plan of actions- At the end who have decides to visit to some destination place are inspired with post and social media pictures to go to that particular trip or location. Some of the used ask

for he places in the comments on the posted pictures on Facebook.

We can say in the above paragraph analysis part sharing the pictures on the social media is a big and great impact to inspiring and deciding for the holiday trips not only for those who were looking for the trip but also who were just having some no idea and not even thinking about the trip. Image of any location gives the right desire and motives for trip.

Usage of social media in each stage

This research presents eight types of social media applications in content to travel and tourism, Social networking sites, blogs, micro blogs, wikis, content community sites, consumer review sites, Internet forums, and location based social media.

Blogs

The word blog is derived from the term weblogs which was made by John Barger in 1997, then in 1999 Peter Merholz broke the word into “we blog”, from then the word “blog” was used. A blog is a personal website which is regularly updated and contains frequent entries and contains link to other websites. In relation to level of interactivity blogs occur at the same time, and in relation of communication scope they are a “many to many” medium. Several scholars, primarily from thetourism field, acquire an enlarged approach on a blog considering product review sites such as Trip Advisor and Holiday check as blogs. Approach like these clearly does not please two of the previously mentioned defining characteristics of a blog (frequent entry and journal like content). Henceforth these are not adapted by this study. Blogs are mainly used for personal publishing and expressing oneself feeling, presenting ideas and commentary. The masses of

blogs serve consumer to consumer bridge, but there are also blogs serve the needs for business to consumer, government to consumer, business to business and government to business. In terms of types of blogs, there are generally four types: Personal, Corporate, industry specific (e.g., travel blogs), and Publication based.

Blogs in tourism context

Travel blogs expose “kaleidoscopic aspects of a visitor’s experience at the destination”.

Revealing allaspects of the travel experience and the tourism product such as access, accommodation, attractions, dining, and overall impressions. Travel blogs are considered

“expressions of tourism consumption”.

Using the AIDA model to classify the comments given by the viewers, and blog comments caused attention to 45% of the viewers, interest to 10%, desire to 39% and elicited action to 6%

of them. Personal or corporate travel blogs are significantly less reliable than conventional way, assuming the identity of social relationship between viewers and content creators as a possible factor to explain this difference. The factors that influence trust among eight types of websites that can host UGC and how it affects their use in travel planning. They showed that UGC is perceived as more credible when posted to official tourism bureau websites, followed by travel agents’ websites, review sites e.g. Trip Advisor, travel company websites and then travel blogs, personal websites, social networking sites and sharing sites e.g. YouTube. In terms of

trustworthiness, influence on company image and influence on tourists’ choices, travel related blogs were found second only to OTA websites incorporating rating/review functions. However, the differences observed between the two media in the three variables stated above were found statistically significant only in the case of influence on tourists’ choices. Lastly, in the case of holiday travel to unfamiliar destinations, travel blogs were found to provide better advice than friends and relatives.

Micro-blogs

Micro blogs have been defined as “internet-based applications which allow users to exchange small elements of content such as short sentences, individual images, or video links”. Among the range of micro blog applications are twitter, jaiku, plurk, and weibo, to name a few. However, it is Twitter that is the largest of all and the one that drives the growth of microblogging. n 2014 Twitter has more than 255 million monthly active users who send on average 500 million tweets per day (Twitter 2014)(Anon., 2014).

Mobile devices are extensively used in Twitter: 78% of active Twitter users access it via a mobile device (Twitter 2014).

By analyzing 11.5 million twitter accounts, (CHENG et al.2009) found that 85.3% of all Twitter users post less than one update per day; 21% of users have never posted a Tweet; and 5% of Twitter users account for 75% of all activity. The operational conceptbehind micro blogging is about like all micro blogging applications: For example, in Twitter, usershave their own

webpage where they post messages. All micro blogging applications share three characteristics:

(a) Short messages, limited to a specific number of characters, (b) instant message delivery, usually supported via multiple platforms i.e., instant messaging, SMS, RSS, e- mail, Facebook etc.; (c) users subscribe to users to receive posts.(Anon., 2009)

