A critical evaluation of social media’s influence on the travel attitudes of Chinese consumers when travelling to Europe
Abstract
For this research project, Chinese outbound tourism in the context of European travel
was identified to be the area of focus. Social media has been recognised to be a driving
force behind the behavioural attitudes of Chinese tourists; therefore, the research aim
was aligned to critically evaluate the influence of social media on the travel attitudes
of Chinese consumers when considering tourism in Europe. Furthermore, the research
aimed to explore motivations and other influencers that affect Chinese consumers
when travelling to Europe with emphasis on the extent of influence that social media
holds within the context of travel. An analysis of the present literature regarding the
subject area was conducted, allowing for primary research questions to be formed as
a basis for further research. Moreover, the primary research derived from the literature
review and was carried out through the use of an online questionnaire, asking
respondents open-ended and closed-ended questions. From comparing and contrasting
the primary and secondary data, various conclusions were inferred such as an
emphasis on ‘group-orientated’ motives being found alongside the suggested strong
influence of other motives such as knowledge acquisition, relaxation, and exploration.
In addition, the potential prevalence of sub-cultures was identified through the
inference that national culture dictates codes of conduct and daily life matters rather
than travel specific motives. Through the research, WeChat was suggested to be the
most utilised social media platform alongside Sina Weibo being inferred as the most
utilised online travel platform. Additionally, it was proposed that the travel of Chinese
consumers is influenced through the use of social media, accentuated through findings
that display higher levels of trust for travel recommendations from social media