Travel queries on cities in the United States: Implications for search engine marketing for tourist destinations

Given the growing importance of search in online travel planning, marketers need to better understand the behavioural aspect of search engines use. Built upon a number of previous studies, the goal of this research is to identify patterns in online travel queries across tourist destinations. Utilizing transaction log files from a number of search engines, the analysis shows important patterns in the way travel queries are constructed as well as the commonalities and differences in travel queries about different cities in the United States. The ratio of travel queries among all queries about a specific city seems to associate with the “touristic” level of that city. Also, keywords in travelers' queries reflect their knowledge about the city and its competitors. This paper offers insights into the way tourism destinations are searched online as well as implications for search engine marketing for destinations.     

Web users’ behavioural patterns of tourism information search: From online to offline

This paper presents a conceptual framework of Web users’ engagement in tourism information search for a comprehensive understanding of their integrated online and offline search behaviour. The information search experiences are characterised as a process constituting some common elements: prior knowledge and searching experiences, online searching strategies, processing and recording information, barriers to online searching, reasons for ending an online search, summarising information, exchanging information and searching for more information through other sources. Such behaviour goes beyond the scope of information searching and captures the other activities, including information processing, utilising and disseminating. The grounded theory research method is employed as an inductive investigative process in which the authors construct the framework by systematically collecting and analysing data. The aim of this research method is to build a theory. The data sets consist of both semi-structured in-depth interviews with subjects and their field observations based on online searching. A theoretical model incorporating 10 propositions is proposed for future testing.     

From online via offline to online: how online visibility of tourism information shapes and is shaped by offline visits

This study links online tourism information with offline visits using an empirical data set. While previous studies revealed the role of online information in tourist information searches, few examined how online visibility of tourism information relates to offline visit. This study took a webometric approach to collect search engine result data, match it with the number of offline visits, and link them with post-visit photo-sharing activity. This study, unlike previous studies, used micro-level tourist sites within one city in South Korea. Various methods of analysis confirmed that online tourism information relates to offline visits, which in turn relate to post-tour photo-sharing behavior.     

A social media analysis of travel preferences and attitudes,before and during Covid-19

Covid-19 created tremendous uncertainty in the tourism industry; in this study, we use social media data to explore differences in the preferences and attitudes of tourism consumers, both before and during the pandemic. We use natural language processing (NLP) techniques to analyze over one million Reddit posts on travel-related subreddits. We investigate the preference for city and nature-oriented tourism in selected destinations; the analysis demonstrates that nature tourism gained interest during Covid-19 in destinations with rich nature resources, whereas city tourism lost interest in destinations known for city tourism. We also classify Reddit authors into two categories: conservation and openness, according to a psychological theory of personal values, and show that this is predictive, with openness associated with positive travel sentiment and low risk awareness. This points to the potential for value-based segmentation of travel consumers based on theoretically-grounded NLP analysis of social media data.     

Travelers’ social identification and membership behaviors in online travel community

Given the growing use of the Internet, not only for the purchasing of holidays but also for exchange of information and sharing experiences, the issue of how social identification is created in an online community assumes potential importance. This study investigates travel members’ social identification through their online community experience and its positive behavioral outcomes (i.e., membership behaviors). Data are derived from 352 respondents belonging to MSN groups and are analyzed using structural equation modeling. Results of this study show that members’ active participation fortifies their sense of belonging to the online travel community, which makes members support the community by showing several positive member behaviors such as knowledge sharing, community promotion, and behavioral changes. Travel member’s interaction levels are further revealed to strengthen the magnitudes of the proposed relationships.     

Travel selfies on social media as objectified self-presentation

While disseminating self-related information and travel selfies via social network sites, many tourists strategically adjust photographic images to manage their impressions. With a sample of Korean female tourists, this study aims to examine the underlying nature of strategic self-presentation behaviors characterized by women's personal efforts to edit and package their travel selfies posted on social media webpages. The results of this study indicate that several elements of self-objectification, including appearance surveillance and appearance dissatisfaction, are closely associated with female tourists' strategic self-presentational orientation. This study suggests different management implications to help tourism practitioners successfully distribute desired destination images using their clienteles' strategic self-presentation behaviors.     

Tourism and online photography

This paper documents the use of online travel photo-sharing technologies among Hong Kong residents. The advent of Web 2.0 is changing fundamentally the tourist information search and destination choice process. Yet, to date, no study has documented Web 2.0 usage levels and preferences for certain media for posting travel photographs across an entire community. This study reveals that some 89% of pleasure travelers take photographs and that 41% of them posted their photographs online. Social network sites (SNSs), instant messaging, online photo albums and personal blogs were the most popular media used. In general, people who post photographs online tend to be younger, better educated, and earn a higher income than those who do not. The study determined that most people also use multiple media platforms to disseminate their images. Cluster analysis based on the four major styles of online platform identified five cohorts of users who differed in number and type of media used, demographic profile and travel motive. Implications for destination promotion are discussed.     

