What matter most on social media to today's travelers? Words: Monica Watson Design: Agata Kamler

1. DIGITAL TRAVELER PREFERENCES & HABITS
2018 Report
Presented By

2. TABLE OF CONTENTS
Introduction
Part 1: Platform That Perform
Part 2: Content That Matters
Part 3: How Travelers Share
Conclusion
@owen_takes_photos
@jaseer92
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3. INTRODUCTION
Social media has become a major focus for all travel marketers. The industry has seen the shift of
where and how people get inspired to visit a destination, research and formulate plans, and even
inquire about questions. To better understand these shifts and equip marketers with the information
needed to make the most effective marketing decisions, we invest in researching travelers. In this
report, we reveal the results of interviewing 200 people who have taken an overnight trip within the
last year to understand their preferences and habits regarding digital content and social media.
1@ozeias

4. @ozeias
To start, we wanted to understand what forms of content travelers view as having the biggest impact
on their travel decisions. You won’t be surprised to find out that the top outlet is word of mouth -
recommendations from friends and family was selected by 57% of survey takers. However, when
looking at the elements that marketing actually has control over, social content comes out on top.
One surprise is the importance of business travel over many other forms of advertising. Whether
someone is in a destination for a meeting and decides to explore the area more or comes back with
friends and family on a later date, the business traveler segment is not one to ignore.
Lastly, today’s travelers are not big fans of traditional outlets. While we don’t advocate for removing
these outlets completely from a marketing strategy, it may be worthwhile to explore ways to bring
authentic social content to these platforms that are seen as less inspirational.
PART 1:
Platforms That Perform
@julessd14
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What elements factored into where
people decided to travel?
54% Recommendations by someone I know
44% Social Content
1% Travel Agent, TV
Ads, OOH5% Print Ads
6% Guidebook
31% Best Deal14% Business Travel

5. If you’ve ever gotten annoyed with your friends and vowed to quit Facebook only to be back in less
than a day, you’ll know that there’s a difference between where people go for inspiration or see as a
more engaging social platform and what platforms are actually being used. So while 86% of travelers
are on Facebook compared to 63% on Instagram, Instagram comes first in travelers’ hearts for the
best travel content.
It’s not too surprising that Instagram has reached the top spot though when you look at the new
features they’ve launched over the past year including Collections, which enables users to save
photos into folders in a Pinterest-like manner. This makes researching travel on the platform even
more possible.
How are these travelers finding that inspirational travel content on Instagram in the first place? The
top outlet is geolocation search. This is why it is so important for travel marketers to properly tag
photos - whether with the specific destination, attraction, restaurant, etc. to reach potential guests.
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What social media platform do they use?
#1
#2
#3
#4
#5
#6
Facebook
YouTube
Instagram
Pinterest
Snapchat
Twitter
86%
63%
56%
42%
41%
36%
What social platform has the best content?
What Instagram feature(s) do travelers use
when looking for travel content or ideas?
#1
#1
#2
#2
#3
#3
#4
#5
#6
Instagram
Geolocation search
Facebook
Hashtag search
YouTube
People search
Pinterest
Snapchat
Twitter

6. PART 2:
Content That Matters
While being on the platforms travelers find inspirational is important, understanding what content
resonates best with them is key. Here, we gave travelers the option to choose between two different
forms of content often shared by travel brands to understand which most made the person want to
learn more about the destination or attraction.
What content do travelers most
like to see on Instagram?
For Instagram, it’s no surprise to us that authentic content created by and featuring other travelers
attracts people more. Content that feels overly produced or advertorial tends to be a huge turn-off
for users. In fact, in last year’s study, being overly promotional was the top reason travelers decided
not to follow travel brands on social.
prefer photos taken by real travelers and
reposted by the destination
prefer photos taken by real travelers and
reposted by the destination88% 12%
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7. What content do travelers most
like to see on YouTube?
Lastly, when it comes to Youtube, this is where
the content is a bit more mixed. Overwhelmingly,
travelers prefer vlogs (video blogs) showing
someone’s real travel experience. This is what
inspires them and entertains them. However, even
though only 32% said they prefer the location guide,
that video from Expedia have almost half a million
views. Youtube is the second largest search engine,
and that purely instructional or educational content
has a huge viewership among people specifically
seeking out tips for visiting any location.
What content do travelers most
like to see on Facebook?
For Facebook, again, authentic content and content
featuring real people are key. A trope we often see
in travel is wanted to share photos that show off
the premises, but when people book travel, they’re
booking an experience. Travel content should be
reflective of that.
prefer photos taken by real travelers,
reposted by the brand
prefer professional photos taken by
the brand
94%
6%
prefer a guide to a location created
by a brand32%
prefer a personal experience
documented by a real traveler (vlog)68%
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8. PART 3:
How Travelers Share
We spent a lot of time in this report understanding where and how people consume travel content.
Now, we want to dive into their own sharing habits.
Well, basically everyone shares to Facebook followed by Instagram - no huge surprise there. However,
Snapchat coming in third is quite interesting.
@nicoleau14
When visting a destination, how do travelers share their experience?
When sharing to Instagram, how do you tag those photos?
Share photos on Facebook
Geotagging
Share photos on Instagram
Hashtag
Post to Snapchat
Tag brands or destinations’ accounts
Share video on Facebook
Post to my Instagram Story
Post video to Instagram
Tweet about the trip
Film a video for YouTube
76%
45%
53%
35%
32%
17%
21%
18%
16%
9%
3%
73% 1-5 photos
18% 6-10 photos
9% 10+ photos
How many photos do you usually share on
Instagram of your travels?
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9. Many marketers have written off Snapchat in exchange for Instagram Stories, but in terms of where
travelers choose to share, it’s hugely relevant. Here’s the thing: Snapchat is not, in its current form, a
place to build an audience for a brand. Discoverability is poor, and the content is just typically more
meant for closer friends or one-on-one communications. So if your brand is interested reaching that
audience, instead of trying to build your own account, develop ways for travelers to share something
special with the use of paid geo-filters or lenses.
Sharing video to any platform is low compared to photos. This isn’t the biggest shock - even though
video is much easier to produce and is constantly being made even easier, it still takes a bit more
effort than a simple photo. When people do share a video, it’s often going to Facebook and Instagram
over Youtube though. Why? Looking at it from a consumer point-of-view, Youtube is inherently
different from other social platforms because it’s not just a social platform. People who create content
on Youtube are seen as entertainers where views can equal income. Even though there is no barrier
for entry, subconsciously it’s easy to draw the conclusion that people may feel an invisible barrier.
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10. Chute powers UGC for the world’s leading enterprise travel brands and destinations.
The platform offers a holistic approach - enabling marketers to discover traveler photos
and videos with both image recognition, geolocation, and text search, glean content
and influencer trends and data, and produce and amplify authentic media featuring
this content. Chute’s clients include Wyndham, Travel Nevada, Brand USA, The Ritz-
Carlton, Universal Orlando, SeaWorld, Norwegian Cruise Lines, Thorpe Park, and NYC
& Company.
For more information, visit www.getchute.com
Questions around if social media platforms are important for travelers are long behind us. The real
questions marketers are dealing with everyday revolve more around what content should be shared
and when to grow that audience and increase visitation. These stats provide a jumping-off point for
the general travel world, but of course remember that each audience and each traveler is unique. Use
your experience and date to choose the platforms and tactics that will perform best for your teams
and never be afraid to test and adjust.
CONCLUSION
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