DALLAS, Feb. 22, 2018 /PRNewswire/ — Those ‘travel bragging’ posts filling up your social feeds show no sign of slowing down but now thanks to the world’s first #TravelBrag Artificial Intelligence (AI) analysis, Hotels.com^® reveals what’s topping the brag charts in destinations around the world, so you can choose your next trip wisely. 

Worldwide travelers are a cultured bunch, who enjoy musing around museums (300,000 brags), old-town charm (170,000 brags) and a spot of sunshine (130,000 brags), but they can also be found in floating restaurants, erotic museums and night markets.

More than five million brags globally were analysed by an Artificial Intelligence tool. Using a combination of Tweet data that included links to Instagram posts and innovative AI technology, the tool identified and grouped brag types based on travel keywords and destination mentions to give an overview of what people show off about on social media while traveling.

TOP 10 GLOBAL THEMES

1. Museum
2. Rooftop bar
3. Old Town
4. Modern Art
5. Opera
6. Sunshine
7. Olympic Games
8. Cathedral
9. Gallery
10. Ballet

In the U.S., New York, San Francisco, New Orleans, Miami and Las Vegas are among the global travel brag destinations with top brags from travelers at the following landmarks:

• Ritz Carlton, San Francisco
• Times Square, New York City
• Miami Beach, Miami
• Bourbon Street, New Orleans
• Union Square, San Francisco
• Mob Museum, Las Vegas
• French Quarter, New Orleans

This travel bragging trend echoes the findings from the recent Hotels.com Mobile Travel Tracker* report, which revealed that one in six travelers search social media before their trip to plan the photos they’ll take #inspo. And 56% of Americans admit to spending more than an hour a day on their smartphones while on vacation.

While travelers naturally brag about taking in the tourist hotspots and cultural offerings, more people than ever are sharing foodie ‘grams, shopping stories and luxe posts.

#Foodporn
You’re never more than an Insta-scroll away from #FoodPorn and the brag lists are brimming with culinary treats. Cakes in Stockholm and curry in Toronto spice up the brag lists, and New York steak and pizza both made the cut. Perhaps more surprisingly, enchiladas proved twice as popular as modern art in Mexico City, ice cream scooped 10% of all San Francisco brags and Jumbo Kingdom floating restaurant in Hong Kong took second place in the Hong Kong chart with more than 20,000 brags.

Shop ’til you drop
Shopping is a must-do for most travelers. Those visiting Paris brag more about the Rue Vieille du Temple, famous for its boutiques, than Le Louvre! Other top shop-spots included Bal Harbour in Miami, the Harbour City mall in Hong Kong, vintage shops in Melbourne and the stylish Cecile Copenhagen fashion brand made the Danish capital’s top 10.

Five-star luxury
When travelers check into a posh, luxury hotel they naturally want the world to know. The stunning 5-star Ritz Carlton in San Francisco topped the city’s brag list, the Four Seasons in Singapore proved brag-worthy and the Park Hyatt came in at number one in Seoul – most likely for its awe-inspiring rooftop pool.

Scott Ludwig at Hotels.com said, “Bragging about your travel experiences on social media has become the norm – if you didn’t get social kudos out of it, it didn’t happen! With travel posts being so plentiful on social media, Americans are checking out what others are bragging about to get tips for their next trip.”

“This #TravelBrag analysis shows just how diverse travelers are. Whether its enjoying rooftop cocktails in Bangkok, checking out Camden Town in London or visiting the mob museum in Vegas, social bragging is out in full force.”

Start planning your next adventure now and head to the Hotels.com Blog to check out the biggest brags from more than 30 destinations. Download the Hotels.com mobile app to choose from hundreds of thousands of places to stay (and brag!) around the world.

For further information, please contact;
Alex Lee
Phone: (214) 613-0025
Email: Alex.lee@hkstrategies.com

Notes to Editors

The data analyzed is from October 2017 – January 2018. The data shows the top keywords that people brag about per country by counting the number of times those keywords appear in search results. These keywords are then augmented by searching for more keywords within the existing results, through Natural Language Processing (NLP). Natural language processing (NLP) is a branch of artificial intelligence that helps computers understand, interpret and manipulate human language. We define a brag as a Tweet containing travel related search terms, a mention of a location, and a link to Instagram, meaning that someone took a picture and shared it with an accompanying text which contains those keywords. 

*Mobile Travel Tracker research conducted by One Poll in November 2017. Data based on 9,000 respondents across 30 countries.

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SOURCE Hotels.com