Analyzing key influences of tourists’ acceptance of online reviews in travel decisions

Purpose: This study aims to examine what influence travelers’ adoption of online reviews, and whether the online reviews will influence their travel planning decisions. Design/methodology/approach: Data was collected from 193 respondents from eWOM websites and analyzed using structural equation modeling. Findings: Our results revealed that eWOM has a significant influence on travel decisions. Furthermore, travelers were willing to adopt information from eWOM and this information was useful in their travel planning and decisions. Gender and time spent on online reviews were found to affect travel planning and decisions. Travelers also found that the reviews and issues raised in eWOM had credibility and were of good quality. Research limitations/implications: Our study was not able to incorporate all factors which may be relevant to this study and so further theoretical development may be necessary to develop the conceptual model. The sample size, while adequate, can be expanded further. Practical implications: Operators and administrators of eWOM can use these findings to develop more user-friendly interfaces so that more positive reviews and sales can be generated. Social implications: Our results showed that travelers who adopt the information in eWOM will, in turn, use eWOM in their travel planning. This confirms the importance of eWOM and travelers in general will translate their pre-travel decisions into actual travel planning. Originality/value: This research extended existing eWOM and information system adoption studies and focused on the travel planning context. This research validated the significant roles of eWOM argument quality and credibility in predicting the information usefulness of eWOM

PROFILING SOCIAL MEDIA TOURISTS USING LITERATURE DURING 2015-2019: CRIMINAL PROFILING METHOD

With the continuous development of mobile commerce and the Internet, social media has deeply penetrated people’s lives and fundamentally changed the way of searching, reading and using travel-related information. With this backdrop, this research studied social media tourists (SMTs) who share or acquire information related to the hospitality and tourism on social media platforms. Based on 271 empirical articles retrieved from major databases and top hospitality and tourism journals in the recent five years from 2015 to 2019, this research developed a profiling framework about SMTs using criminal profiling method. The findings showed the possibility of using the criminal profiling method to analyze SMTs and provided a holistic personal, social-psychological, and behavioral profile of SMTs. Theoretical and practical implications were discussed

The Influence of Electronic-WOM on Tourists' Behavioral Intention to Choose a Destination: A case of Chinese Tourists Visiting Thailand

Word of mouth (WOM) plays an important role in one’s daily life, especially in the tourism industry. With the development of information communication technologies, WOM has developed into electronic word of mouth, also referred to as eWOM. This study examines the influence of eWOM on tourists’ behavioral intentions to choose a particular tourism destination. The theory of planned behavior (TPB) is utilized to investigate how eWOM influences Chinese tourists’ intention to visit Thailand. This study is based on non-probability convenience sampling where primary data were collected from 400 respondents who relied on tourists’ online comments about their travel experiences to plan their trip to Thailand in the last six months.Research objectives of this study are to study the relationship between eWOM and Chinese tourists’ decision-making influence factors to visit Thailand, and to investigate how eWOM affects Chinese tourists’ intention to travel in Thailand. The results show that eWOM significantly affect tourists’ behavioral intention toward visiting Thailand by affecting their attitude, subjective norms and perceived behavioral control of the theory of planned behavior (TPB). This thesis adopted the cross-sectional research methodology because of time limitations and no financial support from outside. In addition, this thesis focused on Chinese tourists only. Different countries have their own characteristics and cultures, and the results or conclusions of this study cannot be applied to other countries.The findings of this study will help tourism organizations and marketers based in China and Thailand to realize that using eWOM is becoming a major trend for Chinese tourists when planning a so-called Do-It-Yourself (DIY) trip

Information Technology Applications in Hospitality and Tourism: A Review of Publications from 2005 to 2007

The tourism and hospitality industries have widely adopted information technology (IT) to reduce costs, enhance operational efficiency, and most importantly to improve service quality and customer experience. This article offers a comprehensive review of articles that were published in 57 tourism and hospitality research journals from 2005 to 2007. Grouping the findings into the categories of consumers, technologies, and suppliers, the article sheds light on the evolution of IT applications in the tourism and hospitality industries. The article demonstrates that IT is increasingly becoming critical for the competitive operations of the tourism and hospitality organizations as well as for managing the distribution and marketing of organizations on a global scale

Role of Online Community Feedback in Creating the Image of Tourist Destinations

This study investigates the impact of user generated content on online platforms, mainly known as Online Community Feedback (OCF). This study aims to highlight the importance of OCF in developing destination image. Content and feedback given by past visitors are more trustworthy as compare to any other information sources including advertisements by site managers or information from government ministries. Based on this phenomena authors of this paper have categorized and analyzed the feedback and comments of past tourist of Gilgit Baltistan Region of Pakistan. Authors have adopted unstructured approach and manual approach to categorize the feedback into different parameters. Based on those, several recommendations are made to government officials and tourist site managers to bring improvements on the site so that future tourists may choose that place for their next visit. Top 5 places of Pakistan as per tripadvisor.com, were chosen for analysis and study

The influence of key determinants on consumers’ choice in tourism destination

This study aims at developing a model that explains the effect of different stimuli types (ST) (i.e. online reviews and advertising) on a tourist’s intention to visit (ITV) a new destination. Two separate studies were conducted to establish and validate the model that consists of stimulus mediators (SM): destination trust (DT) and interest (DI). 113 surveys were obtained in study 1 which focused on the effect of the different stimuli types. Study 2 used the Elaboration Likelihood Model (ELM) to explore how advertising could persuade consumers to make purchasing decisions and how tourists could be persuaded to visit attraction sites. 146 surveys were obtained in study 2. Structured equation model (SEM) technique was adopted in the data analysis. The result of the first study showed that advertising has a stronger effect than positive online reviews. The second study showed that peripheral route of elaborate likelihood model has a stronger effect than central route in the context of tourism. That is, peripheral route that could generate a strong spontaneous impact by providing a vivid portrait of what a tourist would experience through an image cue

