Websites Give More Satisfaction than Travel Guides
Consumers are using travel websites in preference to paperback travel guides, according to Wanderlust magazine. The concept of the traditional guidebook has been supplanted by their online equivalents in terms of user satisfaction.
Wanderlust magazine’s annual travel awards stated that there was a “satisfaction gap” of over 15 per cent between the top paper guide, Lonely Planet and the most popular website, wildfrontiers.co.uk. Every one of the top ten websites scored over 80 per cent for customer satisfaction.
The poll had over 2,000 respondents, and assessed people’s satisfaction ratings in various options. Editor-in-chief Lyn Hughes said: “The pace of change in travel has never been faster and these results show traditional guidebooks struggling to complete with blogs and websites which can be updated dozens of times each hour.”
The poll, reported on the TravelMole website, also revealed some of the emerging travel trends from consumers. Namibia was voted as the top country to visit followed by Oman and New Zealand. Colombia, Madagascar and The Maldives were all voted among the top emerging destinations to visit in 2010.
For city breaks, Luang Prabang in Laos was voted as the top international city followed by Sienna in Italy and Germany’s capital Berlin. The American cities of Boston and San Francisco both made the top 10.
The Greatest Disservice to Travel category voted for by the editors, was won by The Met Office for being so far off the mark with its forecasting of the weather over the summer months. It was closely followed by the BA union, Unite for its threatened strike action.
Travel Industry news posted by Marilyn on 05 February 2010
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