Social Media Now Impacting Travel Planning

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(ORLANDO, FL) -- Are you on Facebook? Have you tweeted yet?

Both questions now find their way into much social discourse because of the explosive growth in the use of "social media," driven by what appears to be an almost insatiable desire to "stay connected." But how have these new forms of staying connected influenced consumer choice when it comes to evaluating and purchasing travel services? The results may surprise you.

As revealed in our most recent travelhorizonsTM survey (which we co-author every 90 days with the U.S. Travel Association), almost 6 out of 10 (59%) of active travelers have visited a social networking site. Their most popular activities on these sites include uploading photos/videos (49%) and rating products or services (46%). Roughly one-quarter have visited a chat room and/or posted content to a blog. Nearly half (46%) check their sites at least once a day.

Facebook enjoys the highest incidence of visitation (almost half of active travelers have visited, and fully one-third have posted a personal page), while roughly one-quarter of active travelers have visited MySpace. Both percentages are up significantly from just one year ago. And when it comes to searching social sites for content, the incidence of visiting YouTube eclipses that of TripAdvisor by a wide margin.

But to what extent does the content found on these sites influence consumer choice when it comes to the evaluation and selection of travel service suppliers? Right now, not much, because site visitation for travel planning purposes remains quite low. By way of illustration, only 1 in 10 Facebook users seek advice about either destinations or travel service suppliers, and just 1 in 20 has joined a community of users who share common travel interests:

That's today, however. How quickly this may change is a matter of considerable speculation given the remarkable rate of penetration these sites have achieved in such a short period of time. Yet, for now, consumers continue to seek and respond to information about travel services and suppliers from more established offline and online media sources.

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