Thanks to social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter, people are discovering more new and interesting travel destinations opening up to them. Social media is truly changing the way that people travel on many levels.

Take, for example, vacation recommendations. It used to be that a family considering a summer vacation would check with travel books, or even travel review websites. They might spend a couple of weeks watching the Travel Channel for ideas, or even talking to a travel agent. Today, it’s as simple as posting a Tweet or a Facebook status update that says, “Where should we take the kids this year?” You’ll wind up with dozens of opinions and ideas.

Social media and travel are, in many ways, a good fit for one another. Both are built along the idea of shared experiences and telling stories. Whether you’re talking about someone’s pictures and story from their European trip or whether it’s simply a review of a local restaurant on someone’s blog, social media is changing the way we choose entertainment and travel opportunities.

In the past, travelers have turned to the Internet to find deals on hotels or airlines. Naturally, some of the travel websites have featured reviews and articles about various travel destinations. However, if you’re looking for somewhere to go over New Year’s Eve these days, you’re likely to turn to friends and family – via the power of social media. You’ll still use travel sites to find discounts and make reservations and other arrangements, but those sites now play a much smaller role in the actual decision making process.

Recommendations from Twitter and Facebook tend to carry more weight than “objective” reviews on other websites. People trust their friends and family when it comes to travel experiences. A web site could have a well-written review of a hotel, for example, that was actually written by a hotel employee or a copy writer hired by the hotel to write the review.

In addition to Twitter and Facebook, there are other websites that are specifically aimed at letting users share their travel experiences with one another. There are also sites that index and aggregate information from Twitter. For example, the Twistor Center lists literally hundreds of local tourism bureaus and authorities around the world, letting users connect with those bureaus, get answers to questions and plan their travel itineraries.

More and more, people are coming to rely on social media for their travel needs, even to the point of choosing their travel insurance based on recommendations from friends and family on those sites.

Photo via Akuppa