Drought question?

[Rob]

Very good question.

TripAdvisor is an company that is operated out of Newton, Massachusetts. They have no paid working personnel in any of the destinations that they have listed on their site. They rely only on the public to provide information about these destinations. The link that you posted is a prefect example. There is a link on that page that says "Edit this page". This means that anyone at all is able to edit the page, very similar to Wikipedia. Both TripAdvisor's and Wikipedia's validity needs to be taken into account.

The validity of Wikipedia has often come under attack by academics as being shoddy and full of inaccuracies. even by its creators. Jimmy Wales, who created Wikipedia said in reference to college students citing Wikipedia in their reseach papers “They say, ‘Please help me. I got an F on my paper because I cited Wikipedia’” and the information turned out to be wrong, he says. But he said he has no sympathy for their plight, noting that he thinks to himself: “For God sake, you’re in college; don’t cite the encyclopedia.”

TripAdvisor is similar as it is full of information posted by essentially anonymous Internet volunteers who write without pay. The site is full of inaccuracies. One of my favorites regarding Negril was found by Bnewb who is one of TripAdvisor's destination experts for Negril. Under the TA Top 25 Things To Do in Negril section, they list the M/Y Zein as number 22. In a small link below the "attraction", if you click, it says that M/Y Zein has been renamed and is no longer in Jamaica it is in the Galapagos Islands. This was added only on February 17th of this year, even though the Zein was relocated to Ecuador in 2006, 6 years ago. Yet, TA still lists it as the number 22 things to do in Negril! Bnewb first mentioned this problem to TripAdvisor back in 2009, and no action was taken to correct the inaccuracy.

Bnewb, as one of the Destination Experts for Negril on TripAdvisor has been trying for years to correct the more misleading posts and reviews on TA. But she is just one person. There are several regular posters on TA (two with over 25,000 posts between them - or 10 posts every single day since October of 2005), who insist on posting incorrect, outdated information and passing off rumors and speculation as facts. Bnewb finds the task of correcting all the wrong information daunting. But she still does what she can as she did here and on TA regarding Rastagril777's misleading post on TA about a drought in Negril when there isnt one.

TripAdvisor does solicit businesses to pay for their listings, offering some basic incentives to those who pay them. TripAdvisor is owned by Expedia, a internet based travel agency. So they are far from an impartial source of information. TripAdvisor manages and operates websites under 18 other travel media brands, www.airfarewatchdog.com, www.bookingbuddy.com, www.cruisecritic.com, www.everytrail.com, www.familyvacationcritic.com, www.flipkey.com, www.holidaylettings.co.uk, www.holidaywatchdog.com, www.independenttraveler.com, www.onetime.com, www.seatguru.com, www.sniqueaway.com, www.smartertravel.com, www.travel-library.com, www.travelpod.com, www.virtualtourist.com, www.whereivebeen.com, and www.kuxun.cn.

As long as Expedia makes money which they do no matter what destinations are sold, they really have very little interest in the accuracy or validity of the information they provide on their various websites about any one destination. But hopefully this will be changing as they are involved in lawsuits and governmental actions.

Just a few stories are below:

TOURISM INDUSTRY PREPARES MASSIVE INTERNET DEFAMATION LAWSUIT AGAINST TRIPADVISOR.COM
http://www.aaronkellylaw.com/interne...ipadvisor-com/

Hotelier sues TripAdvisor after accusations she wrote fake positive reviews causes revenue to plummet by 75%
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/arti...#ixzz1nmr09imb

700 Hotels On TripAdvisor Mull Over Lawsuit
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/0..._n_737809.html

And on February 2nd of 2012, a British advertising group forced TripAdvisor to remove statements such as "more than 50 million honest travel reviews and opinions from real travellers around the world" and "reviews that you can trust" since they cannot possibly verify the information posted.

http://www.news.com.au/travel/news/tripadvisor-rapped-by-british-advertising-watchdog/story-e6frfq80-1226260234816#ixzz1nmsM23IK

As for Negril.com, it is no secret that we are a Negril based website for promoting Negril and Jamaica. We aim to provide the best information available on the internet to help our visitors have the best time possible. That is why we take the time and effort to limit the rumors and speculation and other inaccuracies that do nothing but mislead and misinform visitors.

Are we unbaised? Of course not. But we do have a vested interest in making sure the truth is on Negril.com so that our visitors know what is actually happening. To allow false information or to hide anything could put Negril.com in jeopardy should any of our visitors be given the wrong information.

That was a very good question indeed!

[M_and_H]

thank you Rob for that

I just responded to someone's post on TA - gave them my opinions and my thoughts about a hotel that I stayed at and got slashed by a so-called expert telling me I didnt know what I was saying and telling the poster something different. Then he comes back and says " I was just stating what is written on the hotels website" He has never even stayed there and is telling people not to go there! Unbelievable.

Oh - and now this so called expert on TA is telling people to go to resorts that are closed....just too much

[Homebrewer]

^ sounds like the actions of a 'pirate'

[goldilocks]

LOL, it's the internet folks - trust no one!

[Rambo]

But you can "see the internet", its just like a newspaper, if its printed it MUST be right.......

[sooncome]

Oh dear, I didn't mean to come in and cause problems and I'm sorry as this seems to have happened.
I was just a little nervous after the information was reported on TA and I thought there might be a concern with forest fires and such. I don't know the lay of the land yet.
Thank you Rob for your wealth of information. This topic is still going on in TA and I'm not impressed by TA nor the person who originally posted it and the mean spirited comments by this same person. That might upset them, but as someone coming down to Jamaica for the first time it was confusing and ridiculous and I think most of us have known about water conservation since childhood, no?
Again, sorry that I brought this over here. From now on, I'll be only asking the fine people on this board for any information I might need and I know I'll get a proper explanation and the truth.

[cdn_79]

Thanks Rob, I would have never thought the actual articles on TripAdvisor were just as likely to be as inaccurate as the reviews. You'd think a company with so much money and resources could be bothered to fact check!