TripAdvisor is increasingly trusted and relied upon by members of the public when planning their holidays. Whether it is finding the ideal hotel, checking out specific activities and restaurants or even deciding on the entire holiday destination in the first place, the site is highly influential. One obvious reason for this is the source of the information.
This is not the marketing pattern of a tourism organisation, carefully crafted to spin as positive a message as possible about each aspect of a destination. Nor is it from the hotels themselves, or even the independent travel media. Instead, it is a warts-and-all summary of the opinions and experiences of those who travel to such places.
The best for 2015
For this reason, the recently-announced 2015 Travellers’ Choice Awards for Destinations is something that should make everyone sit up and take notice. For people planning their summer holidays, the list may provide considerable inspiration, either by promoting them to choose to visit one of these places this year or place it on their bucket list. By contrast, some people may decide against prioritising a destination they had been considering a visit to if it has dropped down the list. In addition, it should make those involved in tourism in the areas listed aware that they could be dealing with a surge in demand – and meeting it in terms of quality and quantity of services will be important if they want to remain high in the rankings. By contrast, those whose ratings have slipped down will be looking at the detail of the list to find out why, and whether it is because their own offerings have declined or simply been overtaken by something better elsewhere.
Ups and downs
The 2015 list put Marrakech top of its world list, ahead of Cambodia’s Siem Reap and Istanbul. The Turkish city was listed as the leading European destination, even though pedants will point out that only half of it is actually in Europe. Europe was well represented in the world destinations lists, with Prague in fifth, London sixth, Rome seventh and Paris ninth. The other non-European destinations to make the list were Hanoi, Buenos Aires and Cape Town, while the rest of Europe’s top ten was completed by Zermatt, Barcelona, Goreme, St Petersburg and Athens.All this represented some significant movement compared with 2014. Marrakech was top for the first time ever and Siem Reap jumped seven places from last year. The rise of these African and Asian destinations was in contrast with the performance of top European destinations, with last year’s number two Rome slipping to seventh and London dropping from third to sixth.
Worse still was the fate of the United States, with New York failing to make the top ten for the tenth year running.
Tradition on its way out?
These findings might suggest that some of the most popular traditional destinations are going the same way on a global scale as traditional seaside resorts have in Britain, albeit with many of these locations relying less on tourism to keep the local economy stoked.
New York’s performance may be a clear enough indicator that it is not the case that people simply have a declining interest in Europe. Rather, the pattern suggests that travellers are increasingly keen on cultural experiences outside the west. This would explain the position of Istanbul – a classic east-meets-west melting pot – at the top of the European list. This poses some interesting challenges for those involved in hotels in European destinations like London. Do they simply accept decline and consider that changing fashions cannot be stopped? Do they seek to emphasise their own diversity, rather in the way, for instance, that mayor Boris Johnson has hailed London as “the world in one city”? Or do they reconsider just what their markets are?
Not just TripAdvisor
The last of these options may be the most profitable. It needs to be understood that while it may be very influential, TripAdvisor is a barometer of what British and Western people want from their holidays. It is not a guide to the tastes of all travellers from around the world, where other travel sites may be popular and the things people want to see and do different to those prioritised by TripAdvisor users. Indeed, it should be noted that many people from outside the west will still want to come to UK destinations such as London, as well as places like Edinburgh, Manchester or the Lake District. For example, anyone spending time in central London will swiftly realise that the overseas visitors are still present in large numbers. Equally, Scotland remains enormously popular with North American visitors, not least those with ancestral heritage. And some surprising elements can play a part. For example, Beatrix Potter’s writings about Peter Rabbit are very big in Japan and draw large numbers of visitors from that country to her old Lake District haunts.
So while TripAdvisor’s lists indicate much about a segment of the global tourism market, they will not tell the whole story.
