Facebook has evolved to the point of offering and being way more than just a social media website anymore, and now even track metrics for things such as traveling. People are always posting pictures and making statuses about their vacations which gives Facebook all the data they need to put together a list of the top destinations people are checking out in the United States every year. It’s interesting that social media can so easily track us and our doings, but provides an interesting and accurate look on society as a whole.
Another factor that plays into all of this is the other companies that Facebook owns, mainly Instagram. The photo sharing social media app is massive and another source for the company to gather information about people, especially if they do not have Facebook profiles but do operate an Instagram account. Instagram currently has over 150 million active monthly users while Facebook had tallied over 1.19 billion active monthly users the last quarter. Both websites are still growing in popularity and constantly gaining new users that will keep flowing into the massive data pool.
As the year comes to a close, it’s no surprise that Facebook has offered its “top” lists for various categories and in the United States, the number one travel destination for 2014 was Disney Properties. Disneyland Park in California ended up being the most geotagged (checking in your location via a mobile app) place on Instagram this year while Facebook was receiving tons of hits about the national parks as well. The top ten turned out as follows…
10. Madison Square Gardens
9. Hollywood Walk of Fame
8. Las vegas Strip
7. Yankee Stadium
6. Yellowstone National Park
5. Grand Canyon National Park
4. Yosemite National Park
3. Times Square
2. Universal Studios Hollywood
1. Disney Properties
The list offers quite the variety, showing just how various United States vacation trips actually turn out to be. People still find national parks to be a top destination and not everyone is just flocking to the expected theme parks or typical monuments. The most interesting is probably Yankee Stadium, seeing that the home of the New York baseball team was able to crack the list showing how many people go out to see games there and are posting about it. It’s interesting to see Facebook track where everybody has been throughout the year, but these metrics do offer some interesting insight that can be used by multiple people and businesses.
Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images
