The influence of social media on the socialization of Chinese tourists: an analysis of social media data

Abstract

Social media (SM) plays an important role in tourism. They shape how travellers make decision and change their behaviours pre-travel, during travel and post-travel. Although SM is not the number one channels of communication their role in tourism has drawn much of the attention. SM shapes how travellers make decision and change their behaviours pre-travel, during travel and post-travel. SM has also influenced tourism industry practice in the areas of marketing, sales and product development. How Chinese nationals engage with SM in tourism activities is under researched. There have been statistics reporting the usage of the Internet and ICT applications by Chinese nationals. However these statistics are simply descriptive parameters, and cannot provide in-depth insight into SM adoption for tourism in China. Therefore, this study explores the use of SM in tourism-related activities in China with the aim to understand the role of SM in China's tourism sphere. In this primary research, a case study research approach was adopted because it permits inductive questioning systematically and thus allows rich data to surface. The research focused on the use of three most popular SM websites, which were RenRen, Sina Weibo and Douban, in tourism-related activities in China. The exploratory research has identified that Chinese use SM to share information about, and personal evaluation of, destinations, tourism products, itineraries of travel, visa and currency exchange. The selected SM sites provide Chinese users a space for open communication and freely exchange of ideas, emotions and cognitive insights into travel, life and being. The technology also offers them a new way of socialising with each other. Renren and Donban in particular give Chinese bloggers a space to freely externalise their deep reflection on travel, life and being in the public domain. Through this process of knowledge transformation, a discursive discourse of tourism representation and understanding is created and re-created. Therefore, SM is more than just an information communication channel. It is a creator that enables the expansion of tourism boundary and a shaper that constantly shapes tourism as a human social conduct within that boundary. The paper argues that SM should not be only regarded as information communication channels, but also a creator and a shaper to forge what tourism is in the contemporary societies.