Utilisation of social media by international tourists to Ghana (original) (raw)
Related papers
Journal of Information Technology and Tourism (Springer) , 2016
Abstract The emergence of social media has affected every sector and/or industry. In tourism, social media has become prevalent in tourists’ decision-making to travel to any destination. The main aim of the study was to explore the stages in the decision-making process that social media is more influential on the decision to travel to Ghana. The study adopted the cross-sectional design and was underpinned by the quantitative method of research. The study revealed that tourists use social media for travel planning across all the stages in the decision-making process. However, tourists predominantly use social media at the need awareness and information search stages. Interestingly, the multiple regression analysis revealed that the use of social media at the evaluation and purchase stages positively influenced tourists’ decision to Ghana. In conclusion, social media is influential in tourists’ decision to travel to Ghana. It is recommended that GTA and tourism business should have their businesses visible on these social media platforms to quickly reach tourists who use them. http://link.springer.com/journal/40558/onlineFirst/page/1
Social Media in Travel Decision Making Process
2017
Travel and tourism is one of the most promising sectors in the world, and information is extremely important in this industry. These days, the way of traveler in utilizing this information throughout their travel decision making process has changed. The broad development of Information and Communication Technology especially in tourism industry is one of the factor which made this change happened. It is mainly associated with the emergence of social media as one of the Web 2.0 platform, which offers interactivity to users. The purpose of this study was to find out the travel decision-making process through the use of social media especially from the point of view of Indonesian traveler community members. The theoretical background in this study is based on the concept of consumer behavior, specifically the theory of travel buying behavior and also on the concept of the usage of information on social media. Data was collected through interviews with traveler community’s members "...
WSEAS TRANSACTIONS ON BUSINESS AND ECONOMICS (ISSN: 1109-9526), 2024
More than 3.049 billion monthly active social media (Facebook) users are engaging in sharing content, views, surfing, and bridging their friends and family. Web 3.0 is a buzzword now That is going to ensure the decentralization of information, blockchain technology, data security, data privacy, and individual control over private data. The world's scenery has been changed through the invention of the internet and social media has changed the landscape in the same way in this century. Social media has revolutionized the way companies convey their assortment of products and services to prospective customers. It has become a catalyst for changing the decisions of social media users. It has enabled every little firm to become a large conglomerate to pinpoint their niche customer segment and reach them effectively with various techniques. It has been observed that influencers in social media have a noteworthy and robust correlation (i.e., 73%) and contribute the most to travelers' travel decision-making, indicating the least reliability (28% correlation). The study shows that the R square value is 0.88 and the adjusted R square value is 0.88, indicating that travelers' decisionmaking is 88% shaped by social media influencers. Therefore, the boom of social media has also facilitated the way people communicate with each other, especially when they seek recommendations for purchasing something or availing of a service. It provides a platform for both consumers and businesses to have two-way communication where both parties can interact effectively on a real-time basis without incurring much expense. Social media has also brought a lot of tourist destinations closer to tourists that are situated in a remote part of the country or in a place that is quite untouched by tourist groups. It allows destination organizations like sites, parks, hotels, and amusement centers to conveniently publish multimedia content involving blog posts, images, videos, and interactive games and attract visitors to these destinations. Social media marketing also provides real-time information on customer profiles, behaviors, and perceptions to the marketing manager. It also influences tourist groups in making travel decisions like choosing a destination, a time of travel, or a package that they might want to avail of. In this research paper, we have identified four social media stimuli and shown their correlation with tourists' decision-making. In this paper, it has been identified that more than 80% of the time, social media has a positive influence on travelers' decisions about their tour itinerary. Social media has WSEAS TRANSACTIONS on BUSINESS and ECONOMICS
Journal of Social Sciences and Management Studies, 2023
This study examines the impact of social media on the behavior and decision-making processes of travelers while choosing places Social media platforms serve as channels for travelers to gain inspiration and plan their journeys, while also providing opportunities for tourism enterprises to promote services, engage with consumers, and evaluate visitor sentiments. A comprehensive survey, including of primary and secondary data, was distributed to 388 participants, mostly consisting of students, educators, teachers, private business owners, and government people. The data analysis was performed using Microsoft Excel and IBM SPSS 25, which included the use of descriptive statistics and multiple regression analysis. The survey results indicate that social media has a notable beneficial effect on tourists' decision-making processes when choosing a destination. Nine out of ten variables are identified as having a significant impact on social media usage in tourism decision-making through multiple regression analysis. This empirical study highlights the significance of marketers understanding visitor behavior and decision-making processes, recognizing their potential influence on brand loyalty, customer happiness, and situational dynamics. Hence, it is imperative for tourism stakeholders to integrate social media factors into the strategic development of tourism offerings. Social media has become an essential tool for both travelers and travel firms in modern culture. The research clearly demonstrates that social media has a substantial impact on visitor behavior. The overriding result suggests a significant influence of social media on the travel patterns of visitors from Bangladesh. It is recommended that policymakers and tourist marketers utilise social media channels to strengthen the development of tourism in Bangladesh. This study provides significant information for professionals and policymakers who are looking to handle the ever-changing impact of social media on travel behavior and decision-making.
