Chapter 2

REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE AND STUDIES

This chapter presented studies and literature related to the online tourist reviews

and social media brands that are relevant to Boracay Hotels and travelers and can impart

the researcher’s beneficial indication in the development of the research.

Presentation should be sequencing, meaning start with the usage of internet as

mean of marketing communications, down with the various social media before the

variables you use in the SOP, online characteristics so on and so forth.

Sunodsunodlang)

Online Reviews / Online Review Ratings

According to Niu and Fan (2018) online reviews coming from customers were

perceptibly having a powerful impact on businesses and consumers ever since the

internet became well known and mobile application were accessible for the customers.

Customers can easily post and share their experiences on products and services online

which can be read and reviewed by the online review readers. Due to the growing

popularity of social media, customers were more vigilant in seeking and reading online

reviews before they buy any product online. Businesses became aware of this event and

consider this as an opportunity to be connected to their customers. According to Sparks

et al. (2016) (as cited by Niuand Fan, 2016), a business is more trustworthy if majority of

the online reviews are being responded effectively and this is base on the perception of

the customers who are more dependent on online reviews before making any purchase.

This study conducted a multiple case study in 11 hospitality services with a purpose to
develop an integrative framework with the main element of online review management

system using the Grounded Theory. The findings of the study showed that online review

management system should not just limit them in responding with online reviews. They

should go further and must integrate the main elements needed particularly the main

elements which are the formality, centralization, specialization, response customization,

integration and review analytics. This is in order to successfully and effectively

understands the importance of customer online reviews and this is significant in the

development process of the business.

Reviews that were read by consumers online can normally form an image

representation of a brand on their mind and these usually influence how they perceive the

brand image (Chakraborty and Bhat, 2018). Online reviews were thoroughly read and

assessed by consumers if an online review is credible before acknowledging them (Shan,

2016) as cited by Chakraborty and Bhat, (2018). Based on the description of (Aranda et

al., 2015) as cited by Chakraborty and Bhat, when the brand possessed a strong image,

this gave the customers a reason to pay higher and it also became the reason for the

company’s success and benefit. The study focused on the different factors that influenced

the consumers to share their experiences on the product they were able to use. The

effects of online reviews were investigated according to the functional and hedonic brand

images based on the electronic products in India. The result showed that on credibility

evaluation, both source and review quality got the higher significant effect on hedonic and

functional image. And hedonic brand image is more effective as compared to functional

brand image.
 Markham-Bagnera (2016), illustrated that the businesses can be given ratings and

reviews due to its exposure in the social technologies. These ratings and reviews were

closed to the potential customers for them to read and assess. These reviews or user-

generated contents which were carefully assessed by consumers can obtain trust and

credibility as the basis of business information. Electronic word-of-mouth which also

known as online reviews were discussed in this study to fully understands the background

of user-generated content. Litvin, Goldsmith, & Pan, (2008),(as cited by Bagnera,

2016)explained word-of-mouth (WOM) as the manner of online social communication

among consumers who were sharing and posting reviews about a particular product or

service of any business that they were able to experience. The study aims to determine

the influence of online ratings in Tripadvisor on hotel performance based on the average

daily occupancy and Revenue per available room of hotels in Boston Massachusetts.

According to the findings of the study, different aspects had been found that affects the

levels of significant effect on the stated variables (ADR and RevPar).

Tantrabundit, (2015), described that in the process of purchasing any product or

service which is unknown to the customers, they would normally seek and gather relevant

information and assess them and get some ideas about the product or service they

planned to purchase. However, due to the reason that the online information was

countless enough for them to be given attention, consumers decided on filtering some of

them and initiated to search for more relevant information on their own before finalizing

their decision. For the business to obtain customer satisfaction and competitive

advantages, they were adopting the internet and considered as their main communication

tool and marketing channel. According to Goldsmith and Horowitz, (2006) (as cited by
Tantrabundit2015), businesses were also adopting the online communities and making it

as part of the competitive advantages to improve their businesses, increase market share,

and enabled them to offer more products and services online. The researchers wanted to

examine the effects of online review rating system on online consumer behavior in the

hotel industry and the purpose to answer the research questions. The result showed that

the components of rating score were not only based on the online consumers’ perception

on valence. But review content and responding messages from service providers were

considered as the factors. Moreover, eWOM rational review content was significantly

more effective on online consumer’s perception as compared to emotional review content.

