The Effect of Social Media on the Selection or the Desire of UAE Nationals Living in Abu Dhabi to Choose a Tourism Destination- Research Prospectus
Abstract
The study seeks to find out the impact of social media on the choice of travel destinations by UAE national who live in Abu Dhabi. The problem that the survey aims to address is the role of social media factors in influencing decision-making by consumers of tourism services. The study acknowledges that social media plays an imperative role in influencing consumers’ choice of their travel destination, which makes an important aspect for the study. The study will seek for sources on the subject from various databases and search engines to develop a compelling review of literature.The study will use qualitative research method to achieve its objectives and answer the research questions. The research uses purposive sampling technique to get the sample to be employed in the study, and online survey questionnaires will be sent to respondents as the primary data collection methods. The ultimate goal of this study is to establish how the social media affect the selection of tourism destination by residents of Abu Dhabi.
The Effect of Social Media on the Selection or the Desire of UAE Nationals Living in Abu Dhabi to Choose a Tourism Destination- Research Prospectus
Introduction
The study targets to identify the social media factors which influence the selection of tourism destinations of UAE nationals who live in Abu Dhabi, as well as their desire to select particular tourism establishments. Like other aspects of life, social media has affected tourism industry in a huge way. Consumers of tourism are increasingly using social media to look for trips, make choices on travel destinations and share experiences of particular tourist facilities. The social media is being used to find travel information as well as to seek advice from the trusted sources and other holiday-makers. Many people trust the information they get from the social networking sites because it comes from different members of the online community as compared to the traditional sources such as hotels, restaurants and travel agents who only concentrated on promoting their products to potential customers.
In the modern day, these establishments have to ensure that they provide quality services so that they can be listed at the top in their target markets and attract clients. Other than the general social media networks, tourists have special social media websites such as TripAdvisor where consumers post their reviews and opinions about their experiences with different establishments (Dina & Sabou, 2012). Therefore, social media plays a crucial role in influencing the choice of a tourist destination for consumers and it is necessary to investigate how this technological development affects UAE nationals living in Abu Dhabi as they seek to find places to visit for leisure. In numerous cases many companies have placed special focus on social media marketing as a way of capturing the large pool of consumers who search for information online concerning the best travel destinations across the globe.
Background
Researchers have conducted numerous studies on the impact of social media on tourism and which are related to this task to a great extent. It is important to look at the finding of the past studies to help in planning and implementing the research process. It will also contribute to identifying the challenges these researchers experienced so that to develop strategies that will contribute to avoiding repeating the mistakes. One of the studies on the topic was done by Zilkovic, Gajic, and Brdar (2014). The study sought to find out the way and extent to which information and communication technologies have impacted tourism. The researchers carried out a critical analysis of the travel system and its participants. They discovered that tourists are using the social media to search for information about the quality of services being offered by hotels, restaurants and other service providers in the tourism industry.
Buted et al. (2014) conducted an investigation into the impact of social media on the tourism industry in Batangas Province of the Philippines. The study used a descriptive research method to collect and analyze data. The researchers found that the most commonly used social media networks were Facebook, Twitter, blogs, and websites. The networks were used by service providers in the hospitality and tourism industry to share information with customers because of their cost-effectiveness. However, they noted that the service providers were concerned with the way consumers were expressing their opinions and views on their experiences with some of the establishments. Some businesspeople in the tourism industry complained that poor presentation of their services by consumers was leading to bad impressions and unfair criticism.
Yazdanifard & Yee (2014) carried out an investigation of the influence of social media on consumer behavior in hospitality and tourism industries. The study involved analysis of the body of literature materials which had discussed the topic. The analysis established that over 20 percent of social media users in the U.S., who follow a particular brand, follow a travel brand. People who follow or visit tourism websites can see reviews of consumers through uploaded photos of tourist destinations. The study established that many social media users trust the reviews of other consumers than information communicated through traditional marketing channels. The researchers noted that 82 percent of online customers used online reviews for travel sites to make decisions on the tourist destination.
Mukherjee & Nagabhushanam (2013) carried out a study in Sweden to find out how social media affected tourism destination marketing in Sweden. They wanted to establish the importance of social media in the marketing of tourism destinations and particular destination marketing enterprises use the social media to enhance their brands. The results of the study showed that service providers in the tourism industry who used social media to market their brands achieved better results in attracting customers than those who were exclusively using traditional marketing.
People want to be fully informed before they can make any buying decisions. They want to be sure that they will get value for their money by choosing to buy a particular product. This consumer behavioral principle applies even to potential tourists who are looking for tourism destinations that will meet their needs and expectations. The evolution of the Internet has simplified how consumers access almost all the information they may need to make decisions on the most suitable places to visit taking into account budget constraints. Social media is a powerful tool the Internet has placed at the disposal of consumers in accessing the information they may need. It allows users to create and share information, opinions, ideas, interests and other types of expressions through online communities and networks. Both the Internet and social media networks have created an environment which presents people with multiple sources of information. Today, information flow from all over including families and friends.
