Online Review Ratings and the Impact on the Number of Visits to a Tourist and Cultural Attraction: the case of the Loire Valley and TripAdvisor

A higher TripAdvisor rating significantly boosts both online and physical visits to tourist attractions in the Loire Valley, with each additional star increasing web traffic by 12.9 % and on-site visits by 8.3 %. The study tracked 104 major sites over a full year, combining server logs for website activity with official visitor counts from park management. It also found that browsing time on attraction pages rises as ratings improve, suggesting that positive reviews not only attract more visitors but also deepen engagement.

Bourliataux-Lajoinie, S., & Maubisson, L. (2018). Online Review Ratings and the Impact on the Number of Visits to a Tourist and Cultural Attraction: the case of the Loire Valley and TripAdvisor. Journal of Internet Social Networking and Virtual Communities, 2018, 1–18. https://doi.org/10.5171/2018.915203