Web-based GIS in tourism information search: Perceptions,tasks, and trip attributes

People’s strategies and choices to utilize tourism information have shifted dramatically over the years following ubiquitous access to the Internet. Despite the fact that many tourism information searches on the Internet involve geo-spatial information through WebGIS, little is known about tourists’ behavioral patterns with this media. The purpose of this study was to examine tourists’ trip situations, tasks, and perceptions toward WebGIS. An electronic survey method and multiple regression technique were used to collect and analyze data. Findings indicate that ‘usefulness’ and ‘playfulness’ were the key factors that determined the level of usage and interaction. Users showed distinct behavioral tendencies under different trip situations and task performances when searching tourism information using WebGIS.     

The presence of tourists and residents in shared travel photos

This study aims to reveal the extent of human presence in travel photos shared in the social media by tourists who traveled to Iran. We unearthed the host-guest interaction that is distinctive in those photos. To do so, we investigated 812 random photos shared by 186 tourists on Facebook. We employed quantitative and qualitative content analysis to categorize and define photos. We found that people are absent in sixty percent of shared photos. The biggest share of photos with the presence of humans comprise those featuring tourists and their travel companions only, and in which portrait photos have the biggest share. About one third of photos with human presence include residents only, and the western-dominance and reporting approach is noticeable. Only in ten percent of all photos can tourists and hosts be seen beside each other, and we categorize these according to three levels of interaction.     

A comparative analysis of major online review platforms: Implications for social media analytics in hospitality and tourism

Online consumer reviews have been studied for various research problems in hospitality and tourism. However, existing studies using review data tend to rely on a single data source and data quality is largely anecdotal. This greatly limits the generalizability and contribution of social media analytics research. Through text analytics this study comparatively examines three major online review platforms, namely TripAdvisor, Expedia, and Yelp, in terms of information quality related to online reviews about the entire hotel population in Manhattan, New York City. The findings show that there are huge discrepancies in the representation of the hotel industry on these platforms. Particularly, online reviews vary considerably in terms of their linguistic characteristics, semantic features, sentiment, rating, usefulness as well as the relationships between these features. This study offers a basis for understanding the methodological challenges and identifies several research directions for social media analytics in hospitality and tourism.     

The effectiveness of managing social media on hotel performance

This paper investigates how managing online reviews affects hotel performance. An international hotel chain provided the hotel performance data and the online review data. A leading social media firm for the hospitality industry collected the online review data, which the hotel company purchased. The results indicate that overall ratings are the most salient predictor of hotel performance, followed by response to negative comments. The better the overall ratings and the higher the response rate to negative comments, the higher the hotel performance. Therefore, online reviews in social media, specifically overall rating and response to negative comments, should be managed as a critical part of hotel marketing.     

The future of travel writing: Interactivity,personal branding and power

Changes in technology and media in the twenty-first-century have had significant implications for the travel writing profession. In the social media era, where information about travel is readily accessible for many audiences online, both travel writers and publishers are altering the way that they function to succeed in this new environment. This phenomenological qualitative study, based on interviews with 47 travel writers, explores their experiences in the digital age. Findings resulted in three new conceptual models illustrating the different experiences of contemporary travel writers: (1) The Interaction Model, (2) The Personal Branding Model, and (3) The Power Model. The models reflect the fact that the online environment has facilitated interactivity with readers and personal branding, created a change in power dynamics, and given some writers a sense of communitas with their peers. These experiences have implications for the profession and the depth of travel writing and writers' travelling experiences.     

Assessing the Visibility of Destination Marketing Organizations in Google: A Case Study of Convention and Visitor Bureau Websites in the United States

Search engines are playing an increasingly dominant role in providing access to tourism information on the Internet. As such, it is argued that destination marketing organizations (DMOs) must have a substantial understanding of the visibility in search engines in order to create competitive positions within this important marketplace. The goal of this study was to develop a process to assess the visibility of DMO websites in one of the major search engines (i.e., Google). A set of 18 cities in the United States were selected to be used as case studies of the visibility of their convention and visitor bureau (CVB) websites in relation to travel queries identified using Google Adwords Keyword Tool. The results indicate that there are substantial differences in the relative positions of CVB websites on Google. In particular, there seems to be huge gaps among the search domains within CVB websites in terms of their visibility to online travelers and volume of search within those domains. This study offers a number of implications for research and practice of search engine marketing for tourism destinations.     

