Q: Has social media been influencing guests’ decisions to travel to the resort they are visiting?

This is the third of a three-part series to update the social media research survey we’ve been running in partnership with Guest Research on mountain resort guests. To finish this update, we’re looking at whether more guests are indicating that social media influenced their decision to pick the resort they visited. Here’s what we found.

The Goods
Pulling again from the same data set we used for the last two posts, the final question from our survey asked whether or not social media influenced a specific guest’s decision to visit that resort for that trip. And then, if the answer was “yes”, how influential (on a scale of 1-10, 10 being “100%” on the vertical axis below) social media was on their decision to visit.

After a rise between 2012 and 2013, the latest update shows a decline in the number of people who said that social influenced their decision to visit that resort. For those who were influenced, however, the amount of influence on this group bounced back to a point just slightly above where it started in 2012.

What This Means
As we saw last week, with fewer people following (or realizing they are following) it makes sense that fewer people would also consider that social influenced their decisions. Given the context from the other results, that wasn’t too surprising.

But perhaps all of this is a simple reflection of the algorithms that drive visibility on Facebook. The more you interact, the more content you see. The more content you see, the more you are influenced. And the more you interact, see, and are influenced, the more likely you are to know off the top of your head whether you follow a resort.

Can’t Stop, Won’t Stop
Another Stash is coming right on schedule next week. Don’t want to miss it? Stick your email below and we’ll send you a quick email when it goes live.