The influence of social media

marketing on Travelers’ decision

making and cognitive dissonance
in Tourism industry in Vietnam

BY HAN 18080098
TOURISM MANAGEMENT PROJECT
Table of Contents
Introduction 1
Research question 2
Literature review 2
Social media 2
Cognitive dissonance 3
Destination choice 4
Methodology 5
Data collection 5
Data analysis 7
Ethical consideration 7
Result and analysis 9
Demographic 9
To what extend do Millennials and gen Z agree that they are influences to travel by
the information which appears on social media? 11
What is the relationship of social media and cognitive dissonance in tourism? 12
Evaluation 9
Strength of research 9
Limitation of research 14
Further supporting research 14
Suggest for further research 14
Conclusion 14
Summary 14
Personal reflection 16
Reference 18
Appendix 21
Introduction:
In the modern world, social media plays an importance part. Almost people at all age
level using social media every second to research or get information. Therefore, the
landscape of marketing communications has shifted dramatically. For young people
who have access to laptops, tablets, and smartphones, the Internet and social networks
are the preferred media outlets (Dev et al., 2010). Certain sectors of the service sector,
such as travel, music, and so on, benefit greatly from the Internet. Customers are
constantly relying on online guest reviews when choosing a hotel (J. K. Song, Y. J. Kim,
2006). Consumers' choices in internet content have been profoundly influenced by
information technologies. “The effectiveness of Twitter, Facebook, and other social
network sites (SNS) in coping with service consumers, as well as their effects on user
behavior, should be extensively investigated, as some scholars have suggested” (Xiang
& Gretzel, 2010). Any new research (Phelan et al., 2013) look at “how hotels use social
media as a marketing method”. The aim of this analysis is to close “this gap by
examining the disparities in purchasing behavior between online and offline travel
buyers” who use social media.
In order to understand how social media marketing could impact tourist decision-
making, this study conducted an online survey with a sample of tourists, who is the
Vietnamese gen Y and gen Z. The study found that whether consumers make their
purchase decisions based on online reviews has an effect on both tourists’ decision-
making process and cognitive dissonance. This study found that certain forms of social
media can have significant effects on consumer decision outcomes. The study suggests
that firms should consider the effect of social media marketing to make management
decisions and is worth discussing.
The main element in this study is to explore and understand the effect of social media
marketing on travelers’ decision-making and cognitive dissonance in the Tourism
industry in Vietnam. The specific purpose of this study is to identify how travel firms can
use social media for promotional purposes. This study contributes by unveiling the
“relationship between electronic word-of-mouth” (e-WOM) reviews and the tourist
decision-making process regarding cognitive dissonance theory. Inexperienced visitors
have an opportunity to improve their awareness of tangible elements and decrease their
“risk in terms of intangibles” when they express their opinions and reviews on social
media (Di Pietro & Pantano, 2013). Choosing to visit a tourist location entails substantial
risk, and visitors may eventually grow reliant on the interpersonal impact of a social
network (Di Pietro,2012). By giving good or negative remarks on tourists' experiences,
eWOM has the “potential to influence a destination's image” (Litvi,2008).
With more than Vietnamese travelling outside of the country in 2012, tourism
contributes significantly to Vietnam's GDP and its tourism income ranks second in Asia.
An important part of a traveler's decision-making process is the cognitive dissonance
theory. Though there are several misunderstandings regarding this theory, it is possible
to use this theory as a tool for firms to understand how their customers view their
product or service and what factors they consider before making their purchase
decision. When searching for information regarding a tourist destination, travelers have
several sources of information that they can use. These include “travel books and tour
guides, friends who previously traveled to that destination, articles online written by
experts or by other travelers, and travel-related websites” (Chi & Yeh 2005). Abroad in
2012 and since then skyrocketing numbers have been increasing every year. The
tourism industry has already gone through a period of rapid development and at present
has become “one of the most important economic sectors” contributing to Vietnam's
GDP growth. With such “rapid development” of the domestic tourism industry, there are
numerous developments in demand including fierce competition among tour operators
for market share.
Research question:
Following the preceding step of numerous studies, this paper will have to answer these
four questions:
1, What is social media and cognitive dissonance in tourism?
2, How does social media effect on tourist’ behavior (especially in Vietnam)?
3, Analyzing the contribution of social media to the tourism industry in Vietnam

