Netnography & Travel Industry

Discarding the old and adapting to the new can sometimes be a bit complicated, but today we want to address a topic that could be of great benefit to your travel business. During the pandemic, where most of the population was forced to stay at home, netnography developed and grew in the field of marketing. But you might wonder, what exactly are we talking about? What is it? How can your business make use of it?

Image Source: https://methods.sagepub.com/case/studying-social-media-communities-blending-methods-with-netnography

Netnography is a really emerging concept that researchers are using to learn more about consumer behavior. All this is through the internet, due to its growth, and its rebound is precisely due to the pandemic situation, which has forced the entire population to stay within four walls and to have a greater presence on the internet.

Netnography was coined by Robert Kozinet back in the early 1990s when the internet was far inferior to what it is now. It wasn't until we reached the 21st century that it really started to gain any gravitas.

According to Kozinet (2002, p62), netnography was first defined as;

‘A new research methodology that adapts ethnographic research techniques to study the cultures and communities that are emerging through computer-mediated communications’

It is important to understand that netnography and ethnography are correlated, except that one happens in virtual communities and is a good opportunity for tourism businesses to develop strategies that are innovative and that these lead to conversations and affinity with the user. Netnography helps us to understand the phenomenon of online sociability thereby throwing an exchange of information.

Netnography consists of the following processes

1. Research planning

During this phase, a research question is formulated, that is concerned with their business market which helps to define the appropriate community to be analyzed.

2. Definition of the duration of the study

During this phase, the duration of the data collection is defined depending upon the market size.

3. Data collection

During this period defined in phase 2, information is collected and shared in chats, forums, groups, surveys, and lists of virtual communities. It can also include the use of artificial intelligence tools to analyze texts and transform this data into systematized information.

4. Interpretation of results

At this stage, comments are classified according to previously established criteria. In this way, conclusions and recommendations are obtained that will form part of the research report and that will allow knowing what users think about certain products or services, as well as making decisions based on the interpretation of results.

At this stage, comments are classified according to previously established criteria. In this way, conclusions and recommendations are obtained that will form part of the research report and that will allow knowing what users think about certain products or services, as well as making decisions based on it.

Netnography in Travel Industry

Netnography in the travel industry allows businesses to gain a better understanding of various factors that influence customers while opting for a destination. A study carried out by researchers where Netnography methodology had been applied to 2852 comments showcasing travelers’ experiences in tourist hotspot destinations of Iran such as Tehran, Isfahan, and Shiraz through one of the most influential travel websites TripAdvisor.com is an example of how netnography helps you understand the changing dynamics of business. As a result of this study, ten major factors had been discovered that were playing a vital role in shaping the decision of travelers’ opting for their services. Based on these factors, a questionnaire had been designed and distributed among 449 tourists. In the second step, the collected data was used by rough set theory to discover the rules of destination recommendation based on the factors discovered before. The findings confirmed that beauty, cultural attractions, safety, welfare, costs, and dealing with people are more important than any other observed dimensions.

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At Nomads we are eager to help your travel business prosper with the use of this methodology, and it is important to us as an agency that you know some of the benefits of using this methodology.

Lower cost

Without a doubt, ethnographic studies today are very expensive and can even take much longer, which is why netnography is more profitable.

Why? Because when we use ethnography we are limited by time and money, contrary to ethnography, which represents a much cheaper alternative.

The main investment that is made on occasions is the software and the payment of our pollsters if there is no database.

Greater reliability in terms of results

In Netnography participants are in a remote location that makes them less invasive, which makes them feel less observed and allows them to interact in an open-hearted way.

More accessible information for decision making

Netnography allows us to know the opinions of a large number of users, which is why it allows us to determine certain actions, to improve the services being offered by your business; the quality of service is aligned with the current marketing standards or to have improvements in the near future.

Netnography as a marketing tool for our agency represents endless benefits showing a flexible qualitative method with multiple uses for market researchers.

Applying and incorporating these models into your business can bring great benefits such as reducing costs and expanding and developing a broader market; since, being low cost, you can be developing 2 or more analyses simultaneously.

As a business this helps you obtain specific data from your consumers so you can develop marketing strategies 100% based on what your consumer is looking for, that will allow you to expand your presence within the field of marketing with your consumers and offer personalized services.

We invite you to keep an eye on our next blogs as we will be talking about topics of interest to your businesses.

Author - Gerardo Lopez