Social media and tourism : a wishful relationship

For decades hospitality firms were used to domain the communication process. Thematic social network sites such as TripAdvisor became very important tools for travelers when deciding which hotels to book, and what restaurants and tourist attractions to visit, been a visible part of tourism communication evolution. Evidence suggests that e-WOM serves as a primary information source when tourists choose destinations, hotels, and other experiences. The role and use of social media in tourists’ decision making has been widely discuss in tourism and hospitality research, especially in the research phase of the tourist’ travel planning process. With the wide adoption of social media the influence of customers’ word-of-mouth increased and influences not only the research phase, but the repetition and overall customers’ experiences. To answer these questions a model assessing e-wom was developed and data was gathering from TripAdvisor regarding customer’s opinion in restaurant experiences. The results found establish the bases for understanding tourists’ engagement level and profiles.N/

The effects of travelling reasons on social media resources and tourist expectations

Esta investigación tiene como objetivo examinar la relación de las fuentes del contenido generado por el usuario (UGC) en las redes sociales, que proviene generalmente de fuentes de lazos fuertes y fuentes de lazos débiles, en la generación de expectativas turísticas sobre los recursos básicos y los recursos o factores de apoyo de los destinos. También se analiza el efecto moderador de las razones para viajar en la relación de las fuentes UGC y las expectativas turísticas. Para esta investigación, se recogieron 375 encuestas. Los resultados señalan que las razones o motivos del viaje son un factor importante a considerar en la generación de las expectativas turísticas, y en nuestro caso, el UGC que provenía de las fuentes de lazos débiles influyen de manera significativa en la generación de expectativas del turista cuando viaja por motivos de trabajo.This research aims to examine the relationship of user generated content (UGC) sources in social media which is provided by strong-tie sources and weak-tie sources on tourist expectations on core resources and factor supporting of the destinations, and also analyze the moderate effect of the reasons of travelling on the relationship of UGC sources and tourist expectations. 375 samples were collected. The results demonstrate that travelling reasons is an important factor to consider about the origin of tourist expectations. The UGC that was provided by weak-tie source has influence on tourist expectations when they travel with business reason

Word of Mouth, the Importance of Reviews and Ratings in Tourism Marketing

The Internet and social media have given place to what is commonly known as the democratization of content and this phenomenon is changing the way that consumers and companies interact. Business strategies are shifting from influencing consumers directly and induce sales to mediating the influence that Internet users have on each other. A consumer review is “a mixture of fact and opinion, impression and sentiment, found and unfound tidbits, experiences, and even rumor” (Blackshaw & Nazarro, 2006). Consumers' comments are seen as honest and transparent, but it is their subjective perception what shapes the behavior of other potential consumers. With the emergence of the Internet, tourists search for information and reviews of destinations, hotels or services. Several studies have highlighted the great influence of online reputation through reviews and ratings and how it affects purchasing decisions by others (Schuckert, Liu, & Law, 2015). These reviews are seen as unbiased and trustworthy, and considered to reduce uncertainty and perceived risks (Gretzel & Yoo, 2008; Park & Nicolau, 2015). Before choosing a destination, tourists are likely to spend a significant amount of time searching for information including reviews of other tourists posted on the Internet. The average traveler browses 38 websites prior to purchasing vacation packages (Schaal, 2013), which may include tourism forums, online reviews in booking sites and other generic social media websites such as Facebook and Twitter.Peer reviewedFinal Accepted Versio

Computing word-of-mouth trust relationships in social networks from Semantic Web and Web 2.0 data sources