Micro blogs in the tourism context

Although findings represent assumptions based on professional experience it is suggested that Twitter is used (a) as a tool to learn about the destination both from other individuals but also from local organizations; (b) as a group formation platform consisting of potential travelers to a destination who are sharing information, particularly useful for first-time visitors and single travelers; (c) for communication between tourists and tourism product providers at the

destination; and (d) as a reminder mechanism for past and future trips offering promotions and functional information such as official entry requirements. Microblogs have been proposed as a tool for identifying and monitoring expression of travel and tourism related sentiment. Tourism in Thailand and in Cancun. In the study referring to the 2010 political unrest in Thailand, it was shown that tweets related to Phuket as a tourism destination were not concerned with political and security issues to the extent that this was the case in Bangkok, as if the former “have been insulated from the detrimental effects of the situation”. Regarding the context of travel related decision making, Twitter users tend to use travel related information they read on tweets depending on three factors: (a) Source reliability and credibility; (b) source expertise and knowledge; and (c) degree of involvement. Based on the above discussion, in the context of this study’s research methodology, microblogs need to be assessed primarily as sources of more specialized travel information. The fact that the relationship between users does not require reciprocation extends the reach of the medium to sources well outside the network of friends and relatives when compared to other types of social media such as Social Networking Sites. It can therefore be investigated whether information was received both from socialmedia contacts known in person as well as from other users not known in person. Source reliability and

expertise may also need to be assessed in case information from tweets was used in any stage of the decision process. Finally, the immediacy of micro blogs when compared to other types of socialmedia may be a factor contributing to their use during the trip.

Social networking sites

Social networking sites (SNS) are predominant type of social media and their demand continues to grow worldwide (Richter and Koch 2008, Blanche et al. 2010; Universal McCann 2010).

(Anon., 2008)

Facebook, Google+, Wayne, RenRen, Linkedin, and Xing are examples of SNS. In United Kingdom, more than half of all adults visit a SNS at least once a week (Ofcom 2013).

In understanding SNS, Boyd and Ellison (2007, p.211) use the term “network” rather than

“networking” as for them the later denotes relationship initiation, usually between strangers:

“...web-based services that allow individuals to (1) construct a public or semi-public profile within a bounded system, (2) articulate a list of other users with whom they share a connection, and (3) view and traverse their list of connections and those made by others within the system.

The nature and nomenclature of these connections may vary from site to site.” (Anon., 2007)

In a similar, however more restrictive, manner, Kaplan and Haenlein (2010, p.63) define social networking sites as:

“...applications that enables users to connect by creating personal information profiles, inviting friends and colleagues to have access to those profiles, and sending e-mails and instant messages between each other.” (Anon., 2010)

The restrictive nature of Kaplan and Heinlein’s definitions can prove the fact that they (a) limit the connections to friends and colleagues; and (b) limit the SNS functions to profile access, e-mailing and instant messaging, thus ignoring exchange of information and other content.

Emphasizing on functions of SNS, Richter and Koch (2008, p.1-2) define them as:

“...application systems that offer users functionalities for identity management, first, (i.e. the representation of the person e.g. in the form of a profile) furthermore to keep in touch,second, with other users (and thus the administration of own contacts).” (Anon., 2008)

De Valck . (2009) are using the term “social networking sites” to describe additional types of social media such as content communities and wikis. Others use the term “online social networks” in a limiting manner to include only those members who share a common interest:

“Online social networks [are] defined as groups of people who share a common interest and are totally or partially connected to others by the Internet (e.g., Facebook, MySpace).” (Belanche et al. 2010, p.322). (Anon., 2010)

Use of SNS is phenomenal across the globe. More than half (61%) of global active Internet users (those who use the Internet at least every other day) managed a profile on an existing social network within the last six months (Universal McCann 2010). Use of SNS sites is by no means only restricted to young adults: Among the total population of seniors (65+) in the US, 27% use Social Networking Sites, representing 46% of all online seniors (Smith 2014).

In 2014, Facebook still lead this phenomenon with more than 1.3 billion monthly, or 800 million daily, active users worldwide (Facebook 2014). Apart from Facebook, there are numerous other SNS applications such as Orkut (popular in India and Brazil), Vkontakte.ru and Odnoklassniki.ru

which are Russian social networking sites with more than 79 million and 65.3 million visitors respectively (Digit.ru 2013), but also LinkedIn, Xing (both business related SNS) and

academia.edu aiming at the university community.

SNS can be (a) of open access, with no restriction on who can register (e.g. Odnoklassniki.ru); or (b) of restricted access, which usually takes the form of a minimum age requirement (e.g.

