Acta turistica, Vol. 31 No. 2, 2019.
Preliminary communication
https://doi.org/10.22598/at/2019.31.2.153
SOCIAL MEDIA GRATIFICATIONS IN THE CONTEXT OF INTERNATIONAL TRAVEL PLANNING: THE USE OF THE REPERTORY TEST METHOD
Steven Pike
; Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, Australia
Lien P. Dam
; SkyTeam Airline Alliance Management, Schiphol, Netherlands
Amanda Beatson
; Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, Australia
Abstract
The purpose of this manuscript is to report the fi ndings of an exploratory investigation into social media gratifi cations in the context of international travel planning. Underpinned by Personal Construct Theory as well as Uses and Gratifi cations Theory, an exploratory approach was used. The findings from a content analysis of published studies (N = 101) and from personal interviews with consumers in Australia (N = 20) using the Repertory Test technique, were triangulated to identify 19 salient attributes of social media in the context of international travel planning. Since user-generated content on social media is an infl uential organic image formation agent, and is now more volumous than the marketing communications of the travel industry, an important current issue is thinking about how destination marketing organisations can better take advantage of this medium. This study provides new insights into the range of salient travel planning attributes of social media. It is suggested that these fi ndings could be used by destination marketing organisations (DMO) to assist stakeholders with social media promotions.
Keywords
destination marketing organisation (DMO); social media; user-generated content (UGC); destination competitiveness; international travel; travel planning; destination branding; uses and gratifi cations theory
Hrčak ID:
231945
URI
Publication date:
22.12.2019.
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