Allianz Global Assistance, the travel insurance giant, has come out with a study of Twitter usage among travelers and the kinds of requests that they have related to travel. For more, check Skift's story: http://skift.com/2013/07/05/the-10-ways-in-which-travelers-are-using-twitter-for-tips/

1. #helpme
Do travellers use Twitter to ask for help?

2. Introduction:
Twitter has the strongest growth among all Social Media Channels
Launched in 2006, Twitter today has grown to the point where it counts nearly 200 million active
users worldwide. Every day, 400 million messages containing no more than 140 characters are
shared in real time on the micro-blogging platform. The Internet, Smartphones, tablets…all these
devices enable users to benefit from an ever-increasing mobility.
Twitter usage emphasises the behavioural changes taking place among those who navigate the Web ;
this is no longer limited to looking up information and purchasing products and services online. Now
social media channels enable Web « surfers » to share information within a community. This new
form of communication goes beyond traditional boundaries ; not only can users connect with their
own social networks but they can also connect with interested communities worldwide.
Travellers actively navigate the Web
Travellers have always been very active on the Internet : there are those who gather information to
better organise a trip; those who offer advice and tips about a destination; those who talk about
their travels; and those who share their photographs…
With the Twitter phenomenon, travellers now have the opportunity to communicate from anywhere
in the world, in real time, with anyone and everyone.
Allianz Global Assistance was eager to learn more about these new travellers and how they use
Twitter. Do travellers use Twitter to get help or request assistance ?

3. Summary
Introduction
I – #Helpme methodology
1. Identifiying traveller tweets
2. Extracting tweets
II – #Helpme results
1. What travel situations come up the most often on Twitter ?
2. What do travellers say on Twitter?
3. To whom do travellers send their tweets?
4. How many traveller tweets receive responses ?
5. Key findings and the « Twitter traveller profile » as identified by Allianz Global Assistance
Overall conclusion

4. I –The #helpme survey methodology
The objective of this survey was to evaluate how travellers use Twitter to get help. Therefore, before
anything else, it was necessary to identify tweets sent by travellers.
1. Identifying traveller tweets
In an ideal scenario, the Twitter user had completed his/her account location – for example with
« Paris, France ». This location then appeared in the profile.
The user had also authorised within the account settings a function to allow locating his/her tweets.
This function is deactivated by default.
It was therefore possible to cross data and identify those people who tweet from places that are
different from where they live.
However, the amount of tweets located via GPS only represents 3% of all tweets. Therefore it would
not have been representative if the survey had assessed Twitter usage based only on 3% of the 400
million tweets emitted daily throughout the world.

5. Consequently, Twitter travellers were directly identified according to the written content of their
tweets.
Thanks to Allianz Global Assistance’s expertise in the travel domain, a semantic model was designed
to represent all possible situations facing travellers today.
These situations describe a traveller’s most preoccupying moments : before the trip, during the trip,
and once he/she returns. First, a set of subject matter categories was defined so as to cover the
traveller’s voice and concerns as widely as possible. These categories include visas, money and
currency, tourism, transportation, refunds… Then, situations within these categories were defined
and fine-tuned. For example, in the « money and currency » category we find situations such as
« what is the exchange rate » or « find the nearest place to change money »… From this list came key
words, which were used to make up the survey’s requests for asking for help on Twitter.
These key words were written in English, first because travellers generally use English more and also
because the English language made it possible to collect tweets in a variety of native languages and
over a much larger geographic area.
Extracting tweets
A configurated collection tool made it possible to extract the travel tweets. Because the identified
tweets were posted in real time and the tool allowed for several management options, survey teams
were able to fine tune the requests and thereby optimise the results’ relevance.
Extraction of the tweets for the #helpme survey was launched on Friday March 1st 2013 at 00:00
(midnight) and continued through Sunday March 31st, 2013, ending at 23:59PM.
Researchers collected more than 25,000 tweets that corresponded to travellers’ requests for
assistance. Results of the survey were drawn from a representative sample of 6,000 analysed tweets.

6. II – #Helpme results
1. Which travel situations come up the most often on Twitter ?
Nearly one hundred travel situations were identified and analysed for this survey. The 10 most
frequent situations for which travellers requested assistance on Twitter are :
2. What do travellers say on Twitter ?
For each of the 10 situations in which travellers request assistance on Twitter, the content of their
tweets is presented in a word cloud, which reveals both the terms that are used and the number of
times they appear.
38%
26%
7%
5%
3%
3%
2%
2%
2%
2%
Find activities
Get advices on organizing a trip
Get flight refund
Find the way
Find a place to sleep
Find the exchange rate
Find a place to go out
Find a hotel
Choose the destination
Obtenir un visa
Top 10 of most common situations
( by percent)

7. 1# Find activities
• Travellers ask for advice about what to do or see that same day, or in the immediate
future (« tonight », « tomorrow »…).
• They mention the city they are in. The most cited city is London. Berlin, Houston, Jakarta,
and Sydney are also mentioned.

