UGC Revolution in online travel

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February 2008

In this month's podcast, i-level's Tom Dunn discusses the impact of user-generated content (UGC) on the online travel business with Celia Pronto, UK marketing director of STA Travel, Martin Verdon Roe, head of sales (UK) for TripAdvisor and James Dunford Wood, co-founder of World Reviewer.

The vast amount of user-generated content on the internet has revolutionized the travel industry. Well-informed consumers have forced hotels, airlines and providers of travel services to up their game - provide a quality service or risk losing their business.

TripAdvisor’s Martin Verdon Roe, says that this democratization of the industry online has helped consumers improve their confidence before making a purchase. Agreeing, James Dunford-Wood, points out that further segmentation in the social media space has meant that users can now opt to read recommendations by like-minded people – similar age-group, social strata or country. This filtering of content, working on an Amazon-type model has helped increase trust in the recommendations.

Meanwhile, Celia Pronto debunks the myth that UGC is a new idea. She argues that even within STA’s clearly-defined market, personal recommendations at dinner-parties, for instance, have always played an important part in the holiday-research process. Other old world concepts like the high-street travel agent though, are becoming less important as the audience moves from the street to the web. This new mix of expert opinion and UGC available via social media widgets, applications and websites has replaced the travel agent to a certain extent.

All three agree that while the internet will continue to be a marvelous pre-booking research tool, the final decision to purchase is also affected by specific digital strategies such as search engine optimization, affiliate marketing and cross-platform selling.

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