsider that destination. Over 70% of global consumers say that online reviews are the second most trusted form of advertising.

• Facebook

Another very influential website on travellers is Facebook. Facebook is particularly great because you can find pages about a destination, or a hotel. There you can find pictures of that destination, people commenting about the destination and pictures of other people at the destination. Another thing that you can find on Facebook is pictures of your friend's vacation. Some people get influential when they see their friends' pictures in a certain location and see how much fun they have.

52% of Facebook users said that their travelling plans were affected by a friend's picture of their trips.

Overall, social media is very influential when it comes to travelling and tourism. It influences in a positive way and is a good thing. Now, people find more information about the destinations they want to go to and have a higher chance of having a good time because they know what to expect!