Electronic word-of-mouth (eWOM) and customer opinions in hospitality and tourism

Identifier:  TDX:4153

Handle: https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11797/TDX4153

Authors:  Muritala, Babajide Abubakr

Abstract:
In the contemporary digital age, electronic word-of-mouth (eWOM) by customers is important in virtually every customer-facing industry. It is even more important in the hospitality and tourism sector, where excellent service is praised and poor service criticized on the Internet via social media or online customer reviews. These comments, reviews, and ratings have an edge over traditional word-of-mouth because they can potentially reach more people, persist for longer, and possibly go viral on the Internet. Hence, they can influence the perception and performance of hospitality and tourism businesses, with customers making purchase decisions based on what their online peers say. The aim of this doctoral thesis was to investigate electronic word-of-mouth (eWOM) and customer opinions in the hospitality and tourism industry. To achieve this aim, a literature review is conducted and electronic word-of-mouth (eWOM) data from social media is collected and analyzed in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, which broke out during the course of this study and immediately became the foremost issue in the global economy as well as in this industry. This thesis revealed the current state of this research area, the perception of cruise tourism as a result of COVID-19 outbreaks on cruise ships, and the practice of staycations during the first two years of the pandemic. The main conclusions include a reaffirmation of the importance of electronic word-of-mouth (eWOM) in the hospitality and tourism with, in addition to key insights in the respective study areas.