Mapping the progress of social media research in hospitality and tourism management from 2004 to 2014

ABSTRACT

One hundred and five articles on social media in hospitality and tourism during 2004–2014 were identified from three databases and seven journals. Seven dimensions were used for analysis. Results indicated that social media research in hospitality and tourism is in its early stages with two turning points. The number of articles rose dramatically in 2010 and unexpectedly dropped in 2014. Research gaps are apparent in several industry sectors in topics beyond online reviews and in research methods, where literature reviews suffer from small numbers and few prominent researchers. Implications and future research directions are also discussed.     

Review of tourism forecasting research with internet data

Internet techniques significantly influence the tourism industry and Internet data have been used widely used in tourism and hospitality research. However, reviews on the recent development of Internet data in tourism forecasting remain limited. This work reviews articles on tourism forecasting research with Internet data published in academic journals from 2012 to 2019. Then, the findings ae synthesized based on the following Internet data classifications: search engine, web traffic, social media, and multiple sources. Results show that among such classifications, search engine data are most widely incorporated into tourism forecasting. Time series and econometric forecasting models remain dominant, whereas artificial intelligence methods are still developing. For unstructured social media and multi-source data, methodological advancements in text mining, sentiment analysis, and social network analysis are required to transform data into time series for forecasting. Combined Internet data and forecasting models will help in improving forecasting accuracy further in future research.     

From dreaming to believing: a review of consumer engagement behaviours with brands’ social media content across the holiday travel process

This paper reviews social media user engagement behaviours with brands and proposes a new stage within the travel process. Specifically, the pre-trip stage is examined and investigation into a two sub-stage split is proposed; pre-purchase and post-purchase. Dubbed the Believing phase, this paper calls for research into the patterns of engagement behaviour towards hotel brands’ content at this currently under-researched stage. Current social media-focussed research examines influence on purchasing decisions of users, social media usage on-site, and post-trip evaluation. There remains a conceptual gap highlighting the behavioural patterns of users during the period between initial purchase and subsequent departure.     

Ecotourism social media initiatives in China

The purpose of this study is to investigate the use of social media by ecotourism management agencies and how this potentially changes the relationship between the ecotourist and the natural environment. It examines the meaning of ecotourism and the way that social media shapes visitor perceptions and meaning through an examination of the content of 775 Sina microblog postings from five leading ecotourism site management agencies in China. In order to gain a deeper understanding of the social media postings, a series of semi-structured interviews was also conducted with followers and management agencies. The findings provide an enhanced understanding of ecotourism marketing and its impacts on the ecotourist while also creating a framework for the use of social media to market ecotourism. The framework outlines the importance of the meanings associated with this form of communication through its promotional appeal to tourists and the outcomes for both the ecotourist and site management.     

Towards understanding members’ general participation in and active contribution to an online travel community

Online travel community has been considered central to models of Internet marketing and electronic commerce in the travel industry. The successful operation of an online travel community depends on the understanding of member participation in and active contribution to the online travel community. This study evaluates an integrated model of an online travel community using structural equation modeling. The results of the study indicate that participation in the travel community is driven mainly by social and hedonic benefits, while level of active contribution can be explained by three instrumental, efficacy, and expectancy related incentives. Implications for the development of a dynamic and sustainable online travel community are discussed.     

Traveler preferences from online reviews: Role of travel goals,class and culture

Along with being critical performance indicators as well as a rich source of information for potential customers, the overall rating and recommendation behavior also work as a crucial information source for managers of airlines for customer segmentation, service design, and post-purchase evaluation management. In this study, we explore how customer preferences, behavior and post-purchase evaluations differ for travelers depending on their respective travel goals, travel class, and the culture of their native country. Based on the frameworks of the construal level theory and expectation disconfirmation theory, we provide a psychological explanation of why specific service attributes, categorized in process-outcome and tangible—intangible dimensions, get higher importance than others for a particular set of customers. We analyzed consumer review data of 28,341 reviews for 345 airlines by customers from 132 countries. The results yielded critical theoretical contributions to extant literature on airline evaluations and recommendations, construal levels, airline customer segmentation, etc. Moreover, the results also helped managers of an airline to package design, segment customers, enhance targeted communication, and customer relationship management overall. The limitations and future scope of the study have also been discussed.     

An exploratory investigation of web-based tourist information search behavior

The primary objective of this study is to further understand web-based search behavior in relation to tourist information. Using a small sample (94 subjects), a field study that examined the search sessions of on-line users was undertaken in a laboratory. The search action data were subsequently collected and empirically analyzed, and the search styles and sophisticated navigation techniques were identified. The results indicate that the search engine plays an important role in search behavior. In light of our findings, we draw managerial implications relating to tourist information searches in the context of the Web, and offer suggestions for future research.