8. 2# Get advice on organising a trip
• Before leaving travellers organise their trip without going into much detail : they seek
more general advice (« ideas », « suggestions », « recommendations ») rather than advice
about a very precise part of the trip.

9. 3# Get refunded for a flight
• Travellers complain about their problems with airlines with the aim to get a flight
refunded.
• Sometimes they send their tweets directly to the airline company for compensation.
•

10. 4# Get directions
• When they are lost, travellers tweet in real time and request help with directions.
• Some say where they are (London, Cardiff) or mention the country they are in (Thailand).
Other tweets indicate the physical place, like the « airport » for example.

11. 5# Find a place to sleep
• Many terms are used to qualify or specify the type of lodging the traveller is looking for :
« cheap », « reasonable », « big », « asap », « house », « patio »…

12. 6# Get the exchange rate
• To get the exchange rate, the study shows that many tweets directly address a specific
person and mention that person with a @.
• Euros, US and Canadian dollars, and English Pounds are the most cited currencies.
Very common words like “rate” and “exchange” were removed from the cloud

13. 7# Find a place to go or something to do
• Travellers use Twitter to ask for advice about what restaurants, bars, or nightclubs to go
to, or museums or other places of interest to visit…

14. 8# Find a hotel
• Travellers use Twitter for help in selecting a hotel usually before they leave. In their
tweets, they mention when they will be travelling and needing a place to stay:
« Monday », « October », « summer ».
Very common words like “looking” and “hotel” were removed from the cloud

15. 9# Choose a destination
• Travellers also use Twitter to decide where to go on their next holiday. Sometimes they
spell out exactly what they’re looking for : « sun », « cheap », « chilled », « exotic »…
Very common words like “holidays” and “go” were removed from the cloud

16. 10# Get a visa
• Travellers also use Twitter to get advice about visa issues. Countries for which visa
requests are the most frequent are: the UK, India, the USA…
• Travellers describe the type of trip they are making: « friends », « family », « working »,
« visit »…
Very common words like “get” and “visa” were removed from the cloud

17. 3. To whom do travellers send their tweets?
Analysing the target messages provided an interesting perspective on travellers’ requests for
assistance, and revealed three types of Twitter behaviors :
In 20% of cases, travellers used a hashtag to address a particular community. 38% of tweets were
sent to an identified user. The remaining 42% were only seen by the traveller’s followers.
4. How many travellers’ tweets receive responses ?
Tweets with a hashtag (for example #help, #lost or
#paris). These tweets were sent to a specific
community of people according to the hashtag that
was used.
Tweets with simple contents (text sometimes
accompanied by a link or image). These tweets were
only read by the traveller’s followers
Tweets that mentioned a particular Twitter account
(or several) to obtain a response to their requests
for help (for example
@monamiPaulquiavécuàLondres)

18. Among all the tweets sent by people in « travelling situations », it’s easy to wonder how many tweets
actually received a response. Under half, according to our survey.
Only 37% of traveller tweets received at least one response.
To be more precise, the survey looked closely at the different Twitter traveller profiles. The tweets
that received the most responses to their requests for help were those that mentioned a particular
account. 46% of traveller tweets that addressed an identified person or company obtained a
response.

19. 5. Key findings and the « Twitter traveller profile » as identified by Allianz Global Assistance
The #Helpme survey made it possible for us to identify a traveller’s first steps on Twitter.
• 38% of tweets ask questions that are tourism-related (a place to visit, an
activity,…) ; 26% focus on a trip’s logistical organisation (hotel choice, cost of
local transportation, etc.) ; 7% revolve around problems refunding an airline
ticket.
• The other questions cover things such as money, visas, lost luggage, contacting
an embassy, etc.
• We noticed that Twitter is rarely used in an emergency situation : car accidents,
requests for repatriation, emergency hospitalisations, etc.
• Travellers that use Twitter as a means to receive help have on average a much
larger following that the average Twitter user.
• More than one third of all tweets are sent directly to a professional with the
help of a @.
• On average, more than one third of tweets receive a response. This percentage
increases if the tweet is sent to a particular person.

20. Conclusion
This is the first survey that attempts to analyse traveller behavior on Twitter. Due to a lack of any real
technical capacity by Twitter to identify travellers via their exact location (via GPS), the survey relies
on an innovative methodology based on a collection of Twitter user input that corresponds to
different traveller situations. This survey emphasises the fact that travellers do indeed use Twitter to
organise and plan their trips but also to get advice and information from travel professionals. It also
emphasises how Twitter users mutually help one another and demonstrates that the probability of
receiving help is linked to the direct questioning of a particular Twitter contact. To date, this survey
demonstrates that Twitter is rarely used in emergency situations. Given the survey’s relatively short
duration, all results should be reassessed and refined over a longer observation period.