Social networks can serve as both a rich source of new information and as a filter to identify the information most relevant to our specific needs. In this paper we present a methodology and algorithms that, by exploiting existing Semantic Web and Web2.0 data sources, help individuals identify who in their social network knows what, and who is the most trustworthy source of information on that topic. Our approach improves upon previous work in a number of ways, such as incorporating topic-specific rather than global trust metrics. This is achieved by generating topic experience profiles for each network member, based on data from Revyu and del.icio.us, to indicate who knows what. Identification of the most trustworthy sources is enabled by a rich trust model of information and recommendation seeking in social networks. Reviews and ratings created on Revyu provide source data for algorithms that generate topic expertise and person to person affinity metrics. Combining these metrics, we are implementing a user-oriented application for searching and automated ranking of information sources within social networks

a case study of Bali

Thesis(Master) -- KDI School: Master of Development Policy, 2020Tourism is an important industry globally and a critical industry for Indonesia. Despite the importance of tourism to Indonesia’s economy, there is a general view that the industry has untapped potential. Given Indonesia’s prodigious tourism resources and strategic geographical location, it fails to draw the highest possible tourist numbers and receipts. Government has implemented some ambitious and strategic efforts to boost the number of foreign tourists to Indonesia. However, the country still lags behind its regional competitors in number of foreign tourists and receipts. Therefore, this study investigates information sources, both online and offline, as the lifeblood of the travel and tourism industry. Using factor analysis, information source attributes were examined to discover the rationale behind the selection of sources by international tourists. This paper also analyzed which sources used and constructed destination attributes, in acknowledgement of the significance of a destination image as a factor of travel decision making. This research focuses on international tourists and uses Bali as the case study. Results indicate that international tourists use both online and offline sources. The findings also indicate that the main reasons for the selection of sources are the interactivity and usergenerated content of sources. The results of this research can be used in tourism policy and marketing strategies by central and local governments as well as tourism communities.I. Introduction II. Literature Review III. Methodology IV. Data Analysis V. ConclusionsmasterpublishedElfridanche Widya S. PARDED

A scoping review: exploring the world of medical and wellness tourism

Purpose: Medical and wellness tourism is a growing phenomenon, and tourists all over the world are traveling with the express purpose of accessing medical treatment or promoting health through physically and psychologically beneficial activities. This industry has continued to expand with the Internet’s help, as customers can now make choices that are more appropriate and informed decisions. Design: This research employed mixed content analysis methods. The qualitative approach reproduced tourists’ appraisals and assessed the spatial relationships between terms and concepts in medical and wellness tourism, with generalizable and reproducible results. Theoretical Contribution: This study specifically adds to the literature on post-experiences of medical and wellness tourism and the impact of Web-based information through reviewers’ satisfaction and willingness to recommend facilities to others. Practical Contributions: Medical tourists’ reviews indicate shared commonalities when identifying significant factors in medical services received. These individuals also focus on cost, treatment effectiveness; time spent collecting healthcare information, and recommendations they plan to offer to friends and family. Wellness tourists perceive resort facilities—including room conditions—and thalassotherapy treatments as the primary drivers of good service. Critical attributes of room condition are overall cleanliness and room comfort, especially bed, bathroom, and shower facilities. Tourists’ reviews of their experiences of thermal spa facilities provide a strategic order in which to implement service attributes by degree of influence: thermal facilities and services, hotel reception and room, food quality and price, pool and bath access, location views and accessibility, and staff’s professionalism and friendliness. Originality: The results add to the slowly growing body of literature on medical and wellness tourism and provide significant information to prospective medical tourists, healthcare service professionals, hoteliers, and other operators who become part of tourists’ total experience. This thesis identifies new themes based on semantic analyses that explored tourists’ behavior, intentions, and overall experiences shared online.Objetivo: O Turismo Médico e de Bem-Estar é um fenómeno crescente. Turistas de todo o mundo viajam com o intuito de ter acesso a tratamento médico ou de melhorar o seu estado de saúde através de atividades físicas e psicológicas que lhes sejam benéficas. Esta indústria tem vindo a crescer com ajuda da Internet, permitindo aos turistas fazer melhores escolhas e tomar decisões informadas. Desenho da tese: Este estudo tem como base a análise de conteúdos mistos. A abordagem qualitativa reproduz as avaliações dos turistas e avalia as relações entre as narrativas e os conceitos no Turismo Médico e de Bem-Estar, obtendo resultados replicáveis e generalizáveis. Contribuição teórica: Este estudo contribui com o conhecimento teórico no setor do turismo de Saúde e Bem-estar e o impacto das opiniões dos turistas nas plataformas online como veículo para expressar satisfação e recomendar serviços a outros turistas. Contribuição prática: No Turismo Médico os comentários online indicam características comuns inerentes ao tratamento médico. Como fatores determinantes no processo de decisão os turistas realçam o preço, a eficácia do tratamento, o tempo despendido na recolha de informações medicas, e partilham recomendações com amigos e familiares. No turismo de Bem-Estar os turistas percecionam as infraestruturas do resort-incluindo as condições do quarto e os tratamentos de talassoterapia como fatores determinantes de um bom serviço. Indicam como fatores críticos -o quarto- a limpeza e o conforto em particular uma cama confortável, a casa de banho e o chuveiro. Os turistas que utilizam as Termas e Spa indicam por ordem decrescente a implementação dos seguintes serviços: acesso as termas e serviços, a receção do hotel e sala, qualidade da comida e preço, piscina e banho térmico, localização, vista e acessos bem como o profissionalismo e simpatia dos colaboradores. Originalidade: Os resultados contribuem para o desenvolvimento da literatura sobre o Turismo Medico e de Bem-Estar e sugere diretrizes para potenciais turistas médicos, profissionais de saúde, setor hoteleiro e outros operadores que integram a experiência destes turistas. Com base na análise semântica esta tese identifica novas temáticas que exploram comportamentos, intenções e experiências que os turistas compartilham online

