Mineable or messy? Assessing the quality of macro-level tourism information derived from social media

Social media are a primary means for travelers to connect with each other and plan trips. They can also help tourism suppliers (e.g., by providing relevant information), thus overcoming the shortcomings of traditional information sources. User-generated content from social media has already been used in many studies as a primary information source. However, the quality of information derived thus far remains largely unclear. This study assesses the quality of macro-level information on the spatio-temporal distribution of tourism derived from online travel reviews in social media in terms of completeness, timeliness, and accuracy. We found that information quality increased from 2000 to 2009 as online travel reviews increasingly covered more countries, became available earlier than statistics reported by the United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO), were highly correlated with the UNWTO statistics. We conclude that social media are a good information source for macro-level spatio-temporal tourism information and could be used, for example, to estimate tourism figures.