Influence of Social Media on Consumer Holiday Decision-Making in Travel & Tourism

UNIT 4 RESEARCH PROJECT
‘Influence of social media on consumer’s holiday decision-making process in
the travel and tourism sector’.
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ABSTRACT
Technology plays a vital role in every sector in today's era in the same manner digital
technology is influencing to a great extent to all the consumer decision making
processes in the travel and tourism sector. In this research, the emphasis will be laid
upon identifying the influence of the social media in the travel and tourism sector. As
social media is the one that is transforming the way a tourist goes for searching,
finding, co-creating the relevant information related to their holiday planning and all
travel related products, so the influence of the social media will be analysed. The
influence of the social media on the consumer holiday decision making process will
be uncovered in this research through the means of the qualitative research which
will be conducted through a combination of the structured online questionnaire and
the secondary research which will help in revealing the findings of the social media
dimensions which influences the holiday decision making of the consumers in travel
and tourism sector.
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Table of Contents
ABSTRACT................................................................................................................. 2
TASK 1- RESEARCH PROPOSAL.............................................................................5
1.1 AND 1.4 RESEARCH FORMULATION AND SPECIFICATION........................5
RESEARCH TITLE.............................................................................................. 5
INTRODUCTION................................................................................................. 5
RESEARCH PROBLEM...................................................................................... 5
RESEARCH QUESTIONS...................................................................................5
SKILLS AND KNOWLEDGE TO BE GAINED.....................................................6
AIMS.................................................................................................................... 6
OBJECTIVES.......................................................................................................6
1.2 RATIONALE FOR THE RESEARCH.................................................................7
1.3 LITERATURE REVIEW.....................................................................................8
1.4 METHODOLOGY FOR DATA COLLECTION AND ANALYSIS......................11
ETHICAL CONSIDERATIONS...........................................................................12
LIMITATIONS OF THE PRIMARY RESEARCH................................................12
RESEARCH DESIGN........................................................................................13
1.5 ACTION PLAN.................................................................................................14
GANTT CHART................................................................................................. 14
STRATEGY........................................................................................................14
TASK 2- WRITTEN REPORT...................................................................................15
2.1 IMPLEMENTATION.........................................................................................15
2.2 DATA COLLECTION.......................................................................................16
2.3 DATA ANALYSIS AND INTERPRETATION....................................................17
TASK 3......................................................................................................................26
3.1 EVALUATION OF OUTCOMES......................................................................26
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3.2 FUTURE CONSIDERATIONS.........................................................................28
APPLICATION OF RESEARCH........................................................................28
LIMITATIONS OF THE RESEARCH.................................................................28
RECOMMENDATIONS OF THE RESEARCH...................................................29
AREAS OF FUTURE RESEARCH....................................................................29
TASK 4......................................................................................................................30
4.1 POSTER PRESENTATION.................................................................................30
REFERENCES..........................................................................................................31
APPENDIX................................................................................................................ 34
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TASK 1- RESEARCH PROPOSAL
1.1 AND 1.4 RESEARCH FORMULATION AND SPECIFICATION
RESEARCH TITLE
‘Influence of social media on consumers holiday decision-making process in
the travel and tourism sector’.
INTRODUCTION
Social media is the one that is all about rendering facilities to the people so that they
can share, comment; review their ideas, thoughts and the opinions about a product r
service with others on the same platform. It enhances better connectivity with the
outside world has been a major factor that influences the consumer decision-making
process in every sector (Schegg and Stangl, 2017). It is a better version of the
traditional methods of communication which helps in removing the time constraint
and enables sharing of the multimedia content related to the company’s products
and services so as to influence the consumers.
According to this study, the significance and influence of the social media in the
tourism industry especially in the holiday segment will be documented with context to
the consumer decision-making process (Schegg and Stangl, 2017).
RESEARCH PROBLEM
The main research problem is to identify the influence of the social media such as
Facebook on the consumer holiday decision making process.
RESEARCH QUESTIONS
 What level of influence does social media create on the holiday decision-
making process of the travellers?
 How likely is the use of social media by the consumers changes the holiday
planning decisions of the consumers in the travel and tourism sector?
 What are the roles and functions that social media plays in the travel and
tourism sector?
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SKILLS AND KNOWLEDGE TO BE GAINED
This research problem will help to derive at the factors and the functions of the social
media that influences the consumer holiday decision making process in the travel
and tourism sector (Gretzel, et al. 2015).
AIMS
The main aim of this research is to explore the influence of the social media on the
consumer holiday decision-making process in the travel and tourism sector. In order
to attain this aim of the research, the study will lay its focus on the active users of the
travel and tourism that interact through social media while planning their holiday
process.
OBJECTIVES
In order to attain the research aim the following objectives are laid down which are
as under:
 To explore the use of the social media by the travellers and identify the impact
on their holiday planning process
 To identify the role and functions of the social media in the travel and tourism
sector
 To understand the influence of social media in the consumer holiday decision-
making process (Llodra-Riera, et al. 2015)
 To understand the implications of the social media for the travel and tourism
sector
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1.2 RATIONALE FOR THE RESEARCH
To gain information about the potential travellers and to influence those social media
is playing an increasing role in the travel and tourism sector. For holiday planning
process social media is the widely used by the travellers to plan their trips and
choose the destinations they want to visit. The first stage they enter into is selecting
the tour operator through which they can plan their whole holiday package. So the
social media helps by influencing their decisions by rendering them the reviews,
comments and the comparisons about the different tour operators, destinations and
the accommodations available to them (Minazzi, 2015).
This research is conducted in order to analyse the functions and the role of the social
media in the consumer holiday decision-making process and to utilise the findings in
understanding the implications of the social media in the travel and the tourism
sector.
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1.3 LITERATURE REVIEW
Social media
According to Kalpan and Haenlein (2010), social media is defined as the
combination and association of the internet based applications and activities that
help in building an ideological and technological foundation which helps the
consumers and the users to create, find, share and exchange the user-generated
content (Minazzi, 2015). Xiang and Gretzel (2010) added to the definition as a
variety of the new sources that comes from online information which are usually
created, initiates and moved from one consumer to another and from one user to
another with an intention to share and educate others about the products and
services and all the personalities and issues associated (Minazzi, 2015).
Social media in travel and tourism sector
Lo and Mckercher (2015) stated that the decisions related to the purchases of the
holiday packages and the trips are a complex process which involves a great risk. So
an extensive research and the information research are conducted by the consumers
in the holiday planning process through the social media (Lu, et al. 2018). The
information rendered by the social media platforms serves as the reliable information
and the sources to the consumers of the travel and tourism sector that helps them in
mitigating the uncertainties and broadening their exchange utility (Llodra-Riera, et al.
2015).
Cunningham (2014) expressed that through the virtual communities the travellers
seek to render recommendations to their families, friends and the other like-minded
souls about their travelling experiences and the holiday destinations and the
packages that they accessed (Inversini and Masiero, 2014). Through their positive
and the negative recommendations on the social media the consumer decision-
making process gets influenced by the consumers that are planning a holiday.
Influence of Social media in holiday decision-making process
According to McKinsey Company (2009), a consumer decision journey model was
laid out that helped to delineate the different stages of the consumer decision-
making journey which is depicted in the following figure:
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