Social Media in Hospitality

IASK ATR2008 (Advances in Tourism Research 2008), Aveiro, Portugal, May. 26-28

Social media and Tourism Destinations: TripAdvisor Case Study

J. Miguéns, R. Baggio, and C. Costa

Abstract — Online social networking site are the most popular sites on the internet. The second generation of web based services is characterized by having a consumer generated content (CGC), which allow people to share information. This paper examines CGC on TripAdvisor, with a case study on the city of Lisbon. Along with a discussion on the radical changes implied by new forms of collaboration and business models, it is explored how the users collaborate to image a destination. It is analyzed a sample of all the hotels In TripSdvisor.Com for the city of Lisbon, as well as forum authors and advisors profile. The information available on forums and reviews is generated by users/consumers and provides relevant data for travel planning. Index Terms — Social Networking, TripAdvisor, Web 2.0, Travel 2.0.

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1 INTRODUCTION

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billions. It is no surprise then to find out that travel and tourism related topics are among the most popular issues in this environment. Travel plans, destinations and hotels reviews, tourist guides, suggestions for restaurants or exhibitions are ever growing discussion subjects and the term Travel 2.0 has started denoting this trend. Tourism on the Internet was already one of the major ‘players’ [2], and the online travel market has assumed very a consistent size. In Europe, for example, it represents (in 2007) almost 19.4% of the total market [3]. Moreover a continuing sensible growth is predicted for the next years. Aim of this paper is to examine one exponent of the Travel 2.0 world: TripAdvisor and to assess the effects socially-enhanced recommendations have on the popularity and the business of the most typical tourism business: an hotel. As an example, the hotels in Lisbon are considered. 1.1 Web 2.0 and Travel 2.0 The World Wide Web is...