engleski

The impact of social networks in planning travel and in selecting a hotel, restaurant and other hospitality services

Considering the daily growing numbers of social network users, the purpose of this research is to explain the role of social networks in planning travel and in selecting a hotel, restaurant and other hospitality services. The study focuses on establishing a connection between social networks and decision making in the selection of a tourist destination or in the evaluation of hospitality services. A questionnaire was developed using the Google Docs platform and was distributed online via Facebook. The results indicate that travel planning as well as booking hospitality services is mostly made based on information published on social networks. Typically, it is younger people who use social networks daily. The study also confirms that people are more prone to believe other people (reviews, recommendations) although they clearly do so with a grain of salt, because every person has their own different opinions and expectations. The contribution of this paper is seen in the systematization of theoretical aspects and studies relating to the impact of social networks on travel planning and the selection of a hotel and other hospitality services. The contribution of the paper from an empirical aspect is that it establishes, by testing the set research questions, whether recommendations and reviews actually have an impact on the decision- making process in selecting a hotel, restaurant and other hospitality services. The results obtained are also important for social networks, whose purpose is no longer to only enable interaction among users but also to serve as advertising space for various types of industries that can profit from it.

Hospitality services, Online users, Social networks, Travel planning

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