According to a new poll by one of the UK’s leading online independent travel agencies, social media platforms play a large part in holidaymakers’ decisions about where to visit, with around half claiming to have used sites such as Facebook and Twitter to gather recommendations and reviews from people who may have personal experience of certain resorts.

The poll was carried out by sunshine.co.uk, after the site noticed an increase in traffic directed from social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter. 1,102 British holidaymakers subsequently took part, each of whom had been abroad in the past 2 years. Respondents were asked questions surrounding how they went about selecting their eventual holiday destination.

Respondents were initially asked, ‘Did you research your chosen destination and accommodation before booking and going on your last holiday?’ to which the overriding majority, 98%, said ‘yes’.

These respondents were then asked to select all that applied from a list of possible answers about how exactly they researched their chosen destination and/or accommodation. The results, according to sunshine.co.uk, were as follows:

• Review websites – 62%
• Social media platforms – 49%
• Information from travel agent – 33%
• Word of mouth – 26%
• Travel guides – 19%
• Other – 13%

Of the respondents who selected social media platforms as a means of researching holiday destinations and accommodation before booking, 61% said they used Facebook, whilst 17% said they used Twitter to do so.

When asked, ‘Did your research affect where you went and stayed on holiday?’ 96% of the respondents who had done some research said ‘yes’.

Chris Brown, co-founder of sunshine.co.uk, commented on the findings: “Research is a vital part of booking a holiday. Word of mouth recommendations can often be few and far between, so don’t be afraid to do your homework and look at past reviews of resorts and destinations. It was really interesting to find out that many ask friends, family, or even strangers on social media platforms about where to go on their next holiday.

“In one sense, it’s a great way to get some feedback from people who may have been to the resorts you are thinking of visiting. The main thing to remember is that, if one person has had a bad experience and doesn’t rate a hotel or resort, it doesn’t mean your holiday will turn out the same.”