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Social Media in Tourism
Behaviour

By Irene Lucena Rodríguez MA in European Tourism Management
Bournemouth University
Université de Savoie
2009
Social Media in Tourism Behaviour
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Abstract
The apparition of the Internet has completely revolutionized the world of commerce, and
thus consumer behaviour. Recently the static web pages have given way to more interactive
web pages; which have lead to the apparition of the social media as an information web-
based platform where users can share ideas, thoughts, pictures, experiences and so on. This
milestone in the Internet world has implied a new way of communication, which due to the

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DECLARATION OF AUTHORSHIP

I declare that this dissertation is my own unaided work.
I have not included any material or data from other authors or sources which are not
acknowledged and identified in the prescribed manner.
I have read the section in the Student Handbook on Assessment Offences and understand
that such offences may lead the Examinations Board to withhold or withdraw the award of
Master of Arts. Author: Irene Lucena Rodríguez Signature:
Bournemouth, August 2009

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Table of Contents
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2.2.7.2 The new consumer, the digital user 18
2.2.7.3 The new tourist 19
2.3 Part 2: Social Media, the new tourist information platform 21
2.3.1 Introduction to Social media: concept and evolution 21
2.3.2 Social media platforms 22
2.3.3 Social media as the new platform for “Word of Mouth”
(WOM) 25
2.3.4 Perceived benefits of eWOM 26
2.3.5 Determinants of eWOM influence 28
2.3.6 Managing eWOM in tourism sector 30
2.3.7 Relevance of eWOM in tourism behaviour 32
2.4 Summary 33
CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY 34
3.1 Introduction 34
3.2 Outline of the method 34
3.3 Introduction to the method approach 34
3.4 Aims and objectives 35
3.5 Research Strategy 35
3.5.1 Data gathering 36
3.6 Secondary research 36
3.7 Primary research 38
3.7.1 Quantitative versus qualitative 38
3.7.2 Reliability and Validity 39
3.7.3 The instrument of the research: the Interview 40
3.7.4 Sampling 41
3.8 Data analysis 42

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List of tables
Table 2.1: Benefits of Word of Mouth communications
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Table 3.1: Quantitative versus Qualitative
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Table 4.1: Advantages and disadvantages of Social Media platforms as a
source of UCC information
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34
Figure 3.2: Qualitative data analysis
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Figure 4.1: Decision-making process
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List of Abbreviations

UCC
User Created Content
DMP
Decision-Making Process
WOM
Word of Mouth


APPENDIX 1:
ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES OF INTERVIEWS
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APPENDIX 2:
TYPES OF INTERVIEWS
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APPENDIX 3:
INTERVIEW GUIDE
79
APPENDIX 4:
TRANSCRIPT OF INTERVIEE 3
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APPENDIX 5:
TABLE OF QUALITATIVE DATA ANALYSIS

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Chapter 1: Introduction to the research study
1.1 Background to the research
“We should look not to technology as our guide to future success, but to the consumer” Christie
and Collin (2000)
The apparition of the Internet involved a milestone in consumers’ life. It revolutionised the
developed countries of the world producing a real change in consumer behaviour, in how
commerce is made and how consumers search for information when purchasing. According to
Internet World Stats (2009), in the last 9 years Internet users have grown up from 360 million in
2000 to 1596 millions in 2009. And focusing in Europe, nearly 400 million users have been
registered in 2008 (Internet World Stats, 2009). Thus, this vastly evolution and number of users
in the world and in Europe has raised importance and interest on the topic.
Furthermore, not only the apparition of the Internet but its evolution from the traditional static
websites (web 1.0) to the creation of interactive websites (web 2.0) has involved another

society is more experienced and sceptical in regards to marketed information sources.
Therefore, social media platforms emerge as tourist-friendly platforms where contents comes
from the “collective intelligence” of tourists, opposed to traditional marketer-dominated
sources, and thus, they are perceived as more reliable and trustworthy sources of information.
Hence, the have the potential to be the tourists’ information platform for excellence.