The social media has advantages over the traditional sources of information because it offers a fast connection to where the information is coming from and this resonates with most people who do not have much time to move from one source to another looking for particular details they many need. The tourism industry is also looking for information, and the numbers of people going to premises of tourism agencies are decreasing fast as most holiday-makers use the social media to select their tourism destination. However, there are social media factors which influence whether potential consumers of tourism services use the information they get from these sites to make decisions. It will be in the interest of this research task to investigate those factors which affect consumers in choosing hotels, restaurants, travel agencies and other tourist attraction sites. The study will focus on the UAE nationals who live in Abu Dhabi. The primary reasons for choosing this city are the researcher’s familiarity with the dynamics of the tourism industry there, and no similar studies have been conducted in the area.
The researcher acknowledges that the study cannot be successful without research questions which will guide in developing the data collection instruments. The following are the research questions for the study:
Is there any relationship between the type of social media used and tourist destination selected or desired by UAE nationals living in Abu Dhabi?
Is there any correlation between the frequency of social media use and tourist destination selected or desired by UAE nationals residing in Abu Dhabi?
Is there any connection between the age of the users of the social media and the tourist destination selected or desired by UAE nationals living in Abu Dhabi?
Is there any relationship between the culture of using social media and the culture of tourism among UAE nationals residing in Abu Dhabi?
The first research question will seek to establish whether the type of social media used by the users can influence their decision on tourism destination. Hence, it will be necessary to define different types of social media being used by the members of the targeted population. Even though all kinds of social media seem to serve the purpose of enabling users to share content with others, there are small differences which make some of them more appealing than others.
The diagram below shows different types of social media.
Figure 1: Types of Social Media
Source: Sorokina, 2015
The second research question will seek to establish whether the frequency of social media use by the subjects has any relationship with their selection or desire of tourism destination. The frequency of social media uses differ from one person to another with some people visiting social sites more than once per day while others visit these networks once in a month. In this study, the researcher will not include social media users who spend more than one month without visiting a social media site at least once.
The third research question in this study will endeavor to establish the relationship between the age of social media users in Abu Dhabi and their selection or desire for a tourist destination. Age is a paramount aspect of any topic that relates to social media because it is being used by younger generations than the old ones. The researcher expects that the young people in Abu Dhabi use the social media networks to find information about different tourist destinations than their older colleagues.
The fourth research question seeks to help in finding out whether the social media culture is reacted in any way with the culture of tourism. At this point, the researcher will investigate whether the social media users are influenced to visit tourist destinations by the information they get from the social networks. For example, the study will try to find out whether social media users are influenced by beautiful photos and posts of their friends on particular tourism destinations.
Methodology
The study will use qualitative research because it will help to gain a more profound appreciation of social media effects on selection or desire of tourism destination by the targeted population. The population of 1.2 million social media users in Abu Dhabi will be represented in the survey by a sample of 50 respondents who will be selected using purposive sampling technique. This sampling method is appropriate in the study because it is impossible to get a list of all the members of the population to apply probability sampling approaches. After identifying the sample, the researcher will collect data using online survey questionnaire through the social networks. Online survey questionnaires are cost-effective and easy to administer as compared to standard questionnaire and interviews (Rea & Parker, 2012). Ethical standards will be upheld throughout the research process to ensure that the results are reliable and valid. The researcher expects that the will be significant positive relationship between each of the independent variables and the dependent variable.
Conclusion
Social media influences consumer behavior. Just like the way social media affects other aspects of people‘s live, it is in the same manner that it affects the tourism industry. Hence, it is important to conduct a deeper investigation into the impact of social media on the selection or desire of travel destination. Abu Dhabi has a population of about 3 million people of which about 1.2 million are active users of social media. Tourism contributes significantly to the city’s economy, and residents are increasingly embracing a culture of visiting different types of attractions. For this reason, the researcher plans to investigate how social media factors such as types of social media, the frequency of using social media and the age of social media users affect the residents of the city in choosing their tourism destination. Previous studies indicate that social media has a great impact on tourism and these studies will guide in the primary data collection for this study. The study will be based on qualitative research method, and the members of the sample will be identified using purposive sampling technique. The data will be collected using online survey questionnaire, and high ethical standards will be observed. Finally, the researcher expects that the methodology will provide reliable and valid outcomes which will be used by other researchers in future to carry further studies on the topic.
References
Buted, D., Gillespie, N., Conti, J. Delgado, B., Marasigan, R., Rubico, S., & Felicen, S. (2014). Effects of Social Media in the Tourism Industry of Batangas Province. Asia Pacific Journal of Multidisciplinary Research, 2(3), 123-131.
Dina, R. & Sabou, G. (2012). Influence of social media in choice of touristic destination. Cactus Tourism Journal, 3(2), 24-30.
Yazdanifard, R., & Yee, L. T. (2014). Impact of social networking sites on hospitality and tourism industries. Global Journal of Human-Social Science: Economics , 14(8), 1-5.
Mukherejee, A., & Nagabhushanan, M. (2015). Role of social media in tourism marketing. International Journal of Science and Research, 6(14), 2026-2033.
Rea, L. M., & Parker, R. A. (2012). Designing and conducting survey research: A comprehensive guide. New York: John Wiley & Sons.
Sorokina, O. (2015). 8 Types of social media and how each can benefit your business. Retrieved February 1, 2017, from https://blog.hootsuite.com/types-of-social-media/
Zivkovic, R., Gajic, J., & Brdar, I. (2014). The impact of social media on tourism. Conference Paper Presented at Belgrade.
