themselves first with the information. Through the use of internet travelers easily get the information about the place and helps in making easy reservations. This helps in building positive effect and creating a satisfaction level of the tourist. The comments and feedbacks on social media also influence the tourist decision at the time of reservation stage, also as helps in building brand recognition and reliability. The online feedbacks have both the positive also as negative feedbacks, the negative feedbacks include the negative or the bad experiences thus the negative comments too need to be analyzed efficiently. The consumers search for negative evaluation especially. There are enormous monthly visitors on social media who are regularly searching the travel information from different sources such as Trip Advisor, Cox & Kings, Make My Trip and similar. Social networking sites helps travelers in making decisions and helps in sharing their experiences about the place hotel or any particular destination. Social networking sites are getting an important way of promoting products and how of communication. A fine decide to endorse selling is by making use of social media to sell tourism goods aside from it social media are often also wont to announce the most recent promotions.
Electronic media consisted of the following:
Online / Internet –
advertisements in
• Social networking sites
like Face book
• Travel Websites
• You Tube
• Search Engines like Google, Yahoo, etc.
Social Media Influence on Consumers
Social media plays an excellent role while the traveler is making the travelling decision. The pre Phase of the traveler’s trip is suffering from the knowledge and comments available online and further results in change within the decision. A research by Google stated that 84% of the leisure tourists use the internet for making their travelling plans. The growing popularity of websites
which has the user generated contents by travelers, there are number of research scholars who have laid the dominant significance of social media in the research stage of the travelers planning process. Through the knowledge available online the visitors on the websites are ready to have a glance at the feedbacks of the travelers who have uploaded their pictures or videos of the place of their visit either on their personal page or on the tourism websites. Apart from this the Word of Mouth is additionally a serious factor to influence the tourist decision. People take social media because the trusted source of data because the information available there's through their friends or relatives so it’s being a trusted source for them. Travelers often make their decision on the idea of the previous traveler’s experience because it helps in avoiding risk and to create up their satisfaction level. Travelers usually evaluate various online website while making the travelling decision to reduce the danger of creating wrong choice. Trip Advisor is amongst the biggest travel website, having over 400 million active users, who are continuously checking the website to check the reviews and make decision while planning a trip.
Promoting Tourism Industry through social media
Social media plays a crucial role in promoting and marketing the tourism industry. it's helped in promoting the world’s diversity and has given positive contribution towards preserving our natural and cultural heritage. The ministry of tourism has formulated various policies and programmed for the event and promotion of tourism. the planet Travel and Tourism Council stated that $120 billion USD (8.31 Lakh Crore) was generated by the Indian government from tourism activities. Besides from these, tourism supported 37.315 million jobs. Different
campaign was launched to market India as a well-liked tourist destination by the India’s ministry of tourism. The phrase “Incredible India” was approved as a slogan by the ministry. To reinforce the rich cultural heritage and variety of India the government of India coined the concept of Incredible India. It had been a world Marketing Campaign to market tourism yet a particularly interactive campaign to determine message retention as and when the tourists are making the choices to go to their favorite international holiday destinations.
“The Incredible India” Campaigns have generated positive interest, with desire to visit and experience the culture of India surging on the higher side. The campaigns have been launched in three different formats of television, print and online media’s, with a series of commercials and advertisements. The advertisements have brought attention to the different facets and hidden treasures in India’s geographic and socio-cultural diversity, belying myths prevalent in the
popular mind in many parts of the world. The Incredible India Campaign has been awarded for its ingenuity and ranked the ‘Highest Recall Advertisement’ worldwide by Travel and Leisure.
‘AtithiDevoBhavah' was another social awareness campaign that aimed at giving a great sense of being welcomed to our country. The campaign targets the general public and mainly focusing stakeholders of the tourism industry. Another initiative was from the Kerala Government to promote tourism on social media. Apart from just opening the Face book Page it took an initiative to organize two workshops in association with Face book. The workshop was themed as Travel goes social.