1.1 Rationale of the research
The second phase of the Internet has supposed a complete revolution on consumer behaviours.
Internet users are not anymore a passive character but a more interactive one able to interact
with other users sharing experiences, information, ideas via forums, social networks, chat
rooms, video and photo sharing platforms and so on. Thus a great change has happened and
which the new generations of tourists have to overcome, adapt and take advantage of it. This
forms a recent and interesting phenomenon worthy to study.
In addition, this recent phenomenon has motivated the researcher for different reasons. In the
first place, the researcher is greatly interested in tourism psychology and sociology;
understanding how tourists behave is probably the best way to provide them with the best
service/experience adapted to their specific needs and expectations. And as Swarbrooke and
Horner (2007) pointed out, understanding consumer behaviour forms the base for developing
successful marketing strategies. In the second place, the researcher is a regular user of just a few
social media platforms, therefore the field of social media was presented like unexplored for
her; as consequence, interesting to discover, learn and study. And in the third place, the
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researcher believes that peer to peer communications are not just the present but the future, thus,
understand how they work was perceived as interesting.

1.2 Research aims and objectives
In this world of constant technological evolution consumers, especially tourists are changing

presented as well as its union to eWOM highlighting its importance for the tourism industry and
consumer behaviour.
Chapter three: Methodology
In the third chapter the research method and the different approaches used to achieve the aims
and objectives will be presented and properly justified. Furthermore additional information
related to the sample, when, where how and why the respondents were selected and interviewed
will be provided. The limitations to the research study will also be shown in order to gain a
wider understanding on the direction that the research method has followed.
Chapter four: Main findings
In the fourth chapter the results of the primary research will be exposed and linked to the main
lines of theory presented in the literature review. The structure of the main findings have been
devised from the literature review, thus, results will be structured according to the different
stages of the decision-making process.
Chapter five: Conclusions and Recommendations
In the fifth chapter the conclusions extracted from the main findings will be discussed and
complemented with the theory. Finally the researcher will propose some recommendations to
the tourism industry and future research.

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Chapter 2: Literature review
Social Media in the Tourism Behaviour
2.1 Introduction
This chapter reviews literature in Tourism behaviour with special focus in the decision-making
process and social media as a source of information. The literature will allow the author to
create the theoretical base of the research trough the use of secondary data.

2.2 Consumer behaviour in travel and tourism

Adreason (1965 cited Abdallat and Emam 2001) proposed a model focused on the importance
of the information along the purchasing process. The author remarks the importance of
consumer attitudes when deciding. However, the model eventually fails to consider the attitudes
in the repetition of future purchases.
Nicosia (1966) presented a model composed of four fields or stages where consumer and
producer try to get involved in a relationship; the consumer goes trough and evaluation process;
a purchase process; and finally the post purchase process. This model, however, it has not been
empirically tested and it does not define several variables ( Lunn, 1974 cited Abdallat and
Emam 2001).
Howard and Seth (1969) proposed a model identifying the consumer as a problem solver and
whom depending on the knowledge the person had in regards to the market, three different
levels of decision-making were presented: Extensive problem solving where the consumer has
no knowledge at all of the market; limited problem solving where the consumer has little
knowledge of the market; and habitual problem solving, where the consumer has a wide
knowledge of the market. He also recognizes in his model the importance of the inputs
introduced in the model and the idea that consumers arrange the inputs in different ways in
order to choose among the possible alternatives.
Engell, Kollat and Blackwell (1968 cited Williams 2002) presented their last version of their
comprehensive model on the decision-making process in 1978. They produced one of the most
important texts in the field of Consumer behavior creating a model designed to study the
purchase of high risk items, as it is the case of tourism (Williams, 2002).
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Figure 2.1: Model of Consumer decision-making
Source: Engell, Kollat and Blackwell (1968) in: Williams (2002)

As it can be seen from figure 2.1 and as it has been pointed out before, the decision-making

descriptive trying just to represent the complex theories of consumer behaviour. Moreover, they
are more than ten years old and little empirical research has been conducted to test them
(Abdallat and Emam 2001).

