About
50% of travelers use social media during and after their vacations to share
videos and photos according to a study led by Text100 Digital Index in 2012.
The eWOM (the online word-of-mouth) is one of the key revolutions in contempory
tourism industry. Radmila Živković, Jelena
Gajić and Ivana Brdar from Singidunum University in Serbia were one of the
first to analyze in-depth this change in The
impact of social media on tourism
(2014). Indeed, social media have deeply changed the industry
parameters.
Firstly,
travelers do not expect to be only the final client. The customer relationship
management (CRM) has changed with ICT. Visitors have become proactive and take
part in corporate policies. The eWOM plays at this level and it is more
efficient than the previous unidirectional communication practices. The online
word-of-mouth contributes to customers’ satisfactions and avoid problems linked
with doubts about travels. They feel free to share, communicate, collect various
information and collaborate online anytime, anywhere. These users do influence
the others with regard to travel plans. Companies have to make an analysis
regarding customers’ recommendations and should include it in their value
proposition. They trust social media more than travel professionals’ advices as
people like them provide it. It is a bias-free and low-cost structure tool.
Obviously, reliability and too much various information available that the
users may deal with are two problems, which are not underlined in our article.
The would-be travelers are ready to cope with those challenges. To sum up, travel
industry has turned Web 2.0 into Travel 2.0. New types of consumers started
being digital users. Consumers use digital tools in order to make a decision
for a destination. We should talk now about digital marketing communication as
a strategic tool for tourism. What is now a successful service in tourism? It is to propose a customized service. That
is why social media is important.
Secondly,
it does not mean all social media are equal. But every customer can find the
most convenient according to his/her needs.
Social media can be divided by two main criteria, which can help
understand the trend: the relationship between the level of social presence and
media richness as well as the level of self-presentation and self-disclosure. Previous
studies differentiated nine types of social media among them social networking
websites (i.e. Facebook, LinkedIn etc.) or consumer
review & rating websites (i.e. TripAdvisor, Epinions). According to
the research, 174,9 million people in USA are social network users in 2015. Especially
Facebook plays a big role in order to influence travelers making decision.
As we
said, travelers use application while they are travelling. The most used
application is Google maps and GPS (Text100 Digital Index: Travel & Tourism
study, 2012). According to the survey, among the top five of activities travelers
do is to comment online. These are respectively shopping, local cuisine, fine
good, historical sites, outdoor activities (Text100 Digital Index: Travel &
Tourism study, 2012). Digital travelers user can pretend to have an enormous
impact on people preferences as they share easily their ordinary daily life.
To
conclude, social media help to understand new trends of tourism industry: new
practices in terms of customers need evaluation and expectations. It enables the
travelers to communicate with people about their past and current experiences.
Travelers are now used to getting information there to plan or not their
travels. As a result, social media has become very important tool for companies
and customers.
Written
by Kenan CETIN and Aurélie HONORE
References:
Radmila Živković, Jelena Gajić, Ivana Brdar,
2014, The impact of social media on tourism,Serbia
(From Google)