"Backpackers Trust User Generated Content (UGC)"

A news release from Hostelworld on 4hoteliers.com about user-generated content (UGC) and the Hostelworld Conference:

At an interactive youth panel hosted by Quinn Stainfield-Bruce from the Youth Conspiracy, backpackers from around the world talked about their reliance on customer reviews and their move away from guidebooks. 23 year old Irishman, Eoin White, explained “By the time you buy a guidebook it’s already a year out of date, at least with online reviews you get an up-to-the minute report on what a hostel or destination is really like”
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Day one of the conference focused on the highly topical subject of social networking and User Generated Content (UGC) - how to engage with consumers through blogs and social networks, the importance of UGC in today’s travel 2.0 world and the opportunities and challenges of customer reviews.