An exploration of the factors influencing social media continuance usage and information sharing intentions among Korean travellers

The tourism and hospitality industry is largely influenced by the use of social media. However, there is still a need for more empirical research about the factors social media continuance usage and information sharing intentions among travel-related social media (TSM) users. With this realization, underpinned by elaboration likelihood model (ELM) and uses and gratifications theory (UGT), our study investigates the interrelationships of argument quality, source credibility, and information seeking, entertainment, and relationship maintenance motives, and social media continuance usage and information sharing intentions. Data gathered from TSM users in Korea were used to gauge the relationships through structural equation modeling. Argument quality leads to an increased activity in information seeking and entertainment motives, while source credibility positively influences information seeking, entertainment, and relationship maintenance motives. Information seeking, entertainment, and relationship maintenance motives trigger travelers' propensity to display higher social media continuance usage and information sharing intentions.     

An Investigation of Gen-Y's Online Hotel Information Search: The Case of Hong Kong

The Internet has made searching for hotel room information and making online reservations common practices among hotel guests. Despite constantly changing consumer behavior and widespread application of online hotel information sources, limited studies have been conducted to examine the online sources used frequently by customers and the related attributes of such sources. As such, drawing from an online questionnaire survey with 205 respondents, findings in this study indicate that there are no socio-demographic effects on future purchase intention of Generation (Gen) Y travelers. Moreover, websites of suppliers (e.g. official websites of hotels), travel intermediaries (e.g. Hotels.com), and social media (e.g. TripAdvisor) are the three major types of websites used by Gen Y hotel guests. Travel intermediary websites are often used to search for hotel information, whereas social media websites are used to make reservations. Based on these findings, implications for hotel managers are discussed.     

Seniors’ dual route of persuasive communications in mobile social media and the moderating role of discretionary time

More than two-thirds of seniors use smartphones and in South Korea, over half of all senior smartphone owners are mobile social media (MSM) users. This study tested two basic routes to persuasion in the elaboration likelihood model (ELM), applying the new concepts of benefits and authentic experience among senior MSM users for travel- and tourism-related purposes, along with the moderating role of discretionary time spent on MSM. To this end, an online survey was conducted for senior MSM users for tourism activities, and partial least squares structural equation modeling was employed to analyze data obtained from 500 study participants. Results reveal that argument quality had a stronger effect on benefit than source credibility. Benefits and authentic experience played important mediating roles in the ELM. Discretionary time on MSM played a significant moderating role in the central and peripheral routes. Theoretical and practical contributions are discussed in the conclusions section.     

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.     

网络旅游消费者参与心理与行为的实证研究

互联网技术在全球的迅猛发展为网络与旅游的结合提供了重要的基础,并为现代旅游业开启了一个崭新的时代。网络旅游作为一种日益兴盛的现代旅游方式,已经成为旅游业信息化发展的重要表现形式之一,同时也是当今世界旅游业发展的重要方向。因此,了解和分析消费者网络旅游参与的心理和行为对旅游企业的营销和管理也变得越来越关键。然而,现有网络旅游研究主要探讨旅游网络消费者参与行为的特征,对旅游网站特性影响作用、网络旅游消费者参与动机、参与过程和参与心理机制的研究深度还不够。为了揭示现阶段我国旅游网站特性对网络旅游消费者参与心理和最终参与行为的影响作用,该研究在充分总结有关研究的基础上,构建了网络旅游消费者参与心理和行为的概念模型,随后对参与到旅游网站中的397名消费者进行调查分析。研究结果发现:旅游网站的熟悉度和服务规范度会有效影响消费者参与心理的自我决定需求,进而对消费者参与旅游网站的感知卷入和信息搜寻行为产生影响作用。研究结论建议,旅游网站吸引消费者参与的同时需要切实提高企业的品牌知名度和服务规范度,这是进一步提高网络旅游消费者对网站忠诚度的重要基础。     

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.     

互联网传播的台湾旅游目的地形象——基于两岸相关网站的内容分析

通过对两岸综合旅游网站、旅行社网站及台湾旅游官方网站的内容分析,提炼出互联网传播的台湾旅游目的地形象主题:自然生态、度假、乡村、文化、城市.进一步的相关分析发现,各类网站构建并传播的台湾旅游目的地形象不同.研究结果为大陆居民赴台旅游市场的开发和台湾旅游目的地形象的提升提供借鉴.     

The impact of destination source credibility on destination satisfaction: The mediating effects of destination attachment and destination image

Building emotional destination attachment is a key tourism destination branding issue in today's tourism market. The current study aims to develop and test a comprehensive theoretical model for destination branding that borrows the concepts of brand credibility, brand image, brand attachment, and satisfaction. Based on the above concepts, this article hypothesizes the relationships among four constructs, namely, destination source credibility, destination image, and destination attachment as antecedents of destination satisfaction. These relationships are examined for a sample of 398 international tourists visiting a famous world heritage tourism destination (Angkor Wat) and a famous skyscraper (Taipei 101). The SEM indicates that destination source credibility and destination image could indeed affect tourist perceptions of destination satisfaction with regard to destination attachment. In addition, the mediating role of destination attachment and destination image is also confirmed in this study. The findings offer important implications for tourism management and practice.     