Literature review:
1. Social media
As Tussya (2011) defined that social media (SM) is “web-based apps that disseminate
user-generated content”, it is also known as “a form of communication and usage
patterns” (Fotis, Buhalis, 2011). Social media, which can be called “electronic word – of
– mouth (e-WOM)” is the most common way that can reach people at all ages and
gender. Because of social media's potential to personalize content and its broad scope,
“tourists are more likely to use it”. That is the reason why the internet and social media
platform, such as “Facebook, Instagram, Twitter”, and website become more popular
than ever.
Based on that, the marketing communication has changed recently, they focus on
developing their social platform to touch their potential customers. They built up the web
2.0, for example, online photo album, personal blogs, or vlog of traveling to give the
information about the destination, then the people, who used internet to research will
see that and choose the place to visit rely on the experiences of others. Many studies
cover a variety of study streams in the field of tourism. The first is Web 2.0, a rapidly
rising and important marketing medium in the tourism industry that has received little
attention due to its novelty. As some scholars have pointed out, the social identification
hypothesis is particularly appropriate for this study because of the social nature of these
information technology methods. This paper discusses word-of-mouth (WOM)
correspondence in the online sense offered by “SNS as a second major line of
research”. The subject of WOM is debated in relation to travel service customers.
Before traveling, during-trip, and post-travel periods of the tourist journey are all where
social media is used, highlighting the temporal functions of social media in the tourist
journey (Book et al., 2018). Nonetheless, with the introduction of the internet, people's
communication habits have been fast altering. People may readily voice their thoughts
and share them with others via the internet, and they can rapidly obtain feedback on the
initial concept (Tran & Hue Do, 2016). All of this results in a new type of word of mouth
known as "electronic word of mouth" (eWOM). The role of eWOM on tourists’ decision
in this scenario is considerable. Inexperienced visitors have a chance to improve their
awareness of tangible elements and decrease “their risk in terms of intangibles” when
they express their opinions and reviews on social media (Di Pietro & Pantano, 2013).
Choosing to visit a tourist location entails substantial risk, and visitors may eventually
grow reliant on the interpersonal impact of a social network (Panto, 2011). eWOM may
have a good or bad impact on “a destination's image by giving positive or negative
feedback on visitors' experiences” (Litvin, 2008). In reality, internet recommendations
have the ability to improve a tourist's impression of a “travel product among potential
users” (Ye, et al, 2011) and therefore “online suggestions/comments” offered by other
users have a major impact on tourism product sales online, for instance, online room
booking (Ye, et al, 2011) As a result, customers are encouraged to utilize social media
to gather information on potential tourism locations, visualize pictures, and learn about
other visitors' prior experiences in order to make the best decision.
In addition, “travelers benefit from social media since they may access information and
comments made by other tourists through a variety of online venues on consumer
generated media (CGM) when planning a vacation” (Yoo & Gretzel, 2010). Furthermore,
“the use of social media and web 2.0 has affected traveler behavior by diversifying
company models, business to business, business to customer communication, and
customer to consumer contact” (Kietzmann, etc., 2011). They act as “a media agency in
this situation, organizing and exchanging information with others” (Li & Wang, 2011). By
understanding “the structure and representation of the internet domain, tourist
marketers may better build industry information systems to aid the launch of efficient
marketing campaigns” (Tran & Hue Do, 2016). Social media has “evolved into a new
major actor in the aspect of information trafficking” (Xiang & Gretzel, 2010), “resulting in
a significant shift in the online tourist domain's structure”.
Moreover, SM is used to shape tourist’s decision – making at three stages, which is
mentioned above. Travelers use digital platforms to gather tourism-related knowledge
and speed up the information search process during the pre-travel stage (Liu-Lastres,
2014). This influences the process of getting information in tourist mind-set a lot
because after researching, people tend to justify their decision and go with the viral one
than trying a new thing. For two main factors, destination options are especially
vulnerable to dissonance. One, intake does not occur directly after a buying decision is
made (Jalilvand, etc., 2012). Two, location decisions are often taken without the
opportunity to ‘pre-test' the experience (Rathonyi, 2013). During their trip, tourist always
use SM as the way to publish their experience (Mair,2013). Furthermore, rather than
affecting outright choices, social media tended to affirm tourists' decisions in some
research, eliminating dissonance (Bakr & Ali, 2013).
In conclusion, visitors often turn to social media for updates and to alleviate post-
purchase dissatisfaction.” The context of a travelers’ location decision, on the other
hand, has been widely overlooked, if not deliberately minimized. Social network impact
is expected to differ based on the decision-making context, according to some previous
destination choice surveys.” (Marder et al., 2019)

