SOCIAL MEDIA INFLUENCE
How Social Media Influence Customers Purchasing Behavior in the Macau Hotels Sector
Data Analysis
After surveying the travelers who have visited Macau for their traveling plans, the data is obtained in a comprehensive graphic manner to interpret the results easier. Initially, keeping the ethics of research in mind, the respondents obtained informed consent. The pie chart showed that all 113 participants agreed and accepted to participate in the research after explaining the studys purpose. The demographics showed that approximately 60 percent of them were males while the remaining 40 percent were females. The respondents of age 18-19 years were 7 percent of the total sample, 20-25 years were 59.3 percent, 26-30 years were 11.5 percent, 31-40 years were 8 percent, 41-50 years were 4.5 percent, and 51-60 years were 9.7 percent while above 60 years was none. The socio-economic status of the respondents revealed that people who earned less than $5000 were 27.4 percent of the entire sample, people earning $5001-$10,000 were 15 percent, people earning $10,001-$20,000 were 24.8 percent, people earning $20,001-$30,000 were 15 percent, people earning $30,001-$40,000 were 8.8 percent. In comparison, people earning above $40,000 were 8.8 percent as well.
Further, the number of times respondents have lived in a hotel in Macau was also asked. The highest number of respondents sub-group who stayed in Macau hotel said sometimes, the second-highest sub-group was those respondents who said they seldom stayed over there. The third highest sub-group was those who frequently stayed in Macau hotels. The last two sub-groups were for never and always based on the number of stayed, respectively.
The surveys first question revealed that when researching travel destinations on the Internet, 84 percent of the respondents believed that Covid 19 influenced their travel plans and relevant decisions for staying in Macau hotels. However, the remaining 16 percent did not believe the same way.
The surveys second question disclosed that while selecting a destination in the Eastern portion of the world, which encompasses China, Japan, Australia, etc., 85 percent of the respondents first use social media to gather information. The remaining 15 percent did not use social media platforms for this purpose, though.
The third question of the survey discovered that 71 percent of the respondents felt that social media has a disproportionate impact on their travel decisions, while 29 percent did not think so.
The response to the fourth question showed that Instagram was the most frequently used social media account for influencing their purchase decisions about hoteling. At the same time, they traveled, accounting for up to 42 percent of the sample respondents. Facebook came after it with 40.5 percent of the votes and small portions of the pie charts dedicated to Twitter, Tik Tok, LinkedIn, YouTube, etc.
The fifth question revealed that 88.5 percent of the respondents agreed that the direct experience of others impacted their decision to stay at a certain traveling destination. In comparison, the remaining 11.5 percent did not get influenced.
The sixth question discovered the important elements that respondents considered while making their travel purchase decision. The elements included price, value, location, activities, online reviews, facilities, safety, and multiple elements out of the given ones. Price was the most esteemed element for which 78.8 percent of the respondents voted. Value came the next, for which 51.3 percent of the respondents gave their consent. After the first two elements, location, activities, and online reviews earned their respective marks in this order. The lowest three elements were facilities, safety, and multiple options.
The seventh question asked for other sources of information, excluding social media, that travelers use while deciding about the travel destination. The responses comprised several reputations,...
…inappropriate decision (Mohy ud Din et al., 2021). The presence of relevant information matters for herding since, in the case of Macau respondents, if the information were not available regarding hotels, facilities, prices, environment, etc., the decision made after social media research and an influence of herding would have been low. Herding takes place when the private comments of people based on their own and similar shopping experiences are posted on social media, especially those that have upsurge during Covid-19 (Duan, Gu, and Whinston, 2005, p. 3514). The Internet has served as a persuasive provider of information that favors a certain decision that the online researcher or potential buyer of a product or service is looking for (Pavlovic-Hock, 2022, p. 1). Only when the information is pertinent and is similar to the researchers needs (in this case, it was the Macau respondent) then the herding effect takes its form and influences the final decision after going through social media posts.Research has supported that the herding effect influences in two ways; first that when detailed information is available about the products quality and features, people make choices based on those opinions, making herding more fitting- secondly, when more information is available, then herding becomes less desirable as there are forums on social media platforms where people discuss a products quality and features that do not keep the charm of the product (Duan, Gu, and Whinston, 2005, p. 3514). In the Macau respondents case, it could be hard to discern which of the two cases occurred when they benefited from social media information. However, if most of them agreed that social media definitely influenced their decisions, the level of trust put on social media feedback and comments, and the publics risk perception of the products they already bought, Macau respondents entrusting on social…
Reference List
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