TripAdvisor has issued another not-so-subtle reminder of its status and influence in the travel market - this time with the dollars to back it up.
According to a new study from Oxford Economics in partnership with the travel giant, TripAdvisor influences approximately 10.3% - or $546 billion – of the $5 trillion+ global travel economy; the figure is up 7%, or $268 billion, from a decade prior.
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This amounts to TripAdvisor influencing more than 433 million trips - including 65 million in the United States - last year, the report claims. The findings come on the heels of the release of TripAdvisor’s Q1 financial results, which show notable growth in the site’s non-hotel sector.
The report also claims that, though total tourism spend is on the rise, growing at an annual average rate of 3% over the past decade, TripAdvisor-influenced spending has outpaced that percentage at an annual average rate of 7.4%.
In addition to influencing travel, the study, which compared TripAdvisor user data dating back to 2004 with world economic growth statistics, also finds that TripAdvisor is generating “additional” travel (or, travel that otherwise wouldn’t have occurred).
Additional travel has resulted in more than 32 million additional trips (11 million inbound and 21 million domestic) and more than 502 million additional tourism nights in 2017.
Global market
Over the past 10 years, Asia Pacific, the Middle East and Latin America are the regions that have seen the most growth in travel spending at 130%, 94% and 42%, respectively.
The report claims North American travel has increased by 25%, while Western Europe has remained fairly flat, growing by just 3%, though about half of all international trips are to European destinations.
Domestic tourism spend, at $3.9 trillion, accounts for three-quarters of global tourism spend, while international spending increased to $1.4 trillion last year.
“We launched this study not only because we wanted to better understand the true size and scope of the global travel economy, but also to better understand TripAdvisor’s scale and impact on tourism,” says Charlie Ballard, TripAdvisor’s director of strategic insights.
“The travel category is indeed enormous and outpacing other consumer spending worldwide, and TripAdvisor not only inspires travel, but also causes more travel – in particular by encouraging travelers to take longer trips by showing them how much more there is to see and do.”