2012 & 2013 Social Media and Tourism Industry Statistics

2012 Tourism Statistics

In response to the overwhelming desire for up-to-date social media and tourism statistics, here are some new numbers for 2012.
(UPDATE: We have now updated this post to include new and additional statistics from 2013. These are indicated in blue text. Note that in most cases we have not completely replaced the 2012 statistics, but added new metrics we felt were relevant to the information.)

In response to the overwhelming desire for up-to-date social media and tourism statistics, here are some new numbers for 2012. (Please note: Stikky Media did not create these statistics. For a list of primary sources, see below).

The world is expected to witness 1 billion arrivals by the end of 2012, according to the World Travel Market. And as a result, the relationship between travel and technology is closer than ever, with businesses continuing to turn to social media to promote their services and reach customers in a more intimate and personal way.

Mobile

By 2015, 9 out of 10 consumers will have a mobile subscription.

• 29% of travelers have used mobile apps to find flight deals
• 30% have used mobile apps to find hotel deals
• 15% have downloaded mobile apps specific to upcoming vacations
• 85% of leisure travelers use their smartphone while abroad

• 72% post vacation photos on a social network while still on vacation
• 46% check in to a location (eg Facebook and FourSquare) while on vacation
• 70% update their Facebook status while on vacation
• 61% of US travelers report using social media while on vacation
• 85% of travelers use smartphones while on vacation, and 46% use tablets
• The most popular use of smartphones while traveling is for finding restaurants (36% for smartphones, 21% for tablets) and accessing social media (32% for smartphones, 19% on tablets)
• In 2012, 57% of business travelers used a mobile device to book travel
• More than 40% of online traffic related to travel comes from mobile devices
• 44% of travelers use their phones to research travel while they’re actually traveling

Top five uses of smartphones while traveling:

• Take photos
• Use map features
• Search restaurants
• Search activities and attractions
• Check in prior to flight

Consumer Trust

• 92% of consumers around the world say they trust earned media, such as word-of-mouth and recommendations from friends and family, above all other forms of advertising
  • an increase of 18% since 2007
• 70% of global consumers say online consumer reviews are the second most trusted form of advertising
  • an increase of 15 percent in four years
• Only 47% of consumers around the world say they trust paid television, magazine and newspaper ads
  • confidence has declined by 24%, 20% and 25% respectively since 2009

Despite these numbers, the majority of ad dollars are still spent on traditional or paid media.

Results of the Nielsen 2013 survey:

• 84% of consumers trust word-of-mouth recommendations, or earned media, above all other forms of advertising.
• 69% trust owned advertising, in the form of content of branded websites—up 9 percentage points from 2007
• 68% trust consumer opinions posted online
• Traditional ads still strong: 62% trust TV ads, and 60% trust magazines. Only newspaper ads showed a decline, from 63 to 61%.

Increased trust in online and mobile ads:

• 56% of respondents trust consumer-oriented email messages
• 48% trust ads in search engine results, online videos, or on social networks
• 42% trust banner ads, up from 26% in 2007
• 45% trust display ads on mobile devices
• word-of-mouth formats—earned media and consumer reviews online—prompt the highest levels of consumer action—84% of people will take action thanks to the former and 70% to the latter.
• Roughly 2/3rds of respondents take action some of the time based on ads in traditional media, and half are willing to engage based on social network and mobile display ads.

Reviews

Post-vacation, 46% of travelers post hotel reviews.

• 40% post activity/attraction reviews
• 40% post restaurant reviews
• 76% post vacation photos to a social network
• 55% “liked” Facebook pages specific to a vacation

Influence

Social media has a huge influence on travel bookings. Of those who used social media to research travel plans, only 48% stuck with their original travel plans.

• 33% changed their hotel
• 10% switched resorts
• 10% changed agent/operator/website
• 7% holidayed in a different country
• 5% switched airlines

TripAdvisor

• 69 million monthly visitors
• More than 60 million travel reviews and opinions from travelers around the world
• More than 90 percent of topics posted in the TripAdvisor forums are replied to within 24 hours
• 82 million people have downloaded a TripAdvisor app
• 2800 new topics are posted every day to the TripAdvisor forums
• More than 150 million reviews from over 60 million members worldwide

Facebook

• 900 million monthly users at the end of March 2012
• 488 million monthly active mobile users
• Approximately 80% of monthly active users are outside the US and Canada
• More than 300 million photos uploaded to Facebook per day
• An average of 3.2 billion Likes and Comments generated by Facebook users per day
• More than 42 million Pages with ten or more Likes
• Facebook is available in more than 70 languages

2013 Stats:

• 1.23 billion monthly active users as of December 2013
• 945 million monthly users of Facebook mobile products
• Approximately 81% of daily active users are outside the US and Canada
• Photo uploads total 300 million per day

Twitter

• Twitter search is one of the most heavily-trafficked search engines in the world, serving over one billion queries per day
• 500 million registered users
• 175 million tweets per day

Sources:

The World Travel Market (WTM) Industry Report and Global Trends Report
Nielsen: Global Consumers’ Trust in ‘Earned’ Advertising Grows in Importance
Lab42: Techie Traveler
Facebook Key Facts
TripAdvisor Fact Sheet

Nielsen: Earned Advertising Remains Most Credible Among Consumers
Top 15 Valuable Facebook Statistics
TrustYou Travel Marketing Statistics