As for the information quality, rating score, review content and responding message from

service providers showed that it also influenced online consumer’s perception.

Moriuchi (2018) commented that the reason why big companies like Amazon

engaged in an online business was because of the online social interaction of the

consumers which was the primary basis of successful online business. With the presence

of social components in an e-commerce site, basically the business was considered as

social commerce. This means that no matter how the transaction was made, may it be in

any social media platform or on e-commerce site, for as long as the consumers who were

checking and searching for an online business, social interaction were still the main

element. However, online reviews that were manipulated are getting higher and big

electronic vendors like Amazon were trying to prevent deceptive reviews which can

mislead and influence consumers buying decision. Moriuchi noted that labeling the

customers as “Amazon verified” was one of the ways that Amazon did in order to prevent

this kind of untruthful reviews and to ensure that a customer is not a bogus buyer, because
in this way they can made sure of the safety of their brand. The study of Moriuchi showed

that online reviews should not be regarded as a risk in a business; instead marketers

should consider them as their opportunity to be open and get information and ideas in

improving their business.

Xie (2013), illustrated that the observed facts in the previous studies consumers

reviews has been considered as an external factor that influenced by rooms sales. The

study had found out that due to the volume of reviews published online that affects

consumers awareness, it was noted that this influence the room sales performance.

Ghose et al. (2012) (as cited by Xie, 2013) described that User-generated content

increased because of the technology advancement and this can be accessed and read

in any social media platforms wherein consumers are searching and buying online

products. According to Nelson (1970) and Pine & Gilmore (1998) (as cited by Xie, 2013),

word-of-mouth was considered as one of the most influential factors in sharing information

about a product or services especially in the hospitality industry which they noted as a

very complex in giving evaluation unless these are consumed and experienced by

consumers.

According to Book, L.S. (2016), consumers were dealing with different information

from various content sources such as product information generated by companies as a

description of product they are selling online. Another source of information was the user-

generated content, which is responsible for giving collective rating scores, total

percentage garnered by a certain recommendation and an online review generated by

consumers who experienced the product or service. The existence of online reviews on

online community had created an exceptional purchasing atmosphere for the consumers
and the companies. According to Park and Lee (2009) as cited by (Book, 2016), online

reviews played an important role in both business and consumers because of its power

to influence the consumers’ buying decision. The study examined the characteristics of

source and content in order to understand how it influences consumers’ perception and

buying decision. Based on the result, the source characteristics have the possibility to

affect the perceptions, buying decisions, and informational influence of the consumers,

and as of the content characteristics, the result have shown that this can directly lead to

different forms of consumers processing, affect perceptions, decisions and information

recall. The result also showed that in online reviews, the influence of information was

always present and normative social influence did not appear and exist in online reviews

because the online reviews do not comply with any standard or rules.

Godin (2015), on “How Online Reviews Affect Sales (And what to do about it)”

stated that in the business, online reviews are significant but how can be proved that

it is really important. A figure based on the statistical record provided in this article

says that 92% of the consumers normally read reviews online. Consumers’ judgment

for business can be learned from the ratings they are giving and it is a number one

factor. Reviews that were written for more than one month are considered as

irrelevant by 44% of the consumers because these reviews might already be obsolete.

On the other hand, 26% of the consumers believed that local businesses should

allocate time in responding to their reviews. When users start to look for the list of

results, the combined reviews will affect their decision to check or not in just a small

period of time, it may be in form of words or in star rating. Potential customers always

choose to read reviews intently, and that will eventually influence them with their
buying decision. In order to utilize reviews for the benefit of the business, business

employee must continue to be attentive on the consumers’ feedback about the

product and service, and they must encourage every single consumer to leave a

feedback or opinion and not just focus on the one’s that had a good experience.

According to Touminen, P. (2019), several travelers were checking and seeking

for online reviews and information before arranging their travel plans online. However,

Touminen claimed that these reviews had not been known on how it really affected the

hotel performance, and hospitality industry has been ignoring and not making any actions

to properly manage online reviews. The study had stated that previous researches had

enhanced the practitioners and scholars knowledge of the electronic word-of-mouth

impact on hotel performance, but it was not yet determined the factors that influenced the

hotel performance. The researcher tried to make a resolution on the factors that

influenced by user-generated content and ratings given by travelers which were not

identified and reviewed by the hospitality industry. An investigation was conducted based

on the 1752 reviews and hotel performance data of 77 hotels from 6 different cities. The

result had shown the relationship between hotel performance and number of user-

generated content and review ratings. This study had recommended undergoing further

research which could facilitate in giving ideas and proposal in proper handling and

managing online reviews and to take note of the service quality that should be rendered

by hospitality practitioners that were especially mentioned by the consumers in their

reviews.

