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Travel communities –
a highly effective way of evaluating
holidays
One third of all online users obtain
information about travel from the
internet – travel communities exert
a growing influence on holiday
decision-making:
the main criterion is the
genuineness of the evaluations,
according to a representative poll
by the Internet Travel Marketing
Federation (VIR)
Berlin,
18 August 2009.
30.8 million Germans now rely on the
internet as a source of information
when making their travel plans. Of
this figure, around 7 million use
travel communities as a basis for
making a final decision about their
journey. A further 5 million intend
to rely on these virtual communities
for making their travel decisions in
the future. These are the findings
of a special survey by the Internet
Travel Marketing Federation (VIR) as
part of its representative survey
“RA online”.
Questions targeted exclusively at
online users on the subject of
travel communities reveal that it is
above all the genuineness of the
evaluations and entries that is of
vital importance within these
communities and evaluation
platforms.
Making a choice from many different
opinions in order to form one’s own
view ranks second in importance.
Especially among 45 to 55-year old
internet users more than half regard
it as extremely important for the
person making the evaluation to have
actually been to the location,
whereas the majority of younger
users (16 to 24), i.e. more than 60
per cent, are quite “relaxed” about
this particular criterion. When
dealing with travel community
websites women are definitely more
critical than men. Of the women who
were questioned, 48 per cent stated
that they attach major importance to
the quality and authenticity of the
individual evaluations. It is also
evident that it is predominantly
those people in lower income groups
who make use of travel communities
and whose decisions are more likely
to be influenced by them than is the
case with middle and upper income
groups. Claudia Brözel, Member of
the Managing Committee of VIR:
“Authenticity and a wide range of
opinions are major criteria in
assessing trustworth-iness,
especially in travel communities.
Operators should therefore
concentrate on ensuring that entries
are of the required quality. VIR
members’ portals have already
achieved considerable success with
their communities on this exciting
market.”
There is no doubt about the growing
importance of travel communities.
Travel tips, hotel evaluations,
reports by restaurant critics,
travel diaries and travel pictures
taken by members all provide greater
clarity, offer inspiration to other
travellers and encourage people to
compare their travel experiences.
“In particular the discussions about
the influence and power of travel communities
in tourism taking place at this
year’s ITB Berlin Convention reveal
the vast potential offered by such
platforms”, according to Dr. Martin
Buck,
Director of ITB Berlin.
More details about the survey can be
found at
http://www.v-i-r.de.
Verband Internet Reisevertrieb e.V.
(VIR):
Mouthpiece of the tourism industry
on the internet
Verband Internet Reisevertrieb e.V.
(VIR) – the Internet Travel
Marketing Federation – addresses the
core issues on the internet, namely
those of trust, clarity and quality
standards. This federation is the
mouthpiece of the tourism industry
on the internet and the point of
contact for consumers, the media and
the industry itself.
Its members include seven of
Germany’s leading online travel
portals (ebookers.de,
expedia.de,
holidaycheck.de,
gratistours.com,
lastminute.de,
opodo.de and
travel24.com),
which together generate sales of
around one billion euros and employ
over 500 people.
During the second half of 2008 alone
these internet travel portals
received an average of 3 million
visits monthly. In addition to its
own website at
www.v-i-r.de
the VIR can also be found on
Twitter, with a wealth of details
about the innovation competition
“Sprungbrett” (www.twitter.com/sprungbrett2010),
and is also represented on YouTube,
depicting some exciting moments from
its own events (www.youtube.com/user/virtualVIR).
About ITB Berlin and the ITB Berlin
Conventionn
ITB Berlin 2010 will take place from
Wednesday to Sunday, 10 to 14 March.
ITB Berlin will be open to trade
visitors only from Wednesday to
Friday.
Parallel with the trade show the ITB
Berlin Convention will be held from
Wednesday to Saturday, 10 to 13
March 2010. This is the world’s
largest specialist convention for
the industry.
Full details of the programme can be
found at www.itb-kongress.com.
ITB Berlin is the world’s leading
travel trade show. In 2009 a total
of 11,098 companies from 187
countries exhibited their products
and services to the 178,971
visitors, who included 110,857 trade
visitors.
ITB Berlin and ITB Asia now on
Twitter
Web 2.0 services, including blogs,
social networks and Twitter, are
also gaining importance in everyday
business activities,
a development that has been
immediately recognised by ITB Berlin
and ITB Asia. Both of these events
are making use of the micro-blogging
service Twitter, as a means of
entering into a dialogue with
journalists and exhibitors as well
as the trade, and of supplying them
with the latest information. The
world’s leading travel trade show is
twittering at
http://twitter.com/ITB_Berlin,
while the world’s largest travel
trade show for the Asia-Pacific
region is covered by
http://twitter.com/itbasia.
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