From what I recall of Jupiter’s research, I think the key difference here is that social networking sites are not the key form of user generated content that people are referencing at the travel planning stage – in fact it is a very small subset.

UGC like reviews, ratings etc are far more influential in the travel planning process, whereas with social networking sites the most common travel related uses come in the form of communication, with 23% looking at friends travel photos or videos, 22% keeping in touch while away and 19% posting photos.

I think the research makes a very important distinction that social networking sites are just one subset of UGC and the industry maybe focussing its attention in the wrong place if it fixates on Facebook/WAYN, while ignoring Tripadvisor (for example).

Hope that makes sense and I understand your point correctly?

Thanks

Vicky

3) stating that: “[...] for those using ugc, reviews/ratings from other travellers was the major influence in the decision making process. 36% named it as an influential factor in their decision, compared to 21% citing brand/reputation and 14% citing that old chestnut of family/friend recommendation.”

and …

2) stating that: “[...] only 8% of those online travellers who are using social networking sites do so for travel planning. 56% do not use social networks in any capacity whatsoever that relates to travel. The most common travel related uses come in the form of communication, with 23% looking at friends travel photos or videos, 22% keeping in touch while away and 19% posting photos.”

Doesn’t ‘major influence in the decision making process’ count as part of travel planning?

the numbers motivate my team even more as we just started a new service http://www.tourmandu.com

The travellers are more motivated to talk and share. Same as the case with myeslf when travelling back from some fresh/alien place. Keep talking and writing about it. I think what I share is the experience and feeling. Not necessarily the knowledge, e.g. history, culture, custom… The UGC are very helpful regarding hardwares – if a hotel is of good quality, if the staff are helpful, if a museum is worth seeing, if a restaurant offers wonderful foods… However, on “software” like local culture or living attitudes if someone wants to explore more, UGC might be limited.

But from the marketer’s point of view, your insights shared lead to more emphasis on UGC. “The clients have the say”, as mentioned in the other article here. : )

I assume that is the philiosophy with: http://www.ourexplorer.com ?

I think that the popularity of travel UGC influence/adoption is that UGC is part of the travel experience. Just as we used to inflict our holiday snaps and videos on our friends and families, now we share them with extensive networks of people (strangers maybe, but perhaps more willing to listen?).

People relive, share and stimulate others by creating their travel UGC & that heightens & prolongs the travel experience.

I think locals may indeed the most knowledgeable, but that travellers are more often motivated to create the UGC content because its part of the trip. ( Flickr is perhaps an exception to this? It has massive local participation & content creation)

Thanks for stopping by Jaime!

And thanks for your comments too Sara – indeed I think it is no wonder the web is regarded as a complex marketing channel, yet it suffers often from too much, not too little data!

Steve, you mention that it is interesting to see confirmed the relatively limited impact of social networking sites so far (at least in terms of travel planning). One of the things I also took from this is that it is mistake to simply bundle up “social media” together into a strategy – whereas in fact there are differences in effectiveness, uses and tactics say between travel UGC sites like tripadvisor, standard ugc like Flickr and lower personal network density sites like social networking sites. There is no one size fits all Web 2.0 strategy.

Claude thanks for your input and I will follow up with you on those slides. You’re right that this focussed on mainstream travel research planning flow, as opposed to niche activity. There was also actually a good discussion about search, I was holding it over for another post Especially as it relates to under utilisation of effective search marketing strategy.

I look forward to seeing you at PhoCusWright Claude (though I haven’t book a place yet!) and all the best with that project.

Apologies again to all of you for the delay in responding to your comments – it was not for want of trying!