Social Media Influence on Tourism Decisions: A Report

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THE INFLUENCE OF FACEBOOK AND
INSTAGRAM IN THE DECISION-
MAKING PROCESS OF PROSPECTIVE
TOURISTS

DECLARATION OF THE AUTHENTIC RESEARCH

ABSTRACT

TABLE

CHAPTER 1 RESEARCH INTRODUCTION (1000 WORDS)
INTRODUCTION
The focus of this research is to identify and evaluate the influence of Facebook, Instagram
on the decision making of the tourists in selecting hotels and destinations for tourism as in
today's era the role of technology has gained so much popularity that most of the
population is using the social media channel for every day to day activities. The behaviour of
tourist have changed drastically by introduction of technology web 2.0, this system allows
people to share user-generated data and communicate and interact online , people use the
social media and other platforms for sharing the pictures, videos of the places they have
visited thus the people in connection to these are attracted towards these destinations.
Through these online platforms including Facebook, Instagram and YouTube the whole
world is connected. Instagram has been aggressively spread all over the world and more
than 85% of the people are below the age group of 35 and thus mostly the young
generation is using Instagram and the active users as on today 7 million (Instagram press
2017), so the reach of Instagram cannot be limited and the approached audience is very
large. The people having lots of followers, a connection like celebrities has the power to
influence a significant part of the audience through pictures they post on their accounts.
People seeing these pictures are easily inspired In this way they can see what they like,
what are the experiences of other people in that place and what are the places the tourists
don't want to travel. The social media platforms play a very significant role in attracting the
attention of the tourists because the internet is the only place that is visited by the people
the most, and people tend to spend many of their daily hours in surfing and scrolling the
internet. This social media platform like YouTube there are specified videos on the best
places to visit or the experiences of visiting a particular place, thus after watching the review
of other people the perception and the behaviour of the people change very fast.
A serious problem of where to travel which country or continent to prefer, which hotel to
stay etc. since the majority of the population is on Facebook and they aggressively use these
online platforms to solve their problems. Every place is having a unique characteristic or
unique tourist attraction that needs to the highlighted and shown to the world. This task is

effectively done by social media applications like Facebook and Instagram. These
highlighters and these promotions on social media applications are so impactful because of
the visual effects that attract the most of the prospect tourist eyes. As for travelling and
tourism, visual communication is the core factor that can influence the decision of the
consumers. Social media applications provide a platform to advertise the place for
increasing the tourism rate. In the competitive market where there are millions of
billionaires who want luxury places to visit so these people or prospect tourists can be easily
targeted through social media applications.
PROBLEM STATEMENT
The issue stated here in this report is the impact of social media on buying behaviour of the
tourists, thus there are negative impacts of the social media in negatively promoting a place,
and this can create a severe impact on the brand image of the country or place and also on
the economy of the country. The country is not only just the place which is affected but the
people whose livelihood depends on tourism are also affected by these.
STATEMENT OF PURPOSE
The learning’s of this research will be directed towards the importance and impact of social
media, the social media platform have been emerging as the largest channel that can create
demand for any product whether it is a tangible product or service. The reach of social
media is beyond the international boundaries hence social media have the power to create
demand for the tourist places, hotels and restaurants across the international waters and
international boundaries. The ability to create demand for the product that can create
business for all the related economy is with social media tourism. At a time-unlimited
people can be targeted as the visual audience by social media, so within a night, a place can
be made popular to an unlimited audience.
Facebook is having a large number of active users these users are not only connected to the
other people of the world but are also linked to the various advertising channels that
promote the countries, places, hotels, restaurants and many more. Only by one search the
whole scenario and perception of the people or audience can be changed. Thus these social
media applications have the highest preference of the people in selecting the places to visit.

RESEARCH QUESTIONS
Question-1 In tourism sectors what is the role of social media?
Question-2 While booking and selecting the holidays what is the impact of Facebook and
Instagram on tourists?
Question-3 For taking right decisions regarding the tourism which one is the most preferred
platform by the tourists?
AIMS AND OBJECTIVES
The research aims to identify the impact of Facebook and Instagram on the prospective
tourists in the decision-making process. Also, to understand and identify the process used
by tourists while planning for tourism.
Objectives
 To provide a clear understanding of the role of social media on travel and tourism
activities.
 To provide a clear understanding of the influence Facebook and Instagram have on
tourists while they are selecting their holiday destinations.
 To know which platforms between Instagram and Facebook that tourists prefer to
get information about places they want to travel to.
 To know the advantages and disadvantages of Facebook and Instagram on selecting
travel destinations for prospect tourists.
 To help marketers and businesses know the prospect tourists decision-making
process while selecting a travel destination.

