Book Description

This book brings together cutting edge research and applications of social media and related technologies, their uses by consumers and businesses in travel, tourism and hospitality. The first section addresses topical issues related to how social media influence the operations and strategies of tourism firms and help them enhance tourism experiences: open innovation, crowdsourcing, service-dominant logic, value co-creation, value co-destruction and augmented reality. The second section of the book looks at new applications of social media for marketing purposes in a variety of tourism-related sectors, addressing crowd-sourced campaigns, customer engagement and influencer marketing. The third section uses case studies and new methodologies to analyze travel review posting and consumption behaviors as well as the impact of social media on traveller perceptions and attitudes, with a focus on collaborative consumption and sharing economy accommodation. Finally, the fourth section focuses on hot topics and issues related to the analysis, interpretation and use of online information and user-generated content for deriving business intelligence and enhancing business decision-making. Written by an international body of well-known researchers, this book uses fresh theoretical lenses, perspectives and methodological approaches to look at the practical implications of social media for tourism suppliers, destinations, tourism policy makers and researchers alike. For these reasons, it will be a valuable resource for students, managers and academics with an interest in information and communication technologies, marketing for tourism and hospitality, and travel and transportation management.