Relationship of Tourism and Social Media - Essay Example

Introduction Times change and the way companies do business and interact with their changes as well. Especially much has changed with the development of technologies, evolvement of the internet and popularization of such a new concept as social media. Social media, a relatively new way of interaction and communication between companies and people, have had a great impact on tourism industry. People use the social media tools to exchange their travelling experiences or to search for information on travel operators or destinations. As a result, opinions formed by social media sources influence the reputation and competitiveness of travel companies. Since social media seems to have a relation to the success of a travel business, this phenomenon has got much attention among businesses and researchers. Therefore, the goal of this paper is to review literate on the matter and determine the major points of research being conducted in relation to tourism and social media. In an attempt to establish current knowledge of the subject this work will summarize, interpret and critically evaluate the existing literature, as well as will try to identify the key issues related to social media and tourism. Review of literature on tourism and social media In order to fulfill all of the set goals it is important to determine the very reason of extensive interest of the tourism-related community in the subject. It can be assumed that social media has an influence on consumer behavior. This idea is supported by Williams (2002), who states that purchasing high risk items, such as tourism products, involves information research step of the buying process being more extensive than that for purchasing less expensive or important for people products. The first step of the decision-making process is motivation and recognition of a need. Then, as an individual has decided one wants to purchase a tourism-related product, he or she starts searching for information on the available options. At this point, as Blackwell et al (2006, p. 75) write, the consumer is influenced by “market dominated” and “non market-dominated” sources of information. These non market-dominated sources refer to the word-of-mouth publicity and social media. Furthrthermore, social media tools can even be called an advanced variant of traditional world-of-mouth publicity. So, today a consumer evaluates alternatives and makes a buying decision on the basis of more sources of information: from marketers, from the community (friends, colleagues, family) and from social media. At the same time, it should be remembered that a tourism product is very specific. As Middleton and Clarck (2001) and Kotler et al. (2005) suggest, the specific characteristics of a tourism product are intangibility, heterogeneity, perishability, inseparability, seasonality and high fixed cost of operations. For that reason, according, to Seaton and Bennett (1999), tourism, form consumers’ point of view, involves high risk and involvement. For that reason buying a tourism product involves an extensive information search process, especially information from other people, who had such an experience (Jang, 2004). For that reason more and more potential tourists started using online sources of information. As the research by Buhalis (2002) suggests, internet users are motivated by large amounts and deepness of the provided information. In addition, the internet, along with the social media tools, provides a great number of alternative sources of information that are easy to find and use at any time. However, there exists one more important motivator for using social media. As McGrath (2008) suggests, it is trust: people tend to trust more the information received from other people, not from the company’s marketers. Therefore, information received from similar people is perceived as more reliable. For that reason social media has become one of the most reliable, from consumers’ point of view, sources of information that, afterwards, shape their buying decisions. However, it is worth determining what social media means in particular. There exists a number of definitions. For example, Safko and Brake (2009, p. 6) write that social media means “activities, practices and behaviours among communities of people who gather online to share information, knowledge, and opinions using conversational media”. A somewhat different definition is provided by Kaplan and Haenlein (2010, p. 61), who view social media as “a group of Internet/based applications that build on the ideological and technological foundations of Web 2.0, and that allow the creation and exchange of User Generated Content”. In 2010 these authors proposed a classification of social media and divided it into: social networking websites, such as Facebook and Linkedin; blogs; content sharing communities like YouTube and Flickr; collaborative projects, such as Wikipedia; virtual social worlds (for example Second Life); virtual game worlds like Lineage or World of Warcraft (Kaplan & Haenlein, 2010). However, there also exist such types of social media as microblogs (Twitter) and consumer review and rating websites, among others. These all are the virtual places where people gather together and exchange information – share, discuss, compare, etc. The core essence of all of the communication platforms is exchange of information. As such, social