Facebook.com requires users to be 13 or older) or an invitation only requirement (e.g.

asmallworld.net). In SNS the registered user creates a profile that contains a set of descriptors (e.g. sex, age, location, profession, personal interests and preferences etc.) and usually a photo or an avatar (as is the case of virtual identities SNS such as the Chinese tencent.com). Profiles are subsequently enriched with content (i.e. status updates, comment posts, photos, videos, links, documents etc.) and according to the specific SNS’s policy and settings can be public (e.g.

accessible - as a whole, or in parts - by anyone either within the SNS or through a search engine), or private and therefore accessible only by specific set(s) of users. Users are then able to

establish relationships, or connections with others who they either know already or are strangers with (called “friends”, “followers”, “funs”, “contacts” etc.). Depending on the specific SNS application, these relationships are either reciprocal, bidirectional thus requiring acceptance by both parties (e.g.,Facebook personal profiles, LinkedIn etc.) or one-directional (e.g. Wayn, Academia.edu, Facebook pages etc.). Content updates from each user are distributed to its network of relationships. Depending on the SNS policy, or user settings these relationships can be visible to anyone or hidden. Other SNS features include messages, instant messaging, add-on applications, games etc.

Early research suggests that users join SNS to support, maintain and reinforce pre-existing offline social relationships (Lenhart and Madden 2007; Boyd and Ellison 2007),(Anon., 2007)while for youngsters to socialize with friends when this is not possible in unmediated situations (Boyd 2008). Richter and Koch (2008) findings among German SNS users also suggest that “to keep contact” (87% of users) and “to share information” (80% of users) with people they already know are the two most popular reasons for using SNS, while “to get to know people” is a reason expressed by 47% of users. Similar findings are revealed in a global survey in 54 countries: In 2010, among the activities performed in SNS 65% of users find old friends, 53%

find new friends and close to 70% send messages to friends (Universal McCann 2010). (Anon., 2010)

Although the impact of national culture on social media adoption and use still remains an unexplored area (Cardon et al., 2009; Ribière et al. 2010) there are evidences, based on

secondary data, of differences among national markets on social media adoption and use (Gretzel et al. 2008). Penetration rates of Facebook for example may partly substantiate this claim: In Asia it is used by 5% of all population, while in North America the penetration rate is 50%

respectively (InternetWorldStats 2010). However, it should be noted that in a number of Asian countries (i.e. the People's Republic of China, Vietnam, Iran, Uzbekistan, Pakistan, and

Bangladesh) access to Facebook is banned for several reasons beyond the scope of this study.

Dhar and Chang (2009)(Anon., 2009) explored the relationship between sales of music albums, as expressed by Amazon.com’s ranks, and online chatter before and after the album’s release, to

assess whether user-generated content can have predictive value for online music sales. The number of friends in the social network site examined did not evidence any predictive value to sales. On the contrary, the volume of blog posts about a music album is the variable with the greatest correlation to future sales.

Dholakia and Durham (2010)(Anon., 2010) used an experimental design to measure consumers’

influence from a Facebook page and its effect on customer behavior. They used a cafe chain’s mailing

List to measure customers’ store evaluations and shopping behavior, and then invited the mailing list members to become funs of the chain’s Facebook page which was updated several times per week with product pictures, news, contests, promotions, links to reviews etc. Three months later they resurveyed the mailing list and found that those who became Facebook funs increased store visits per month, visited the cafe 20% more than non-fans, generated more positive WOM than non-fans, were more likely to recommend the cafe to their friends, and reported significantly greater emotional attachment that non-fan customers. Results however suggest possible correlations rather than definite cause and effect relationships (Dholakia and Durham 2010).

(Anon., 2010)

Social Networking Sites in the tourism context

Expedia (2013)(Anon., 2013) supports that 21% of US adults posted photos on a social networking website after they returned home from a holiday trip. It has been estimated that among US female travelers who use social media, Facebook was used more than any other social medium: 57% used it to share travel related photos and video, 38% to post status updates or comments about the trip, and 13% checked in a venue or a site using Facebook (eMarketer 2010a).

