Influencer Marketing and Consumer Behaviour in Tourism Industry

This essay discusses the impact of social media influencers on consumer behaviour in the tourism industry. It analyzes the product and brand selection of two popular UK-based travel influencers and explores the future of influencer marketing.

ESSAY

TABLE OF CONTENTS
Introduction......................................................................................................................................2
Introducing the area of influencer marketing...................................................................................3
Influencer one and their analysis on product selection and brands.................................................3
Influencer two and their analysis on product selection and brand...................................................4
The future of influencers..................................................................................................................5
Conclusion.......................................................................................................................................6

Introduction
Consumer behaviour comprises how consumer's attitude, preference, emotions impacts
the buying pattern and behaviour of the individual. It is also a study of organization, individual,
groups and the activities associated with purchase, disposal and use of the goods and services.
organization put efforts in understanding the needs of the consumers and expectations in order
to deliver the best products and services. Every industry is highly influenced by the consumer's
behaviour as it is driving force of businesses (Evans, Bratton and McKee, 2021). This essay will
help to understand the consumer behaviour with the dynamics of the influencer. There will be
discussion about consumer behaviour in different businesses such as tourism sector. Various
theories will be used to depict the contemporary consumer behaviour. Further it will analyse the
two influencers respectively, and their brand or product selection analysis. At the end of the
essay the future of the influencer in this changing times will be illustrated based on some facts.
Introducing the area of influencer marketing
Influencer marketing is the social media marketing which uses product mentions and
endorsements from influencers in order to promote the brand or product. There are many
companies small and big who use these medium to rise the awareness about a product or
initiative. Many big companies like Adidas and puma uses the influencer marketing to target the
young audience who forms the large target market (Yadav and Rahman, 2018). Every industry
has influencers who specifically are endorsing the products and rand relate to the that particular
industry businesses. Like tech influencers, beauty influencers, life coach influencers, career &
educational influencers etc.
tourism industry has also many influencers who travel and share there experiences,
itinerary, guide, budgets etc. as tourism industry was the worst hit business due to the covid-19
and therefore the revival of the tourism sector has been helped by these influencers. Influencers
were invited to the counties and cities for travelling and sharing there experiences to the public
or there respective audience on the social media platforms. It has positively impacted the
business of the tourism industry. People were reluctant to travel after the covid-19 and such
barrier was broken by these influencers. Also, whenever a new plan or destination is
commercialized these influencers are offered by the companies to have a free travel and share
there honest experience which can motivate people to come to the places.

Nowadays whenever anyone pans a holiday or outing they tend to use social media
platforms to look at the original review and first-hand experience of the people who have
travelled there, these influencers can reach to the people at large (Shen and et.al., 2020).
Therefore, tourism industry influencers have high influence on the public at large and are an
optimum mode of marketing to induce people for travelling. These influencers are paid in
monetary term, offers, discounts, free tickets etc. in return for the promotion of the brand or
product.
Influencer one and their analysis on product selection and brands
There are many social media influencers in the tourism industry which have both global
and national audience. In UK Jacob riglin is the most famous travel influencers on Instagram. He
has a following of 942000 people. He is a videographer and photographer creating travel content
across the globe by celebrating the beauty of world. Jacob is connected to the leading brands in
the country. Jacob has a huge audience on the social media platforms like Instagram and social
media where he showcases the beautiful places to visit for the travel purpose (Hudders and et.al.,
2021).
People see him as a source of travelling inspiration and therefore the product and brand
selection is entirely based on the honest individual opinions. As building such strong following
has taken a lot of time and efforts. If ever the followers feel like being cheated or lied to when it
comes to sharing experience it can negatively impact the image of the influencer. Jacob has a
team who works for him whenever there is a brand collaboration, as he is going to represent the
brand, the team identifies the genuineness, brand's value, past history and customer service etc.
also the charges or payments for endorsing such product brands is analysed.
According to the Maslow's theory there lies five priorities list for an individual which
plays an important role in determining the being behaviour of the consumers (Enke and
Borchers, 2021). Motivation need theory says that a consumer is willing to buy a product he
has a need attached to, the luxury car market is a pure example to that. As the safety and security
feature attached to the cars in luxury market compels the buyer to choose a luxury car over an
economical car. Also, in the tourism industry these social media influencers make the public
feels like they need to go for holidays in the particular destination as it looks extremely
attractive.

Influencer two and their analysis on product selection and brand
Marta gaska is a united kingdom based social media influencer who has a wide following
of around 373000 followers. She produces a wide variety of content on Instagram and you tube.
She has many brand endorsements in her plate, as she is one of the most trusted and looked up to
influencers in UK. Her product and brand selection for the purpose of endorsement and
promotion is totally based on the expectations of her followers, as she believes in the family of
audience she has created for herself. Marta only endorses the well reputed and well paying
companies who improve her brand mage when she promotes their brand. She is an expensive
influencer for the companies (Pop, and et.al., 2022).
Such large group of followers from different nations, regions, beliefs, age groups etc
makes an influencer really strong, nowadays influencers are more trusted with the product
promotion than celebrities. On things which makes influencers more trusted is the sense of
relatability and approach which celebrities and athletes lack while representing a brand or
product. As these influencers are the common people who over the years build strong followers
and audience who knows and relates with the influencer. Influencers make content on a regular
basis to stay in touch with the follower and update them about their life.
Even the brands want the social media influencers to remain honest about the products as
this can help the brand know the product impact better. The honest feedback can make them
grow in long term. Influencers try to remain honest and transparent with both brands and
audience which makes them more authentic than the celebrates who are often afraid to state their
honest opinion on the things (Lee and Eastin, 2021). Tourism sector has the most relatable and
honest influencers as this sector is totally dependent on the visual or evident based experience
sharing.
The future of influencers
In a country like united kingdom which has seen technological advancement and digital
revolution, social media influencers seems to stay for the unforeseen future. Influencers are
continuously growing and the social media platforms are also growing at a fast pace which
allows the influencers to grow more. As, such influencers are totally dependent on the platform
based promotions. Country's consumerism is largely backed by the recommendation and
influencer used product and services. This compels the young audience between the age group of
16 to 38 to buy these products (Magno and Cassia, 2018).

In last three years influencer marketing has grown by 1500%. currently it is a $10 billion
industry with a regular value addition. This shows ripe future opportunity of the influencer
marketing. There still is a negative side to influencers which is high competition, as young
influencers are going to flood the market, and they will have more relatability than the old
influencers and this will affect the profitability and followers of the influencers. As they get old,
the relatability will be really less for the young people, as large audience is formed by the people
of young age.
There are going to be various opportunities in the coming years which will further expand
the horizons of the social media marketing and influencers, yet factors like competition and less
relatability will be a threat to the influencers. As their career, will be of short life span. Social
media is going to remain a strong market force which will make people shape their choices of
product and services, this will require the influencers constant use of product and services in
transparent way (Lee and Eastin, 2021). And this entire process makes the never ending loop for
marketing and influencers. Also, the fact that it is highly cost effective than hiring celebrities
who charge extremely high cost for the promotion makes influencer marketing an affordable
approach for the businesses.
Conclusion
The above study has clearly identified the influencer marketing as a strong measure of
social media marketing. The consumer behaviour is highly influenced by the social media
influencers, as the young customer aged between 16 and 38 are highly likely to be going after the
recommendation made by the influencers. study has taken two very popular social median travel
related influencers Jacob riglin and Marta gaska who have a huge online following and people
love their content. They are one of the highest paid influencers in the UK. At last a detailed
perspective of the future of influencers has been mentioned.

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