CHAPTER 2 LITERATURE REVIEW (2500 WORDS)
INTRODUCTION
Varkaris & Neuhofer (2017), states that social media have transformed the perspective of
people and their decisions in choosing travel sites. By their preferences, their recent
searches, these social media applications work. The search engine optimization technique is
used by these social media applications in identifying the prospect tourists and then
eventually targeting them towards the places they can visit. These search engines
optimization technique not only helps in promoting the exotic tourist's place but also have
increased the revenues of hotels, restaurants and other related organizations. There is a lot
of difference in the consumer behaviour ion the past and now because earlier the people
were highly dependent on the tourism agencies, but now the scenario has changed to better
and the tourists today are more independent and not dependent on the tourism agencies,
this is because of the change in technology and its impact on the world population is too
high. The people are now more aware of the facts and scenarios, social media or digital
technology have made everything easy and fast. The probability of choosing the tourist
places, the venue, and hotel through the social media platform is very high and the rate is
increasing very fast. There are various real-life moments that help social media channel to
create a package for the tourists that are customized flexible and based on the consumer
needs, thus the consumer does not have to go anywhere else just by clicking and doing the
bookings on phone every part of the trip from hotel booking to bars, restaurants and pubs
everything is being planned. The social media applications have created an intangible global
market for the tourists to gain a lot of information and travel any place in the world without
paying an extra penny for commission. The easy cancellation, easy checking in policy,
standardized and quality rooms and quality services is the speciality of booking tickets
online.
Ghandour & Bakalova (2014) states that internet has become a consistent part of the world
population today, the social media applications like Facebook, Instagram have managed to
gain a major part in everybody’s life, thus it influences the consumer purchasing power and
consumer behaviour towards every aspect of daily and routine life. The increasing use of

web 2.0 technology there is the creation of untold trend in the culture of every country is
developed. The term of web 2.0 is not an official term that is written or defined in any books
but it is an intangible platform that helps the people to interact and communicate with each
other even they are sitting in the regions apart. This study aimed to identify the impact of
social media on tourist decision making especially of generation Y travellers. Generation Y
travellers are the young generations which do they their bookings and tourist place
selection from the social media applications. These generation Y travellers are the most
important and most loyal client for the tourists places, as they spend more money as
compared to the normal travellers, they are young so there is a very high probability that
they will be visiting the place again and they will be sharing their pictures, videos on social
media thus attracting more tourists for the tourist place, these travellers are known to be
the long-time staying traveller than the normal travellers. The plane tickets the packages for
travelling everything is decided on these platforms thus there is no need to go to the travel
agent and waste a lot of time, at the time of purchasing the ticket or tourism package the
traveller or the consumer does not know the facilities that they will be getting in their travel
experience but through the photos, feedbacks of other people on social media ort the other
digital technology media they get the full idea about what will be the scenario there.

SOCIAL MEDIA / SOCIAL MEDIA WHEEL THEORIES
Ashley & Tuten (2015), this research paper states that through using creative and innovative
social media strategies the consumer attention can be grabbed and not only this the
attention can be transformed to the selling of the services of the big brands. The study has
concentrated on the channels of social media and which are the most preferred social
media platforms that are used by the population of the world.
FACEBOOK AND INSTAGRAM THEORIES
DECISION-MAKING KOTLER ET AL THEORIES
ADVERTISING DIRECT/INDIRECT THEORIES

REFERENCES
Varkaris, E. and Neuhofer, B., 2017. The influence of social media on the consumers’ hotel
decision journey. Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Technology, 8(1), pp.101-118.
Ghandour, R. and Bakalova, R., 2014. Social media influence on the holiday decision-making
process in the UK. Journal of Organisational Studies and Innovation, 1(2), pp.41-54.
Ashley, C. and Tuten, T., 2015. Creative strategies in social media marketing: An exploratory
study of branded social content and consumer engagement. Psychology & Marketing, 32(1),
pp.15-27.