What sights should I see in Barcelona, Spain? Which trails would be suitable for my type of hiker in the Rocky Mountain National Park, Colorado? TripSay answers to these questions by providing recommendations and tips from friends. The idea is simple: instead of browsing through a number of websites and guidebooks, just get the travel tips from my friends. The value of a personal recommendation can hardly be overemphasized. Think about it: I’m going to the Rockies and talk about the upcoming trip with my friends. One of them tells me about the Bear Lake hike and the clear waters and especially about the elk she happened to see across the lake just when she was sitting down for a break on a fallen log…

A vivid, colorful story told by a trusted person overrides any guidebook author’s opinions or random people’s suggestions. This is true for any purchases or selections a person makes – and thus underlines the success of word of mouth marketing.

Now, a related interesting statistics from the world of social media and web 2.0 is the number of friends a person typically has and how a “friend” is defined. According to some research, the average number of friends a person has in Facebook is 164. The median is a bit less but still: social media empowers people to connect with friends in large numbers. A traveler network with many friends raises the probability that one or more of the guys in my network have been to the place I’m going to. This is actually working in practice: with already tens of friends in my traveler network, I’m having most of Europe and some USA covered quite well!

It helps a lot in planning a trip, if a person I know is recommending some of the places along my route. Thus, a good candidate for TripSay’s slogan: “Your friends are the best travel agent.”