Having mentioned Holiday Watchdog yesterday, time today to give Trip Advisor its place in the blog's sun. It is the most important of the holiday (and restaurant) review sites, but it is not - in my opinion (and opinion is what matters) - the best. On the principle that a website should be simple to navigate, Trip Advisor gets my thumbs-down; it's not a patch on Holiday Truths when it comes to user-friendliness and simplicity. But Trip Advisor is on a rather grander scale - it is international, and it has its own director in Spain. He was interviewed yesterday in the "Diario". It is also, or has been, more susceptible to the owner-inspired (written even) glowing review, which was why the British Government legislated against such a carry-on.
Talking to the site's Spanish director is an example of how well the "Diario" does tourism and the business surrounding it, and the most interesting aspect of the interview was - if dealt with only briefly - the revelation that a well-known (unnamed) Mallorcan hotelier considers opinions posted on Trip Advisor to be more important than official categorisation, the number of stars and whatever.
It had been, before I did the Bellevue interview last summer, my impression that no one much in Mallorca took any notice of sites like Trip Advisor. No one much in terms of hotel managements, tourism authorities, town halls and so on. I would still be surprised to learn that the latter two do take any notice, but the hotels are a different matter. Well, Bellevue was, and the then assistant director was. He's no longer there. But Trip Advisor was on his favourites list (or possibly his un-favourites). It was important that it was, given the fire panic of last season.
The drawback with any site such as Trip Advisor, and any forums elsewhere and also Facebook and the rest, is that opinion is just that - opinion. By its nature it is subjective, unscientific; it is also just the tip of a very tall iceberg when it comes to the actual numbers of holidaymakers who ever go on to such sites. Should anyone take any notice therefore? Yes and no. Yes, because opinion can carry a lot of power, despite its subjectivity. No, because this opinion cannot really be challenged (and Trip Advisor has rules as to how hoteliers can respond, as was pointed out to me by the Bellevue assistant director) and because there isn't a "profile" of the person placing the opinion. You might know their sex, their date of birth, their home town, but none of this tells you anything meaningful. This just adds to the unscientific nature of the opinion generation.
Nevertheless, the reviews and comments on sites are being taken seriously, in some quarters, testimony to the power of the internet. It's those quarters that don't take them seriously or just don't even look at them that concern me, which brings us back to the tourism authorities and the town halls. I have said this before, but it bears repetition, and that is that these bodies should be devoting time and resources to monitoring to what is being said on the internet.
Were they to, they might actually learn something. Or be prompted into some course of action. They have a vast market research resource at the click of a mouse, and you doubt that they exploit it. More fool they.
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
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