on 23 February 2010
Surprising news for the digerati from a large survey by budget accommodation provider Hostelworld indicating that Facebook and YouTube lead the way in use of social media by travellers at the expense of Twitter.
The poll of 2,000 regular hostel users found that only 9% used the Twitter micro-blogging platform, while almost half used Facebook and nearly a third were users of video sharing service YouTube.
- 47% – Facebook
- 31% – YouTube
- 9% – Twitter
- 6% – Flickr
- 6% – MySpace
- 1% – Bebo
The results, presented at Hostelworld’s annual customer conference in Dublin, Ireland, also revealed how travellers are booking their accommodation online.
Home desktop computers secured 34% of the vote, behind laptops at 46% but way ahead of smartphones with just 5%.
Although 87% of respondents claimed they would take take a mobile device with them when travelling, almost half said it was for SMS messaging (46%) and calls (41%). Only 13% pinpointed web browsing as an activity they would use their phones for.
Other areas covered the survey included booking windows for travellers, with the strong majority buying accommodation within a month of their arrival time.
- 13% – 3 months or more
- 41% – 1 month
- 27% – 1 week
- 12% – 3-4 days
- 7% – 1-2 days
The travellers represented 70 countries around the world (Australia – 9%, USA – 8%, Britain and Canada – 7%) and 42% were aged 25-34 and 36% were 18-24.
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When compared with the number of Facebook vs. Twitter users and the fact that the former is the main networking and communications platform used by that demographic that seems a non-surprising result. Also, travel related FB apps like Where I’ve Been probably influence that use as well.