Britons are amongst the most positive nations when it comes to positivity in travel, a new TripAdvisor survey has revealed.
Far from the stereotypical moaning Brit, we actually posted the highest average score in accommodation reviews in all Europe and were only behind Canadians in the detail we go into. While UK TripAdvisor reviewers use an average of 177 words, Canadians use 191 and Brazilians provide the least with 88. In terms of positivity, South Africans topped the list, while Malaysian reviewers were the most negative.
“When TripAdvisor was founded, the idea of ‘the wisdom of the crowd’ was still relatively unheard of and there was a fear that people would only want to share their travel horror stories. In fact, our experience over the last twelve years has shown the opposite to be true – people do genuinely want to share their good experiences with the world first and foremost,” said Emma Shaw from the reviews site.
Behavioural psychologist Simon Fried said the notion of positive reviews matched people’s love for sending thanks. “At first it may seem surprising that so many people selflessly contribute for the sake of the common good, but the underlying psychological urges are very strong. In the offline world when we receive a gift or someone does us a favour we are naturally compelled to give back. Now the internet has empowered us to carry this behaviour into the online world,” he explained.