2. Cognitive dissonance
In 1957, the cognitive dissonance principle was explained by Festinger that the
emotions that people get when they have conflicting ideas. They pursue rationalization
for their views or dislike thoughts or people that have opposing opinions because
experiencing disharmony is uncomfortable.
The “free-choice” model (Brehm, 1956) and the induced conformity paradigm (Brehm
1956) were used in early dissonance studies (Festinger, Carlsmith, 1959). “The induced
conformity theory encourages individuals to share views that are counter to their
personal values by including an opportunity to do so. The findings suggest that broad
rewards offer external support for articulated beliefs, while minimal stimuli (beyond the
bare minimum required to elicit a change) do not” (Cooper and Fazio, 1984; Harmon,
1999). This paradigms and minority impact studies' results are strikingly similar.
According to studies on minority control, majority influence results in public conformity
(due to “external justification), while minority influence” results in conversion (due to
inadequate justification) (Moscovici, 1976).
 Figure 1: The factors that effect on a person’s dissonance.

“Negative reviews of a green resort serve as counter-attitudinal knowledge in the

current study, especially for people with strong pro-environmental attitudes” (Tanford &
Montgomery, 2015). The earlier study detected “attitude change but did not assess
dissonance” (Tanford & Montgomery, 2015) , while the current study includes a
dissonance scale. Customers will feel dissonance when confronted with ratings that
contradict their beliefs, according to the dissonance hypothesis.
 Figure2: Factors create the customers’ intention hypothesis.
In addition, “exposure to an attitude-challenging news” (Tham et al., 2020) outlet or
facts can cause dissonance in a variety of ways. Supporting (e.g., providing viewership
to) a source who promotes an opposite viewpoint may cause cognitive dissonance.
Dissonance may also stem from a loss of trust in one's convictions when seeing
something that contradicts one's beliefs and is more likely to originate from sources
and/or evidence that promote opposite viewpoints. “Selective exposure can help people
prevent (a) the socially difficult condition of getting their viewpoint called into doubt by
disconfirming facts or viewpoints, and (b) the action of following a mentality undermining
news outlet” (Tham et al., 2020). Furthermore, limited attention to material that is
compatible with one's mindset can help to mitigate “dissonance by reaffirming” views
that people are unsure regarding (Taber & Lodge, 2006). Surprisingly, most targeted
exposure research that uses “cognitive dissonance as a theoretical” basis predicts,
rather than experiments, that people will experience “dissonance when faced with
attitude-challenging news content” (Cotton, 1985). In other words, previous research,
such as: “Brannon et al., 2007, Garrett, 2009a, 2009b; Iyengar & Hahn, 2009; Jonas et
al., 2001; Knobloch-Westerwick & Meng, 2009” (Xuerui, 2019) have not tested whether
people genuinely sense dissonance when they are subjected to a counter-attitudinal
post. Alternatively, these experiments offer participants a preference of multiple news
outlets and then conclude that someone who did not want an attitude-challenging outlet
did so because they were aware of the possibility of experiencing dissonance. Such
research, however, cannot show that “tourists are encouraged to check out like-minded
news content as a means of mitigating or eliminating cognitive dissonance without
measuring it” (Tham et al., 2020).

3. Destination choice
For the last three decades, tourists' choice of destination has been “a mainstay in
tourism scholarship” (Tham et al., 2020). In the face of rising destination rivalry, there
has been a surge of interest in influencing tourism tastes (Karl, et al, 2015). Early
researchers suggested sound destination decision-making mechanisms and a better
understanding of the different factors that affect destination selection. The concept of
preference sets has been central to many logical processes. Location decision-makers
conduct a perceptual and emotional assessment of destinations in conjunction with the
intent or motivation for travel, according to scholars focused on preference sets
(Woodside & Lionskin, 1989). The method of “moving from destinations that a decision-
maker is aware of” (Tham et al., 2020), known as an awareness collection, “to a few
remaining alternatives, known as an evoked set, where these locations are perceived to
be highly suitable for the tourist's intent”, is conceptualized as “a process of moving from
destinations that a selection is aware of”, known as “an awareness set, to a few
remaining alternatives”, known as “an evoked set, where these locations are perceived
to be highly suitable for the tourist's purpose”, is conceptual (Crompton, 1992). The
tourist then chooses the destination for travel from among the few options evoked by
the evoked package (Karl et al., 2015). Tourists use the knowledge they have at their
hands to exclude destinations and choose the best-suitable to get to their ideal end
destination (Nyman,et al, 2018).
Other studies (Qiu, et al, 2018) have recently focused on the positive aspects of
decision-making. The importance of environments in interpreting destination option
consequences is highlighted by this reframe of viewpoints. Contexts are the conditions
that necessitate special considerations of destination characteristics, visitor
characteristics, and travel intent (Lamsfus et al., 2015). Since decision-making on where
to go is “influenced by a variety of factors that vary each time a decision is taken,
context is critical in understanding what factors affect decision-making” (McCabe et al.,
2016). Background influences when people want to go anywhere (Marder, et al, 2019).
Destination – selection can be clearly seen as a logical process, while it is still
influenced by contextual factors (Beritelli, et al, 2019).

