Theory: Online Consumer Behaviour in Tourism
3. Social Media and Tourist Consumer Behaviour
In the era of digitalisation, social media has not only transformed tourism marketing and management, but also drastically influenced tourist behaviour.
The motivation to visit a place is influenced by the sources of information that tourists consult via social media. The information search stage of the consumer’s journey is the most important stage for today’s customers (Icoz et al., 2018) and social media is a big part where customers can get their information from.
As such, social media has had a
heavily growing influence on the consumer’s decision-making
process.
“Social media plays an important role in the consumer’s decision‑making process in tourism as they do in many other business areas”
(Icoz et al.,2018)
Travellers have extensively adopted social media to search, organise, share, and annotate their travel experiences and stories (Leung et al., 2013, Xiang and Gretzel, 2010).
Additionally, social media is helpful for consumers to explore online reviews so that they can decide based on people’s previous experiences. In fact, a strong element of social media is enabling consumers to get details and knowledge about the services and products offered by the tourism provider in question.
During all the different stages of the consumer journey, tourists interact with tourist destination online content (TDOC):
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TDOC refers to online information quality and user-friendly accessibility of tourism information in the online environment.
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The amount of user-generated content (digital content produced and shared by tourists in the online world) is increasing from year to year.
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Social media plays a crucial role as the online platform to promote and market TDOC with consumers.
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Communication strategies incorporating TDOC in social media marketing have proved to be highly effective with consumers.
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The World Travel and Tourism
Council (WTTC) reported in 2022 that there has been a popular
and growing trend in which people seek travel inspiration by
using social media apps namely Facebook, TikTok and
Instagram.
Instagram, particularly, has changed the face of digital marketing and has become an emerging platform for tourists to share their experiences and connect with other users in the various stages of travel.
In fact, a survey held by Skyscanner, found that half of its respondents made their travel plan decision based on what they had seen on social media. The survey also lists and ranks the social media platforms based on which one is the most widely and popularly used by people when they are trying to get travel inspiration:
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Instagram was the most popular source of travel ideas (cited by 40% of the participants),
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Facebook (33%),
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TikTok (25%).
A survey by YouGov noted that the popularity of social media-influenced travel is mostly concentrated in two segments – younger travellers and leisure travellers:
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According to the survey, Generation Z travellers (people aged in their mid-20s or below) use social media platforms to plan their holidays much more than the older generations do.
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Almost 40% of Generation Z travellers use social media platforms to plan their holidays, compared to the lower 29% of the older generations.
Below are 2 examples of how tourism SMEs (hotels) are turning to Instagram marketing to promote their business. “Instagramability” has become a priority for today’s tech-savvy tourist when choosing a travel destination:
Below are another 2 examples of hotels promoting their services on social media. Facebook ads prove highly effective in the tourism sector. Travel agencies, hotels, and airlines depend on these ads to influence consumer behaviour and to advertise their enticing offers.
2022 saw the rapid rise of TikTok
for the travel industry marketing, particularly through video
marketing. This marketing strategy is especially relevant to
tourism SMEs with limited resources by promoting user-generated
content and they would be showing off their product/service
from the guest’s perspective
appealing.
