IBM’s Social Sentiment Index offers Holiday Travel Insights 2013

According to the latest IBM Social Sentiment analysis of 250,000 online conversations, it has been revealed that travel and hospitality was trending as high as 33 per cent of all social conversation tracked, indicating a particularly high volume of discussions about flying, driving and vacation with family and friends, among others.  The IBM "Desire Ratio" – the proportion of positive versus negative comments – indicates that 59 per cent of people are "looking forward" to taking vacation this December.
 
In the era of Big Data, amidst the explosion of social media, measuring public sentiment through social listening can help travel industry chief marketing officers tap real-time trends and customize incentives and services to be more in tune with what customers are asking for, using data to tailor their offerings to address fast-moving trends and real time customer needs.
 
Dr Lata Iyer, Partner, Global Business Services, IBM India & South Asia, stated, “Measuring social sentiment has the potential to enable the travel industry to design travel offers and services tailored to what travellers are telling us. Big data has the power to offer new insights to the travel industry, including airlines, hotels and other travel providers that can translate customer desires into irresistible offers that they will welcome."
 
The preferred international holiday destination for 2013 is London and preferred domestic holiday destination is Goa.