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> I don't think the comparison to TripAdvisor and travel agents is particularly strong, and I think you'd be hard pushed to make the case that thousands of trav
by yesiamyourdad 9y ago
> I don't think the comparison to TripAdvisor and travel agents is particularly strong, and I think you'd be hard pushed to make the case that thousands of travel agents who'd maybe heard something about the place you wanted to go is better than thousands of reviews and photos from people who've actually been there. TipAdvisor has lots of problems, to be sure, but it's still better than travel agents.
Do you remember what it was like using a travel agent? That's not what travel agents did. They didn't "maybe hear about a place", they actually went there. Resorts & cruises spent a ton of their marketing dollars to bring travel agents to the resort and get them to experience it first hand.
- vosper 9y agoBut most of them hadn't spend 3 months traveling in South East Asia, for example. They knew about the resorts and travel companies that could afford to bring them over and show them a good time. For everything else you had to trust Lonely Planet or something, which was a guaranteed meal-ticket for anyone who could get their business mentioned in there, without the benefit of feedback from the people who've visited recently.
- kelnos 9y agoI travel a ton, but I've never stayed at a resort or gone on a cruise, and neither of those things interest me. Travel agents might be useful for getting people to resorts and cruise ships, but that's a tiny fraction of what "travel" means to me (and I suspect/hope to most people).