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