Open AccessThe Duality of TripAdvisor: The Quantity of Reviews Deterring Strategists from Quality Sites
Author(s) -
Walters Noah
Publication year - 2019
Publication title -
student anthropologist
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
ISSN - 2330-7625
DOI - 10.1002/j.sda2.20190601.0003
Subject(s) - attractiveness , strategist , popularity , quality (philosophy) , tourism , business , marketing , advertising , plan (archaeology) , inclusion (mineral) , political science , psychology , geography , social psychology , epistemology , philosophy , archaeology , psychoanalysis , law
TripAdvisor brands itself to travelers as a forum to plan the best, personalized vacation. While promoting inclusion and community organization, the site also foments an impractical craze for authentic consumption. Rather than offering a TripAdvisor user (a strategist) the full options available, the site organizes its results on popularity. This cycle entrenches the most-rated locations at the top of search results while flushing less-frequently rated ones out. Thus, the most visited places become the best, most ‘authentic’ sites. This theoretical research analyzes the duality of TripAdvisor—the attractiveness of self-planning for strategists seeking authenticity paired with the actual algorithms that favor tourist frequency rather than local quality.