Italy starts using the Travel Appeal Index

Popularity is important, not only for people but for museums as well. For this reason, the Italian Ministry of Cultural Heritage and Activities has signed an agreement with the startup Travel Appeal in order to monitor the online reputation of 27 museums.

Travel Appeal - new born business, not even two years old - was able to elaborate an indicator, i.e. Travel Appeal Index. Taking into consideration Booking.com, Facebook, Twitter and TripAdvisor, the algorithm is able to assess how appreciated the touristic structures are.

The experimental phase went on from January 2015 until January 2016.  In general, more than 80% of comments were positive ones about people's experiences at the museum.

Undoubtedly, this new agreement highlights the importance achieved by opinions in the Web. In fact, people are becoming more and more informed, taking into great consideration what the online ratings say before making any choice. The traditional word of mouth was replaced by voyagers' comments, reviews and online conversations also when it comes to choose a cultural activity. Consequently, having a good reputation has become a prerogative businesses cannot renounce to.

Worth mentioning is also the fact that Travel Appeal, founded in Milan by Mirko Lalli, signed an agreement with the Italian Bank UniCredit, working as a parameter to judge whether a business is worth of a loan. In fact, the Bank takes into account the online reputation of a structure to decide on its behalf. As a matter of fact, there is no other accurate means to assess the validity and proficiency of a business other than the opinion of its customers, reflecting the good and bad things as a mirror. At the same time, the structures have the chance to better monitor their points of strength and weakness and do something to improve their service and get a better score.

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