A big thanks to Charles Leocha for giving us a recap of the PhoCusWright conference in LA a few weeks ago. PhoCusWright is where all the big guns in online travel meet to talk about what they’re doing to us consumers (Wink, wink). I met Sean Keener of BootsnAll there for breakfast before one of his meetings and man if I didn’t almost swipe his badge and run in there myself. I would’ve LOVED to have attended this conference. So, you can imagine how happy I was when I found “Web 2.0: Too much of a good thing?” in my Tripso newsletter.
It’s a fascinating topic. Are user-generated travel reviews a help or a hinderance when we’re trying to book online travel? I think both. It works for my boyfriend, John just loves Tripadvisor. I on the other hand can’t stand that particular site. There are great communities like the BootsnAll message boards and Lonely Planet’s Thorn Tree, but the trouble there is that you really have to spend lots of time sifting through discussions to find/or not find what you’re looking for. But, if you engage in the community and spend lots of time helping others, you’ll find a rewarding network of people in the travel know–friends, if not veteran travellers with more tips than a travel agent could ever give you.
What’s missing in the travel sphere has been on my mind a lot lately while I think about Jen Leo 2.0, and what I’m going to do next. I definitely have some ideas on what I think would fill some gaps for the consumer but my question is what’s the best outlet to serve it up in? A question I’ll probably ponder for a little while. Still, read Charles’s article. He leads us to some newish travel sites that are attempting to serve this niche.
The user generated model was extremely popular when it first emerged, primarily because people were excited to have up-to-the-minute content. It was a big influencer in travel decisions because people always look for ‘word of mouth’ recommendations and were more likely to try things that they previously hadn’t heard about. The problem now is that the internet is flooded with travel content which, for the most part, is irrelevant and unsubstantiated. It’s fun to read someone’s travel blog, but you rarely get enough information and detail to make informed travel plans.
The user-generated sites such as Tripadvisor are now being abused, hotel owners and tour guides are getting on these sites to tout their own places and bash their competition. I’ve heard too many stories of people choosing the cheaper, more adventurous option they found on a forum, only to arrive at their destination and find they were mis-led. Further, it’s hard to tell whether the person writing a review is someone who you would want to take advice from. For example, if someone whose only travel experience has been a 1-week stay at a low-end all inclusive resort in Mexico recommends a pousada in Brazil to me, I’m not likely to give that recommendation too much weight.
I think the inflection point has been hit where people are going to revert to less mass-market options, simply because they don’t have time to filter through the information and find what is relevant to them. There are a number of sites that have niche focuses or blogs geared to a specific demographic that highlight relevant areas or service providers of interest to that market. I think these will be the real travel influencers because they can bring the experience directly to their audience through content, video, podcasts, etc.
I agree with you that something is certainly missing in the Travel 2.0 sphere but I think it’s as simple as this – you get what you pay for.
The fact that users can share opinions for free is great, but the fact that owners and marketers have no barriers to adding their fabricated two-cents is a problem. In the long run we may see the democratic semantic-web win out here by punishing those who abuse and rewarding those who post useful reviews, but I doubt it.
The easiest parallel is the poor quality of popular blooper videos on YouTube vs the professional quality of network content. People want meaningful content, but it takes work and money to produce it.
So the obvious solution is to pay for (or sell) good content. Not that revolutionary. The revolution will come in linking content with $$, just like linking search to $$ was the revolution for google.
In an attempt to link edited content with their online portal TripAdvisor tried to go with more traditional, or at least somewhat screened, content in the form of PDF destination guides, but this was just a repackaging of their aggregated reviews, and was, of course, free. And useless. In a more promising sign that the industry realizes there is still something to be said for paying professional writers to write well and write objectively, two online portals are producing off-line guides (with unlimited battery life). While more entries into the crowded travel guide niche may not be the missing link we’re hoping for, this is good sign for writers and travelers. It’s a sign that the online travel industry is learning that they need to give travelers quality, which is one thing that everyone wants.
Online Goes Off-line: https://www.chicagotribune.com/travel/chi-0611250282nov26,0,2701559.story?coll=chi-travel-hed
Online Travel Fraud:
https://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2087-2449754,00.html
Thanks for the leads, it does take quite alot of sifting.
GP in Montana