Tripadvisor and Tourism Sentiment Index: An Amazing Tool for Destination Marketers

February 25, 2021 Jim Byers

Your beaches are trending. But the talk isn’t so good when it comes to your culinary scene.

Your positive numbers are trending, but, uh-oh, your biggest tourism rival is doing a lot better.

If you’re a destination, using a remarkable tool called the Tourism Sentiment Index is a great way to get handle on what people around the world – or in your own back yard – are saying about you in real time. And now it’s part of Tripadvisor.

Tripadvisor, the world’s largest travel guidance platform, has announced the arrival of a live data intelligence dashboard available to destination marketing organizations (DMOs), powered by Tourism Sentiment Index. This offering is part of Tripadvisor’s wider suite of data intelligence products for DMOs, known as the Tripadvisor Insights Platform. The live dashboard provides clients with essential word-of-mouth insights about destinations, combining Tripadvisor’s unmatched reach and traveler behavior insights with Tourism Sentiment Index’s industry leading sentiment technology.

Tourism Sentiment Index, a company based in Vancouver, analyzes 500,000 websites around the world, including Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Trip Advisor and YouTube, all in real time, to find out what people are thinking about destinations, said Mike Duffield, Head of Product at Tourism Sentiment Index.

They now work with 170 destinations around the world and track 19,500 destinations globally every day. Data is centered on 50 major tourism assets, including accommodations, conventions, attractions and restaurants. The combined performance of these assets reveals a single Tourism Sentiment Score, presented on a scale of -100 to +100: the higher the score, the more positive the sentiment.

Duffield told Canadian Travel News that the sentiment score allows a destination to see how they compare with other places.

“For example, how is British Columbia competing on outdoor activities versus Alberta. Where is Alberta’s strength? Where are its weaknesses? Hawaii or Mexico could look at their scores on beaches or accommodations.”

Duffield, who formerly worked for Tourism Calgary, said a destination marketing group could use the information to help shape their tourism campaigns. They can even compare how a destination’s culinary scene is being described on Instagram versus Twitter.

If a destination had a problem with locals not wanting more tourists, they can use the index to find out if they’re seeing any negative backlashes and manage things in real time.

“We can see what adjustments they need to make to the visitor experience. We can look at accommodations perhaps or ground transport or air travel, anything where negative sentiment arises, and say this is where your” issues are. “ You can look at the customer experience from booking to the time they go back home. Where are those dips? What were the negative parts of that experience, and how do you fix that.”

Duffield said at one point last year TSI was looking at accommodation chatter in Vancouver.

“We saw people were concerned about cleaning procedures. They were asking questions like ‘Can I get COVID-19 from a pillow?’ So, now the destination can manage that. They can tell people about the procedures they have and give them some confidence.”

Tripadvisor says the platform “is a collection of measurement and insights tools intended to help partners in the travel and tourism industry manage their media campaigns and overall recovery activities. The solutions use Tripadvisor’s wealth of user behavior data to measure performance, uncover competitive insights and track how destinations, accommodations, attractions and restaurants are performing over time.

“The new sentiment dashboard for DMOs upgrades the service offering of the Tripadvisor Insights Platform by providing clients with daily actionable intelligence, using insights from across 50 tourism touch points – including air access, accommodations and attractions.

“In response to the unprecedented challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic, the sentiment dashboard also includes a crisis analysis module that tracks the impact of the pandemic in locations around the world by revealing emotional reactions to categories such as health services, government and economics.”

“Now more than ever, destination marketing organizations need data and business intelligence tools to help maximize competitiveness and drive recovery in the wake of COVID-19,” said Steven Paganelli, Group Head of Destination Marketing – Americas. “Tripadvisor’s live dashboard puts actionable insights at DMOs’ fingertips to help them make more informed and strategic marketing and media placement decisions. For example, being able to understand travelers’ readiness to travel in real-time helps DMOs update their marketing with the most effective messaging, therefore, getting the most impactful message in front of the right people, at the right time.”

Cody Chomiak, director of marketing for Tourism Winnipeg said it’s a great tool that allows his group to tweak and adjust their campaigns at the last minute, depending on what the data is showing.

“Tourism Sentiment Index and Tripadvisor are industry leaders in tourism and hospitality intelligence, with a shared vision of helping destination marketing organizations use data-driven insights to guide their recovery strategies and most efficiently engage the right customers,” said Rodney Payne, Founder of Tourism Sentiment Index and CEO of Destination Think. “Our data intelligence provides DMOs with the ability to drill down to specific conversations and insights taking place at the destination-level – whether a city, region or country.

Speaking on a virtual chat on Thursday, Payne also said the index is incredibly powerful during a crisis, such as a wildfire or hurricane.

“We can see what people are saying that’s positive, what people are saying tha’ts negative about a place, what experiences they’re drawn to, what are the ones that need some work, what are they interested in, how are we doing against competitors, and a lot of insights about how people are feeling amongst the pandemic about travel and welcoming back visitors.”

“It’s that 50000 foot view for the destination,” Chomiak said. “It’s really looking at high level, how your destination is doing. Is it trending up or down? What are the milestones year ocver year? Are there major initiatives that have greatly affected sentiment? Those types of data are really helpful for us. And then being able to have that comparative set of other destinations that are kind of like you, you can really start to see where your’re strong and maybe not where you’re strong, and it really helps you shape what kind of content works best.”

Chomiak said the return of the NHL’s Winnipeg Jets to the city was a big deal. People couldn’t always get tickets but Winnipeg hotels saw that the team was trending on the TSI and created special packages for fans to watch the game and get room service.

About the Author