Figure 3: Contextual factors influenced destination selection (Beritelli, Reinhold, & Luo,
2019)

As a result, we must recognize that social media's impact can be felt. Some speculate
that this is to allow other people to enjoy “the tourist's destination experience by
vicariously sharing the tourist's experience” (Wu & Pearce, 2017). Others argue that
“social media has become an extension of the ideal social self-image, and that the
presented tourism experience repositions how an individual is perceived” (Osei, et al,
2018). Given the increased value of safety and protection, it is often proposed that
“social media is being used to keep everyone informed of the tourists' whereabouts
while traveling” (Hernandez-Mendez, 2015).
Third, visitors use social media as a source of tourism impressions when they return
home. Blogs and photography archival pages are often a collection of separate visitors'
entries, narrating what they loved and hated about various encounters (Fakharyan, etc.,
2012). Any visitors do this out of a sense of altruism, wishing to assist others in planning
their journeys by sharing useful information (Lee, Reid, & Kim, 2014). Some travelers,
on the other hand, can use social media during their trip to focus on their own
experiences.
Obviously, visitors interact with “social media in a variety of forms” and at various times
during their vacation. Given that every destination's popularity is dependent on its ability
to affect visitor arrivals and, as a result, encourage return visits, social media may be a
useful tool for raising “awareness and interest in the destination” (Zhang, etc., 2018).
While there are many reports on “social media in tourism, not all of them are relevant to
decision-making”, and even those that are have barely scratched the surface of the
ways in which the decision.
Methodology:
1. Data collection
Data collection is “the systematic gathering and measurement of information on
variables of interest in order to answer research questions, test hypotheses, and assess
outcomes”. Data gathering is a frequent component of research in “all disciplines of
study, including physical and social sciences, humanities, business, and so on”. While
the “methodologies differ depending on the field, the focus on precise and honest data
collecting stays the same. The purpose of any data gathering is to acquire high-quality
evidence that can be translated into rich data analysis and used to construct a
persuasive and credible response to the questions addressed”. “One of the most crucial
steps of any research project is data collecting. Data collecting is a difficult process that
takes meticulous preparation, hard labor, patience, tenacity, and other qualities to be
completed properly”. Data collecting begins with establishing what type of data is
needed, then selecting a sample from a certain demographic.
In this paper, the researcher using the quantitative method to prove that the social
media affected on the young travelers’ decision making. Creating an online survey is the
first step to support topic. As Babbie and Earl R. (2010) state that “Quantitative
approaches stress objective measurements and statistical, mathematical, or numerical
analysis of data acquired through polls, questionnaires, and surveys, as well as the
manipulation of pre-existing statistical data using computing tools. Quantitative research
is associated with collecting numerical data and generalizing it across groups of
individuals or explaining a phenomenon”.
To support researching this project, the analyst created an online survey, which is the
cheapest way for questionnaire be run fast and has the high rate in responding
(Oakshott, 2016). Nevertheless, because this technique of data collecting might restrict
the quantity and quality of information obtained, it is important to properly construct the
questionnaire.
The survey was conducted totally 22 questions as Qualtrics survey system. The first 9
questions are to collect the Demographic information of the contributors. By using the
form of Multiple-choice question with the condition of single answer mixed with multiplex
one. Therefore, the result will show the answer for basic information of participants:
gender, age group, education level, occupation, income status per month, the average
amount of time spends on social media every day, the platform of social media that they
often use, purpose of using social media, and finally the times they used to searching
travel information. The 5 questions, especially the final one supporting to prove that the
social network influenced a few stages in choice making procedure. Ying Chen (2018)
mention that “they anticipate social impact at virtually every phase of the process, from
attribute perception through attitude development to the production of option set
elements”. “When there are multiple options, social networks invariably affect the
creation of decision sets. This might because of selection range trimming, the desire to
meet somebody at the chosen place, or understanding the presence of an alternative,
all of which can be impacted by social media information exchange” (Chen et al., 2018).
This is particularly true when it comes to destination selections, which generally entail a
huge number of possibilities (Horni, 2011). The creation of choice sets is critical for
addressing methodological and practical issues. The definition of option sets can impact
the estimate of model parameters in “discrete choice models” (McFadden, 1978), which
have been frequently utilized in researching travel behavior (Schüssler, 2010). As a
result, generating excellent choice sets is an important step in developing good choice
frameworks (Figure 4).
Figure 4: Data from social media is being included into the decision model (Chen et al.,
2018)

