TURKISH TOURISM CONSUMER’S INFORMATION SEARCH BEHAVIOR: THE ROLE OF USER-GENERATED CONTENT IN TRAVEL PLANNING PROCESS

Consumer’s decision-making process has been altered by dissemination of social networking sites (SNSs) provided by Web 2.0 technologies. Communication and interaction among consumers in SNSs allow consumers share their opinions and view others’ opinions in their networks. The emergence of sites has highlighted the significance of electronic word-of-mouth since user-generated content (UGC) has become a source of information for consumers searching for information on products and services. UGC plays an important role in travel planning of prospective travelers, especially in information search phase. In this study, after a review of the relevant literature, the researcher aims to investigate how user-generated content are used and perceived by tourism consumers during decision making process and the role of user-generated content as a source of travel information. To achieve a better understanding about how the user-generated content was used and perceived by tourism consumers during their travel-related information search and more widely travel planning process, an exploratory study was designed based on the results of previous studies. The results of a survey conducted online suggest that tourism consumers benefit from information provided by different forms of user-generated content in their information search during the first stages of their travel planning process mainly

Storytelling on Social Media: The Motives for Telling the Tourist Experience to the Connected Others

The development of the Internet and improvements in information and communication technologies (ICTs) allow consumers to share their opinions and experiences of products and services with other consumers through electronic word-of-mouth (eWOM, word-of-mouse) communication. Tourism is one sector that has a very close relationship with the innovations in information technologies. Today, social media provide many opportunities for travellers to share their holiday experiences with their connected others. People share their opinions with connected others by sending e-mails, posting comments and feedback on websites and forums, publishing online blogs, and forming and joining communities on the Internet. Sharing their experiences with others contributes to the value of the experience and makes it more meaningful and memorable. In this study, following a theoretical discussion based on a review of the relevant literature, the researcher would like to demonstrate the role and importance of sharing the tourist experience with connected others in social media. By conducting structured interviews (online and offline) with people who were chosen based on their holiday experience sharing habits, the contribution and role of storytelling in a tourism consumer’s holiday experience are explored. For new tourists, storytelling plays a serious role in addition to the holiday experience itself, and sharing experiences with connected others is seen as a vital tool for a fulfilling holiday experience. The results will demonstrate the contribution of storytelling to the tourist experience, and provide a basis for further research on scale development for assessing the impact of storytelling on the tourist experience.&nbsp

Green marketing at lodging enterprises from sustainable tourism perspective: Calista luxury resort hotel

Sürdürülebilir turizm, yerel kaynakların korunması, yaşam kalitesinin yükseltilmesi, turistik tüketicilerin ve bölge halkının ihtiyaçlarının gelecek düşünülerek karşılanması, ülkenin kültürel bütünlüğüne ve çevresine uygun turizm kapasitelerinin geliştirilmesidir. En çok enerji tüketen sektörlerden biri olan turizm, enerji tasarrufu, doğal kaynakların korunması ve çevresel yönetim gibi konulara ağırlık vermelidir. Böylece turizm işletmelerinin değişen tüketici tercih ve beklentilerine uygun, çevreye saygılı ürünler sunabilmeleri ve tüketici gözünde iyi bir imaj oluşturmaları sağlanmalıdır. Rekabet avantajı olarak çevre kalitesi, turizm işletmeleri için çok önemlidir. Tüketici istek ve gereksinimlerini karşılamaya yönelik her türlü çevre dostu pazarlama faaliyetlerini ifade eden yeşil pazarlama, çevresel ürünlerin çevresel stratejilerle pazarlanmasını gerektirir. Çevre dostu turizm işletmeleri, yeşil pazarlama stratejilerini uygulayarak sektörde farklı bir konumlandırmaya gidebilmektedir. Bu çalışmada turizmin çevresel boyutları ele alınmış, sürdürülebilirliğin sağlanması için turizm sektöründe yer alan birey, yatırımcı, kurum ve kuruluşların yapması gerekenler üzerinde durulmuş ve turizmde yeni bir pazar olan yeşil pazarlama faaliyetleri ile somut bir örnek olarak "Calista Luxury Resort"e ait çalışmalar değerlendirilmiştir.  Sustainable tourism means to protect local resources, to increase life quality, to provide needs of tourism consumers and local people by considering needs of future generations, and to develop tourism types which are suitable to country's cultural integrity and environment. As one of the most energy consuming sectors, tourism should give importance to conservation of energy, protection of natural resources, and environmental management. Therefore, tourism enterprises enable to offer environment friendly products adjusted to changing consumer preferences and expectations and create a good image in consumers' mind. Environment quality offers an important source of competitive advantage to tourism enterprises. Green marketing which can be defined as all type of environment friendly marketing activities aiming to satisfy consumer's wants and needs is needed to market environment friendly products by environmental strategies. Environment friendly tourism enterprises can position themselves uniquely by applying green marketing strategies. In this study, environmental aspects of tourism are evaluated, responsibilities of individuals, investors, and organizations are examined, and green marketing applications of "Calista Luxury Resort" are analyzed as a case&nbsp

The Importance of Strategic Stakeholder Management in Tourism Sector: Research on Probable Applications

The main object of this study is to explain the importance of strategic stakeholder management in tourism sector. In today’s turbulent and chaotic business environment all businesses have to operate under the pressure of different interests and influences which management has to assess and evaluate to adjust them with corporate objectives. Therefore strategic stakeholder management practices could be considered as useful tools in dealing with the stakeholder interests in order to achieve corporate objectives. In making important corporate decisions, it is necessary to know about expectations and impacts of different stakeholders. In this study by examining former studies, the importance of the concept of stakeholder for organizations, the reasons why organizations should respond to their stakeholders and the need for managing stakeholders strategically, its importance and practices in tourism sector are demonstrated. In addition, the tourism sector managers’ opinions and attitudes towards strategic stakeholder management are examined by interviews with managers of some tourism enterprises in Izmir

TURKISH TOURISM CONSUMER’S INFORMATION SEARCH BEHAVIOR: THE ROLE OF USER-GENERATED CONTENT IN TRAVEL PLANNING PROCESS

<p><em>Consumer’s decision-making process has been altered by dissemination of social networking sites (SNSs) provided by Web 2.0 technologies. Communication and interaction among consumers in SNSs allow consumers share their opinions and view others’ opinions in their networks. The emergence of sites has highlighted the significance of electronic word-of-mouth since user-generated content (UGC) has become a source of information for consumers searching for information on products and services. UGC plays an important role in travel planning of prospective travelers, especially in information search phase. In this study, after a review of the relevant literature, the researcher aims to investigate how user-generated content are used and perceived by tourism consumers during decision making process and the role of user-generated content as a source of travel information. To achieve a better understanding about how the user-generated content was used and perceived by tourism consumers during their travel-related information search and more widely travel planning process, an exploratory study was designed based on the results of previous studies. The results of a survey conducted online suggest that tourism consumers benefit from information provided by different forms of user-generated content in their information search during the first stages of their travel planning process mainly.</em></p