Content Analysis of Online Travel Reviews

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-26
Author(s):  
Estela Marine-Roig
Author(s):  
Estela Marine-Roig ◽  
Berta Ferrer-Rosell ◽  
Natalia Daries ◽  
Eduard Cristobal-Fransi

Culinary or gastronomic tourism has become one of the main exponents of cultural tourism and a key element of a destination’s image identity. Since travellers consult and produce online travel reviews (OTR) before and during a trip, this research aims to provide and implement a framework for analysing OTRs of dining establishments to measure their contribution to destination image formation in their designative (cognitive) and appraisive (affective and evaluative) aspects. To do this, a website was selected from which to download OTRs, extract useful information from the textual and paratextual elements, build a keyword frequency matrix, and perform a quantitative and thematic content analysis. This method was applied to a random sample of 500,000 OTRs from the TripAdvisor restaurants section, written in English, between 2013 and 2017, by tourists visiting the Canary Islands. Results show that, although the gastronomic image of the destination is positive in general, the local and regional gastronomy representative of the community’s sociocultural identity is not the most popular nor the best valued in tourists’ comments. This research shows a method to measure the main aspects that make up the gastronomic image of a destination and that allow for extracting insights and business intelligence through big data from user-generated content.


2020 ◽  
Vol 33 (3) ◽  
pp. 33-49
Author(s):  
Natàlia Lozano-Monterrubio ◽  
Assumpció Huertas

Since the emergence of Online Travel Reviews (OTRs), the collective co-creation of a destination brand image has been more evident than ever before. Stories and emotions expressed in these platforms by experienced tourists can significantly influence other users’ intention to visit. This study explores the extent to which political matters like the incidents that occurred during the last quarter of 2017 related with the Catalan independence process may have a negative impact on the brand image of a destination. This paper has used a specific methodology for content analysis of social media in the field of tourism to study the worst rated OTRs (one-star) of seven different attractions of Barcelona in three social media platforms that are able to geolocate places (TripAdvisor, Google Maps and Facebook) to determine the nature, discourses and the emotions raised. Although most complaints refer to the intrinsic problems of the attractions like high entrance prices and long queues due to tourism overcrowding, results reveal that OTR platforms also include tourists’ personal opinions on such issues as politics and religion. The originality of this research paper is that it delves into users’ co-creation of destination brand image through the analysis of negative OTRs and the emotions expressed in their comments.


2020 ◽  
Vol 25 (2) ◽  
pp. 227-237 ◽  
Author(s):  
Berta Ferrer-Rosell ◽  
Estela Marine-Roig

Due to the spectacular growth of traveler-generated content (TGC), researchers are using TGC as a source of data to analyze the image of destinations as perceived by tourists. In order to analyze a destination's projected image, researchers typically look to websites from destination marketing or management organizations (DMOs). The objective of this study is to calculate the gap between the projected and perceived images of Barcelona, Catalonia, in 2017, using Gartner's classification and applying compositional analysis. The official online press dossier is used as an induced source, the Lonely Planet guidebook as an autonomous source, and a collection of more than 70,000 online travel reviews hosted on TripAdvisor as an organic source. In addition to quantitative content analysis, this study undertakes two thematic analyses: the masterworks of architect Gaudi recognized as UNESCO WHS as part of the cognitive image component and feeling-related keywords as part of the affective image component. The results reveal strong differences between the induced and organic sources, but much smaller differences between the autonomous and organic sources. These results can be useful for DMOs to optimize promotion and supply.


2018 ◽  
Vol 9 ◽  
pp. 43-52 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peunjodi Naidoo ◽  
Prabha Ramseook-Munhurrun ◽  
Jing Li

Scuba diving is a popular activity in small island destinations which is on the rise. However, it is particularly important to preserve the physical environment for small island developing states due to their unique biodiversity and fragile ecosystems. Scuba diving tourism in island destinations is provided mainly by dive operators who are responsible to deliver the scuba diving experience to tourists. However, despite the importance of sustainability for the tourism industry, it is unclear to which extent the marine environment or green issues are important for consumers. Studies are increasingly suggesting that sustainability is an important feature considered by consumers. However, information is sparse regarding the extent to which sustainability is a key component for customers when evaluating the scuba diving experience. In this study, 3109 text reviews from the Trip Advisor website across all 57 listed diving operators in Mauritius were selected for data analysis. Th e present study uses Leximancer, a text analysis software that conducts unsupervised analysis of natural language texts provided in an electronic format.The Gaze: Journal of Tourism and Hospitality Vol.9 2018 p.43-52