Thematic analysis of reviews on the air quality of tourist destinations from a sentiment analysis perspective

This thematic analysis examines whether reviews on transactional and social media websites can reflect the air quality of a tourist destination. We used linguistic and sentiment analysis methods to establish an analytical framework for assessing the credibility of the reviews with sufficiency and consistency analyses. We collected Ctrip and Sina Weibo reviews to analyze the sentiment values using deep learning and Baidu sentiment dictionary methods. We found that although the sentiment value of the Ctrip transactional comments on air quality was high, they hardly reflected reality. Conversely, the Sino Weibo social media comments were highly credible, despite their low sentiment values. Tourists' perception of air quality is mainly affected by intangible air factors (such as pollutants), then tangible air factors, hydrology factors and terrain factors. The study uses online reviews to analyze air quality and provides a reference for the environmental management of destinations and decision making among tourists.     

Role of social media in online travel information search

Social media are playing an increasingly important role as information sources for travelers. The goal of this study is to investigate the extent to which social media appear in search engine results in the context of travel-related searches. The study employed a research design that simulates a traveler's use of a search engine for travel planning by using a set of pre-defined keywords in combination with nine U.S. tourist destination names. The analysis of the search results showed that social media constitute a substantial part of the search results, indicating that search engines likely direct travelers to social media sites. This study confirms the growing importance of social media in the online tourism domain. It also provides evidence for challenges faced by traditional providers of travel-related information. Implications for tourism marketers in terms of online marketing strategies are discussed.     

Developing and testing a global model to explain the adoption of websites by users in rural tourism accommodations

This article analyzes the factors determining the intention to use the websites of the rural tourism accommodations to search for information and to make online reservations. Based on the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM), a model is developed to explain the intention to use the websites, incorporating as explanatory variables the perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use (basic variables of the TAM) and the following key attributes of tourism websites: information, interactivity, and navigability. The results of a sample of 1083 users indicate that (1) the perceived usefulness is the main direct antecedent of the intention to use the websites to search for information and make online reservations, and that (2) information on the accommodation and destination positively influences the perceived usefulness, whereas both the interactivity and navigability have a positive effect on the perceived ease of use of the websites.     

All hype or the real deal? Investigating user engagement with virtual influencers in tourism

Virtual influencer (VI) marketing has become increasingly prevalent on social media with the evolving landscape of digitalisation. However, the use of VIs in tourism has received limited attention in the literature. This study examines salient source and content attributes that stimulate Instagram users’ engagement with VIs in a tourism context. An online discrete choice experiment was designed using key attributes (i.e. source realness, image composition and caption discourse) identified from online focus groups. Survey responses from 309 adult Instagram users in Australia were analysed through discrete choice modelling. The findings indicate that humanlike VIs are preferred over 3D animated VIs and the least preferred influencers are 2D animated VIs. Instagram posts from humanlike VIs that combine images of tourism settings with rational messages attract the most engagement from the audience. Theoretical and practical implications are provided with recommendations for how tourism practitioners can harness VI marketing effectively.     

媒体数据在西方旅游学中的应用研究进展

随着Web2.0技术和社会化媒体的快速发展,媒体数据在旅游学术研究中得到了广泛应用。本文以Web of Science核心合集数据库中应用媒体数据开展旅游学术研究的外文文献为对象,评估媒体数据在西方旅游学研究中的应用情况。分析发现：媒体数据在旅游学研究中的应用经历了起始探索到快速发展两个阶段;媒体数据来源以网络社交媒体为主,以传统大众媒体为辅;媒体数据应用领域主要集中在旅游目的地形象与品牌特性、媒体在危机事件中扮演的角色、旅游行为足迹与旅游流、旅游需求/动机/偏好、游客体验与情绪分析等5个方面。已有研究在媒体数据应用上存在结论的普适性、媒体数据来源的代表性、媒体数据的真实有效性等局限,建议从旅游学相关数据库、旅游媒体大数据分析方法等方面不断建设与完善。     

Use of The Internet for Trip Planning: A Generational Analysis

With recent developments in social media and mobile computing, little is known regarding how different travel segments within the general traveler population actually use the Internet for travel planning. In particular, this study examined various aspects of Internet use among four generational groups including the Silent Generation, Baby Boomers, Generation X, and Generation Y over a six-year period. Findings show a high adoption rate of the Internet among all generations but there are important differences related to information search, trip planning activities, and websites used for online booking. This study provides a timely analysis of information technology use for travel planning and offers meaningful insights for the development of communication strategies for destinations and tourism businesses.     

