9 Social Networking Travel Sites You Can’t Afford To Miss

These days, you hear a lot about the importance of social networking in hospitality marketing.  But what networks should you focus on?  It depends on your goals, but here are some of the most popular:

WikiTravel – similar to Wikipedia, this is a user-written travel guide that was launched in July 2003 by Evan Prodromou and Michele Ann Jenkins. It was the recipient of a Webby Award for Best Travel Website in 2007, and recently became available in a printed version.  It’s good for providing in-depth information on obscure destinations.

TripAdvisor – the grandaddy of review websites, covering more than 212,000 hotels and 74,000 attractions in over 30,000 destinations worldwide. With more than 20 million reviews and nearly 30 million unique visitors a month, TripAdvisor is the largest travel community on the web.

VirtualTourist – purchased by TripAdvisor in July 2008, this site features user-written destination guides.

Yelp – another big review website that seems more popular with the younger, connected crowd.  (I’ll often type in reviews with my iPhone while at a cafe.)

Boots-n-All – calls itself “the ultimate resource for the independent traveler,” and offers articles and trip planning services

World66 – travel information on over 20,000 destinations, with nearly 80,000 articles written wiki-style

Lonely Planet Thorn Tree – probably the most popular discussion forum, published by the famous travel guide company

TravBuddy – provides more social networking than the others, letting you meet people and share photos, reviews, and blogs

TravelersPoint – lets 100,000+ users write travel blogs and share advice



You should enter your email below to receive new tips like this each Monday morning:

Article by Josiah Mackenzie // November 10, 2008 Josiah helps hospitality organizations use technology and the social web to provide better service and generate more profits.

Comments

 

Write a Comment