4.5 stars for this hotel

: user-generated content and its impact on hotel decision-making

Abstract

With an undeniable importance in several areas, social media changed consumers, who are notonly more demanding but also, they have the information in a click distance, and tourism is notan exception. Tourists use social media before, during and even after a trip, but user-generatedcontent is not just about sharing. The content generated by other consumers is also a source ofinformation and therefore is used as electronic word-of-mouth, since that same content will beavailable and will be used by other tourists during the decision-making process. However, theimpact that different types of user-generated content have on consumers’ hotel decision-makingprocess is still unclear. This study is aimed to understand not only how positive and negativeuser-generated content impact the process of deciding a hotel, in particular hotels in the European city centers, but also which type of user-generated content (pictures or reviews) hasmore impact as electronic word-of-mouth in that same decision-making process. Theconclusion is that these two types of user-generated content are perceived by consumers asunseparated content, meaning that consumers are not able to only consider reviews or picturesseparately, since they consider that these types of content complement each other.

Date of Award	25 Jan 2021
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	Universidade Católica Portuguesa
Supervisor	Helena Rodrigues (Supervisor)