THE IMPACT OF SOCIAL MEDIA ON CONSUMER BEHAVIOR IN CONTEXT OF HOLIDAY

TRAVEL

Juan Campos

Business Research Methods

Dr. André Slowak

Roehampton University Business School

2018
 Research Problem

A preliminary literature review indicates that social media has had a significant impact on
people’s lives since the platforms were developed in the last one and a half decade. A further
review indicates that the platforms are expected to impact lives even more in the coming days.
Nonetheless, while this is the case, majority of the studies that have been conducted in tourism
industry to date provide conflicting information. Some of them claim that social media has
impacted the way travellers make decisions before they travel significantly whereas others claim
that the impact has been insignificant (Sahin & Sengun, 2015). While this is the case, studies
have continued to use different methods to evaluate the impact of social media on tourism
industry. Some studies use qualitative methods whereas others use pure quantitative methods.
Besides, others use mixed methods thereby there has been no consistency in the
methodologies despite the conflicting findings they provide. While this is good for extensive
coverage, it has resulted to a form of confusion that leaves one wanting to know the best
method and the possible impact that social media has had on tourism industry. Additionally,
studies have continued to define social media platforms utilised in the tourism industry
differently (Fotis, Buhalis & Rossides, 2012). Some consider the most common ones such as
Facebook and Twitter thereby ignore the rest that have capacity to influence people’s opinions
differently. Others consider a broad definition thereby include certain platforms that are rarely
considered as social media platforms in general definition of the platforms.

To address this challenge, it going to propose to conduct a study on the impacts of social media
on tourism industry. The proposed study will seek to determine the extent to which the use of
social media among travellers has incentivised tourists to spend more or less on paid attraction
sites. In line with this, the main research question will be:

How far can social media and online interaction incentivise tourists to spend more or visit more
paid tourist attractions sites during their holidays?

In accordance with the above research question, the study’s objectives will be:

 To determine the extent to which social media platforms have the capacity to influence
decisions making processes among tourists
 To determine the impact that social media might have on paid tourist attraction sites
  To determine the extent to which tourists go in sharing tour related information for their
own benefit
 To determine what should be done to improve the tourism industry in line with the impact
of social media platforms on the industry

Literature Review

There are many studies that evaluate the impact of social media platforms on tourism industry.
Some evaluate the effect among old people whereas others evaluate that impact among the
young people who are considered technology savvy. However, different people use social
media platforms for different reasons during travel processes. Some use platforms to share their
experiences after they travel to their preferred destinations whereas others use them to acquire
information before they choose their preferred destinations (Sahin & Sengun, 2015). For those
who use them before travelling, they focus on searching for ideas about fascinating
destinations, preferred hotels and possible deals they might enjoy during holidays. Others focus
on confirming or disapproving the viability of their preferred choices whereas others seek for
general information from friends and colleagues. On the other hand, the ones who use social
media platforms after visiting their preferred destinations, they share experiences, photos and
ideas that are considered pertinent in the tourism industry (Tran, 2017). Others seek reviews as
they provide advices to their friends and colleagues. In both cases, the impact may be
enormous on the tourism industry as a whole because the information shared may impact the
industry either positively or negatively.

Despite the above, previous studies provide conflicting results in terms of the possible effects of
social media platform on decision making processes. A study by Mandal Research LCC in 2010
indicate that about 83 percent of the people are likely to be influenced by their colleagues and
friends when they tell them about good deals, 100 per cent of them are likely to buy what their
friends buy, 100 percent are likely to purchase products recommended to them by friends
whereas 90 percent are likely to trust recommendations they obtain from friends (Rathonji,
2013). In USA, a study by Funsherpa Infographics indicate that about 52 percent of US citizens
who travel occasionally are likely to change their minds upon obtaining information from social
media platforms, 70 percent of them tend to update the status of their social media platforms
after they travel to different tourist attraction sites, about 76 percent of them normally post
photographs once they travel whereas 46 percent of them tend to post reviews upon visiting
various tourist attraction sites. While this is the case, only 55 percent of the US citizens are
likely to like Facebook pages with tour related information (Rathonji, 2013). Whereas the data
provided conflicts with each other, there is a general consensus among the previous studies
that social media platforms have considerable effect on travel decisions that tourists make out of
influence from other people. This indicates that the use of social media platform will continue to
influence tourism industry in one way or the other.