media are gaining more and more important role in travel planning since they are a convenient source of seemingly reliable information from other travellers (Yoo et al., 2011). For that reason there have been conducted a number of studies that tried to explore the impact and role of social media in tourism-related buying decisions. In particular, Gretzel, Yoo and Purifoy (2007) discovered that reviews posted online increase potential buyer’s confidence, reduce the feeling of risk and assist in selecting the product. It was also determined that tourists refer to social media information at different stages of the travel planning process: before the travel to get ideas and evaluate alternatives; during the trip; after the trip to compare and share impressions. However, these findings are somewhat contradictory to the research performed by Cox, Burgess, Sellitto and Buultjens (2009), who determined that social media sources of information are used mostly before the trip – after the destination has been chosen – in order to receive more information about it and reduce the related uncertainty. After the trip, according to the scientists, the use of social media is rather limited. They also discovered that social media is perceived as less reliable than official sources of information, such as official tourism websites. Similarly, a study by Mack, Blose and Pan (2008) discovered that traditional word-of-mouth publicity is viewed by people as more reliable than blog posts, because the information is being received from individuals with whom travellers have some social ties. So information received from strangers online is viewed as not as reliable. At the same time, the researchers found that blogs are more trusted by the people who post blogs themselves. So, it can be observed that the findings of different studies are frequently contradictory. This is explained by Gretzel, Kang and Lee (2008), who state that these differences are related to the fact that the use of social media tools varies by culture, technological infrastructure, political climate, and media landscape of the tourist’s environment. The use of social media is very related to perception of risk and popularity of particular social media applications within the community. If an individual views the risk as too high, one tends to relate on the network of friends and relatives more than on online sources (Xiang & Gretzel, 2010). Gretzel & Yoo (2008) have also discovered that the use of social media for making tourism decisions also differs by gender and age. In particular, females tend to trust and use social media more than males. From the point of view of a business, it has been discovered that social media are useful for building brand awareness and receiving information about tourists’’ buying behavior and perception of the tourism product (Buhalis & Law, 2008). Furthermore, Buhalis & Law suggest that with the development of social media the tourism product have become more consumer-driven. Tour operators, therefore, have received an ability to learn more about their potential clients, their preferences, desires and needs and, as a result, improve the choice of destinations and customer service accordingly. Conclusion Since social media platforms have become a powerful tool for sharing, discussing and finding information, they are becoming more and more popular among tourism industry consumers. As the research on the matter suggests, online communities and information sharing platforms, which form social media, provide people with an opportunity to find information about tourism products and, as a result, reduce the feeling of risk and uncertainty related to purchasing a high risk item. However, the findings of many studies are very contradictory due to the great number of variables, such as types of social media and geographic, cultural, social and political characteristics of the target audience. Furthermore, the role of social media is different at different stages of the buying process, so it can be suggested to equally examine the impact of social media on all the stages of the travel planning process. For businesses it can be recommended to closely monitor the social media platforms in order to be aware of the tourists’ opinions, desires, needs and preferences. Social media can help businesses to get a deeper understanding of consumer buying behavior. However, it is important to further research particular aspects of tourisms in relation to social media, not just the tourism industry in general. References Blackwell, L.D., Miniard, P.W., & Engel, J.F. (2006). Consumer behavior. 10th ed. Mason: Thomson Business and Economics. Buhalis, D. (2002). eTourism: Information technologies for strategic tourism management. New York: Financial Times Prentice Hall. Buhalis, D., & Law, R. (2008). Progress in information technology and tourism management: 20 years on and 10 years after the Internet – the state of eTourism research. Tourism Management, 29(4), 609-623. Cox, C., Burgess, S., Sellitto, C., & Buultjens, J. (2009). The Role of User/Generated Content in Tourists Travel Planning Behavior. Journal of Hospitality Marketing & Management, 18(8), 743-764. Gretzel, U., Kang, M., & Lee, W. (2008). Differences in consumer-generated media adoption and use: A cross-national perspective. Journal of Hospitality Marketing & Management, 17(1), 99-120. 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