Impact of social media on buying behaviour of consumers in the hospitality and tourism industry

Impact of social media on buying behaviour of consumers in the hospitality and tourism industry

Introduction:

The Digital expansion has brought immense growth in internet and social media users.  Before the emergence of the internet, consumers had limited resources to gather information before travelling as brochures, travel agents and word of mouth. The improvement in economic conditions has led to a significant rise in the usage of technological devices which also increases access to the internet and social media. So, social media has a direct impact on the consumers buying behaviour and decision-making process. Over the past few years, social media has become a vital medium for communication and interaction with prospective consumers. The tourism and hospitality industry have adopted digital marketing strategies by which businesses have increased their social media presence. Social media has brought revolutionary changes in posting and sharing travel and tourism-related information, opinion, and experience (Xiang and Gretzel, 2010).

The content shared on social media from travellers provides convincing information related to destinations and hospitality services. Social media is an effective tool to build brand loyalty within the community, develop a relationship with consumers, and create an online distribution channel (Chan & Guillet, 2011). Although social media has benefits, it also has some adverse effects as it questions the reliability of the information shared on the internet. This paper will examine the role of social media in influencing consumers travel and hospitality related decision making and social media impact on the decision-making process. It will further discuss the pros and cons associated with social media in the context of travel and hospitality.

The role of social media in the tourism and hospitality industry:

Social media consist of various internet tools that enable users to generate, exchange and modify content continuously (Noone, Mcguire, and Rohlfs, 2011). Social media network is an online platform that allows users to network, communicate, and collaborate by sharing content with others. Social media is a two-way electronic communication channel where users create and share information via pictures, text, audio, and video. Similarly, Businesses use social media widely for marketing, advertisement, and engagement purposes with their current and potential consumers. Today both businesses and consumers excessively use Facebook, Twitter, TripAdvisor, YouTube, flicker, Snapchat, and Instagram. For businesses, the primary purpose of using social media is to promote and create awareness about hotel and tourism services and consumers use to share their travel experiences, engage with others, to get information about local attractions, restaurants, etc. Consumer assesses how businesses present themselves on social media, customer reviews, ratings, engage with people who have shared their experiences as a part of their decision-making process. Hence, in the process of crucial information search and decision stages, social media re-shape how consumers seek, detect, read, trust and exchange information online (Sigala et al. 2012).

Moreover, social media allows two-way communication that helps in getting immediate feedback and reviews from consumers. Also, blogging with video content is becoming a popular and attractive networking tool to share information. Travel and hotel Businesses use blogs to feature their exclusive products, services, and testimonials. Overall, social media has raised the effectiveness of marketing strategies by reaching a global audience. Since, social media is easy to access, effortless, and convenient, the tourism and hospitality industry has gained more opportunities with the help of social media. Social media has raised the effectiveness of marketing strategies by reaching a global audience.

Impact of social media on the decision-making process:

The pre-travel decision-making process involves four-element starts with considering, evaluating, buying, and enjoying. The purchase of travel or hospitality products starts by considering particular options from interest ones. Therefore, online reviews and feedback have a significant impact on consumers decisions at the initial consideration stage. In the evaluation stage, the potential consumer seeks information from different sources by prioritising requirements. In this stage, consumers start to search and process details from various sources to fulfil their purchasing needs and evaluate several alternatives based on their obtained details before the buying decision (Ayeh et al., 2012). Thus, online information plays a vital role in this stage as it can influence the final decision. In addition, social media have increased purchasing power of consumers by creating better opportunities to explore. From a travell