Stankov et al. (2010)(Anon., 2010) stress the importance of Facebook for National Tourism Organizations (NTOs) and encourage them to exploit its features. However, their findings suggest that European NTOs do not evidence significant use of the application: As of July 2009, among all 39 NTOs (members of the European Travel Commission) examined, 51% do not have an official presence, 28% have a Facebook Page and 18% have a Facebook Group. Moreover, it is argued that finding official presence of NTOs in Facebook is not an easy task, as (a) there is many search results (432 on average per country name); and (b) they use flags and scenic photos as Page and Group pictures (Stankov et al. 2010).(Anon., 2010)

SNS have been found as the most popular social media type for travelers when posting photos online (Lo et al. 2011). White (2010) used content analysis and semiotics of travel related photos published in Facebook to explore their role within Facebook’s environment and the role they play in the travel plans of the users who view them.

In a study where participants were allowed to perform travel related information search only through Facebook, it was found that the popular social networking site provided relevant information only about attractions. On the contrary, information quality on accommodation and transportation was considered as insufficient (Bulencea and Egger 2013).(Anon., 2014) On the other hand, Enter and Michopoulou (2013) suggest that holiday travelers do not use Facebook as an information source before the trip. Their findings support that Facebook is used during and

post trip, identifying as main motivations the need to share travel experiences, and staying in contacts with friends and family while on holidays.

Based on the above discussion, this study needs to acknowledge and consider the increased popularity of Social Networking Sites. However, the research methodology needs to approach Social Networking Sites through an enlarged lens and attempt to identify uses and impacts during the whole travel process and beyond what is considered by travelers as information search. Moreover, emphasis needs to be placed on travel related photographs and their role in providing inspiration prior to the generic decision and therefore prior to information search.

Content communities are web-based applications that enable users to share media content such as videos, photos, documents and presentations, music and web links. Indicative examples are:

YouTube, Vimeo and Dailymotion for video; Flickr, Picasa, Panoramio, SmugMug and Fotolog for photos; Scrib, slideshare.net, docstoc for documents and presentations; lastfm, ilike, ping for music; and delicious, dig for bookmarking. With more than one billion unique visitors per month, YouTube seems to be the most popular of all content communities: In 2014, over 6 billion hours of video are watched on a monthly basis, and 100 hours of video are uploadedevery minute (YouTube 2014). Although less popular, but still impressive in terms of size, Flickr has 92 million users who upload around 1 million photos per day (Flickr 2010).(Anon., 2010) Jin et al. (2010) considers the act of uploading and viewing an image or video in a content community as an “implicite vote” in favor or against the subjects depicted. Therefore, by aggregating data on those “votes”, the wisdom of social media crowd is revealed, enabling prediction and forecasting in areas like politics, economics and marketing. In their study, they managed to predict unit sales of popular products (music players, computers, cell phones, and game consoles) based on product-tagged photographs users posted in Flickr. Moreover, they evidenced that by studying upload and viewing trends of photos in Flickr one can monitor the spread, adoption and popularity of products around the globe.

Content Communities in the tourism context

It has been suggested that videos found in content communities (a) have the potential to affect tourism experiences; (b) are an important tool that intensifies interest among potential travelers;

(c) generate mental pleasures, in the form of dreams and fantasies for those who have never been to the destination, and in the form of imaginations of re-experiencing the past trips for those who have been there; and (d) can be regarded as a mode of “transportation” to the destination, thus enabling sharing of, and providing access to touristic experiences (Tussyadiah and Fesenmaier 2009)(Anon., 2009). Especially videos in YouTube have been considered as an information source for holidaymakers enabling them to search for specific activities, seek help and advice about their destination, or even watch live reviews (Reino and Hay 2011).(Anon., 2011) Travel related photos in Flickr have been studied as a tool to predict a user’s travel behavior:

Clements et al. (2010)(Anon., 2010) proposed that a user’s geotagged photos in Flickr can predict the favorite locations in another unvisited destination for either the same user or for any user with similar travel preferences, to obtain a personalized travel recommendation. Liu et al.

(2013) employed Uses & Gratifications theory to explore through a mixed methods design the influence of food photography on Flickr members’ travel planning process.

Sharing travel-related photos in content communities has been found third in popularity among Hong Kong residents after SNS and instant messaging (Lo et al. 2011). However, online photo

albums were most preferred by users above the age of 35, while SNSs, instant messaging and blogs were more popular for posting among those under 35. Such difference was attributed to the fact that younger users have a stronger need for self-presentation, therefore they post their photos

albums were most preferred by users above the age of 35, while SNSs, instant messaging and blogs were more popular for posting among those under 35. Such difference was attributed to the fact that younger users have a stronger need for self-presentation, therefore they post their photos

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