The Impact of Social Media on Inbound Tourists Decision in Georgia
ISCONTOUR 2020 Tourism Research Perspectives: Proceedings of the International Student Conference in Tourism Research, 2020
In the modern world, social media has become an important part of marketing communications. In the social space, companies are actively using various attractive photo or video materials to promote a tourism product or service, making it easier for tourists to decide where to spend their vacation. In today's information society, social media plays a significant role in the tourism industry. In Georgia, as with the rest of the world, within the development of tourism, social networks have become actively involved in tourism as a marketing tool. The purpose of the study is to determine the impact of social media platforms on travellers' decision making in Georgia. In the framework of research, the condition of social media platforms and review sites in Georgia generally assessed, and it also identified the factors that affect inbound visitors. For this research, it has used primary and secondary research studies. Primary research included tourists' and tour-operators' quantitative research; the paper also includes a case study on the importance of communication during the crisis. Secondary research included existing Georgian and foreign academic sources. In the study revealed the role of media platforms in tourists' decision-making process the most impacted by social media segments, as well as the advantages of using the media channels by local tour operators. There is a lack of academic research in Georgia regarding the impact of social media, and considering how trending this topic has become, it is important to conduct the study.
Social Media and its Impact on Decision Making for Trip
European Journal of Interdisciplinary Studies
Social networks are not a new phenomenon of the human community. Social communication tools represent a revolution in terms of the possibility of publicity for enterprises. In this way mechanisms of social networks have not only changed the instruments, but also the communication. Social media is not focused exclusively on the development platform of promotion and communication, but also in the implementation of services to create new business opportunities and career. Professional groups present in networks are often closed and specifically dedicated towards specific groups in order to achieve defined objectives and set by direction of the company that benefit from these platforms. Social communications tools represent a revolution in terms of publicity opportunities for enterprises. Social media is becoming the key marketing tool for organizations who manage tourist destinations, in this way having a major impact on tourism markets. The role which social media is playing in variou...
Influence of Social Media on Tourists' Destination Selection Decision
Scholars Bulletin, 2019
Social media are interactive communication platform usually used for community-based inputs, content sharing, interaction and collaboration among people. Prominent social media platforms are, facebook, twitter, google+, wikipedia, LinkedIn etc. These social media channels serve as source of information and influence in decision-making process. Travel experience, photos, videos and other contents shared on social media may influence other prospective tourists in their destination selection decision. This study intended to discover the impact of social media on tourists' decision making. Data have been collected from 167 respondents using judgmental sampling technique. Collected data were analyzed using principle component analysis where 15 variables were reduced to two factors (social media information about destination and social media word-of-mouth). Further, the extent of influence of obtained factors on tourists' destination selection decision was identified using regression analysis and stated that these two factors explains 52.2% of the variance in data.
"To study Social Media behavior of Travelers: The context of Leisure Holiday
Sixth Biennial Conference of the Indian Academy of Management, 2020
Social Media platform faced paradigm shifts on how people connect and communicate with eachothers, in travel and tourism industry social media plays a foremost role. Several studies attempted to reveal the role of social media on consumer behaviour, different social media platforms, applications, or on a specific stage of travel decision-making process particularly Pre-trip stage. Still, the complete picture of usage of the social platform during travel decision making process stages remains hazy. To address this gap, this study aims to understand traveller's social media behaviour during travel decision-making process (before the trip, during the trip, and after the trip). 400 respondents were selected from four major cities of Gujarat. Based on results, social media platforms are used during all three stages of the holiday decision-making process. Majority of the respondents are using social networking sites out of all six-social media platform for their holiday decision making process.
Digital Technologies and Social Media in Tourism
European Scientific Journal, ESJ, 2022
Computer-mediated technologies allow individuals, companies, nongovernmental organizations, governments, and other organizations to view, create, and share information, ideas, career interests in virtual communities and networks. For the tourism industry it is essential to create interesting content on social media at all stages of the journey. The aim of the paper was to highlight the role of social media in the tourism industry, to reveal how mobile applications affect tourism, and how tourists benefit from using social networks while traveling. The purpose was to show the best practices in promoting consumer relations through social media and social media channels, and what role social media plays in many aspects of tourism, especially in terms of information retrieval and decision making. The research revealed which search engine Georgian tourists use to get information throughout their travel and whether they usually use social media platforms to buy a tourism product. Using qu...