Roam free: Online map tracks world Travel & Hospitalitylers

United Kingdom – Offering helpful cartographical insight into predicting travel movements, a new website converts social media chatter into an online map of activity showing people’s intended travels this summer. The #ukholsmap by Vodafone uses microblogging format Twitter as part of the mobile service provider’s campaign to abolish roaming charges across many European countries.

Twitter users post tweets containing the hash tag ‘#ukhols’ along with their current location and eventual destination – information that is then generated on the Vodafone site. With a web of lines connecting users’ home and holiday locations, the resulting map is an impressive graphic representation of people’s displacements.

Much in the same way that websites such as Dopplr rely on user-created data to chart individual travels in intuitive graphs and maps, #ukholsmap offers a right-brained approach to travel online. In doing so, social media doesn’t just connect users with one another, it also offers brands an opportunity to cleverly sift through the masses of messages to hone in on relevant information that may reveal insights into consumer behaviour.

For more news and insights on new and emerging trends in the travel industry, check out The Future Laboratory’s Leisure and Hospitality Futures Report, out now.