Social Media (Web 2.0) in Tourism Social media can be defined in different ways. According to Tuten (2008) social media are determined by the creation of user-generated content, co-creation and commenting as well as sharing opinions on Web 2.0 applications. In this way, internet users can socialize online and share their own experiences. Types of Web 2.0 applications include among others file-sharing sites, blogs and social networks (Dooley et al. 2012).
Web 2.0 is also known as people-centric Web, participative web, or social media (O'Reilly, 2007). The key difference between the tradition web (Web 1.0) and Web 2.0 is that Web 1.0 has limited content creators with the huge majority of content for consumers; whereas Web 2.0 shifts its …show more content…
Social media provide a high level of interactive communication and user engagement which other media are lacking. Web 2.0 provides tourism companies with unprecedented opportunities to understand a market's reaction to their offering and subsequently feed this information in their product development and quality control process (Dellarocas, 2003). In response to the popularity of Web 2.0 among travelers, many travel related companies started to integrate these functions into their websites to enhance customers' travel information searching …show more content…
Contents generated by users (UGCs) play an important role in the tourism industry because the tourism product is intangible (Akehurst, 2009). The annual Country Brand Index (CBI) measuring attractiveness of countries stated that the Web had the highest importance (67%) as channel to collect information about a tourism destination (CBI, 2007). On the other hand, the continuing growth of UGC’s influence makes them perceived as more reliable as official sources for a
Web 2.0 is also known as people-centric Web, participative web, or social media (O'Reilly, 2007). The key difference between the tradition web (Web 1.0) and Web 2.0 is that Web 1.0 has limited content creators with the huge majority of content for consumers; whereas Web 2.0 shifts its …show more content…
Social media provide a high level of interactive communication and user engagement which other media are lacking. Web 2.0 provides tourism companies with unprecedented opportunities to understand a market's reaction to their offering and subsequently feed this information in their product development and quality control process (Dellarocas, 2003). In response to the popularity of Web 2.0 among travelers, many travel related companies started to integrate these functions into their websites to enhance customers' travel information searching …show more content…
Contents generated by users (UGCs) play an important role in the tourism industry because the tourism product is intangible (Akehurst, 2009). The annual Country Brand Index (CBI) measuring attractiveness of countries stated that the Web had the highest importance (67%) as channel to collect information about a tourism destination (CBI, 2007). On the other hand, the continuing growth of UGC’s influence makes them perceived as more reliable as official sources for a