Using Fuzzy Sentiment Computing and Inference Method to Study Consumer Online Reviews

As a new type of word-of-mouth information, online consumer reviews possess critical information regarding consumer‘s concerns and their experience with the product or service. Such information is considered essential to firms‘ business intelligence which can be utilized for the purpose of production recommendation, personalization, and better customer understanding. This paper considers the problem of online reviews sentiment mining based on the theory of consumer psychology and behavior. Given the fuzzy attribute nature of the online reviews, we have established fuzzy group bases of consumer psychology. Four fuzzy bases, including features, sense, mood and evaluation, are established. The consumer attitude elements are reflected by natural language reviews. A fuzzy sentiment computing algorithm of online reviews for consumer sentiment is developed, and a fuzzy rule base is also presented based on consumer decision-making process. Finally it shows by means of an experiment that the proposed approach is very well suited as an analysis tool for the online reviews sentiment mining problem

A Referral Rewards Incentive Dedign On Travel Consumer- Generated Content

User-generated content has become increasingly important to both tourism practitioners and travel consumers. Although prior studies have demonstrated how impactful UGC is and why marketing mavens employ UGC sites in their marketing campaigns, there is still scant evidence on how to successfully manipulate them. To fill this void, we conducted a two-phase experiment study. In the experiment, first, 65 tourists were invited then grouped according to three different treatments (namely, creating travel posts to achieve the maximum ‘comments’, ‘retweets’, or ‘likes’), and one will be rewarded if he/she achieves the goal. Second, for the manipulation check, we invited another group of Chinese consumers (n =268) to rate these travel posts based on their perceptions. Our experiment results indicate that this referral rewards incentive design has significant effects on consumers’ UGC perception (the credibility, interestingness, influence of postings), behavioral intentions (purchase intention, and WOM intention), and their likelihood of social media engagement (offering ‘likes’). In addition, we also discuss the implications of the results and how to exploit this design

The impact of negative events in scenic spots on tourists' behavioral intention: an analysis from the perspective of event system theory

