According to the poll of 1,000+ 18-35 year-olds carried out by the TNT Travel Show, which takes place at Earls Court in London on 3 March, most never use their smartphone when globetrotting, and prefer word-of-mouth travel recommendations to wasting time fiddling around with social media.
A massive 73% of backpackers say they favour word-of-mouth advice for the best travel recommendations, compared to an out-voted 14% who believe social media is the answer to backpackers’ dreams.
Nor are blogs considered any better as a source of travel recommendations, except by 13% of those polled.
Not that many backpackers pack the ‘tools of the trade’ in order to be able to access social media. 85% of Blackberry users and 68% of iPhone users prefer to leave their smartphones at home and take instead (90%) their camera.
Email comes out tops in the battle for ‘best tech for keeping in touch with friends and family’ while abroad, scooping 29% of the vote. Facebook came second at 22%, then SMS texting at 16% (the ones with their phones presumably!), Skype at 15%, mobile phone at 12% (so 4% more prefer texting to speaking?), landlines (3%), and here’s the shocker… Twitter 1% equal with snail mail!
So, how can travel bloggers better engage with, and become more relevant to, young backpackers?
Image: Sukianto
Maybe those young backpackers simply can’t afford to use their smartphones while globetrotting (at least, when they’re away from free Wi-Fi connections).
As for how bloggers can better engage with or become more relevant to young (or old) backpackers, is that even an issue for the average travel blogger? The blogger who’s recording a trip diary for friends, family, and fans may not feel compelled to become a supplier of travel-planning information. Not everyone wants to be the next Karl Baedeker or Arthur Frommer.
1) Since when do backpackers include 18-35 year olds?? That is a massive age range.
2) What backpackers attend travel shows?
3) How is this poll any more valid that taking the same poll at, say, TBEX?
I find the numbers a bit surprising, from my experience 80%+ have some sort of a mobile phone/tablet and/or laptop. We have free Wi-Fi in the hostels so it is very common to see everyone on mostly facebook chatting and uploading photos. I also think that photos taken using those devices are equal to the ones taken with cameras.
I know a lot of travellers that gave up on emailing and use facebook status updates and private messages as their main communication option.
I will be interested in seeing the actual questions asked in the survey, I think it will be interesting to run this survey in our hostels and even on our website.
Dror
Loki Hostels
PS – Gary – I think 18-35 is a representative age for backpackers, there are a lot older ones as well.