2021 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vivian C. Medina-Hernandez ◽  
Berta Ferrer-Rosell ◽  
Estela Marine-Roig

Value co-creation, in the sharing accommodation sector, has been extensively analyzed but mainly with Airbnb as a reference and focusing mostly on guests’ perceptions. The aim of this study is to analyze the value co-created for users (guests and hosts) in the non-profit sharing accommodation platforms Couchsurfing and HomeExchange. This study also aims to analyze whether the co-created value of these platforms differs from that of for-profit platforms, along with how the outcomes, resources, and practices of the value co-creation process can help create wellbeing for individuals involved in the accommodation experience. Given that most of the existing literature on value co-creation in sharing accommodation platforms is based on Airbnb and guest perspectives, this study is a pioneer in analyzing how guests and hosts co-create value in the context of non-profit accommodation platforms using online travel reviews (OTRs) from non-profit platforms, and how the co-created value contributes to the wellbeing of the individuals involved. Results show that a set of tangible and intangible resources, such as the home and its amenities, helps users on non-profit platforms co-create value and that interaction and social practices between guests and hosts help co-create value for both groups. This implies that non-profit accommodation platforms may contribute more to the social dimensions of wellbeing of their users than for-profit platforms such as Airbnb where the host is typically absent from the experience. In addition, this study demonstrates that the co-created value in non-profit platforms depends on the modus operandi of each platform. On Couchsurfing, guests and hosts co-create more value from their social practices, and on HomeExchange, value co-creation depends more on tangible and intangible resources.


2018 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 270-293
Author(s):  
Sabrina Mazzali-Lurati ◽  
Chiara Pollaroli ◽  
Silvia De Ascaniis

Abstract In this paper we reconstruct the hierarchy of discourse acts that reviewers build in multimodal online reviews for tourist attractions. We aim at showing (1) how reviewers employ different semiotic modes to fulfil the communicative action of tourist recommendation, and (2) the pragmatic function of photographs in the hierarchy of discourse acts. By adopting the framework of Congruity Theory (e.g., Rigotti, 2005; Rocci, 2005), we analyze a sample of positive and negative multimodal reviews of the Great Cathedral and Mosque in Cordoba (Spain) published by tourists on TripAdvisor. We show that the multimodal elements of the reviews fulfil different pragmatic functions within the overall communicative action of providing advice on the tourist site.


2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (12) ◽  
pp. 3392 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marine-Roig

The explosion of content generated by users, in parallel with the spectacular growth of social media and the proliferation of mobile devices, is causing a paradigm shift in research. Surveys or interviews are no longer necessary to obtain users’ opinions, because researchers can get this information freely on social media. In the field of tourism, online travel reviews (OTRs) hosted on travel-related websites stand out. The objective of this article is to demonstrate the usefulness of OTRs to analyse the image of a tourist destination. For this, a theoretical and methodological framework is defined, as well as metrics that allow for measuring different aspects (designative, appraisive and prescriptive) of the tourist image. The model is applied to the region of Attica (Greece) through a random sample of 300,000 TripAdvisor OTRs about attractions, activities, restaurants and hotels written in English between 2013 and 2018. The results show trends, preferences, assessments, and opinions from the demand side, which can be useful for destination managers in optimising the distribution of available resources and promoting sustainability.


2019 ◽  
Vol 26 (2) ◽  
pp. 149-165 ◽  
Author(s):  
Guy Assaker ◽  
Rob Hallak ◽  
Rania El-Haddad

The present study examines a comprehensive model of travelers’ use of online travel reviews as a form of user-generated content (UGC) through an expanded unified theory of acceptance and use of technology 2 (UTAUT2) framework. The UTAUT2, which includes Performance Expectancy (PE), Effort Expectancy (EE), Social Influence (SI), Facilitating Conditions, Hedonic Motivation (HM), Price-Saving Orientation, and Habit, within this study incorporates two new variables: Trustworthiness and Homophily. We empirically examine the expanded model on a sample of 200 residents in the United Kingdom. The partial least squares–structural equation modeling analysis revealed that Homophily, PR, and Price-Saving Orientation are the strongest predictors of individual usage intentions’ of UGC. Moreover, the dimension of Habit, operationalized as a subjective measure of impulsive and automatic use of UGC, was found to be the strongest predictor of travelers’ actual UGC usage. This study enhances our understanding of the explanatory variables driving the usage of online reviews (e.g. contrary to prevalent knowledge from previous works, Trustworthiness in the present study was nonsignificant), thus providing far-reaching theoretical and practical recommendations for tourism researchers and practitioners.


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