Exploring the Role of Facebook in Shaping Australian Travel Decisions

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The Influence of Facebook on the Australian Traveller
Word Count: 2044
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Table of Contents
Task 1.........................................................................................................................................3
References..................................................................................................................................8
Appendix..................................................................................................................................10
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Task 1
Title or Topic: The influence of Facebook on the Australian Travellers
Brief Introduction: Travel and tourism is one of the most flourishing industries now, which
is contributing large to the economy of the country. The growth in the revenue earnings of the
travel and tourism industry in any country can be attributed to the growth in the usage of
social networking sites by this industry. The posts done by the travellers on the various social
networking sites is leveraging the above-mentioned fact. This research topic is going to
provide better insights on the influence created by Facebook on the Australian sites. In the
year of 2013, the tourism industry contributed 47.5 Australian dollars to the economy of the
country (Benchmarking Travel & Tourism in Australia, 2013). On the other hand, in the year
of 2018 the Australian tourism industry contributed 50 billion Australian dollars (Facts,
2019). The picture sharing sites like Instagram, Tumbler, and Pintrest adds up to the growth
in this industry. Many of the travel agencies in Australia are heavily using the social media in
order to advertise and market the travelling packages offered by them. The photos posted by
friends and peers on the social networking sites are adding to the growth of this industry.
Research Questions: The research questions drafted in the research proposal will help in
gathering information and relevant data for the research project. In addition to this, the
research questions drafted will give a proper direction to the project and help in gathering
data from relevant respondents. The research questions that will be asked in this study are as
follows:
 How has the use of interest created a deep influence on the Australian travellers?
 What is social media?
 How has Facebook influenced Australian Travellers to travel more?
 What is the role of Facebook in the decision making process of the Australian
Travellers?
 What is the negative influence of Facebook on the Australian travellers?
Aims and Objectives: Drafting rational and tangible research aims and objectives is the most
thing that needs to be done while starting with the research proposal as this gives the
researcher a definite direction in which the research will move. The aim of the research
project is “The Influence of Facebook on the Australian Travellers”.
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The objectives of the research project are as follows:
 To analyse the ways in which internet has created influence on the Australian
travellers
 To define social media
 To comprehend the ways Facebook has created an influence on Australian Traveller
 To identify the ways in which Facebook has impacted the decision making process of
the Australian Travellers
 To acknowledge the negative influence of Facebook on the Australian travellers
Rationale: The use of social media especially Facebook has a deep impact on the Australian
travellers and this is the major viewpoint that will be analysed through this research project.
A research project requires analysis of the data that has been collected through effective data
collection methods. This project will be based on semi-structured topics that will contain
close and open-ended questions. With the help of close and open-ended questions, rational
insights on the research topic can be obtained. In addition to this, the topics for literature
review will be drafted in a semi-structured way. This will help the project, to explore
different dimensions that are related to social media, its vehicles and the relation of social
media and the travel industry of Australia. Different interests will be covered in the research
project that is related to the use of digital technology in the travel and tourism sector.
Access to primary data will be easy, as the respondents have been chosen among the people
who had travelled through Thomas Cook. This will help the researcher to get effective data.
The importance of this project is, the project will derive insightful data on the importance and
influence of technology on the decision-making process of the travellers in Australia. In
addition to this, a niche has been carved out. This project will particularly deal with the
influence of Facebook on the Australian Travellers. The scope of the project includes various
important data about the travel and tourism industry and its collaboration with social media.
Some limitations might be faced in the research project regarding time and research budget.
Literature Review: The Literature Review section of the research project defines the
important terms used in it and drafts important data regarding it.
Internet and its Influence on Australian Travellers
The use of internet has influenced many activities of human life and sufficed many travel
needs of the Australian travellers as well. Travellers now can get all the intricate information
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about a travel destination using the internet and its various features. Different information
travellers can get by using internet are the picturesque locations of the place, the temperature,
the name of the travel agents, the know-about the lodging and the cuisine of the place.
Through using internet, travellers are being able to compare the costs packages provided by
the different travel agents. According to Martins (2017), internet has hugely influenced the
Australian travellers. The travellers’ surf the internet to look at the pictures of the destinations
they would like to visit. As digitalization has amalgamated itself with various aspects of the
travel and tourism industry, it has helped the industry to reach higher revenue scales as well.
In the year of 2017, it was reported that internet along with social media has influenced
nearly 47% of the travellers in Australia to travel twice a year (Productivity Commission
Research Paper, 2019).
