Twitter Polls, State Tourism Spending and Tourism’s Future

Twitter Experimenting with Polls

Twitter is starting to allow some users to use polls in their tweets. It’s only on the mobile apps and website right now and still in the experimentation stage, though it could be a great way to get quick feedback (roughly 24 hours per poll allowed) from followers on a number of topics, from issues and news stories to preferred locations of travel at a destination.

This isn’t the first time Twitter has experimented with something like polls. Companies used to be able to poll followers through custom cards.

States with Increasing Tourism Budgets

With the recession becoming more and more of a memory, more states are increasing their tourism budgets – to a record average of $18.1 million this year with an overall 4.9% increase in budgets year-over-year. So, who’s who in the big state tourism spend increase?

Florida has the largest monetary increase of $15 million at a 22% increase, giving it the largest tourism budget in the country at $84.5 million, ahead of Hawaii’s same $82 million it spent in 2014. In terms of percentage increase Missouri and Nebraska take the cake with a 46% increases.

Tourism of the Future

What will the tourism of the future look like? A survey by Marriott Credit Cards asked more than one thousand people what the near future of travel could be and received some interesting theories of what would be possible by 2030:

1. 61% felt 24 hour virtual concierge service would be able to accommodate travelers any time
2. 58% believe digital passports and facial recognition would be available
3. 58% thought that digital payments via phones and watches would take over
4. 51% said that extreme hotels, like zip-lining over your treehouse or an over-the-ocean hut/hotel would be common
5. 47% think that personalized mobile travel guides could pave the way for unique experiences