The touristic experience in social networks: Motivations, implications and impacts of content generation

Abstract

This study aims to identify and characterize behavioural patterns displayed by tourists on social media platforms during and after their holiday, in particular the motivations for tourists to share their experience online. To explore this, following a theoretical contextualization primary data was collected through a questionnaire survey, which was applied to Portuguese tourists who travelled in 2014 and/or 2015. The data was then analyzed using descriptive statistics and cross-tabulation. The results allow us to conclude that the most frequently used social media platforms are social networks, the main motivations for self-expression on social networks are connected to the quality of the experience itself, while on the review websites, the reviews are made regardless of the quality of the experience in question.