In spite of the above, different groups of people search for travel information online differently.
According to Fabricius and Eriksson (2017), old people use travel sites mostly as opposed to
social networks to plan their travels. However, most of them spend considerable time online
looking for that information before they make final decisions. Studies indicate that about 46
percent of the US senior people use social networks for various reasons including travel related
information. Others utilise social media platform with the help of smartphones to share their
experiences; thus, some of them are likely to take photos and share them immediately during
their holidays (Rathonji, 2013). Others are likely to use those phones to book air tickets, book
hotels or even find travel related information. In contrast, the majority of young people seek
advice online from their colleagues and friends. In addition, some of them rely heavily on the
comments they obtain from social media platforms.

Previous studies depict different strategies that are utilised on social media platforms as having
varying impact on decisions that tourists make. Some claim that photographs posted on those
platforms are likely to have a greater impact than reviews are likely to have on decisions that
potential tourists make. Others claim that certain social media platforms are considered more
useful than others in providing tour related information. They claim that the most popular
platforms are considered as credible sources of information than the least popular ones (Shyle,
2015). Furthermore, they indicate that from whatever angle one looks at the impact of social
media platform on tourism industry, it is clear that social media has significant impact on the
industry. The simple reason is that about 52 percent of people who travel occasionally indicate
that they trust travel information they obtain from family members, colleagues and friends, which
are part of the people they socialise with online. In addition, about 40 percent of others obtain
such information online either utilising websites, search engines or social media platforms
(Amaro & Duarte, 2017). Indeed, they show that because tour related products are experiential
in nature most people tend to rely on experiences they obtain from other people who have
enjoyed similar products. According to Gururaja (n.d.), most of them perceive recommendations
they receive online as similar to the ones they obtain from family members and friends; thus,
take them seriously. For this reason, about 23 per cent of the US citizens who utilise internet are
influenced by travel ideas they obtain from social media platforms (Altinay, Gucer & Bag, 2017).

As a result of the above, previous studies acknowledge the critical role that social media
platforms and other online platforms play in tourism industry. They claim that social media
platforms are important tools in the industry because they can be utilised to analyse tourists’
attitudes towards various aspects in the industry (Zivkovic, Gajic & Brdar, 2014). They claim that
they act as reliable sources of information for the people who trust them. Accordingly, their role
cannot be underrated or even ignored because they have the capacity to transform the industry
either for good or bad. There is no doubt that some tourists utilise social media platforms to
influence behaviours among others. Indeed, it is common knowledge that an impressive photo
of an attraction site posted online will have significant impact on people that use online
platforms to obtain information. Such photograph is likely to influence potential tourists to want
to visit that site or regions with such attraction sites. Similarly, a bad comment posted about an
attraction site is likely to impact the site negatively (Zeng, 2013). Because of this, social media
platforms may have both positive and negative impact on attraction sites and even other
facilities that tourists utilise during their travel/holidays.

According to the above, there is no clear definition of the term social media platform among the
previous studies that evaluate its impact on tourism industry. Fotis, Buhalis and Rossides (2012)
obtained different groupings of the social media platforms from various research works and
established that some of them identified only two of them whereas others went as far as ten
platforms. In classifying platforms, some studies consider what tourists are able to do before,
during and after they travel to their preferred destinations. Some consider their abilities to allow
the user to send photos, comments or even opinions whereas others go beyond that thereby
consider blogs and podcasts. As a result, some studies consider blogging, video, forums, wikis
and podcasts among others as important aspects of social media (Matikiti, Mpinganjira &
Roberts-Lombard, 2017). This classification is somewhat different from what majority of the
people term as social media platforms. As a result, the impact of social media on tourism
industry will depend on the definition of social media that a researcher adopts right at the start of
the study. To address this challenge, the proposed study will take a diverse view that will
incorporate all online platforms that enable users to share experiences in form of comments,
opinions, photos or even video among other things that might attract comment from other users
(Dwityas & Briandana, 2017).
 Research Methods

