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/

Corporate marketing strategy using social media: a case study of the Ritz-Carlton Seoul

With the increasing trend of popularity of websites and social networking sites, it is quite evident that companies need to take cautionary measures in protecting the reputations with respect to company and brands. In this process, every company should indulge in enhancing their company and brand image through websites and social networking sites that fortify the bonding nature among them. The always-on nature of websites and social networking sites has contributed to their phenomenal marketing power and altered the balance of power between consumers and firms. Websites and social networks are used by hundreds of millions of people to communicate about a huge range of topics, including personal interests, activities, social events and even public issues. The paper explores a case study of the Ritz- Carlton hotel for their marketing strategy and organizational use of their website and social media in communicating with their customers. Even for the normal luxury traveler who would not have previously used the Internet to research a hotel or make a reservation, ritzcarlton.com is making it possible for them to do so in a sense of the luxury and typical Ritz-Carlton style. It seems to be a staple of the company for years to come

Crashworthiness capability of jute and glass fibre reinforced epoxy tubes under quasi-static loading condition for automotive application

During last few years, the interest in using natural fibers as reinforcement in polymers has increased dramatically. Natural fibers are not only strong and lightweight but also relatively very cheap. This study examined the potential utilization of jute in the crash energy absorption. A combination of hand layup and vacuum bladder technique was kused to search the influence of utilizing jute fibre on crashworthiness parameters of composite materials. To improve the mechanical properties, jute fiber was hybridized with glass fiber. In this work, there are two main parts of study. Firstly, it is to investigate the effect of cross-sectional shapes, number of layers and temperature treatment on the progressive deformation of jute/epoxy composite tubes. Secondly, the suitable type of geometry was chosen to study the effect of hybrid (jute-glass/epoxy) onto the structural designs. All the tests were undergone quasi-static axial crushing of 10 mm/min. Their peak load (Pmax), mean load (Pm), energy absorption (EA) and specific energy absorption (SEA) were discussed in detail. In the study of types of five geometrical shapes (corrugated, circular, hexagonal, octagonal and decagonal cross sectional) with different number of layers (two, three and four layers). It is found that the corrugated geometric shape with three layers (RHS) gives the best energy absorption (30.92 J/g) in specific energy absorption parameter compared to other geometries used in present study. For the temperature treatment, the results showed that the post-curing by gradual temperature treatment (TT) improved the peak load by decreased with 55% as compared to similar circular specimen without temperature treatment (No TT). From the test, it is found that the substitution of one layer of jute fibre with one layer of glass fibre resulted in an improvement in the crashworthiness parameters than layers jute. The best result was obtained when hybrid jute-glass was used, where the energy absorption and specific energy absorption was improved by about 43% and 31%, respectively

Please, talk about it! When hotel popularity boosts preferences

Many consumers post on-line reviews, affecting the average evaluation of products and services. Yet, little is known about the importance of the number of reviews for consumer decision making. We conducted an on-line experiment (n= 168) to assess the joint impact of the average evaluation, a measure of quality, and the number of reviews, a measure of popularity, on hotel preference. The results show that consumers' preference increases with the number of reviews, independently of the average evaluation being high or low. This is not what one would expect from an informational point of view, and review websites fail to take this pattern into account. This novel result is mediated by demographics: young people, and in particular young males, are less affected by popularity, relying more on quality. We suggest the adoption of appropriate ranking mechanisms to fit consumer preferences. © 2014 Elsevier Ltd

Sport Tourism: Regional Promotion Strategies

The main purposes of this paper are (i) to analyze the regional promotion strategies of the UEFA Euro 2004 and (ii) to contribute for the improvement of planning and implementation strategies of tourism marketing at regional level. Data regarding these strategies were collected and synthesided. We verified if these match some of the theoretical issues of promotion and tourism marketing. Despite the fact that already many studies have been made, internationally, on the impact of sport events, the present study contains something new as it introduces an ante analysis on the regional pronotion strategies of major sport events.Unlikely, the results show that no specific and integrated regional promotion strategy was pursuit, and no substantial additional financial effort was made. In what concerns the private regional tourism agents, no promotion could be found. The main tourism promotion competition came from across the boarder, whit dynamic promotion actions of the nearby Spanish regional responsibles.UEFA Euro 2004, tourism, promotion, marketing, regional, Minho, Portugal, Spain and major sport events.

AN INVESTIGATION ON WEBSITE ADOPTION AND PERFORMANCE ON IRANIAN HOTELS

This study investigates website adoption and performance among Iranian hotels. Using content analysis technique, this study identifies the presence of 28 website features on 57 Iranian hotels. The results found Iranian hotels are at very early stage of Internet adoption. E-commerce activities are very minimal among the Iranian hotels as none of the hotels provide online reservation. This study adds to the limited study of e-commerce and hospitality in Iran.E-tourism, Website, Evaluation, Hotel, Iran