Tourist Destination Management by Unknown

Author:Unknown
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9783030169817
Publisher: Springer International Publishing

2.2 Blogs as an Uncontrollable Information Sources

People generally make choices considering those activities or experiences that may provide them with stories to remember and tell in the future (Woodside et al. 2008). This makes them more open to sharing their experiences with others and to learning from other people. As mentioned before, tourism services are not like other products and people seek information generated by those who have already experienced them (Schmallegger and Carson 2008). Thus, opinion leaders, defined as influential members of a community, group or society to whom others turn for advice, opinions, and views (BusinessDictionary.com n.d.), gain significant power. This is where user generated content sites become useful. User generated content (UGC) is “any data or media that is contributed by the users of a website—rather than being created by professional journalists and editors” (Mackenzie 2011). In this research, travel blogs will be examined as uncontrollable user generated content.

In general, blogs are the written version of experiences, observations, and opinions of the writer or group of writers (Dictionary.com n.d.). They have become favoured means of searching for information and they are the best way to read and learn about others’ experiences and comments (Kaikkonen 2016; Sepp et al. 2011; Volo 2012). Blogs are seen as a trusted source of knowledge since authentic information is provided based on personal experiences (Kaikkonen 2016; Vrana et al. 2012). The term ‘blog’ derives from a blend of the word ‘web log’ and it was first coined by Peter Merholz in 1999 (Davydova 2012). Blogs have many advantages with respect to other sources of information (Kaikkonen 2016). The possibility of easily creating and updating blogs is one of their main benefits (Kaikkonen 2016). Blogs are also flexible in structure (Davydova 2012; Schmallegger and Carson 2008).

Travel and tourism blogs can be classified into three categories: individual, collaborative and corporate (Davydova 2012; Thevenot 2007). Individual blogs are also called personal blogs, and they generally take the “form of an online diary” (Davydova 2012, p. 10). These blogs usually describe the blogger’s personal life or a specific topic that the writer wants to share or comment on (Davydova 2012; Thevenot 2007). The second type of blog is the collaborative blog, which includes more than one author’s writing posts. Thus, the information range increases, so that the number of readers grows, and posts are regularly updated by the bloggers (Davydova 2012). Since the collaborative blogs follow specific topics, they tend to be more organized than personal blogs (Davydova 2012; Thraenhart 2007). Finally, the third type of blog is the corporate blog. This kind is generally published by a specific organization and categorized as internal or external (Thraenhart 2007). The former is written for employees in the organization who can reach those blogs via their intranet systems. In contrast, external blogs are for the public and they are commonly related to travel topics written by tourism professionals, businesses and tourism organizations (Davydova 2012; Thraenhart 2007).

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