To evaluate the effects of social media platforms on tourism as a whole, Rathonji (2013)
collected data offline among the target population that comprised of students from University of
Debrecen. The study selected 240 students randomly to evaluate the way social media
platforms influenced their decisions as they planned their trips. Questionnaire was utilised to
collect the data whereas SPSS program was utilised to analyse the data. Most of the research
questions were in seven-point Likert format and scale, and they sought to ascertain the way
participants utilised social media platforms to shape their social media and internet behaviours.
Nonetheless, most of the questions restricted themselves to the most popular social media
platforms. While this method was good and convenient for the study, it restricted its scope to the
University of Debrecen with a special attention on students. This means that the participants
were aged between 18 and 25 years of age. As a consequence, its findings may not be
considered representative of the way social media platforms influence decisions that people
make before they travel to their preferred destinations. This is in spite of the fact that random
sampling method was utilised to select research participants.

A similar study by Yazdanifard and Yee (2014) that examined the impact of social media
platforms on tourism industry as a whole did not collect primary data. Instead, it evaluated the
impacts by simply reviewing previous studies and providing a comprehensive overview of what
they had found out and then discussing those findings. While this was a good method of
determine the impact that platforms had on tourism, it did not include primary data that would
have been critical in depicting the influence. As a result, the proposed study will not utilise this
method to conduct its study. Instead, it will combine literature review with primary data to
provide a comprehensive review of the impact by incorporating views from different sources and
people.

Another study by Buted et al (2014) utilised descriptive research design to describe the nature
of participants behaviours in relation to social media use in gathering travel related information
and exploring the causes of those behaviours. In doing so, the study focused on observing the
issue the way it was in the study area and reporting it. In line with this, the 100 participants who
participated in the study came from Batangas province. To determine the way social media
platforms impacted hotels and restaurants in the region, a questionnaire was developed from
literature review and previous studies to collect the data. The questionnaire was divided into
three parts with the first part addressing itself to elements of social media used most of the time
by participants, the second part addressed itself to positive and negative effects of the platforms
whereas the third part addressed itself to problems encountered in utilising the platforms. The
process of collecting data entailed distributing questionnaires to hotels and restaurants that
were selected to participate in the study and collecting them once filled. Different statistical tools
such as frequencies, percentages and weighted means were utilised to analyse the data.

Overall, the method utilised in the above study was comprehensive in the sense that it included
the most pertinent issues of interest in data collation and analysis. However, the sampling
method utilised to select the restaurants and hotels that participated in the study was purposeful
meaning that certain establishments were excluded from the study. Besides, the study did not
include data from members of the public who were the target customers for restaurants and
hotels. While it was necessary to limit the study to one particular area of study, the impacts
identified could not be considered exhaustive because the sample was not representative and a
certain group of people who could have contributed significantly to the study was excluded from
it (Bizirgianni & Dionysopoulou, 2013). For this reason, the proposed study will focus on
evaluating the group that was excluded from the study to evaluate its impact on the industry by
evaluating the impact of the information they receive from social media platforms. In doing so,
the study will attempt to describe the issue the way it will be at the time of data collection using
descriptive research design as Buted’s et al study has done. Nonetheless, it will address the
shortcomings identified in the study by selecting research participants randomly and collecting
data from different people without necessarily restricting its scope to a particular region. In
addition, it will divide the questionnaire that will be utilised to collect the data into different
segments to allow the researcher to collect data on various issues that are considered pertinent
in tourism industry and social media use.

On the other hand, Fabricius and Eriksson (2017) conducted a semi-structured qualitative study
in 2015 with a sample of 14 participants aged between 60 and 75 years of age. A questionnaire
guide developed to facilitate the interview process was utilised to ask questions whereas
purposive sampling method was utilised to select research participants. The interview process
entailed asking research participants questions by asking them specific questions related to the
effect of social media use on travel decisions at individual level and in some instances at a
group level. In spite of this, the participants were career people with vocational and university
education level. This means that the less educated people were excluded from the study.
Whereas this method was sufficient for the study based on the objectives is aimed at
addressing, it was somewhat biased in the sense that it included research participants from
specific age groups and education level. Accordingly, its results may not be useful to the tourism
industry in general because the participants were old and of specific career.

