Segmenting Travelers Based on the Use of Travel Social Media

• Autor(a) principal: Amaro, Suzanne
• Data de Publicação: 2015
• Outros Autores: Duarte, Paulo, Henriques, Carla
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos)
• Texto Completo: http://hdl.handle.net/10400.19/4696
• topic: Market segmentation; Online content creators; Online content users; Social media

The popularity of social media among travelers has been highly recognized by research addressing this issue. Research has mainly focused on the role and impact of social media on travelers’ travel planning process and there is consensus that travel decisions are highly influenced by social media websites. Yet, little attention has been paid to the differences among travelers regarding their use of social media for travel purposes. Based on the use of travel social media websites, cluster analysis was employed to identify different segments among travelers. Furthermore, the study profiles the clusters based on demographic and other travel related characteristics. The findings of this study are important to online marketers to better understand traveler’s use of social media and their characteristics, in order to adapt online marketing strategies according to the profile of each segment. Given the popularity of social media among travelers, it is imperative that researchers and practitioners continue to deeper the understanding of social media users. The study provides practical and theoretical contributions. Future research is also suggested in order to further develop the contributions and take in account the limitations of this study.