Planning a vacation? User-generated content is your “New Guide”

The love for travel has always been driven by the excitement of discovering new places, delving into diverse cultures, and creating memories that last. With the holiday season fast approaching, travel websites have been busier than ever. Of late, vacationers plan their trip meticulously, doing a whole lot of research and spending several hours in the process. And why not?

When you are spending a significant amount of money to take that “much-deserved” break, you might as well know your itinerary. Yes, Word-of-mouth from colleagues, friends, and family greatly influences choosing vacation destinations. However, vacationers have found a new, authentic dimension in recent years: “User-Generated Content.”

Well, what is this “User-Generated Content”? or UGC?

UGC, also called consumer-generated content, is information published or made available to the public by unpaid contributors. In other words, the next time you try a new restaurant, and you post a picture of the food or leave a review without being monetarily nudged, voila!!, you have contributed to the ocean of UGC.

UGC, in particular, has transformed the world of tourism through travel blogs, Instagram posts, and Pinterest clicks. In fact, it would not be wrong to say that UGC motivates us because the experiences put out for a global audience are genuine and real. As travelers, our expectations are set through first-hand experience insights from sites such as TripAdvisor and YouTube, and several others that give the users permission to share reviews, photos, videos, testimonials, podcasts etc.

Consumers trust traveler’s reviews more than travel agencies and guides, as tourist reviews are perceived to be more objective, unbiased, credible, and trustworthy. Further, studies indicate the growing significance of online reviews in tourism, where they play a complementary role to holiday selection, as readily available consumer-created reviews have significant potential and impact on the accommodation decisions of potential tourists.

Accommodation-related reviews of resorts and other establishments are the prominent category under UGC. Potential tourists get advice from travelers when visiting websites such as TripAdvisor, the world’s largest travel site, attracting more than 156 million unique monthly visitors. It is “the world’s largest” travel-related website, with a large database of over one billion tourist reviews and opinions and more than 490 million monthly active users.

Accommodation booking sites provide user-generated feedback and ratings of hotels, which have now mostly become a standard feature, and sites have started to provide backlinks to social networking sites such as Facebook, Goibibo, MakeMyTrip, and Instagram to enable amplified word-of-mouth further. This strengthens the online marketing efforts of tourism destinations, acting as powerful tools to sell the ‘experience’ and be trusted by tourists.

The unprecedented amount of information on user-generated content sites is potentially more powerful than a few conventional word-based methods. Yes, there are a few debates sparked by false content used by marketers, but this does not sustain for long, as consumers can now sense foul play incredibly quickly.

There are two ways a tourist fits in the world of UGC. One, tourists investigate and verify the credentials and authenticity of tourism providers through social media. Two, tourists are empowered to receive and pass on suggestions and recommendations to other potential travelers based on their travel experiences. User-generated content (UGC) can also educate travel consumers and capture information about potential tourists for tourism operators and various travel boards. Thereby ensuring a more enhanced experience in the years to come.

With the rise of tourists within and outside the country for an experience with culture, leisure, and emerging concepts of voluntourism and ecotourism, the need for UGC has become greater. So, the next time you vacation, feel free to voice your opinion and experience in the world of User-generated content. Vacation and help others vacation!!!!!

By Dr. K.P. Sandhya Rao and Dr. Shilpa Praveen 

(Dr. K.P. Sandhya Rao is a Professor of Marketing at Justice KS Hegde Institute of Management, Nitte University, and Dr. Shilpa Praveen is an Assistant Professor in the area of marketing at T A Pai Management Institute, Manipal Academy of Higher Education, Manipal.)

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