In spite of the above, the study was conducted in a manner that considered people that were
active in social media use and those that did not use social media platforms on regular basis.
Because of this, the impact was not blown out of proportion by the active social media platform
users. In addition, it was not impacted negatively by the people who utilise social media
platforms less often. For this reason, the study was able to establish a balanced view from the
participants. In line with this practice, the proposed study will take into account the way research
participants use social media platforms. As a consequence, one research question will be
dedicated to determining the frequency of social media use among the participants (Bendahou
& Berbou, 2015). While the questions will not be able to restrict certain group of people who
either utilise social media regularly or less often from participating in the study, it will enable the
researcher to report the characteristics of the people who will be included in the study.
Therefore, once conducted it will be possible to tell the characteristics of those people, and
determine their possible effects on the study’s outcomes. Doing this will address some of the
concerns that might be raised against the proposed study thereby enhance its credibility.

In light of the above pros and cons of the methods utilised in the previous studies, the proposed
study will target to recruit many research participants from different parts of the world via various
online platforms. This will involve inviting people who utilise social media platforms to online
interviews that will be conducted virtually by sending them questionnaire via their email
addresses and asking them to fill and return them. Once the questionnaires are returned, they
will be evaluated to ensure that they are filled in the right way. Then the data will be entered into
the Statistical Package for Social Scientists (SPSS) program for analysis. The study’s findings
will be provided in frequency tables, charts and inferential statistics to depict the extent to which
social media platforms are likely to impact tourism industry now and in the future. In addition, a
descriptive research design will be utilised to guide the process that will be followed in collecting
and analysing data.

To counter the challenges of quantitative method, a mixed method will be utilised to collect the
data. Accordingly, besides the questionnaires that will be sent to research participants
anonymously, online interviews will also be conducted via various social media platforms to
obtain views from different groups of people. This will involve forming an online focus group and
asking participants to respond to the questions that will be posed to them. The data that will be
collected via this group will be assembled and analysed together with the one that will be
collected through emails.

Instrument

The questionnaire attached at the appendix will be utilised to collect information from research
participants. The instrument was developed from literature review and previous studies that
have conducted similar researches. In developing the questionnaire, the studies from which
some of the research questions came from were evaluated to determine that their purposes and
objectives were similar to that of the proposed study. For the studies that did not match the
proposed study, questionnaires were only evaluated to give an overview of the research
questions that should be included in the proposed study. However, for the studies that matched
the proposed study, some of the research questions that were considered pertinent were
evaluated and considered for inclusion.

After the questions were developed, a pilot study was carried out among a few classmates,
members of Student Union at University and fiends to ensure that the questions were clear and
measured what they were intended to measure. The unclear questions were revised whereas
others were excluded to come up with the ones attached at the appendix.

The first part of the research question seeks to obtain an overview of the participants’
demographic factors in terms of age and highest level of education. Then the second part seeks
to determine the level of awareness and use of social media of the research participants with a
view to determining whether they qualify to participate in the study or not. Once it has been
determined they qualify to participate in the study, the next set of question seeks to determine
the way they use social media in terms of frequency and whether they travel either domestically
or abroad. The intention of evaluating whether they travel or not is to determine whether social
media platforms have any effect on their lives or no so that they can respond to the research
questions from personal experiences. Finally, the other questions seek to evaluate the way
participants use social media during holidays or before they travel to determine the impact of the
information they obtain from social media on their travel destinations and other decisions they
make.
 Relevance and Audiences

It is expected that the proposed study will be of great value to the tourism industry in general
because it will provide views from different parts of the world and different groups of research
participants. Accordingly, in contrast to the previous studies that have limited their scope to
specific categories of people, region and areas, the proposed study will capture information from
different areas, people and regions. In view of that, its findings may be generalised to depict the
way social media platforms impact tourism industry as a whole. For this reason, the
questionnaire attached at the appendix is expected to capture information that will be inclusive
and exhaustive in nature. Besides, once conducted, the proposed study will help decision
makers in tourism industry to determine the way they can use social media to market their
attraction sites including the manner in which tourist can utilise social media to obtain tour
related information to make informed decisions. In addition, it will help the members of the
general public who are potential travellers to understand the way they can share travel tips with
their colleagues before or after they travel. Also, it will help them to understand the way they can
acquire important travel information from social media besides using it to socialise with their
colleagues. At the same time, the study will bridge a research gap in tourism industry and be
part of studies that can be used in the future to inform further studies including acting as a
reference for them. More importantly, it will act as a source of information for interested parties
who may not be researchers.
Reference list

Altinay, M., Gucer, E. & Bag, C., 2017. Consumer Behavior In the Process of Purchasing
Tourism Product in Social Media. Journal of business research Turk, 9(1): pp. 381-402.