2.2.2 The tourism product
Focusing on the tourism field and concentrating on the tourism product, it has to be considered
its complexity in order to understand consumer behaviour in tourism. The tourism product is not
a simple item, good or service of consumption; the tourism product is “a bundle of activities,
services and benefits that constitute experiences” (Medlick and Middleton 1973 cited
Carmichael 2005 p.185). It constitutes a mix of the characteristics of the services and the
singular features of the tourism industry, what really differentiate the product from any physical
good (Yilmaz and Bitizti, 2005).

According to Middleton (2001); Rey (2004); Seaton (1994); Kotler et al. (2005) it is agreed that
the main characteristics of the tourism product are the followings:
Intangibility: Services cannot be seen, smelled or even touched, what means that they cannot
be perceived from the senses. The tourist product cannot be proved before consuming; this is
one of the facts which make of tourism a high risk activity
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Heterogeneity: Services are offered by people, what means that it is not possible to obtain two
products alike
Perishability: The product which is not consumed when it is offered, it is considered lost as
long as there is no possible stock
Inseparability: The tourist product is produced and consumed at the very same time, in a
simultaneous way
Seasonality: demand is highly fluctuating among the seasons of the year
High fix costs of operations: the basic infrastructures for the tourism activity suppose great fix

information and advice of people who have had a similar experience; might be family, friends or
even people of the same online community. The purchase of a tourism product is made in a long
term decision implying a high emotional significance. A holiday or a travel it is usually
perceived as an important event in a person’s life which the moment of purchase and
consumption are different in time, therefore, a careful selection of alternatives is usually carried
out for reducing the perceived and constant risk (Swarbrooke and Horner 2007). There are high
levels of insecurity which are due to the intangibility of the product. Because as it has been
mentioned before, the tourism product cannot be tested before purchase; and it might be or
might not be accomplished in the future (Werthner and Klein, 1999); fact which as a
consequence it produces strong effort in the collection of information in the pre-travel stages.
The more information the consumer has the less insecure he will feel.

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2.2.4 Tourist decision-making process and models
Now that the complexity of the tourism product has been explained, it is of great importance to
present the different models of decision making process in tourism which has been proposed in
the course of the years. As it has been mentioned before, tourism is a high involvement activity
and thus, in the present report only some of the high involvement models will be discussed.
Wahab, Crampon and Rothfield (1976) were ones of the first authors who tried to create a wider
understanding on the subject. They develop a basic model based on the classical grand theories
models of behaviour upon the identification of the singularity of the tourism product.
Schmoll (1977 cited Cooper and Gilbert 2008) propose a model based in the determinants of
travel behaviour which are influenced by factors such us travel stimuli, image, confidence, cost
and time constraints. Although the model identifies significant attributes and values of tourist
behaviour it has been criticised for being a static model as there are no inputs or feeback loop in
it (Cooper and Gilbert 2008).
Mayo and Jarvis (1981) based their model is the Howarth and Seth model where the decision

influencing the search process: first the composition of the holiday groups, second the presence
of family and friends at the destination, third the prior visits to the destination, and fourth the
degree of familiarity linked to the destination. Apart from these four factors, Moutinho (1987
cited Luo et al. 2004) claimed that the purpose of the travel remains the biggest influence on the
tourist behaviour and in special on the information search. This means that depending on the
type of tourism tourist are going to practice at the destination they will look for different types
of information, use different sources of information as well as they will concede more or less
importance to the information found in regards to the attributes of the tourism product sought.
Another interesting point to mention is the fact that decisions are not constant or have a lineal
tendency; decisions might be affected by many internal and external factors which may change
among people trough their life cycle (Swarbrooke and Horner, 2007).
All the models exposed above have been an interesting attempt to understand the tourist
behaviour, however according to Horner and Swarbrooke (2007) most of them fail in the same
points: first, models are based on little or no empirical research and most of them are at least
fifteen years old; fact which represents a real weakness in a changing society where new
technologies are revolutionizing consumer behaviours. Second, many models do not recognize
the importance of the motivators and determinants on the decision process. Third, they assume
that the purchase decision is a rational one; however, sometimes it is not. Fourth, some models
consider the purchasing process as constant, when depending on the travel or tourism product
the tourist may change its preferences and may be influenced by other factors. Fifth, they are
very complex for marketers to use them. And sixth, tourists are usually considered as a