TripAdvisor was the highest-placed online brand in a consumer survey of most-influential company names in travel.
TripAdvisor tops poor online show in consumer travel brand ratings
TripAdvisor was the highest-placed online brand in a consumer survey of most-influential company names in travel.
Consumer review site TripAdvisor came fourth in a list of 14 household names in travel, well ahead of Expedia, Lastminute and Booking.com but trailing British Airways, Virgin Atlantic and Thomas Cook.
BA came out on top in the survey of 500 UK adults, with 52% rating the carrier the most-influential brand in travel.
Virgin Atlantic was close behind on 49%. Only Thomas Cook among other travel brands came close to the two airlines, with a 30% rating.
The exclusive study was carried out by Explore Research on behalf of Travolution sister title Travel Weekly.
Explore asked the 500 respondents, drawn from its panel base of 180,000 UK adults, to name the most-influential brands in travel from a list of 14.
The list included Ryanair, easyJet, Thomson, Hilton, First Choice, Travelodge, Monarch and travel association Abta.
Consumers were asked to select up to three, with almost half their selections going to BA, Virgin Atlantic and Thomas Cook.
Of the remainder, TripAdvisor came out on top with 21%. EasyJet was just behind on 20% and Abta sixth with 17%, ahead of Ryanair, Expedia, Lastminute and all the others.
Ryanair boss Michael O’Leary has spent two decades refusing to work with travel agents so the trade may find it ironic that Abta, formerly the Association of British Travel Agents, came out ahead.
Expedia came ninth among the 14 brands with 12%, Lastminute tenth with 11% and booking.com 13th with 4%.
The survey results showed a number of other possible surprises:
Booking.com (4%) was rated below Hilton (9%)
Older respondents (55+) rated Ryanair (21%) twice as highly as younger (18-34) (11%)
Younger respondents rated Hilton (13%) twice as highly as Booking.com (7%)
Older respondents rated Travelodge (9%) twice as highly as Hilton (5%)
Better off respondents (ABC1s) rated Ryanair (18%) more highly than those less well off (11%)
Better off respondents (27%) also rated TripAdvisor more highly than those less well off (13%)
Female respondents rated TripAdvisor more highly than male
Male respondents rated Ryanair more highly than female