旅游网站品牌化现状研究：以中国5A级景区为例

因特网在中国的快速普及给目的地营销组织带来了巨大的市场机会。目的地官方网站是一个重要的品牌化途径,而从品牌化角度研究我国旅游官方网站的信息内容,即如何使用品牌这一工具建立独特清晰的目的地形象,当前尚属于未探求的领域。该研究运用规范的内容分析方法评估我国5A级旅游网站品牌化现状,把我国5A级旅游网站划归为高品牌化、中品牌化和低品牌化三种类别,发现了目的地官方网站的品牌化有助于建立积极正向的目的地形象,并由此提出了重要的管理启示和未来的研究方向。     

Consumer motivation in providing high-quality information: building toward a novel design for travel guide websites

Given the ever-growing information overload among users of online review websites, understanding the manner in which cognitive costs are reduced has become increasingly important. Despite the emergence of literature that focused on studying consumer motivation to publish high-quality reviews, the effect of direct intervention on this motivation remains relatively unclear. This study targets a unique design based on data from Qunar.com, one of the most popular Chinese travel websites. By developing a conceptual framework and applying survival analysis methods, our results suggest that both the immediate and cumulative effects of expert reviews positively motivate users to post additional eligible reviews; however, their motivation to further improve the quality of their evaluations diminish as they accumulate more expert reviews. Based on the study results, important implications for travel-related websites are presented.     

The Effect of Length of Stay on Travelers' Perceived Satisfaction with Service Quality

SUMMARY

Consumer satisfaction related to service quality during the vacation experience is of paramount importance to the travel and tourism industry. This study tests empirically the effects the number of nights spent on a vacation have on the levels of satisfaction recent travelers report for three service aspects of the travel destination: perceived satisfaction with tourism service providers; perceived “freedom from defects” of tourism services; and perceived reasonableness of the cost of tourism services. Differentiation in satisfaction scores between “short-term visitors” (i.e., those who stayed from one to six nights) and “long-term visitors” (i.e., those who stayed seven or more nights) were examined. Significant differences between the two groups of visitors were present for (1) perceived satisfaction with industry professionals delivering the service experience at the travel destination, (2) perceived satisfaction with “freedom from defects” of the actual services at the destination, and (3) perceived reasonableness of the cost of services at the travel destination. Suggestions for how tourism industry professionals can make use of this information are presented.     

信息质量对旅游目的地形象的影响研究——基于不同关系强度的社交媒体平台

在互联网迅猛发展以及智能手机不断更新迭代的大环境下,社交媒体已成为人们生活中必不可少的一部分,随着网络技术的发展,流畅的网络系统不仅给人们带来了高质量的上网体验,也为人们的信息收集提供了便利。有出游意愿的游客往往事先通过社交媒体搜索、浏览、接收相关旅游目的地信息,进而感知旅游目的地形象。以往研究中较少关注人们与平台的关系强度或者只选取某一个特定的社交平台来探讨其对信息质量的影响。文章创新性地从不同关系强度视角出发,选取微博、微信两大代表性社交平台,探讨不同关系强度对信息质量的影响,以及信息质量对目的地形象的影响,并得出相关结论。通过研究结论,为目的地营销提供有针对性的建议。     

The interaction effect of emoji and social media content on consumer engagement: A mixed approach on peer-to-peer accommodation brands

This study examines how the interaction between emoji (emotional vs semantic) and social media content (aesthetic experience vs promotion) influences consumer engagement in tourism brands' digital communication. Based on real Twitter data and an online experiment, our results show that, for aesthetic experience content, emotional emoji elicits more consumer engagement than semantic emoji does. Moreover, emotional emoji increases consumer engagement by eliciting a higher level of emotional responses for aesthetic experience content, whereas semantic emoji enhances consumer engagement by generating greater credibility for promotion content. This study contributes to the textual paralanguage literature in tourism by offering theoretical explanations on how and why the matching effects of emoji and content type on consumer engagement occur in tourism brands’ digital communication. This study also provides practical implications for tourism social media marketers on how to increase consumer engagement via the appropriate use of emoji.     

Tourist Motivation with Sun and Sand Destinations: Satisfaction and the Wom-Effect

To study the tourist consumption process, the present work suggests a new conceptual framework of tourist motivation. This framework for tourist motivation proposes causal relationships for important constructs in the consumption process: between motivations to travel, tourists' satisfaction, and intentions to communicate with others by word-of-mouth (WOM). A review of current tourism and marketing literature suggests two body-related dimensions (i.e., sun and warmth, fitness and health) and two mind-related dimensions (i.e., culture and nature, escapism). The study tests an instrument to measure the dimensions of tourist motivation. A research model investigates the relevant relationships among the constructs and uses a structural equation modeling (SEM) approach. Analysis of 1,222 outbound charter tourists from Norway tests the model. The results confirm that body and mind are useful as a framework to assess tourist motivations. People have many motives for visiting sun and sand destinations. Satisfaction was, as expected, found to impact WOM. However, only mind-related motives affect satisfaction with the destination, and tourists prefer to talk about culture and nature motivations, in particular, to others. These findings are of great importance due to the great influence of WOM in tourism marketing. The findings point to the importance of recognizing the differences in tourist motivation for traveling and what tourists are inclined to tell others when arriving back home.