Redes sociales en el sector turísticoéxito en su implantación e influencia en el comportamiento de los consumidores

Laburpena

The development of new information and communication technologies (ICT) that has taken place in the last decades, has made a very important change in our society, contributing to its increasing economic evolution, as well as the transformation of the competitive environment to the new ways of communicating, sharing information and conducting transactions. This has led to major transformations in companies ranging from their production system to the marketing of their products and relations with customers, generating new opportunities for almost permanent innovation and exchanges in business channels that were previously almost non-existent (Kotler, 1987 , Quelch and Klein, 1996). The tourism sector is one of the sectors most affected by this new reality for years, as indicated by data from different studies (Devis, 2010; Mariani and Felice, 2016). ICT has changed the distribution of tourism, information and the way people plan their travel (Buhalis & Law, 2008, Mack, Blose, & Pan, 2008; Mamaghani, 2009). More specifically, social networks are transforming the communication strategies of companies linked to the tourism sector with their main stakeholders (clients, investors, employees, suppliers, etc.) (Lai and Li, 2005; Mangold and Fauds 2009;, 2013). Many researchers point out that there are few studies published on social media in the tourism sector, and suggest the need to carry out more researches on this topic (Leung et ai., 2013, Line and Runyan, 2012). In particular, they indicate the need to analyze how the tourism sector is implementing these new technologies such as social media and the repercussions that social media can have on the tourism sector (Williams et al.f 2011; Dwivedi et aL, 2012; Runyan, 2012; Leung and Bai, 2013). Thus, this thesis aims to analyze the success of the processes of implementation of social media in the tourism sector as well as the factors that influence its influence on the intention to purchase touristic products. To achieve this general objective, this study proposes three specific objectives that correspond to the chapters of this research. The first is to evaluate the critical factors to achieve a successful implementation of social media in tourism companies. The second specific objective is to develop a model to identify the relationships between the constructs linked to the intention to purchase a tourism product or service from the information obtained from Facebook to show the differences between different profiles of the population. The third objective is to examine how the degree of innovation of adopters of these new technologies influences the same set of variables related to the intention to purchase a tourism product or service in order to gain a better understanding of the final purchase decision . The methodology adopted is intended to give an answer to our research and is based globally on three procedures: the case method, Partial Least Squares optimization technique and the use of fuzzy cognitive maps. That is, qualitative and quantitative techniques are combined by the typology of the study data. The results obtained through the various techniques used have allowed us to broaden our knowledge about the global phenomenon of social media. Particularly, we have been able to identify the main difficulties of adopting it and understanding what needs to be done. At the same time, our research has analyzed how social media influence the intention of purchasing touristic services or products according to the characteristics of the potential segments of users involved in them. The results point out the importance that social media have for tourist destinations and suggest practical implications that could be relevant to professionals and managers of tourism companies who design tools and plans to improve their marketing strategies through social media.