Do we at AusBT represent the views of the wider travelling public in Australia?

Marcus Padley on ABC Breakfast this morning talked about "un-social media" and suggested a majority of people who comment on news article on websites do not represent the views of the majority.

It got me thinking. Do we at AUSBT represent the views of the wider travelling public in Australia or globally? Or is this a talk fest for the few of us with specific, perhaps vested interest?

The Australian Business Traveler is like it says ,it's for the business traveler not necessarily the public traveler so most comments come from business travellers who travel more generally than the public,however the public appreciate their comments because of this vast experience .

ABT is 'geared toward' the 'business traveler'...and anyone can create a 'profile'' and post on this forum (and the same goes for many other forums/social media outlets).

The 'pool' of posters on here, and most forums is relatively small (tiny), compared to the vast numbers (millions) of the 'traveling public' of OZ and globally

Personally, I am not a 'business traveller', I don't travel 'often', and domestically I just travel Y/C....I just have an interest in the airline industry, have been an 'industry employee' for 23yrs (in a past life), and if something interests me, and/or I have relative knowledge on a subject, you might see me pop up with a post or two..

I would think that we generally don't match the broader electorate of travellers, who are of the price-sensitive infrequent leisure type. We collectively obsess over WP status and QP food and so on, while the vast majority of people never even think of this - they just want the cheapest fare from A to B and don't want to think about anything else.

Frequent flyers are an edge case in and of themselves, relative to the rest of the travelling public (but it's worth noting I see 'frequent flyer' as more of a style and mindset, not necessarily requiring flying down to MEL every other Thursday).

WHO IS MARCUS PADLEY?

WHY DON'T YOU GOOGLE HIM?

Sounds like a guy who's upset that nobody agrees with his online comments.

Must be a slow news day at ABC Breakfast..

WHO IS MARCUS PEDLEY?

just another person who's 'job' entails them getting paid for their 'opinion'...gee..i'm in the wrong industry..lol 

Marcus is a stockbroker/financial adviser in Perth WA who writes  entertaining and common sense articles in the local press and on the radio.

I would have to say that we don't represent the majority of travellers who as Watson has said would tend to be more price focused rather than service.

To spin the question a little bit, the forum on AusBT would probably be a little bit different to the comments left on an ABC news story for example. I would imagine there is more anonymity for those who post on ABC but on here you kinda know the regular contributors and that probably leads to more accountability for the comments that we leave. 

Long live the "talk fest" I say, and having said that I am pretty sure everyone who has posted on this question has helped me out in the past by answering a question that I asked which is always greatly appreciated.

TRB,

You are a highly regarded and well respected poster to this site.Why not ask David ABT this question.Do not quote ABC and or PADLEY.Respect yourself  more man as you have provided far more to this site than the person to which you refer.

I've always seen this as a neat forum for the exchange of expert ideas, opinions, news and knowledge for travellers who either like luxury/business travel or enjoy reading about it.

Perhaps I'm too sckeptical, but I don't think any one news outlet can speak for too wide of a community. We all speak for ourselves.

Occasionally some media even play is disclaimer such as: 'The opinions expressed here are soley those of the people giving them and should not be seen as representative of the organisation'.

I'd suggest that AusBT and its readers are far more informed than the average person. Our views may not be representative of the average traveller but they are closer to that of the average business traveller and also more 'normal' frequent flyers than the ones you find on AFF etc.