Information search behavior among Chinese self-drive tourists in the smartphone era

Abstract

Purpose The Chinese economy has grown rapidly over the past decade, making self-drive tours more affordable among Chinese tourists. Thus, self-driving tours using online tourism-related information have also been popular. This study aims to investigate information search behaviors among different segments of Chinese self-drive tourists under the influence of contemporary mobile internet technologies and compares the results with prior related studies from a global standpoint. Design/methodology/approach This paper investigates the relationships between tourist demographics and information search behavior in Mainland China based on a quantitative method. This study collected 228 surveys from users with self-drive tour experience. This study also conducted a series of online interviews to explore the potential barriers when self-drive tourists search for information. Findings The results showed variances within pre-decision and post-decision stages between different age groups, social classes and experience levels. Preference for up-to-date information and contemporary platforms were also observed. Originality/value Research paucity exists on self-drive tourists’ information search behavior, using data collected from Mainland Chinese tourists using mobile devices. The findings offer insights to industry practitioners, such as travel agencies and liaison websites, for refining their services to meet the information needs of Chinese self-drive tourists through more comprehensive marketing strategies.

Evaluating social media’s communication effectiveness on travel product promotion: Facebook for college students in Hong Kong

“…H5 ). This finding was also in line with the governments’ value of the destination brand effect (Ni et al , 2021), which the travel journalists could advocate because of the climb in traveler numbers (McGaurr, 2012).…”

“…Still, there was no positive influence to arouse their interest. This finding could explain that respondents’ interests were somehow hard to change and more dependent on whether they had some desire to travel, which was often constrained by other factors such as time and money (Ni et al , 2021). Therefore, Facebook promotion would become powerful when it could draw the viewers’ attention, plus the viewer had some desire to travel simultaneously.…”

“…These promises included online customer access to information, book travel products booking, timely online services and effective feedback to the travel company. With the development of social media, the travel industry has been concerned about using social media to increase its sales and improve its services (Lee et al , 2018; Ni et al , 2021; Chan and Chiu, 2022).…”

“…As promotion activities are no longer restricted to traditional media (Chan and Chiu, 2022), online companies now use social media to engage their customers, build brand loyalty within their virtual community (Cheng et al , 2020; Lam et al , 2022), and cocreate values with their customers (See-To and Ho, 2014). Thus, travel companies, hotels and airlines use social media extensively to promote their products and services (Ni et al , 2021).…”

“…Notably, convenience is another key reason customers use social media to obtain information anytime and anywhere (Gong et al , 2017; Ni et al , 2021). Discounted products or services are the most popular way to encourage customers to purchase online, especially because travel products and services may change price quickly because of demand and supply (Chan and Chiu, 2022).…”