New and exciting companies are riding the social travel evolution wave

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As travel trends go social travel is perhaps the biggest development in the holiday industry since the creation of the package holiday. Tapping into the global community ethos inspired through the evolution of social media, a popular and expanding market has developed to cater for curious travellers increasingly weary of the repetitive and sterile tourism mainstream travel has to offer.

At the heart of this shift in attitude is an increasing desire amongst tourist to truly discover and embrace their holiday destination. Tired of indistinguishable hotels and crowded tourist hot spots, travellers have taken to the internet to find alternatives. Companies such as Wimdu.co.uk, have been set up with the precise goal of catering for this new demand. Wimdu themselves have created a platform that brings together local people and travellers from all over the world. Through this platform tourists can book a room or an entire apartment from a local host.

By staying in local accommodation rather than a hotel, visitors gain a more authentic view of the destination. Experiencing parts of the city that most tourists don’t ever get to see has many advantages ranging from cheaper cost of living to stumble across some real gems that a travel guide has over looked. When staying with a local host a traveller can expect to be given insider tips on where to visit, what to eat and how to avoid the tourist traps. In turn the hosts benefit from the extra income their spare room can generate.

Seeing a city in a whole new light is not the only advantages felt by travellers who gain through better quality and cheaper accommodation compared to the hotels. They are also blessed with all the amenities they would expect from their own home and can save a small fortune by using the onsite cooking facilities.

The industry has seen exceptional growth. Wimdu, in less than two years of existence, has already accumulated 100,000 unique users choosing from 50,000 properties in over 100 different countries. And the broad nature of the product, from city apartments to family holiday villas, suggests that this accommodation evolution has a big future ahead.