#Obsessed: 25 fascinating stats demonstrating the power of your guests and social media

By Clare Riley, Content and Editorial Manager, SiteMinder

Social media has changed the way the world connects, engages, and communicates.

It’s an essential tool in so many aspects of our everyday lives, and social channels play a crucial role in the research of holiday destinations, as travellers search for everything, including a great place to stay such as your hotel.

VisitBritain‘s research ‘The role of social media in the context of holidays’, which focused on visitor markets in the USA, Germany, India and South Korea, found that 89% of those surveyed use social media at some stage of their holiday.

Here are 25 key stats that demonstrate the combined power of your guest and their activity on social media:

1. 82% say free WiFi access encourages them to choose a particular hotel or hostel
2. Facebook is the most commonly used social platform in all stages of the holiday process
3. Advice and reviews from recent holidaymakers is preferred to that of travel experts – except for in Germany where they trust the experts more
   
4. 67% of respondents say they use social channels on foreign holidays
5. 95% of travellers from South Korea use social media on trips abroad – compared with 77% of Germans
   
6. 1 in 3 say they turn to social media to help decide where to go on holiday
7. Twitter and Instagram are used in equal proportion during the planning of trips
8. Just 14% of people in German want to see content in English – compared with India where English is the preference
9. 3 in 4 global travellers say social channels should be both entertaining and informative
10. 44% of US respondents prefer reviews from recent holidaymakers – the only market where the preference towards holidaymakers was lower than that for advice
11. 81% feel it’s important for organisations like VisitBritain to have social media channels
12. 76% of survey respondents say they have read a review when taking a holiday
13. But…only 19% have written a review on a site that allows bookings to made
14. That said, 1 in 5 have shared their opinions and holiday experiences
15. Those in the US show the lowest use of review sites – 3 out of 5 say they have visited at least one review site to assess their options
16. Guests from India and South Korea agree that seeing their friends’ holiday pictures make them want to visit a destination – 81% and 76% respectively
17. In Germany only half of the respondents say their friends’ photos inspire them to take a trip
18. Guests from Germany, India, and the USA say ‘keeping in touch with friends and family back home’ is the number one reason for using social media
19. 29% of Germans say they use social media to look for food and drink recommendations on holiday
    
20. 43% of guests from India use social media to let people know where they are
21. 35% of Americans use social media to upload holiday snaps while on their trip
    
22. 61% of travellers use a smartphone to access social media while on holiday – followed by laptop (20%); tablet (11%); and computer in café / hotel (9%)
23. Broken links on a website are a problem for guests – 64% said they will leave a website if links don’t work correctly
    
24. Social media is more popular at the end of the day – and very few guests use it when they’re out and about visiting attractions or eating out
25. Guests say they find content that inspires them the most helpful, including:
    – Good places to eat
    – Holiday itineraries by theme
    – Notifications about local events happening nearby
    – Ideas of what to do within a couple of hours travel

BONUS STAT: Travellers said social media competitions were not appealing to them – including prize draws and best ‘selfie’ contests.