These digital campaigns encompasses a good range of selling activities, including advertising, PR , promotions, participation in trade and consumer travel shows, production of brochures and related material and area familiarization tours by travel industry sellers. the precise elements of promotional efforts undertaken overseas include advertising within the print and electronic media, participation in fairs and exhibitions, organizing seminars, workshops, road shows and India evenings, printing of brochures and collaterals, brochure support / joint advertising with travel agents / tour operators, inviting the media and travel trade to go to the country under the hospitality programmed.
The tourism industry has seen one of the hardest hit due to the pandemic. The impact may last long for many months to come. In a recovery attempt, the government and tourism authorities in India are making the most of their social media presence and creating people more hopeful about travelling and exploring again. They are updating people about lifting of restrictions, amplifying influencer contents as well as launching their own travelling campaign to keep the people engaged.
The most influencing organization, putting effort to revive the tourism is “Incredible India”.
Various state governments, tourism body and other stakeholders including politicians are being supported by Incredible India organization. Recently, the state of Meghalaya
(#TripNowTravelLater), Madhya Pradesh (#DekhoApnaPradesh) have released video
campaigns. They talk about experiencing the beauty and heritage of their states virtually in the videos till the time comes when things are better, and they can visit the spaces physically.
Incredible India is making use of social media to its fullest by sharing the work of travel enthusiasts and promoting Ministry of Tourism initiative like webinars.
Social Media influencing Indian Travelers
On World Tourism Day (27th September), Airbnb, a community driven hospitality platform, came out with its first ever “India Travel Trends Survey”, which suggested the following the facts about the changing preferences and choices of Indian Travelers.
• Majority of the travelers are in the favor of having a “Wi-Fi” as the most important amenity that helps them to choose the accommodation.
• Many Indian travelers are enthusiastically seeking luxurious experience and having access to swimming pool has come out a major factor while choosing accommodation alternatives.
• Other facilities which Indian travelers are looking for includes Family-friendly amenities like garden areas, activity zones, TV, access to books. Amongst travelers of age group 45 – 54, such amenities constitute to be the important ingredient while choosing the
accommodation.
• A rising trend towards eco-friendly amenities is also cropping up amongst the youngster which includes eco-friendly washrooms.
• Since the unlock has begun, government and tourism organizations are using the social media platform to spread the word by offering tourism packages along with the safety protocols need to be followed while travelling.
• Reviewing the comments on the online community like Trip Advisor, helps the hotels and other travel related companies to be aware of what their customers likes and dislikes.
• Business implications
Adapting to the needs of online consumers takes time and efforts as technology is ever-changing.
The major shifts from businesses in their approach to the market are noted below:
Alleviate consumer concerns by improving the booking and payment experience to build a trusted brand and increase adoption. For example: many accommodations booking websites like trivago.com, cleartrip.com etc. offer free cancellations on pre-booking to attract more customers.
Address the customer perception issues—succeed at mass customisation to drive higher share in the segment. To provide customers a glimpse of customisation, hotels posts pictures of their services offered on popular booking websites like makemytrip.com, trivago.com, cleartrip.com etc.
Find innovative and frugal ways to package the experience to increase both adoption and retention. For example, 60% of leisure travel in India happens by rail, but there are limited bundling options.
Create a robust digital backend to adapt to customer needs across the purchase journey.
Airlines dominated the transport spending despite operational pressures
➢ The Indian airline industry is one of the fastest-growing in the world - Improved connectivity & Affordability
➢ Bus price hike due to GST, falling passenger footfalls and preference for self-drive hampered growth in bus travel
➢ Railway’s growth stagnant; lost share to airlines for long-distance travel and to road for shorter distance travel.
➢ Rental cabs market stagnant
Mid-market and budget hotels make up about half of the market and will fuel future growth
➢ Hotels from mid-market to unrated, enabled by low-cost online bookings and proliferation of aggregators.
➢ Expected to grow roughly 1.5 times faster than trips (11%–12% CAGR for lodging vs. 8% for number of trips) due to more bookings for lodgings per trip.
