A2 Quantitative Research SMI Impact on Tourism

Assignment 2 - Quantitative Research An Examination of the Impact of Social Media Influencers on Tourist Decision Making Student Name: Kirra Kurtz Student Number: s5273136 Campus: Online

Introduction: Tourist decision making is influenced by the informational value of posts made by social media influencers, (Magno, Cassia., 2018). With the growing presence of these social media influencers, it continues to modulate tourist decision making in the travel industry, these influencers are highly important when it comes to consumer’s decisions in booking their next destination (R.-A. Pop et al., 2022). The management of Booking.com, one of the world's largest travel marketplaces, is very much aware of the power that social media influencers (SMIs) have on followers and requires knowledge on the impact SMIs have on their followers for affecting their decisions to travel and book accommodation. Therefore, the purpose of this report is to analyse the impact of social media influencers on tourist decision making. To achieve this, quantitative research was conducted. From the analysis, three recommendations will be proposed into how Booking.com can use SMIs to increase their marketing operations to further entice tourist’s decision making. Research Questions: (1) What is the demographic profile of the sample of followers? (2) Which attributes do followers rate as the most and least important when following a SMI? (3) Are the followers’ ratings of SMIs attributes significantly different between males and females? (4) Are the followers ratings of the level of impact of an SMI correlated with their intention to visit a tourist destination endorsed by an SMI? Methods: Quantitative analysis uses statistical modelling and measurement to understand behaviour between variables (Kenton W., 2020). Once the data were successfully collected, it was entered into a Microsoft XL spreadsheet. To form a Mean (M) score for the six attributes of SMIs, impact of SMI on followers and intention to visit a tourist destination endorsed by the SMI, variables from the questionnaire that related to that dimension was summed together and then divided by the number of items in that dimension The definition of the mean is the average performance of a group of numbers and represents as a substitute for the quantitative data (Speelman, McGann, 2013). The definition of standard deviation is measuring a scattered set of data, that is compared to the mean value (Omda & Sergent, 2022). The definition of a t-Test is a ratio that finds the significant difference between the means of two variables, whilst considering their variance (Wadhwa, Ganeshan, 2023). Finally, the definition of correlation is “a measure of the strength of the relationship between two variables” (Bell et al., 2018, Pg. 172). Two tables were produced from the analysis which included a demographic profile and a means, SDs & T test table.

From this, most followers, a total of 97, are placed in the lower income category of under 50,000 annually, and the least common income category was 100,001-150,000 with a total of 53 followers. Comparisons can further be made against the celebrity SMI they follow, with majority of followers being in the lower income category they seek to live out their travel dreams online through these lavish celebrity vacations. Research Question 2 Table 2. Means, SDs & T-tests Attributes T-test Mean SD Mean SD Mean SD p-value Information 4.61 1.27 4.84 1.20 4.37 1.30 0.00 Social media WOM 4.19 0.89 4.13 0.97 4.26 0.80 0.21 Expertise 2.59 1.38 2.72 1.31 2.46 1.43 0.11 Attractiveness 4.00 1.40 3.41 1.35 4.60 1.18 0.00 Interaction 3.56 1.39 4.27 1.18 2.86 1.21 0.00 Prestige 4.57 1.15 4.42 1.24 4.71 1.04 0.03 Impact of SMI 3.79 1.47 4.17 1.19 3.41 1.63 0.00 Intention to visit destination 4.23 1.20 4.42 1.23 4.04 1.16 0.01 Total Sample Females Males Table 2 shows the results of how the sample participants rated the level of importance for the six attributes and two variables when examining the impact of social media influencers on tourist decision making. All attributes and variables were rated from 1 to 6, with 1 being ‘No at all important’, and 6 being ‘extremely important’. Table 2 also displays the results of the t-Test that produced p Values which determined the overall ratings of the level of impact an SMI have on followers and the difference between followers’ intention to visit a tourist destination endorsed by an SMI. As can be seen from Table 2, the most important attribute of an SMI for male followers is prestige with a mean of 4.71. Another highest rated attribute for male followers is attractiveness with a mean of 4.60. For female followers, one of the highest rated attributes of an SMI is information with a mean of 4.84. One of the other most important attributes for female followers is prestige and intention to visit destination with a mean of 4.42. For the total sample, male followers found prestige to be the highest rated, in contrast female followers found information to be the highest rated. Table 2 shows one of the least important attribute of an SMI for a male follower is expertise, with a mean of only 2.46. Similarly, the second lowest rated attributed for male followers is interaction, with a mean of 2.86. For female followers, one of the lowest rated attributes of an SMI is expertise, with a mean of only 2.72. Similarly, the second lowest rated attribute for female followers is attractiveness, with a mean of 3.41. For the total sample, male followers found expertise to be lowest rated attribute, similarly female followers also found expertise to be their lowest rated attribute.

Research Question 3 Results from the t-Test in Table 2 show that social media WOM (0.21) and expertise (0.11) had a p value greater than 0.05. This means that there are no significant differences in those attributes between male and female followers’ importance ratings. In contrast, the attributes, information (0.00), attractiveness (0.00), interaction (0.00), prestige (0.03), impact of SMI (0.00) and intention to visit (0.01), all had a p value of less than or equal to 0.05. This means there are significant differences in those attributes and variables between males and females. Research Question 4 For the total sample, the correlation between the overall ratings of the level of impact of an SMI have on followers and followers’ intention to visit a tourist destination endorsed by an SMI is r= 0.41. This means that there is moderate positive correlation. For the male sample, the correlation between the overall ratings of the level of impact of an SMI have on followers and followers’ intention to visit a tourist destination endorsed by an SMI is r= 0.14. This means that there is weak positive correlation. For the female sample the correlation between the overall ratings of the level of impact of an SMI have on followers and followers’ intention to visit a tourist destination endorsed by an SMI is r= 0.72. This means that there is a strong positive correlation. Conclusion: The purpose of this report was to investigate the impact of Social Media Influencers on Tourist Decision Making and whether differences existed between males and females regarding those ratings. The research found that in the demographic profile, the most common type of follower was a loyal fan (a total of 99), and the least common type of follower was the ranter (a total of 20). In addition, it was found in the demographic profile that the most common type of SMI followed is celebrities (a total of 104), with the least common type being mega influencers (a total of 17). It was also found that the most common income category was the lower income range was under 50,000 (a total of 97), and the least common income category was 100,001-150,000 with a total of 53 followers. Moreover, the table of means, standard deviations, and t-tests, showed that the two highest importance attributes of SMIs for male followers were prestige and attractiveness. And for female followers, information showed the highest importance, as well as prestige and intention to visit destination. For the total sample, two of the most important attributes for SMIs were prestige and information. On the other hand, the two least importance attributes of SMIs for male followers were expertise and interaction. For female followers, expertise and attractiveness showed the least importance of attributes in SMIs. For the total sample, the two least important attributes of SMIs were expertise for both males and females. There were no significant differences in importance ratings for social

marketing team reaching out to collaborate with SMIs who specifically post visually appealing, and prestigious content for their followers (Chloe & Kim, 2019).

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