Definition of Social Media
In the present scenario, a large part of the internet comprises of social media and the social
networking sites available. Social media can be defined as the collection of online
communications channels that is dedicated to provide service to community based on input,
interaction, collaboration and content sharing (Fuchs, 2017). Social has helped in creating
awareness for various important events in our life. These communication channels are not
restricted to geographical boundaries can help in sharing of data within wide-range of people.
Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pintrest, Google+ are all prominent vehicles of social media. It
is that; social media has created a great impact on the travellers all over the world. Social
media is a contributing factor for the growth of the tourism industry in many dimensions.
Social media helps in generating interest among the travellers to explore more places
(Alalwan et al., 2017). In order to market the tourism products, social media is being hailed
as potential vehicle and strategy.
Facebook and its Influence of the Australian Travellers
As stated by one of the official websites of Australia, ‘Tourism Australia’, which is the
Australia’s page for its national tourism had been hailed as the most popular page in Australia
in Facebook (Traveller, 2014). The Managing Director of Tourism Australia, Andrew
McEvoy has said that Facebook has proved to be critical in promoting Australia’s tourism
among the domestic and the international travellers. According to Horner and Swarbrooke
(2016), Facebook is one of the primary interaction points among the travellers and the travel
agents present in Australia. Facebook helps the travellers in Australia to share their
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experiences online and this has direct impact on the travel –friendly people. Facebook has
helped to find the right information about a particular area and make the travel experiences
easy and friendly. In addition to this, the images posted on the digital platform and the
different social network marketing strategies have helped in influencing the Australian
travellers.
Decision making process of the Australian Travellers and Facebook
Through Facebook and the other social media vehicles available in the age of digitalization,
the travel agents have greater access to the whims and fancies of the customers in the travel
and the tourism sector. After the analysis of the consumer behaviour, travel agents can come
up with traveller friendly policies (Schroeder and Pennington-Gray, 2015). Facebook has
been effective in understanding the consumer behaviour of the travellers in Australia.
Innumerous posts posted on Facebook by different travellers and travel agents, have
influenced travellers to travel more often. The beautiful pictures increase the urge travel. In
addition to this, Facebook provides different information about a place, which helps travellers
to plan hassle free travel itineraries. According to Keshavarzian and Wu (2017), Facebook
lets people share their travel experience which millions of other people which adds to positive
effect on the decision making process of an individual wanting to visit place. However, there
are instances where Facebook provides miss-leading information to the travellers. In addition
to this, the overabundance of choices available in Facebook confuses travellers’ decision to
visit a particular place.
Literature Gap: The literature gap can be defined as the topics that are mentioned in the
research questions and objectives but not covered in the literature review section. In this
study, the negative influence created by Facebook on the Australian travellers has not been
comprehended.
Research Methodology: The research methodology is one of the important aspects of
research proposal and project. Methodologies include all the procedures that are required to
design the project and the analytical tools used to collect and analyse the data. The research
methodologies should be carefully selected as using the correct methodology helps in
obtaining authentic results. The various methodologies that will be used in this research
project are as follows:
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Research Type: Researches can be done in two types, one of qualitative research type and
another is quantitative research type. In this research project, both research type namely
qualitative and quantitative research types will be used (Quinlan et al., 2019). Using the two
different research types will help in getting better insights about the research topic.
Quantitative research types helps in gathering statistical data whereas qualitative research
helps in the accumulation and analysis of theoretical data.
Study Population and Sample size: In order to complete a research project, the researcher
should chose the respondents every carefully. The responses provided by the respondents
carve out the results for the research. In this research project, it will be feasible to collect data
through the travellers situated at Australia. Therefore, the research will survey the travellers
who travel by Thomas Cook. The information of the travellers will be provided by Thomas
Cook. 100 travellers will be surveyed by the researcher and responses will be gathered on
how Facebook has influenced their travel itineraries. In addition to this, to gather more data, 3
managers of Thomas Cook will be interviewed in order to more information on the research
topic.
Sampling Technique: Sampling technique helps in selecting proper respondents for
conducting a survey for the completion of a research project. In this research project,
probability-sampling method will be used (Koro-Ljungberg, 2015). In addition to this,
stratified probability sampling method will be used which helps in representation of specific
strata or subgroups.
Data Collection Methods: The methods used to collect data for a research project can be
collectively known as data collection methods. In research projects, normally two kinds of
data collection methods are chosen namely primary and secondary data collection methods.
In this research, primary data will be collected in order to arrive at research results (Ott and
Longnecker, 2015). The methods of surveying and interviewing will be used to collect the
primary data in this research project.
Data Analysis Methods: Data analysis methods are used to derive effective results from the
gathered data. In a research project, qualitative and quantitative data analysis methods are
used to analyse the primary data and thematic analysis is used to interpret the secondary data
that is collected from journals, books and newspaper. In this research project, both qualitative
and quantitative data analysis methods will be used.
