Some publications may be more lax about that sort of thing, and some may not update their info as regularly as they perhaps ought, so I guess there’s a variable spectrum of info quality out there – just as there is with UGC. I don’t see, however, why there isn’t room for both in the travel industry – all travel guides rely to an extent on user feedback and corrections – isn’t an authored online travel guide that permits and publishes user-interaction the optimum model, therefore?

Tamara (Online Director – Mr & Mrs Smith)

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@ Tamara

If you had to choose though which would you trust UGC, or content written by a travel writer?

It’s a tough question because we have heard so much about travel writers taking ‘bribes’ to write good things, and also competitors writing bad reviews on hotels.

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Not sure I would suggest contributors to social sites are being paid however they may have a “friend” who has an apartment, an activity centre or a place where they get cheap meals. (now if a person was employed to promote tourism in a particular area I can’t think of a better use of their time)
The power of these sites is just a little potentially frightening and as the saying goes power corrupts. In many ways I prefer “interpreting” directly promotional material and in that case you have a comeback. What can you do if a (most are) anonymous person on a social site gives you a recommendation?

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Sorry, I had to remove the plug. Not that I am suggesting you are using comments to promote your site, many others have started to so I have had to crack down on advertising within comments.

Re. contributors do you mean that they are writing about tourist attractions/accommodation because they have been paid to do so? Rather than it be based on their real experiences?

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