In 2022, travellers learned how to travel again — exploring new terrain, rediscovering favourite places, and making the most of long layovers. As we end the year on a high, today Tripadvisor, the world’s largest travel guidance platform, looks back over the past year, unpacking all the good that was found along the way, at the trips that were taken and all the stories and memories that were brought back.
Despite over 2 years of bookmarking and saving holiday ideas, the big return was overwhelming for some – Where should I go first? What should I do next?
Recent Tripadvisor research found that ‘Relax and Rejuvenate’ was the main trip purpose for 50% of travellers globally. It’s no wonder that in 2022, Tripadvisor saw travellers searching like never before. The most popular search terms were ‘Beach’ with 4.8 million searches, ‘Resort’ with 3.2 million searches and ‘Spa’ that was searched 1.7 million times.
Travellers were extra adventurous this year – looking to do something wild, wonderful and out of the ordinary to escape their daily routines. Some travellers apparently aren’t afraid of anything – this year we saw 1,636 shark-diving experiences booked, 16,563 ziplining tours booked and 47,015 ghost & vampire tour tickets sold.
Guidance and people-powered travel remain at the heart of Tripadvisor’s purpose. Without tips, reviews, recommendations and suggestions from people who have been there before, Tripadvisor wouldn’t be the invaluable resource that it has become for the millions who visit the platform every month. This year, Tripadvisor saw over 16 million five-bubble reviews written, 22 million helpful votes given and 387,000 forum threads created.
“We love to see our traveller community returning to what they do best – rediscovering the transformative power of travel again, and more importantly, coming together to share with others what they’ve found,” said Hilary Fischer-Groban, Senior Director of Brand Experience at Tripadvisor. “As we carry this momentum into the year ahead, we look forward to celebrating more of the impactful travel stories, incredible firsthand guidance, and thoughtful details you can only find on Tripadvisor.”
Other awesome insights from 2022:
Trip planning was a major hit
There were nearly 6.5 million new Trips (travel itineraries) created on the Tripadvisor platform
Whether a birthday weekend trip or solo-staycation, travellers made plans for just about everything. Just ask the travellers who named their trips “Birthday Tour De France” and “MEcation GETAWAY”
Travellers loved the big cities
Tripadvisor saw over 11 million traveller searches for Bangkok, Thailand, more than 43 million interested in London, England and 20 million looking up Las Vegas this year to date.
Not forgetting the Big Apple, thanks to the millions of travellers who visited New York City, The Empire State Building won Travelers’ Choice Best of the Best Attractions in the U.S. and they celebrated their big win by lighting the iconic building up in Tripadvisor green.
Travellers wanted unique, special and totally one-of-a-kind experiences
Tripadvisor saw more travellers booking private, small group experiences like a reindeer sleigh ride in Finland and a Private Day Tour To Giza Pyramids, Memphis and Sakkara
Travellers were keen to share their best and worst moments along the way
18 million new photos were uploaded to Tripadvisor this year, capturing moments big and small
Shoutout to all the tour guides who shared their secrets and helped travellers feel at home
This year, there were more reviews calling out specific tour guides and trip MVPs like these guys:
“Thank you to Brian, Bryan, and ALL of the lovely and kind people that made our honeymoon so magical and easy…I honestly cannot wait to go back and see more monkeys, macaws, and Brian!” – @Matthew_Savoury
“Yamille is fantastic. She shares her love of the land with genuine enthusiasm and makes swimming in caves with bats flying overhead and jumping off cliffs feel both exciting and safe.” – @leslieh233
All the good stuff adds up
This year, the community reached over a billion contributions!
Travellers always had each other’s backs, serving up good recs, pep talks, and extra bug spray.
“Keep coins on u to use the bathroom” – @486rafaellag
“To future zip liners I would just say wrap up warmly especially in colder months and give something that could be out of your comfort zone a go.” – @dianedF5402CP
This year, nearly 35.7 million new travel buddies were welcomed to the Tripadvisor community. There are now close to 400 million travellers who visit Tripadvisor every month.
To find out more, visit www.tripadvisor.com/unpacked.
Methodology
The data cited was gathered and analysed from two key sources:
A Tripadvisor Consumer Sentiment Survey, based on data drawn from an online survey of over 2,700 consumers, in partnership with Qualtrics, conducted between 27 Sept, 2022 through 6 Oct, 2022 across six countries – U.S., UK, Australia, Italy, Singapore and Japan.
Site behavioural data sourced from first party traffic data on the Tripadvisor platform, gathered during the week commencing 1 Nov, 2022, for travel between 1 Jan through 1 Nov, 2022.