Tourism is an important economic activity in China representing about 11.04% of GDP and 10.29% of total employment. In recent years, negative events occurred frequently in Chinese tourism spots, especially in scenic spots, and tended to be promptly divulgated through social networks. The impact of these fast-running news on tourism activity is still to be appraised. This study reviews the literature on negative events, and e-word-of-mouth effects, jointly with personality characteristic theory, and consumer behavior intentions to address the impact of negative events on tourism. The study contributes to the existent knowledge by using the event theory system framework to explore how negative events affect tourists’ intentions concerning visiting places where negative events took place. The results are meaningful both theoretically and practically, showing that, on the one hand, the dimensions of space and intensity proposed by the event theory system have a significant impact on tourists’ behavior and, on another hand, tourists’ personality, namely risk-taking tendencies and openness, has a significant impact on tourists' willingness to recommend. Further, the study addresses its limitations and proposes management contributions, and future directions of research.O turismo é uma atividade muito importante na China representando cerca de 11.04% do seu PIB e 10.29% do seu emprego total. Recentemente, acontecimentos negativos têm ocorrido com frequência em locais turísticos, especialmente em locais de espetáculos, e têm sido rapidamente difundidos através das redes sociais. O impacto sobre a atividade turística destas notícias aceleradas está ainda por avaliar. Este trabalho revê a literatura sobre acontecimentos negativos e efeitos de difusão eletrónica "boca-a-boca", em conjunto com a teoria da personalidade e das intenções de consumo, para analisar o impacto de acontecimentos negativos no turismo. O estudo contribui para a literatura existente ao usar o quadro do "event theory system" para explorar como os acontecimentos negativos afetam as decisões dos turistas em visitar os locais onde estes ocorreram. Os resultados são significativos, quer do ponto de vista teórico, quer prático, demonstrando, por um lado, que as dimensões espaço e intensidade sugeridas pelo "event theory system" têm impacto significativo no comportamento dos turistas e, por outro, que a personalidade dos turistas, nomeadamente a sua tendência para aceitar o risco e a sua abertura, tem um impacto significativo na sua vontade de recomendar os locais afetados pelos acontecimentos negativos. Adicionalmente, o estudo discute as suas limitações e propõe contribuições para o processo de gestão, bem como linhas de investigação futuras

The Influence of Electronic Word of Mouth in an Online Travel Community on Travel Decisions: A Case Study

As a result of embracing the Internet, online travel communities have become an important information source for travelers. The members of these communities communicate through postings called electronic word-of-mouth (eWOM) the act of sharing information on a particular topic. Electronic word-of-mouth (eWOM) is informal communications among consumers regarding the usage or characteristics of goods and services on the Internet (Litvin, Goldsmith, and Pan, 2008). Furthermore, the influence of eWOM has been found to be influential on consumer purchasing behavior (Guernsey, 2000). Thus, an understanding of the potential of eWOM in online travel communities on travel decisions has implications for tourism marketers as well as researchers. The purpose of this research is to examine a single online travel community in order to conduct an in depth analysis of the influence of eWOM on travel decisions. The study uses online travel community postings (eWOM) to explore the types of travel decisions that are discussed, influence of eWOM on these decisions, the types of members and their specific influence on types of travel decisions, the information types provided by the members, the activity level of members and their influence on travel decisions of other members. Thorn Tree Forum, part of Lonely Planet website is the online travel community studied for this research. In an effort to select a sample that would yield maximum variation, treemaps, and purposeful sampling is used to select eight country forums to use as the framework for collecting community member postings. Postings are collected for an eight month period. Data collection and analysis used a multistep process that included thematic networks, coding for influence and details of information shared among members. The results suggest that eWOM in this online travel community influence travel decisions including accommodation choice, food and beverage recommendations, transportation options, safety of the destination, monetary issues, destination information, and itinerary refinements. Residents were influential in accommodations, food and beverages, and destination information, whereas experienced travelers influenced all types of travel decisions except accommodations. Information types identified include warnings, advice/tips, recommendations, and clarifications. Clarifications were the most influential postings, followed by recommendations and advice/tips. The members were categorized into three types low, medium, and high activity level members. Medium activity level members were the most influential members followed by low and high activity level members. The results of this study provide direction for theoretical development of using online travel communities for travel decision making and provide managerial guidance for utilization of online travel communities for enhancing travel products and destination