Based on the model of “the social media influences travelers’ decision making”, 5
queries were created to find out the candidates’ opinion that related to how social
networks affected them to visit destinations. The assertions were derived from the
responses of informants in research of Tuong Vi Tran and Huong Hue Do (2016), due to
the young generation of Vietnamese’s perception is showed clearly. In addition, the
Likert scale with five-point was made up for rating: Strongly disagree – Disagree –
Normally – Agree – Strongly agree. The result was witness brightly by participants after
5 questions, that the information and comments which appears on social media about
one tourism place can influence them to travel or not.
Between 7th May 2021 with 16th May 2021, the questionnaire was released on
Facebook; after closing, the researcher received 105 responses. It took each candidate
7 minute to finish. English and Vietnamese were provided in the survey for people to
answer easily, and the final result was statistically complied into a single file before
being translated to quantitative data to analysis. The questionnaire is aimed at the
younger population, primarily from 18- to 40-year-old. Simple random sampling was
employed as the sample method. Due to the researcher had a limitation in time and
resources to investigate entire Vietnamese population, using random sampling will
perfectly be suitable in this situation. A random sampling indicates that every example in
the “population has an equal chance of being included in the sample” (Taherdoost,
2018). Specially, in the Covid-19 pandemic right now, which is the time that this study is
conducted, it could be a challenge for the investor to meet face – to – face people to
interview. Therefore, choosing quantitative method better than qualitative. Moreover, it
saves a lot of effort, cost, and energy, as well as comply with the government's
distancing rule during the current epidemic status.
Clearly that using the data collection will show keys for this study questions and help
researcher awareness of the level of social media impact on gen Y and gen Z making
their decision while traveling in Vietnam.
2. Methods of analyzing data:
Using the Microsoft Excel Data Analysis Toolpak Add-in to compute the connection of
variables and discover insights. The following three tools were utilized in this research:

- Correlation: measuring how closely two factors are related.

- Regression: t Stat and P – value are used to evaluate if the sample size result
can be applied to the community or not.
- Descriptive Analysis: determine Mean and Standard Deviation for required
problems.

3. Ethical considerations:
According to the Research Ethical Policy of Staffordshire University, the results in this
study are exclusively utilized for the research's academic purposes. Commitment that
the content of questions is not improper and offensive. The survey only spread out for
candidates who above 18 years old. Furthermore, during and after the research
information of all participants are kept private and confidential. Except for variables
relating to the survey system itself, the only person who has access to the output replies
is the researcher, therefore there is no way information can be leaked. All the
information gathered came directly from the respondents, with no outside help. Overall,
the researcher not worried about the ethical side of my own study at this time. If there is
one thing that may perplex, it is whether or not this study is beneficial. Because it is
mainly based on the past research, I am concerned that I will not come out of this study
with any truly novel findings in this sector.

Results and analysis

1. Demographic
With the demographic information provided, there are a total of 105 valid responses.
The percent of respondents are from Generation Z, with ages ranging between 18 and
24 at the time of the survey, higher than the other age groups (over 77%). This can be
witnesses as the table below:
Question Answer  Frequenc Percentag
y  e 
Gender
   Male 51 48.5
  Female 52 49.5
  Not prefer to say 2 1.9
Age group      
  18-24 81 77.1
  25-34 19 18.09
  35-40 5 4.76
Education level      
  Highschool 41 39.04
  Bachelor's degree 54 51.43
  Master’s degree 7 6.67
  Doctorate degree 3 2.85
Occupation      
  Full-time 28 26.67
  Part-time 10 9.52
  Student 49 46.67
  Freelancer 12 11.42
  Self-employed 2 1.9
  Start - up 4 3.8
Income status per month      
  10 mil or less 74 70.47
  10mil -15 mil 15 14.28
  15mil - 25 mil 6 5.71
  more than 25 mil 10 9.52
Average amount of time you
spend on social media every Within 1 hour 5 4.76
day 1 -2 hour 16 15.23
2 - 4 hour 44 41.9
More than 6 hours 40 38.09
Time spends on social media
to collect travel information Once 6 5.71
2 - 4 times 25 23.8
4 - 6 times 19 18.09
More than 6 times 55 52.38
Table 1: Result of demographic information