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Ethical Considerations: All the ethical considerations will be followed by the researcher
while doing this research project. All the data collected will be solely used for the completion
of the project. None of the respondents should be forced to take part in the research project.
Data confidentiality clauses according to the Data Protection Act of 1998 will be followed
diligently while doing this project (Taylor et al., 2015). All the data will be deleted after the
completion of the project.
Diagram of the Research Process:
Figure 1: Design of Research Project
(Source: Created by the learner)
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References
Alalwan, A.A., Rana, N.P., Dwivedi, Y.K. and Algharabat, R., 2017. Social media in
marketing: A review and analysis of the existing literature. Telematics and
Informatics, 34(7), pp.1177-1190.
Benchmarking Travel & Tourism in Australia. 2013. [online] pp.3-5. Available
at:https://www.wttc.org/media/files/reports/benchmark%20reports/country%20results/
australia%20benchmarking%02013.pdf [Accessed 5 Feb. 2019].
Facts, T., 2019. Topic: Travel and Tourism Industry in Australia. [online] www.statista.com.
Available at: https://www.statista.com/topics/4551/travel-and-tourism-industry-in-australia/
[Accessed 5 Feb. 2019].
Fuchs, C., 2017. Social media: A critical introduction. Sage.
Horner, S. and Swarbrooke, J., 2016. Consumer behaviour in tourism. Routledge.
Keshavarzian, P. and Wu, C.L., 2017. A qualitative research on travellers' destination choice
behaviour. International Journal of Tourism Research, 19(5), pp.546-556.
Koro-Ljungberg, M., 2015. Reconceptualizing qualitative research: Methodologies without
methodology. Sage Publications.
Martins, M.S.G.D.C., 2017. How TripAdvisor’s reviewers level of expertise influence their
online rating behaviour and the usefulness of reviews (Doctoral dissertation).
Ott, R.L. and Longnecker, M.T., 2015. An introduction to statistical methods and data
analysis. Nelson Education.
Productivity Commission Research Paper. 2018. Australia’s International Tourism Industry,
[online] pp.19-25. Available at: https://www.pc.gov.au/research/completed/international-
tourism/international-tourism.pdf [Accessed 5 Feb. 2019].
Quinlan, C., Babin, B., Carr, J. and Griffin, M., 2019. Business research methods. South
Western Cengage.
Schroeder, A. and Pennington-Gray, L., 2015. The role of social media in international
tourist’s decision making. Journal of Travel Research, 54(5), pp.584-595.
Taylor, S.J., Bogdan, R. and DeVault, M., 2015. Introduction to qualitative research
methods: A guidebook and resource. John Wiley & Sons.
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Traveller. 2014. Tourism Australia's Facebook page 'most popular on the planet'. [online]
Available at: http://www.traveller.com.au/tourism-australias-facebook-page-most-popular-
on-the-planet-1pujv [Accessed 5 Feb. 2019].
Appendix
WBS and Gantt chart
Activities Start
Date
Duration
(days)
End
Date
Project Initiation 2/10/201
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1 2/11/201
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Selection of Research Topic 2/11/201
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2 2/13/201
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Setting up of Research Aims and
Objectives
2/13/201
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3 2/16/201
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Identifying Research Questions 2/16/201
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2 2/18/201
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Drafting of Research Proposal 2/18/201
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5 2/23/201
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Submission of Proposal 2/23/201
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1 2/24/201
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Drafting of Literature Review 2/24/201
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6 3/2/2019
Structuring the Methodology 3/2/2019 3 3/5/2019
Structuring Survey and Interview Question 3/5/2019 3 3/5/2019
Data Collection 3/5/2019 6 3/11/201
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Data Analysis 3/11/201
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7 3/18/201
9
Drafting of Conclusion and
Recommendation
3/18/201
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3 3/21/201
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Final Submission 3/21/201
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1 3/22/201
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Post Evaluation 3/22/201 2 3/24/201
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Table 1: Work breakdown Structure
(Source: Created by the learner)
Project Initiation
Selection of Research Topic
Setting up of Research Aims and Objectives
Identifying Research Questions
Drafting of Research Proposal
Submission of Proposal
Drafting of Literature Review
Structuring the Methology
Strcuturing Survey and Interview Question
Data Collection
Data Analysis
Drafting of Conclusion and Recommendation
Final Submission
Post Evaluation
2/10 2/15 2/20 2/25 3/2 3/7 3/12 3/17 3/22 3/27
Figure 2: Gantt chart
(Source: Created by the learner)
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