EMERGING INFLUENCERS PROMOTING TRAVEL: THE CASE OF LOCAL TOURISM IN LATVIA

The presence of social networks has given a chance for social media influencers to emerge. Social media influencers creating and sharing content, endorsed or not, has become a growing marketing trend used by companies, as well as destinations. This article focuses on travel influencers who, with a help of social networks, particularly Instagram, are promoting local travel in Latvia. In this study, four emerging travel influencers and their posts were retrieved and analysed. The study results show that emerging travel influencers are trying to attract their followers by mostly sharing posts with landscapes and nature, art objects/statues, and nature activities/facilities. However, traditional artwork/objects, religious buildings/objects, and traditional or historic buildings are the pictures achieving the highest engagement rates. Finally, the study also relieved that influencers with a lower number of followers have a higher level of engagement. It is concluded that authenticity and individuality of account, as well as its organic, rather than paid growth, are the key aspects in creating a travel account that followers would engage (like, share and comment on the content). The theoretical and practical implications are discussed.

Generation, susceptibility, and response regarding negativity: an in-depth analysis of negative online reviews

Negative online reviews can drastically influence consumer behavior and business strategies. Recent attention on the subject demonstrates its importance in the consumer and marketing literature. Even so, no study quantitatively investigates the corpus of the literature. This study quantitatively and systematically investigates the foundational research streams of negative online reviews to identify influential sources and main areas of knowledge in the domain. The study employs an integration of text mining and co-citation analysis, recognizing that firms’ responses to negative online reviews cannot be analyzed without understanding the role of customers. Accordingly, this study generates insight into customers and firms in each negative online review stage, furnishing a conceptual framework that synthesizes the previous literature and highlights the most important research gaps requiring attention. Ultimately, the conceptual framework can guide future researchers in unfolding new and novel directions to expand the boundaries of the negative online review literature

Towards a theoretical framework on sensorial place brand identity

Purpose: This paper proposes a new framework on sensorial place brand identity. Design/Methodology/Approach: This conceptual paper draws from sensory marketing and brand identity theories to propose an integrative model to develop sensorial place brand identity. Findings: By relying on a broad spectrum of literature the study supports the notion that sensorial place brand identity is a bottom-up approach to branding that involves several enactment stakeholders and key influences as co-creators in the process of delivering sensory place branding messages based on a strong and unique place brand identity. This leads to the presentation of a provisional framework linking sensorial place identity, experiencescapes and multisensory place brand image. Originality/Value: This novel approach to place brand identity follows a holistic approach by considering several enactment stakeholders and key influencers as co-creators in the process of branding a place through the senses

Exploring the Status Quo of All-for-one Tourism Development in Meishan City, China: Insights from Local Travel Influencers

All-for-one tourism is a newly proposed concept that aims to promote the transformation of national tourism development in China. Few research studies have focused on the current industry practice of all-for-one tourism in China. A qualitative case study, grounded in an interpretivist paradigm, was conducted to investigate the status quo of all-for-one tourism development in Meishan City, China. In-depth interviews were conducted with 15 local travel influencers based on opinion leadership theory. Thematic content analysis was utilized to analyze study data. Study findings revealed that implementing all-for-one tourism was limited by the lack of a clear tourism strategy, uncoordinated development, and low-quality public services. But efforts had been made to support all-for-one tourism in the public service system, tourism supply chain, tourism market order, destination brand strategy, and marketing effectiveness

Using Social Media Influencers to Promote Qatar as a Tourist Destination

The main objective of this study is to understand the qualities of social media influencers, in the travel and tourism industry, which generate trust in the followers, thereby having an impact on the followers’ intention to visit a destination promoted/recommended by the SMIs. The characteristics identified are Quality of Information provided by SMIs, Attractiveness of their Content on social media platforms, Credibility of SMIs, Authenticity of SMIs and Popularity of SMIs and the Engagement with their followers. Additionally, the study also investigates the effect of Trust on the individual’s intention to visit a destination. The results revealed that out of the five characteristics, Quality of Information was shown to have no impact on the trust generated whereas other factors had a significant positive impact on Trust. Furthermore, Trust had a significant positive impact on the follower’s intention to visit the destination promoted by the SMIs

Stimulus from social media influencers to the Portuguese tourism and travel industry in the COVID-19 era