Amaro, S. & Duarte, P., 2017. Social media use for travel purposes: a cross cultural comparison
between Portugal and the UK. Information technology tourism, Springer. DOI
10.1007/s40558-017-0074-7.

Bendahou, C. & Berbou, H., 2015. The impact of culture on the use of social media in travel
destination search. The journal of macro trends in social science, 1(1): pp. 59-73.

Bizirgianni, I & Dionysopoulou, P., 2013. The influence of tourist trends of Youth Tourism
through Social Media (SM) & Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs).
Procedia – social and behavioral sciences, 73: pp. 652-660.

Buted, D. et al., 2014. Effects of social media in the tourism industry of Batangas province. Asia
Pacific Journal of Multidisciplinary Research, 2(3): pp. 123-131.

Dwityas, N. & Briandana, R., 2017. Social media in travel decision making process. International
journal of humanities and social science, 7(7): pp. 193-201.

Fabricius, S. & Eriksson, N., 2017. Young-elderly individuals use of social media for travel
purpose. Tourism & management studies, 13(1): pp. 27-32.

Fotis, J., Buhalis, D. & Rossides, N., 2012. Social Media use and Impact during the holiday
travel planning process. Information and communication technologies in tourism, pp. 13-
24.

Gururaja, R., n.d. Impact of Social Media on Tourism and Hospitality. Msruas: pp. 24-26.

Matikiti, R., Mpinganjira, M. & Roberts-Lombard, M., 2017. Social media in tourism: Establishing
factors influencing attitudes towards the usage of social networking sites for trip
organisation. Acta Commercii - Independent Research Journal in the Management
Sciences.

Rathonji, G., 2013 Influence of social media on tourism – especially among students of the
University of Debrecen. Applied Studies in Agribusiness and Commerce – APSTRACT,
pp. 105-112.
Sahin, G. & Sengun, G., 2015. The Effects of Social Media on Tourism Marketing: A Study
among University Students. Management and administrative sciences review, 4(5): pp.
772-786.

Shyle, I., 2015. Social media and its impact on decision making for trip. European journal of
interdisciplinary studies, 1(1): pp. 8-15.

Tran, V. et al., 2017. An Impact of Social Media and Online Travel Information Search in
Vietnam. Global Review of Research in Tourism, Hospitality and Leisure Management
(GRRTHLM), 3(1): pp. 414-439.

Yazdanifard, R. & Yee, L., 2014. Impact of Social Networking Sites on Hospitality and Tourism
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 Appendix

Questionnaire

What is your age?

1. 18 – 29
2. 30 – 39
3. 40 – 49
4. 50 – 59
5. 60 and above

What is your highest level of education?

1. Primary
2. Secondary
3. Diploma
4. University
5. Postgraduate

Do you use social media?

1. Yes
2. No

If yes, which type of social media platforms do you know? (Multiple choices allowed)

1. Fickr
2. Twitter
3. Facebook
4. Tumblr
5. Instagram
6. Others (specify) _______

Which of the above platforms do you use?

1. Fickr
 2. Twitter
3. Facebook
4. Tumblr
5. Instagram
6. Others (specify) _______

How often do you use social media?

1. Daily
2. 2 – 3 times a week
3. 4 – 5 times a week
4. Weekly
5. Monthly
6. Never

Do you travel severally or occasionally either domestically or abroad?

1. Yes
2. No

If yes, do you trust social media as a credible source of travel information?

1. Yes
2. No

If yes, do you ask for advices or opinions from other people for travel tips?

1. Yes
2. No

What kind of information do you seek from social media?

1. Travel tips
2. Destination places
3. Travel offers
4. Others (specify) _________

After you travel for holiday, do you use social media to share travel/holiday experiences
 1. Yes
2. No

How do you prefer to choose places?

1. Location
2. Entry fees
3. Closer
4. Number of positive reviews
5. Other (Specify) -------

Do you see any impact of social media on your travel experiences? Explain

____________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________

Thank you