The table above illustrates that people most spend 2 – 4 hour per day to access the
social media every single day, and the time that they are searching for the tourism
instruction is more than 6. This proves that the demand of the younger to travel and
using social media are increasing recently. The attendees took part in this survey are
nearly equal (48.5% of male and 49.5% is female). Over the half of the respondents are
University students, because it can be seen that 51.43% chosen bachelor’s degree,
which lead to the percentage of students in the final result is 46.67%. Therefore, it can
explain why the total income per month is 70.47% for less than 10 million dong.
 2. To what extend do Millennials and gen Z agree that they are influences to travel
by the information which appears on social media?
As mentioned above, this paper will figure out the equality in relationship between social
media and travelling. For that reason, two sample t-test was conducted to find the key
for this relationship. T – test function is often used to compare the likelihood of two
samples having the same mean in their underlying populations, and in this case, the T-
test will assist in determining whether the hypothesis is correct or not. Based on the
answer of the survey, two elements will be testing by using T-test are: “The travel
information in social media has a great impact on tourists travel” mode compares with
“for various ways to collect information about travel destinations, tourist prefer social
media”.

  Variabl Variabl
e1 e2
Mean 3.65476 4.01904
2 8
Variance 1.16853 0.78809
1 5
Observations 84 105
Pooled Variance 0.95695
2
Hypothesized Mean 0
Difference
df 187
t Stat -2.5439
P(T<=t) one-tail 0.00588
5
t Critical one-tail 1.65304
3
P(T<=t) two-tail 0.06177
1
t Critical two-tail 1.97273  
1
Table 2: t-Test: Two-Sample Assuming Equal Variances
As can be seen from the table above, for a two-tailed t-test, this is the p-value. p =
0.061771 in this example. Because this is somewhat greater than alpha = 0.05, the null
hypothesis is not rejected. We do not have enough data to declare that the means of
the two components are different.
t Two-tail critical: This is the test's critical value, which can be found in the t Distribution
table as the value that corresponds to a two-tailed test with alpha = 0.05 and df = 187.
1.972731 turns out to be the answer. The null hypothesis is not rejected since our test
statistic t is smaller than this number. We do not have enough evidence to claim that the
two test elements difference.
3. What is the relationship of social media and cognitive dissonance in tourism?
To answer this question, the correlation between social media and decision – making in
travelling is needed to verify. The table below will show the statistic result:

  Social Other people's Tourist will The attitude

Media travel consider of other
Frequenc experience the cost of tourists in
y and the trip social media
recommendati through has a great
on in social many impact on
media have a different their own
great impact informatio preference,
on tourist n channels intention and
travel plan on social information
networks. processing.
Social Media Frequency 1

Other people's travel 0.8061197 1

experience and 45
recommendation in
social media have a
great impact on tourist
travel plan
Tourist will consider the 0.1772893 0.449908342 1
cost of the trip through 44
many different
information channels on
social networks.
The attitude of other 0.7808021 0.503481662 0.41323107 1
tourists in social media 86 5
has a great impact on
their own preference,
intention, and
information processing.
 Table 3: Correlation between using social media and travel choice making.
All the value witnesses correlation of the social media usage and decision – making to
travel variable. This once again support for the framework (Figure 5) of Xiang and
partners (2008). Arguing the influence of social media on travel and tourism, it is said,
must be understood in the context of the entire online tourism domain, and especially in
the context of travel information search. The importance of search engines in the
Internet usage of tourists was taking into account. It was based on a number of
previous studies that looked at how people seek for travel information online (Hwang,
etc., 2006). It consists of “three major components: (1) the online traveler, who is
motivated by a variety of personal and journey demands; (2) the online tourism domain,
which is made up of informational entities provided by a variety of ‘‘players”, “including
individual consumers via social media; this tourism domain has a distinct semantic
structure determined by the Internet's hypertextual nature and the tourism industry's
structure” (Xiang & Gretzel, 2010).