➢ Increasing trend of booking paid accommodation (vs. stay with friends/family).
Consumption accounts for a sizeable portion of the travel industry, but spending is largely fragmented and offline
➢ Shopping spending - Domestic tourists do the majority of the shopping.
➢ Food spending - The majority of leisure domestic travelers visit friends and family so there is limited spending on food.
➢ Recreation spending - Recreation spending is a result of the demand by an emerging segment of experience-oriented travelers for local experiences and activities.
Structural trends are creating fundamental shifts in the travel and tourism market in India
➢ Internet Access: Internet penetration doubling to 33%; urban Internet penetration at 55%
➢ New locations (e.g. northeast) seeing strong tourism growth.
➢ Expansion of offerings: Packaged and curated offerings, new destinations
➢ Concerted push by government to improve regional air connectivity (UDAN scheme) and boost tourism (SwadeshDarshan, PRASAD)
➢ Infrastructural upgrade of new airports, expansion of road network (NH expansion) and trains
➢ Steady capital infusion, especially from private investors (Indian & foreign) in tech-enabled players. Emergence of tech-tech-enabled entrants: Private investment supporting digital players with new operating models
Online booking penetration for air and rail transport is significant,
➢ Online bookings on IRCTC offer easier train and seat selection options given limited inventory of seats
➢ Online flight bookings prevalent due to high penetration of platforms
(consolidated market) and easy ability to compare prices/options across carriers (e.g. Ixigo.com, cleartrip.com, makemytrip.com etc.)
Online lodging bookings are increasing rapidly
➢ Online booking (26% of spending): Proportion of online bookings has been increasing rapidly and is expected to reach 33% of all hotel bookings due to a proliferation of online aggregators.
➢ Walk-ins (28% of spending): Walk-ins retain the flexibility of last minute changes to the travel plan and avoid cancellation or modification charges
➢ Phone booking (23% of spending): Customising hotel bookings for additional services is more difficult online
➢ Other (23%): Booking through travel agents and spot booking enables proper vetting of hotel rooms and other services
Government initiatives are boosting tourism in upcoming new destinations such as Northeast states
➢ Two major government schemes underway for creation of tourism infrastructure
o SwadeshDarshan for integrated development of theme-based Tourist Circuit.
o PRASAD for development of tourism infrastructure in the country including historical places and heritage cities
➢ Special assistance by central government to NE states – Development of new airport in Sikkim and new hub at Shillong airport to improve connectivity.
➢ Uttar Pradesh government launched One Stop Travel Solution portal for easy booking facility for tourists & Specific initiatives to elevate visitor experiences during Kumbh
➢ Central government scheme to improve regional connectivity (UDAAN) Social media are acknowledged as a crucial information source that influences tourists’ travel choices. The rise of web technologies and unlimited access to internet has contributed
significantly to the importance of social media in day-to-day life. Social media have emerged as a strong information and channel. They have significantly changed the practice of selling communication for several companies, including those within the tourism and hospitality industry. The reliability of the content shared on these channels contributes to the facility of social media. Such content may provide solid knowledge to travelers about destinations and tourism products. The social media channels have a significant impact on behavioral intention and the actual behavior of tourists. Information obtained from social media isn't necessarily perceived as trustworthy and reliable compared to more traditional sources, like official and governmental tourism websites. This suggests that social media act as supplementary to traditional sources of travel information instead of as substitutes for them. Tourists now are seeking and synthesizing information from a spread of channels and sources to form a comprehensive judgement of travel products.
Increasingly, individuals obtain information from diversified online channels including social media. Social media channel allow individuals and businesses to disseminate information and to succeed in and to influence people widely and thus are used frequently by consumers and organizations. Within the context of tourism, social media are one among the foremost
commonly used information sources. It's been suggested that people’s daily use of social media regarding habits and skills has ‘spilled over’ into the travel industry. Additionally, the increasing adoption of smartphone and widened access to the mobile Internet features a profound impact on
tourists’ information search and decision-making, playing an important role along the general travel process. The interesting question, however, during this context becomes what specific roles users assign to social media intentionally or unintentionally by engaging in these platforms, and therefore the extent to which these roles eventually affect final decisions.
