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Abstract
Purpose - This research examines the relationship between motivational factor in regards to writing comments and tourist attitude. Specifically, the study (a) explains the relationships between motivational factors and tourist recommendation intentions on SNSs, and (b) evaluates the factors influencing recommendation intentions on SNSs.
Design - To develop a useful marketing strategy in the Social Networking Site (SNS) environment in Korea tourism, it is important to identify the relationship between the motivational factors regarding the reasons for writing comments and tourist attitude to suggest effective tourism marketing on SNSs due to the growing interest in Korea tourism among Chinese students and tourists.
Methodology - The measurement items were adapted for an SNS setting from published studies related to the hospitality and tourism field. All of the measurement items were based on a 7-point Likert-type scale.
Finding - The results offer valuable suggestions to SNS firms and marketers with important insights into the quality of SNS contents for developing marketing strategies.
Originality - For further utilization as an effective bridging tool between SNS users, more detailed understanding of the developed approach for using SNSs is provided.
Keywords Motivational Factor, E-WOM (Electronic Word-Of-Mouth), SNS (Social Networking Site)
1.INTRODUCTION
The convenience of modern society has allowed information to be provided to consumers both unilaterally and bilaterally, enabling them to obtain the desired information on their own terms. This enables the exchange of information on social networking sites (SNSs) (Hong, 2004). According to the China Internet Network Information Center (2012), the users of the major Chinese SNS site, Weibo surpassed 250 million in June 2011, and the rate of growth increased 29.6% over 2010. Because Weibo features open information, popularization, dissemination, participation, and communicability, it is recognized as one of the best SNSs in China. Another SNS, RenRen users include students from 32,000 universities and 56,000 high schools in China and employees from 85,000 companies. RenRen offers various functions such as making new friends, finding people, and viewing requests from friends. RenRen users write about their daily lives and post their pictures on message boards. In addition, they share various resources on the site, including music and videos, and create platforms on which any information can be exchanged based on the availability of highly efficient features. As...