In the 1980s, Sting may have wanted his MTV, but in 2010 a lot of men and women in the US need their Facebook when traveling.
Especially men.
The statistics from a StudyLogic "Social Media Survey" done for Sheraton Hotels may be of keen interest to hotels, destination marketing organizations, tour operators, shore excursion vendors and other travel advertisers who want to reach men and women on the road.
eMarketer detailed the survey results on how men and women use social media when traveling.
Among the findings:
- 42.2% of men and and 35.3% of women indicated "I could not live without it" if they didn't have access to social media sites for several days when traveling.
- Travelers age 25-34 were the most likely (53.5)% to express their unwillingness to live without social media.
- However, 47.1% of women and 28.1% of men surveyed said that they could indeed live without social media for several days when traveling.
The survey results may shatter any myths that women are the more social-minded of the genders -- at least when it comes to social media and traveling.
Men apparently are more needy than women and require more contact with their social networks when traveling. (That's only one interpretation of the data, of course.)
In fact, "nearly 60% of respondents said social media made it easier to meet people while traveling, with men and young adults again in the lead," eMarketer says.
Overall, eMarketer notes, the StudyLogic survey found that "72.7% of US social network users accessed the sites at least daily while they were traveling. Young adults ages 25 to 34 checked social sites most often, with nearly a third using them multiple times an hour."
StudyLogic conducted the survey Nov. 17, 2010.