Bragging rights for the week go to TripAdvisor, which has made some massive claims as to its ability to generate money for local economies and the industry.
The user review giant says during 2014 it influenced $478 billion worth of travel spend in the sector, equating to some 352 million room nights.
Furthermore, additional travel expenditure generated by TripAdvisor is estimated to be in the region of $64 billion over the same period.
The study by Oxford Economics also found that 1.9 million jobs globally were "sustained by the travel spending" coming out of consumers using TripAdvisor for recommendations.
All these eye-watering numbers have led TripAdvisor to claim that it accounts for almost 11% of the global online travel market.
The estimated $64 billion spend "would not have taken place without TripAdvisor", the company says, with a number of elements influenced, such as extended length of stay.
Other findings in the study include:
- Driving general interest to destinations - the number of trips taken to a destination increases as content (photos, reviews, listings, information) is added to TripAdvisor.
- Hospitality standards - feedback given from travellers helps product owners to identify where improvements should be made to a service.
- Levelling the playing field - reviews and other content (photos, videos, etc) benefits independent businesses as they have an ability to compete on a brand-neutral platform.
TripAdvisor says:
"What is interesting is that TripAdvisor is having two notable effects on travel spending. On the one hand visitors are saving money per day by using the site to find better value options, while on the other hand the confidence they gain through reading reviews leads to an increase in both the number of trips they make and how long those trips last for."
Here is an infographic with more of the results:
NB:The full report is available here.
NB2:TripAdvisor image via Shutterstock.