The role of consumer generated content, electronic word of mouth and online reviews in the travel planning process

Abstract

The original idea of the work was sparked during my time in the tourism industry and I was trusted to be in charge of generating content for our webpage. My interest in marketing started growing at this moment and motivated me to pursue my studies at JAMK. For the thesis I decided to keep my focus on content generation but rather than focusing on firm generated content I turned my focus towards the customer and consumer generated content. The main objectives were to examine the general perception of CGC, eWOM and online reviews. Whether or not consumers trust in content that is created by fellow consumers and what motivates them to post content themselves. The approach was quantitative as the instrument for data collection was a questionnaire to get insight in the general public’s view on CGC, eWOM and online reviews. The questionnaire was created with google docs and was distributed over various social media platforms. The focus was wide as it targeted everyone who at some point in their life has travelled for pleasure. The results showed that CGC, eWOM and online reviews plays a big role in the early stages of travel planning but the importance of them fades as the traveler gets further with his or her plans. It also shows that the most common platforms for consumers to read various types of CGC from are dedicated review webpages, travel agencies own webpages as well as social media platforms such as Facebook and Instagram. Conclusions that were drawn are also established in other researches.