Travellers claim they get most of their inspiration for where to go on a trip from watching television and sites such as Facebook and Instagram, according to a new survey.
YouGov surveyed 10,000 travellers in the Middle East, North Africa and South Asia (MENASA) in a bid to discover the influencing factors for travel discovery, as well as where emerging technologies such as virtual reality might fit in.
Long-held triggers for a destination such as friends and family offline did not feature in the list of leading factors.
Still, 75 percent said television shows and content on Facebook were the most common channels for inspiration.
These were followed by 72 percent for Instagram, 65 percent for Snapchat, 63 percent from Twitter and 60 percent from Pinterest.
Films were cited by 62 percent of travelers. YouTube didn’t feature at all.
MENASA also appear to be giving a warm welcome to virtual reality in the search food-chain.
For example, 51 per cent said they found the idea very appealing of tasting a destination on a VR headset before booking.
In fact almost two-thirds, 64 percent, said they would visit a retail store to use the headsets.
Perhaps most surprisingly was the reaction to newbies such as Uber and Airbnb, both of which are supposedly taking many other parts of the world by storm.
Just 27 percent and 17 percent respectively said they found the idea of such services appealing.
The YouGov report said, “Despite obvious concerns about data security related to predictive planning services, it’s clear their value isn’t being ignored with a significant proportion of respondents willing to pay for such services. Perhaps the region isn’t ready quite yet to fully embrace peer-to-peer services, which are relatively well-known but unused.
“Nevertheless, the very nature of their existence on technology-based platforms which link seamlessly to popular inspiration sources such as social media and endless possibilities with predictive technology may prove advantageous for future development and adoption in their region.”
