Travel Insights 100 launches with survey about how travel leaders use Twitter

I recently was involved in the launch of Travel Insights 100. Travel Insights 100 is a group of 100 experts in the travel world who agreed to volunteer their time to participate in quarterly surveys about the travel industry and related subjects. Travel Insights 100 launched on September 21, 2009 by announcing the results of their first survey, "All about Twitter." Travel Insights 100 is a partnership between UpTake, Tips from the T-List and BootsnAll Travel Network.

Travel Insights 100 members are experts from across the travel industry and around the world (many of them are members of TBEX.) Each volunteered to share their knowledge and experience with the group and provide valuable and insightful feedback to benefit the travel community. The best news is that all Travel Insights 100 research is under a Creative Commons license and can be published or used for commercial re-use by anyone.

The first survey results reveal key insights into how the group feels about and utilizes Twitter, and their thoughts on emerging social media trends in the industry.

Some of the results were not surprising to me, such as the popularity of Twitter (98% of all members used Twitter.) However it is a recent phenomenon, with the majority of respondents just starting to use the tool in the past twelve months (52 percent). Twitter's meteoric rise remind me a bit of a teen idol, I wonder how long its popularity will last and where the next phenomenon will come from (is a 70 character limit in our future?) I also wasn't surprised about the nearly equal split between Twitter addicts (31% use Twitter ten or more times a day) and those who use it less frequently (33 percent use Twitter less than four times a day). But I really wonder about the 10% who say they tweet continually until they fall asleep at their computer. It sounds like an intervention is needed.

The most interesting result for travel consumers was that the majority of respondents (91 percent) recommend using Twitter to find travel information such as deals and tips. I see Twitter as a means of maintaining and making connections and as a fountain of interesting travel tidbits, but have yet to use it as a tool for deal hunting. I may rethink who I follow and test if Twitter can be used for travel deals for my family and me, but if I do that, then I too may need the proposed Twitter intervention.

If you want to see more data, a slide share was created to highlight key findings for anyone interested in Twitter and travel.

If you are of a more analytical bent, then you can peruse the raw data to see what your favorite travel expert had to say about their Twitter use.

If you have other questions about Travel Insights 100, please contact me via TBEX.

Happy travels.

Pat