Social media in the travel industry

 

 

20-10-2015
By: Denise Berkeveld
Source:  CBS, Trendrapport toerisme, recreatie en vrije tijd 2014, Newcom Research & Consultancy

 

 

Nowadays social media is a really important factor in the travel industry. The tourism, recreation and leisure industries are getting influenced by technological developments a lot. People are sharing e.g. knowledge, experiences and thoughts via social media channels. Those channels are making it possible to get in contact with others online.

 

The world is getting “smaller” and information is easily available online. But also the communication is going faster and the messages people that are sending are more compact. Even during the holiday people are still keeping their social media channels up to date.

There are different kinds of social media channels and the most popular ones are mentioned below:
- Facebook
- YouTube
- Instagram
- Linkedin
- Snapchat
- Twitter
- Google+
- Pinterest

 

Interconnection between those channels is important. I am also active on different kinds of social media channels (e.g. Instagram, Facebook and Linkedin), but that is it. I don’t like most of the other channels such as Twitter.

 

Almost all the Dutch people between 15 and 39 years old are making us of social media. According to the National Social Media Research 2014 from Newcom Research & Consultancy was the average at the beginning of 2014 86%. However the trust in most of the social media channels is on the decline. The development of the role of social media seems to be decreasing. In 2013, 21% of the people in the Netherlands mentioned that they trust social media, but in 2014 this is 18%.

Although, private social media networks such as Whatsapp are increased in popularity. Especially the use of “Whatsapp groups”. Also the app Snap Chat is used a lot. 700 000 Dutch users use the app to send snaps ( pictures or videos that only available for a limited time) (Trendrapport toerisme, recreatie en vrije tijd, 2014) .

 

Because of all the social networks, new ways of travelling are developing. Meeting other persons, personal experiences, authenticity are keywords for the new ways of travelling. An example is “Couch surfing”. This is the largest international hospitality network which is based online. You can just become a member  for free and ask other members if you can stay or sleep for a period of time at their home. Sometimes you will get your own room, sometimes just a place in the living room or a tent in the garden. But you can also use the website to get to know people in places where you maybe want to go. Similar things are : BeWelcome and the Hospitality club.