ORC International: Survey shows social media has fully penetrated the tourism industry

Accor's second social media monitoring in Asia Pacific shows that today's travelers spend almost as much time online finding information, making plans and sharing their travel experiences as they do relaxing on the beach or exploring new destinations. The survey found that 70% of travelers in Asia Pacific use social media when traveling, with travelers in China (84%), Vietnam (83%) and Indonesia (82%) being the most active.

Travelers from Australia, New Zealand and Japan are the least active users of social media, but even so, two in five people in these countries still frequently use social media while traveling. Travelers in the Asia-Pacific region spend an average of 2.8 hours per day on social media, with travelers in Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand spending around 4 hours per day.

Accor and ORC International conducted this survey, interviewing more than 6,500 travelers from 13 countries, aiming to find the most popular websites and social media platforms for guests in the Asia-Pacific region. As the largest hotel management group in the region with 590 hotels in 17 countries in the Asia-Pacific region, Accor has a unique advantage to comprehensively analyze travelers' social media usage habits. Through this survey, Accor learned when and on which platforms guests usually prefer to search for travel-related information, make reservations or share travel experiences, so as to serve travelers more targeted.

Jens Uwe Parkitny, Vice President Digital Marketing and Distribution at AccorHotels, said: “AccorHotels’ latest Social Media Monitoring Survey shows that social media has fully penetrated the travel industry. This survey provides us with a good understanding of the preferences of guests, including how they seek travel inspiration, how they use social media to interact with the outside world during their stay, and how they share their experiences after their trip.”

“We can use this valuable information to better meet the needs of our guests at every stage of their travel journey. At the same time, by tracking the development and changes in people’s social media behavior on an annual basis, AccorHotels can better optimize its social media development strategy in Asia Pacific.”

The survey results show that Facebook is still the most popular social media platform for travelers, followed by WhatsApp, but instant messaging platforms originating from Asia have become increasingly popular in the past year, with WeChat's popularity rising by 13% and Line rising by 11%. In some markets, these instant messaging platforms have even begun to surpass Facebook to become the primary social network for sharing travel-related information.

The survey also found that the market landscape of social media is changing rapidly, with multiple media such as Youtube and Instagram becoming more and more popular, with 23% of travelers using Youtube multiple times a day and 11% using Instagram multiple times a day. WhatsApp is highly accepted in the Asia-Pacific region (33%), surpassing Facebook in four markets: Hong Kong, Malaysia, Singapore and India.

For the first time this year, Line surpassed Facebook to become the most frequently used social media in Thailand, becoming the first choice for 71% of Thai respondents. In Indonesia (33%) and Japan (26%), Line also ranks among the top three most popular social media in these regions.

Surprisingly, in mainland China, WeChat has replaced Sina Weibo as the most popular social media, with three out of four travelers saying they use WeChat multiple times a day. In Hong Kong, WeChat also ranks among the top three.

Emilie Couton, Accor's Vice President of Customer Experience, said: "The survey results enable Accor to communicate more effectively with its customers. For example, Accor recently held a lucky price promotion in Thailand using Line's platform, which attracted more than 20,000 participants in just three days. Accor also launched its own WeChat public account in China and quickly attracted more than 9,000 participants through the "Book Future Memories" event, which helped promote its newly launched website accorhotels.cn."

Nearly half of the respondents said they use Facebook multiple times a day (including in China), while only 13% said they never use the social media platform. Women are more likely to use Facebook, with 54% of women saying they use it multiple times a day, compared to 45% of men. In the Asia-Pacific region, the Philippines has the highest rate of Facebook use, up 13 percentage points from last year (73% use Facebook multiple times a day).

Comparing countries, the differences are also significant. In Australia, New Zealand, Indonesia, Japan, the Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam, Facebook tops the list for all three stages of travel (before, during and after the trip). In Singapore, Malaysia and India, people prefer Facebook for pre-trip information and post-trip experience sharing, and use WhatsApp more to stay connected during the trip. In South Korea, the situation is exactly the same, except that they use KakaoTalk instead of WhatsApp. In Hong Kong, people prefer to use Facebook for pre-trip research and planning, but are more likely to use WhatsApp to share experiences during and after the trip. In mainland China, the situation is similar, with people preferring Sina Weibo to find information but more willing to share experiences on WeChat.