The keywords-based online information seeking behavior of tourists.

In the Internet era,online information is an important source for tourists.Online information seeking plays an essential role in tourists' decision-making and tourism product purchasing,which is also one of the important research topics about tourists' information behavior.This research investigates the behavior of keywords used in online tourism information seeking.First,the study shows that the number of keywords used for information seeking is usually around seven;and the keywords are used approximately 8.54 times in each seeking process.In a successful information seeking process,the number of the keywords has a direct influence on the search result.There is no doubt that too much information will be discovered if too few keywords are used.So,few-keyword searches increase the difficulty of information discovery and decreases the efficiency of information acquisition.However,if too many or too specific keywords are used,tourists may not be able to get what they want.Secondly,the research result shows that the longer time the tourists spend on information searches,the stronger desire for information they have.Meanwhile,for tourists who are familiar with the destination,they will enter fewer keywords.Both keywords-based semantic analysis and frequency analysis reveal that destination names," ticket"," tourism",names of viewing spots,and the name of the starting place are the most commonly used keywords.Understandably,a destination name is the most frequently used keyword.Tourists narrow down information by specifying a place name,and then search for a specific subject by specifying other keywords.Qualifiers,e.g.,"nearby","cheap",can be added to pinpoint the search goal.Judging from the actual keywords,it is found that instead of interest in higher-level information,such as entertainment or shopping,tourists pay more attention to basic information,such as the scenic spots in the target area,transportation,accommodation,and so on.This finding is similar to the research result of Pan Bing and Hu Xingbao.Thirdly,this study identifies four keywords-based search modes: the destination name plus search content mode which is suitable for all destination tourism information searches,the destination landmark plus hotel mode which is mainly used in hotel information search,the modification search mode which is a process in which tourists approach the search goal by adding or reducing determinant to obtain the most satisfying result,and the associative-word list mode where tourists choose the associated keywords,which are provided automatically by the search engine,to search tourism information.The fourth mode reflects the principle of convenience in the tourists' search process.Four keywords-based information searching modes summarize the tourists' behavior patterns in tourism information search through search engines and have significant implications for search engine optimization and for constructing specific search engines for tourism.This study is expected to provide references for tourism marketing,tourism website construction,and destination marketing system construction.