In addition, utilizing regression to see if the above assumption holds true for the
population as the below table:

Regression Statistics
0.7172893
Multiple R 44
0.7314315
R Square 12
Adjusted R 0.6222070
Square 5
Standard 1.8461011
Error 78
Observation
s 105

ANOVA
  df SS MS F Significance F
Regression 1 2.439320303 2.43932 3.407409 0.067721486
Residual 105 75.16815633 0.715887
Total 106 77.60747664      

Upper Lower Upper

  Coefficients Standard Error t Stat P-value Lower 95% 95% 95.0% 95.0%
Intercept 3.584259202 0.316965017 11.30806 7.18E-20 2.955776125 4.212742 2.955776 4.212742
Social Media
Frequency 0.155887282 0.084449789 1.845917 0.047721 -0.01156105 0.323336 -0.01156 0.323336
Table 4: Regression Statistic.
In this situation, the t-value is 1.982815. It is apparent that the t State is equal to 1.9861
and the P-value is less than 0.05. As a result, it can be deduced that a large group of
people is impacted traveling by the information online.
Evaluation:
1. Strength of research:
The study’s findings demonstrate that media does, in fact, form a significant portion of
tourism industry and hence play a major role in travel planning via web searching. They
do not, however, take up all of the available real estate on relevant websites, leaving
opportunity for tourist marketers to “compete effectively with social media” for achieving
attention of customers.
Referring to a group of websites that allow users to share their experiences in a
multitude way, including publishing articles, comments, and even photos and videos.
Moreover, the result of this paper allows to validate the substantial “role of social media
in Vietnamese tourism industry”. This implies social media is becoming a more
important new channel for marketers to consider what business strategy will effectively
engage customers. It is especially important at the pandemic period now that e –
commerce is growing more widespread. Along with that, most current research just also
focusses on the socio-psychological aspects of tourist sector (Pan 2007).
2. Limitation of research:
When researching, this document has certain restrictions. The questionnaire was
created based on past research, so there may be some duplication and it will not
provide anything that is definitely unique. In addition, the data analysis process's sample
is now centered on a single age group. It is also possible that it is skewed since the
individuals' living situations are comparable. Moreover, the result of the survey still can
not highlight and give the detail answer for the third question.
3. Further supporting research:
The study is conducted during the Covid – 19 pandemics. In this time, there is a rising
in time that the young generation using social media, and Facebook is one of the most
popular. When it comes to promoting a tourism location, Facebook stands out among
the many online platforms. “Through advertising and custom-developed Facebook
applications, travel businesses may discover potential customers, connect directly with
them, engage with advocates, and build branded experiences”(Rahman, 2017).
Rahman (2017) also mentioned “destinations will be able to utilize Facebook as a
consumer market research tool to acquire user, monitor content engagement, and
crowdsource ideas before bringing them to the market”.
4. Suggestion for further research:
After doing this paper, recommendation for the other researcher that they should
discover the behavior of tourist active on social media deeper, and the target group join
in this study must open widely, which from baby boomer, gen Y and Gen Z. More
research should be focus on Vietnamese and led to a strategy to support the tourism
market of Vietnam. Besides that, finding and design a way to develop the tourism in the
future with target audience group is people from 18- to 25-year-old.
Conclusion:
1. Summary:
There are a number of theoretical contributions worth mentioning. In general, social
media plays an indirect influence in vacation destination selection, serving as both a
“need generator and a supporter”. Firstly, by presenting locations to viewers, social
media encourages users to “add them to their ‘bucket list’ of places to visit” (Xuerui,
2019). Secondly, social network may remind users of locations they previously placed to
a "bucket list," therefore supporting and strengthening their desire to travel. In contrast,
social media was directly influence on travel decisions inside the location. These social
media jobs are known as “guide and approver”. Users purposefully utilize social media
to research and gather information before to or during a vacation, and as a result, social
media is assigned the function of guide. It has been argued that “new and mobile
information technologies”(Ramseook-Munhurrun et al., 2015) are displacing
conventional guidebooks, with social media playing a key role in this. Social media,
unlike conventional guides, is more sophisticated, with web 2.0 elements including
location-based suggestions and services. Furthermore, social media was discovered to
serve as a final approver. Traditional information sources cannot play such “a part in
tourist decision-making based on speed, ad-hoc accessibility, and actuality, as the
approver function is introduced with the advent of new information technologies”
(Xuerui, 2019). In addition, although research exploring their impact on visitors reveal
mixed outcomes, social media has been said to have changed the tourism scene. While
both professionals and visitors are using social media, the environment in which they
