Do online information sources really make tourists visit more diverse places?: Based on the social networking analysis

Abstract This study investigated whether or not online tourism information prompted the international tourists who visited South Korea in 2015 to visit a wide range of tourism destinations, in particular those in non-capital regions, by comparing the tourist site networks of online and offline information seeker groups. It was hypothesized that the data would confirm how well the smart tourism ecosystem has been built and contributed to South Korea's tourism industry by showing that online tourism information leads tourists to visit more geographically diverse sites. Using network analysis with big data, the results showed that the offline information seeker group had geographically wider movement patterns than the online information seekers. In other words, the offline information seeker group showed movements in various directions and frequent visits to non-capital regions as opposed to the online information seeker group, which was highly dependent on the capital region. Thus, this study suggested that current online tourism information about South Korea did not provide appropriate tourism information to fulfill the needs of international tourists. This, consequently, might interrupt the implementation of smart tourism ecosystem efforts. Based on these results, this study had highlighted the importance of delivering both regionally and contextually diverse tourism information via online information sources.

[1]  R. Teare,et al.  The International Hospitality Business , 1995 .

[2]  Euijune Kim,et al.  Impacts of national development and decentralization policies on regional income disparity in Korea , 2003 .

[3]  George A. Barnett,et al.  Measuring Quality in Communication Doctoral Education Using Network Analysis of Faculty‐Hiring Patterns , 2010 .

[4]  Astrid Dickinger.  The Trustworthiness of Online Channels for Experience- and Goal-Directed Search Tasks , 2011 .

[5]  Changsok Yoo,et al.  An analysis of the utilization of Facebook by local Korean governments for tourism development and the network of smart tourism ecosystem , 2016, Int. J. Inf. Manag..

[6]  Martin G. Everett,et al.  Network analysis of 2-mode data , 1997 .

[7]  Sang M. Lee,et al.  Co‐innovation: convergenomics, collaboration, and co‐creation for organizational values , 2012 .

[8]  George A. Barnett,et al.  Globalization of technology: Network analysis of global patents and trademarks , 2011 .

[9]  Raffaele Filieri,et al.  Why do travelers trust TripAdvisor? Antecedents of trust towards consumer-generated media and its influence on recommendation adoption and word of mouth , 2015 .

[10]  Yoonjae Nam,et al.  Institutional network structure of corporate stakeholders regarding global corporate social responsibility issues , 2015 .

[11]  SeungJae Lee,et al.  Understanding communication types on travel information sharing in social media: A transactive memory systems perspective , 2015, Telematics Informatics.

[12]  M. Porter,et al.  Creating Shared Value , 2019 .

[13]  Ulrike Gretzel,et al.  Multicity trip patterns: Tourists to the United States , 2006 .

[14]  Soocheong Jang,et al.  The Past, Present, and Future Research of Online Information Search , 2004 .

[15]  Matt Eyring,et al.  Nuevos modelos de negocios en los mercados emergentes , 2011 .

[16]  Alan Clarke,et al.  Coastal development in France: tourism as a tool for regional development. , 1981 .

[17]  Lambros Lambrinos,et al.  On combining the Internet of Things with crowdsourcing in managing emergency situations , 2015, 2015 IEEE International Conference on Communications (ICC).

[18]  George A. Barnett,et al.  The World System of International Monetary Flows: A Network Analysis , 1999, Inf. Soc..

[19]  Hsin-Yu Shih,et al.  Network characteristics of drive tourism destinations: An application of network analysis in tourism , 2006 .

[20]  Detmar W. Straub,et al.  Effective website design for experience-influenced environments: The case of high culture museums , 2014, Inf. Manag..

[21]  Herbjørn Nysveen,et al.  Effects of Ad Photos Portraying Risky Vacation Situations on Intention to Visit a Tourist Destination , 2003 .

[22]  Ulrike Gretzel,et al.  Conceptual foundations for understanding smart tourism ecosystems , 2015, Comput. Hum. Behav..

[23]  Julie Jackson,et al.  Developing regional tourism in China: The potential for activating business clusters in a socialist market economy , 2006 .

[24]  B. Doolin,et al.  Evaluating the use of the Web for tourism marketing: a case study from New Zealand , 2002 .

[25]  J. R. Brent Ritchie,et al.  Determinants of tourism success for DMOs & destinations: An empirical examination of stakeholders' perspectives , 2010 .

[26]  Lingling Gao,et al.  Understanding Sustained Participation in Virtual Travel Communities from the Perspectives of is Success Model and Flow Theory , 2017 .

[27]  Y. Stamboulis,et al.  Innovation strategies and technology for experience-based tourism , 2003 .

[28]  Choong-Ki Lee,et al.  Does Gender Affect Korean Tourists' Overseas Travel? Applying the Model of Goal-Directed Behavior , 2012 .

[29]  John R. Hollenbeck,et al.  Human Capital, Social Capital, and Social Network Analysis: Implications for Strategic Human Resource Management , 2015 .

[30]  Chulmo Koo,et al.  The influence of tourism website on tourists' behavior to determine destination selection: : A case study of creative economy in Korea , 2015 .

[31]  Chulmo Koo,et al.  The use of social media in travel information search , 2015, Telematics Informatics.

[32]  John Scott.  Social Network Analysis , 1988 .

[33]  Dimitrios Buhalis,et al.  Smart Tourism Destinations Enhancing Tourism Experience Through Personalisation of Services , 2015, ENTER.

[34]  Sheng-Hshiung Tsaur,et al.  Independent tourist knowledge and skills , 2010 .

[35]  Chulmo Koo,et al.  The Examination of Relationship between Contents Traits and Perceived Usefulness of Tourism Online Reviews based on Construal-level Theory , 2015, ICEC '15.

[36]  Billy Bai,et al.  Overseas Tourist Movement Patterns in Beijing: The Impact of the Olympic Games , 2012 .

[37]  Sangwon Park,et al.  What makes a useful online review? Implication for travel product websites. , 2015 .

[38]  U. Gretzel,et al.  Role of social media in online travel information search , 2010 .

[39]  George A. Barnett,et al.  Corporate hyperlink network relationships in global corporate social responsibility system , 2014 .

[40]  Chulmo Koo,et al.  Mediating Roles of Self-image Expression: Sharing Travel Information of SNSs , 2015, ENTER.

[41]  D. Fesenmaier,et al.  Adapting to the Internet , 2015 .