Tourists’ decision-making process and social media use
Tourists ’decision-making may be a sequencing process supported a series of well-defined stages. It includes recognition of problem, generation of goals and objectives, formulation of a group of other objects, look for information about the alternatives into account, evaluation of a variety of alternatives, conclusion and selection among alternatives, action upon the choice also as provision of feedback for future decision. This process is influenced by not only internal inputs like socio-psychological factors (e.g. motives, attitudes, values, personal traits, lifecycle stage) but also external variables (e.g. situational constraints, destination factors, marketing mix, environmental stimuli, and social inputs) and therefore the nature of trip (e.g. party size, travel distance, duration of trip).
Given the distinctive characteristics of varied tourism products and services, decisions are often classified as primary decisions and secondary decisions. Primary decisions include choices of destination, travel date, composition of travel party, accommodation, route and travel budget.
Secondary decisions may include choices of secondary destination, activities and attractions, choices of gifts/souvenirs, dining, rest stops and shopping.
Towards a conceptualization of the role of social media
Based on the conceptual understanding, four different roles of social media in regard to tourists’
decision-making can be categorized as having direct or indirect impact on travel choices. Indirect impact happens during tourists’ regular involvement in social media when they do not intend to look for travel and tourism-related information. Two roles within this category are labelled:
(1) Need Generator (2) Supporter
Direct impact happens when tourists intentionally use social media to either guide them to make choices or to approve or reject their preliminary choices. Respectively, these are labelled:
(1) Guide (2) Approver Roles of social media.
Social media as need generator
The use of social media has become a habitual behavior in people’s every day’s life When users browse social media platforms, they're exposed to vast numbers of images and posts describing various characteristics, attributes, or other aspects of a specific place. These contents might inspire them to feature a selected destination or venue to their ‘bucket list’ for future trips. Later, when users are brooding about where to travel for his or her next vacation or trip, these contents may ‘pop up’ and influence their travel choices. it'd even be an image of a selected attraction which will induce tourists to go to a destination and subsequently the attraction. This role of social media is labelled a requirement generator since it can create an initial awareness about the place also as generate an interest or need that lures user to travel. The impact is indirect because social media only initiate the necessity to go to there, while variety of other factors like available money and time, and a scarcity of higher choices may affect travelers’ final choices.
Furthermore, this role doesn't exert an instantaneous effect on travel choice. However, this role of social media affects travel choices at the extent of destination component.
Social media as supporter
Regardless of what adds a selected destination to an individual’s ‘bucket list’, the contents shared on social media can remind the viewer a few destinations and support his/her need and desire to travel there finally. Indian traveler once identified as budget seeker, is now actively
looking for more holistic travel experience. This will happen any time users are browsing social media for a spread of reasons, and it can't be considered purposive involvement. The impact here remains not considered direct since, for several people, travelling within the near future isn't an option considering many other factors like time and money. The supporting effect of such
exposure isn't immediate but doesn't take an excellent amount of your time to occur. It’s going to ultimately fade after a year or two. Almost like the before-mentioned role, the supporter role of social media can affect travel choices at the destination level. This role occurs before information search stage also and is similarly associated with need recognition stage of tourists’ decision-making. The Indian travelers have embraced the global phenomena of staying connected at all times.
Social media as guide
Social media also can work as a guide for tourists with a purpose of finding places to go to and things to try at the destination. This role occurs in information search and evaluation stages of tourists’ decision-making. During this context, social media have an immediate impact on their choices as all other conditions are met to go to the attraction or restaurant if they love it.
Moreover, the effect of exposure to social media content occurs during a rather short period or
Moreover, the effect of exposure to social media content occurs during a rather short period or