are used and the impact they have is less well known. Tourists, on the other hand,
utilize social media tools to make tourism considerations, including location selection.
Importantly, identifying the contextual factors that characterize varying levels of social
media influence has revealed the required subtlety in understanding, underlining the
warning note for those researching and implementing social media initiatives. Therefore,
Vietnamese marketers or the others should develop the social media marketing in the
future to attract more tourists. This study basically built a ground to prove that there is a
connection in social media and the way people make the mind set whether to travel to
one tourism destination or not.
5. Personal reflection
During the process working on this study, there are many things that pop up, so I realize
a lot about my own ability, as well as the knowledge in tourism field.
First of all, after doing research on the topic of social media, I have a new perspective of
young generation in this modern world. The habits and behavior of gen Z which can
witness through investigation have drove tourism industry to a new page. For baby
boomer when mention traveling means pack their bag and go to location to discover
while they were young and find the way to relax at the age of this time. However, for
Millennial and gen Z, traveling does not have to go, you can stay in your home and visit
a place through a screen. They were born in a technological period, which led them to
smart phones, high technology things. This develops their life easier and faster. When
they need something, just one click and everything will be done. Realizing the change in
behavior and target of customers, the market of tourism has to transform too.
Especially, in the covid-19 pandemic, industry has developed quickly to reach the
customers’ demand. Creating advertising on online platforms, such as Facebook and
Instagram, is the first step persuades the rise in the number of tourists to visit the place.
Then opening the virtual tour can help tourism industry ‘does not die’ during the hard
situation like Covid. Therefore, a huge chance for us to do more research paper about
tourism in the future and let an opportunity to design a new marketing strategy or
establish a brand – new door for tourism.
About myself when studying the topic, I have chance to gain more knowledge, as well
as learning a new skill – data analysis. Before working on this paper, I have never
thought that I can collect the data or analysis professional. For me, it is really hard to
learn how to use excel and it always something magical. Only a few steps and the result
come out, and it support researcher a lot in dig deeper with their topic. Besides, I
learned how to organize and manage my time. With a month to do this research, I
learned how to create a schedule for myself so that I could do my research on time.
Along with that, my critical thinking skills have also been greatly enhanced. When doing
research, reading documents gave me the opportunity to practice thinking, finding
answers to problems as closely as possible. In particular, my ability to concentrate has
also improved significantly. In the past, focusing on doing something for me was quite
difficult because I am a person who is easily distracted by the things around me.
Nonetheless, in order to be able to do this research, I had to put one hundred percent of
my focus into it so as not to make any mistakes.
Additionally, I also realized some of my own weaknesses when doing research. Despite
having prepared for this paper since last semester, the mental breakdown still a
challenge for me to go through. Worry too much make me keep changing and
sometimes lazier when open the journal to read. When I knew that I must use excel to
analysis, I did not believe in my ability, so I delay the time of finishing my study. This is
one of the reasons that I am not so confidence to submit the paper. Also, this paper is
not giving the answer for all three big questions that I mention before. Even the
research has cover and prove the relationship of human’s decision making with social
media, but it also not suggests or clearly show the contribution of social network to
Vietnamese tourism. But after all, I am still quite satisfied with my research paper. One
more problem that I faced during this time is my health problem. To finish this project, I
was nearly forgetting to take care of myself; stay awake for whole night for too long
make my biological clock is move to American time. That is the reason why my body
timetable and skipped meals led to stomach be damaged so badly. After that, I
recognized I must set a more scientific work schedule so as not to harm health to this
extent.
In the near future, specifically right after finishing the assignment, I will improve my
health, so that I can do other things better. Then make some date to refresh my mind
due to stressed that I suffered from working. Far vision graduate later, I plan move to
Sai Gon to find job that related to event because I have been offered a position at a
wedding planner company. If I can not success in getting a new job on behalf of many
elements, for example, Covid—19 pandemic will affect on my plan to visit Ho Chi Minh
city; a back up plan is that I will take a higher education in tourism major or take part in
a online course about marketing, so I can prepare really good for my career from this
point forward with difference skills.
Word count: 6727
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Appendix: Survey of research