Latest research suggests that travellers are spending just as much time on various social media platforms as they are taking in the sights on their holidays.
Travellers, according to Accor Asia Pacific’s second Social Media Monitor, are now spending as much time researching, planning, boasting about and reporting on their travels as they do actually relaxing on a beach or exploring new destinations.
A whopping 70 per cent of the 6500 travellers surveyed use social media when they travel across Asia Pacific.
The duration spent on various sites equates to an average of 2.8 hours per day.
However, not every traveller is alike and their dependance on the internet varies from country to country. Eighty four per cent of travellers from China are active on the internet during their holidays. They are closely followed by 83 per cent of the Vietnamese. Indonesians come in at a close third with 82 per cent.
Taking in the sites as opposed to the sights?
Travellers from Australia, New Zealand and Japan are the least active but even from those countries two in five are unable to peel themselves away from their devices while travelling.
“Social media has become all-pervasive in the travel industry as we can see from the results of the latest Accor Hotels Social Media Monitor,” said Jens Uwe Parkitny, Accor’s Vice President Digital Marketing and Distribution.
“This survey provides great insight into where our guests are looking for inspiration for their travels, how they engage with social media during their stay and how they share their experiences afterwards.”
Facebook remains the most popular platform for travellers. Almost half of the respondents said they use Facebook multiple times a day (including in China, where government censorship of the site is in place). Women are dominantly active on the site, with 54 per cent admitting to using Facebook multiple times a day. Only 13 per cent say they have never used it.
This picture gives a whole new meaning to the word “merge.”
WhatsApp remains the second most favoured platform. However, an emerging trend of utilising made-in-Asia instant messaging platforms has also also detected by the survey. Since last year’s survey, WeChat is up 13 per cent and Line is up by 11 per cent.
Youtube and Instagram are also growing in popularity, with 23 per cent of travellers using Youtube multiple times daily and 11 per cent using Instagram.