The way society communicates has gone through huge changes during the years. This has led to a revolution on the process of gather and exchange information by the consumers regarding brands, products and services. Nowadays, any person can express their opinion on their social media accounts and share it with whoever he/she wants on a global scale. It’s here that Social Media Influencers (SMIs) appear, anyone with a considerably large audience on social media can influence many others to take an action. Currently, the Tourism & Travel (T&T) industry is facing unprecedent challenges due to the Covid-19 pandemic, being one of the biggest sectors worldwide, driving socio economic development and job creation is vital for this industry to recover as faster as possible. Many actions are being done to make that happen and one possible great tool are SMIs. Shortly, this research aims to understand if SMIs can boost the T&T industry by showing that a destination and its tourism services/products are safe in this time of fear of travelling due to the pandemic.A forma como a sociedade comunica tem experienciado significativas mudanças nos últimos anos. Consequentemente, originou-se uma revolução no processo de recolha e troca de informação dos consumidores a respeito de marcas, produtos e serviços. Atualmente, qualquer pessoa pode expressar a sua opinião nas suas contas nas redes sociais e partilhá-la com quem quiser a uma escala global. É desta forma que aparecem os Influenciadores de Redes Sociais (IRSs), qualquer pessoa com uma audiência consideravelmente grande nas redes sociais pode influenciar outros utilizadores a agir da mesma forma que eles. Atualmente, a indústria de Turismo e Viagens (T&V) está a enfrentar desafios sem precedentes devido à pandemia Covid-19. Sendo um dos maiores setores em todo o mundo, capaz de impulsionar o desenvolvimento socioeconómico e a criação de emprego, é vital que esta indústria recupere o mais rapidamente possível. Inúmeras ações estão a ser realizadas com a finalidade de estimular o turismo e uma ótima forma de o fazer pode ser através dos IRSs. Resumidamente, esta pesquisa tenciona entender se os IRSs podem estimular a indústria de T&V, mostrando que um destino e os seus serviços/produtos turísticos são seguros neste período de medo de viajar devido à pandemia

The role of experiential versus material posts

Pinto, D. C., Shuqair, S., Viglia, G., & Mattila, A. S. (Accepted/In press). Reducing resistance to sponsorship disclosure: The role of experiential versus material posts. Journal of Travel Research. --- The author(s) disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: This work received partial support from national funds through FCT (Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia), under the project - UIDB/04152/2020 - Centro de Investigação em Gestão de Informação (MagIC)/NOVA IMS.Despite the growing relevance of influencer marketing, recent research suggests that consumers have negative reactions to social media ads. Our research investigates how different types of disclosure (paid partnership vs. in-text disclosure) and post content (experiential vs. material) mitigate consumers’ negative reactions to social media advertisements. Four preregistered studies, drawing on the social exchange theory, reveal how the post content shapes the sponsorship disclosure effects. In particular, we show that a paid partnership (vs. intext) disclosure has a positive impact on consumers’ responses (engagement and purchase intent) and that persuasion resistance mediates the effects. Furthermore, Study 3 reveals that the type of content (experiential vs. material) moderates the effect, such that consumers' negative reactions to sponsorship disclosure are mitigated with experiential (vs. material) content. Overall, our results provide actionable implications for tourism marketers on how to create advertisements in social media, minimizing negative reactions to sponsorship disclosure.authorsversionepub_ahead_of_prin

Business plan for travel with: a started-up company for a tourism social platform

Travel With comes from the need to have a platform that improves the authors trip planning experience. The idea is to smooth the research pase by reducing the time needed, providing a digital space where the customer can see or plan trips with cheaper prices, compare bias feedback and travel tips. By storing all the information in one place, Travel With simplifies planning and travel logistics management, and thus brings a quicker, happier, and rewarding user experience. The purpos of this study is to analyse the ideas feasibility, considering literature review on the market and customer (Millennials), led to the conclusion of which was the best business target and strategy. Customer needs and interests were analysed through quantitative and qualitative research with the goal to find market opportunities. This reasearch allowed an improvement of the original concept, supporting the creationg of aplatform that would satisfy the customers. According to the market analysis and the customer researches, obstacles where identified, and transformed into opportunities through a digital marketing strategy focusing on social networks and the importance of influencers. The results have shown that the idea brings value to the market, but its success highly depends on its strategy, which will ensure the companies survival and success in a completive market.A ideia de negócios surge de uma necessidade do autor em facilitar a sua experiência de planeamento de viagens. De modo a reduzir as horas de pesquisa bem como as várias fontes, surge a ideia de criar uma única plataforma capaz de recolher toda a informação, onde os consumidores poderão não só criar as suas próprias viagens onde a plataforma sugere os serviços com os preços mais baixos versus qualidade, mas também a planos de viagens feitos por outros "users" com dicas e comentários fidedignos. O objetivo deste estudo teve por base a analise da viabilidade da ideia de negócio, através de uma análise de mercado e de consumidores target ("Millennials") com base em artigos e publicações, sendo posteriormente confirmada por métodos de pesquisa quantitativos e qualitativos, dos quais surgiram resultados que tiveram impacto na ideia original, tendo sido necessário realizar alterações de modo a garantir que a mesma satisfazia as necessidades dos cientes tornando-se uma oportunidade de mercado. Após as analises internas e externas foi possível identificar fraquezas que posteriormente foram transformadas em oportunidades através de uma estratégia de marketing digital baseada na experiência de redes socias e o impacto de "Influencers" nos consumidores. O estudo concluí que o mercado atribui valor à ideia, no entanto o sucesso da mesma está diretamente ligado ao sucesso de implementação da estratégia, que ajudará na obtenção de resultados num mercado de elevada competitividade onde a melhoria continua e adaptabilidade são cruciais para o sucesso e sobrevivência da empresa