Co-creation of tourism experiences and the use of social media (ICTS) as key tools for innovation and value creation in the tourism industry

Portugal is an emerging tourism market, being worthy of attention. Besides, the tourism industry has been connected to fast changes due to the influence of social media (Web 2.0) on the lives of consumers and the shift in the economic value from products and services to the staging of experiences. This study aims to analyze the effect that several types of social media platforms (as mediators) have on the co-creation of tourism experiences (before, during and after) and the consequent satisfaction, happiness, memorability and motivation to share it online. For that effect, an online survey was developed and conducted on a sample of 410 national and international tourists. The findings showed that the use of social media has a more significant effect while planning the trip, serving as a source of inspiration for the next trip and of information about the chosen destination. Moreover, it also leads to a substantial increase in the satisfaction that tourists feel towards the trip, since the expectations are met by what they experience during the trip, which generates a greater level of happiness and memorability. This is crucial since it leads to a greater perception of value, a positive image of the destination, a bigger willingness to recommend and share the experience with followers. This makes it important for Portuguese tourism service providers and tourism department to understand how Portugal is being represented on social media pages and the reasons that motivate tourists to share their experiences online, thus influencing their followers to visit.Portugal é, atualmente, um mercado turístico emergente, sendo uma área importante a analisar. Além disso, a indústria do turismo tem estado ligada a mudanças rápidas devido à influência das redes sociais (Web 2.0) na vida dos consumidores e à mudança no valor económico, de produtos e serviços para a criação de experiências. Este estudo pretende analisar o efeito que vários tipos de redes sociais (mediadores) têm na cocriação de experiências de turismo e a consequente satisfação, felicidade, memorabilidade e motivação para as partilhar online. Assim, foi realizado um inquérito online a uma amostra de 410 turistas nacionais e internacionais. Os resultados mostraram que o uso das redes sociais tem um efeito mais significativo no planeamento da viagem, servindo como fonte de inspiração para a próxima viagem e de informação sobre o destino escolhido. Além disso, também leva a um aumento substancial na satisfação que os turistas sentem em relação à viagem, uma vez que as expectativas correspondem ao que eles vivenciam durante a viagem, o que gera um maior nível de felicidade e memorabilidade. Isto é crucial porque leva a uma maior perceção de valor, uma imagem positiva do destino, uma maior disponibilidade para recomendar e partilhar a experiência com os seguidores. Isto torna importante que os prestadores de serviços de turismo e o departamento de turismo português compreendam como Portugal está a ser representado nas redes sociais e as razões que motivam os turistas a partilhar as suas experiências online, influenciando assim os seus seguidores a visitar o destino

Applications of Social Media in the Tourism Industry: A Review

Purpose- This study aims to review and analyze the articles related to social media applications and their impact on the tourism industry. Methodology- For conducting this study, three leading databases named Google Scholar, Science Direct, and EBSCO Host were used for data collection purposes, and the research was conducted in three phases. Selecting the database for collecting data was the first phase, which was carried out during the period between November 2020 to December 2020. In the second phase, screening of the collected data was done, and in the final stage, 46 articles were selected to conduct this study. Discussion- Over the last decade, the rapid advancements in information and communication technology (ICTs) have had reflective impacts on the global tourism sector. Both researchers and professionals have acknowledged that social media applications have a significant impact on both suppliers and consumers of the tourism industry. Findings- Based on the reviewed articles from the perspectives of the tourism consumers as well as the tourism suppliers, this study has found that consumers use social media in pre-during-post travel for searching different information and suppliers generally use social media for promotion, communication, management, research purposes

Understanding online consumer behavior and eWOM strategies for sustainable business management in the tourism industry

Electronic word of mouth (eWOM) has been widely used by most consumers on di erent digital platforms. This review aimed to obtain further insights into online consumer behavior through social networking sites and online reviews sites to help tourism businesses develop sustainable eWOM strategies. To this end, an exploratory study was developed to analyze available literature on eWOM strategies and online consumer behavior. The systematic literature review analysis focused on the following two main topics: (i) tourism and (ii) eWOM. The scientific database, Web of Science, was used to collect relevant literature on the subject. The search terms “Tourism” and “eWOM” were used. Searching the database, Web of Science, yielded a total of 124 articles; upon application of di erent filters, a total of 14 studies were included in the final dataset. The results of the present study provide new insights into consumer behavior for social sciences and businesses for the adoption of sustainable strategies to increase the influence of eWOM on the tourism industry.FCT: UIDB/04020/2020/ UIDB/04470/2020info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

'You will like it!' Using open data to predict tourists' responses to a tourist attraction

The increasing amount of user-generated content spread via social networking services such as reviews, comments, and past experiences, has made a great deal of information available. Tourists can access this information to support their decision making process. This information is freely accessible online and generates so-called “open data”. While many studies have investigated the effect of online reviews on tourists’ decisions, none have directly investigated the extent to which open data analyses might predict tourists’ response to a certain destination. To this end, our study contributes to the process of predicting tourists’ future preferences via MathematicaTM, software that analyzes a large set of the open data (i.e. tourists’ reviews) that is freely available on tripadvisor. This is devised by generating the classification function and the best model for predicting the destination tourists would potentially select. The implications for the tourist industry are discussed in terms of research and practice