Varkaris, E., and Neuhofer, B., (2017), explained that consumers were applying

social media in a wide range of hospitality and tourism situation, whereas social media
influence on consumers’ hotel decision making process was slightly unidentified and

recognized. The study aimed to investigate on the social media’s influence to consumers

in terms of searching, evaluating, and selecting a hotel during the evaluation stage in the

broader aspect of hotel decision-making process. The findings showed that consumers

has changed their way of deciding and booking their hotels because of the influence of

social media in terms of searching, decision-making, and hotel booking. The findings

showed the factors that influenced the decision process by explaining the perceived value

of consumers’ social media usage, behavioral response during and after information

searching, the benefits and inconvenience of using social media that affects the decision-

making, the credibility, and the determinants that affects the consumers’ hotel decision-

making.

Due to the use of internet as sales channel for hotel businesses, concurrent sales

and communications and online review platforms were giving the consumers the

opportunity to access and check social media sites and are critically influencing the

business performance, (Agusaj, B., PhD, Bazdan, V., PhD., and Lujak, D., 2017). This

study aimed to examine the relationship between hotel star rating, online reviews and

room pricing power. The researchers claimed that this study should be conducted due to

the scarcity of appropriate investigation on this specific topic. The social media has been

considered as significant and its influence and power in the business cannot be denied.

Agusaj, Bazdan and Lujak (2017) stated that tourism and hospitality is not an exemption

to this fact and also considered as the leading industry that experienced this

phenomenon. The findings have shown that hotel star rating, online rating and room
pricing power have a significant relationship and also, Tripadvisor and Booking.com have

a strong relationship and both are considered credible when it comes to online reviews.

According to Manner and Lane (2017), consumers’ preference and purchasing

behavior has been increasingly influenced by the trend created by online customer

reviews (OCR’s). The figures has been provided by The BrightLocal (2015) based on their

conducted survey which were cited on this study by Manner and Lane (2017). The figures

had illustrated that consumers who were reading online reviews on a regular and irregular

basis garnered 92%. For local business, 27% of the consumers recommended checking

online reviews on Facebook despite of recognizing traditional word-of-mouth as the most

trustworthy and known for business recommendation. Another figure from Nielsen (2015)

as cited by Manner and Lane, which showed 66% of consumers worldwide, were trusting

online customer reviews. The study aimed to investigate on the sociodemographic

characteristics and personality traits of the consumers correlated to the positive and

negative online customer reviews. The result has shown the quadratic effect of age in the

probability to post online reviews. Manner and Lane (2017) illustrated that the findings of

this study can help the business in the development and enhancement of OCR platforms

in order to persuade customers’ positive reviews.

Kordrostami, E. (2016) described that every detail written in an online review, may

it be negative or positive review can influence consumers’ purchase decision-making

process. Related to this topic, majority of the studies have studied on the valence and

volume of online reviews. Business sales was claimed to have positively influenced by

valence and volume of online reviews, but most of the studies has yet to show conclusive

results (Kordrostami, E. 2016). To explain and justify the inconsistencies in the literature,
the researcher tried to examine the moderating role of regulatory focus in the relationship

between the valence and volume of online reviews and consumers’ probability to

purchase products. According to Higgins (1997) as cited by (Kordrostami, 2016), the

theory of Regulatory focus recommended that individuals in general have either

advancement or an aversion introduction in moving toward the ideal objectives.

Kordrostami argued that by just the presence of scarcity appeal and the particular type of

scarcity appeal can significantly influence the consumers’ decision to gauge valence as

compared to the volume of review information.

Kwok, Xie, and Richards, (2017) explained that several hospitality studies have

came out about the body of knowledge of online reviews and it rapidly increased,

however, it was found out that in the research development, relevant online review studies

had not been synthesized to the present related studies. Therefore, synthesizing the

present findings of the research related to online reviews that were reported in the major

hospitality and tourism journals was the purpose of this study; and also to discuss the

body of knowledge research gaps wherein the additional research was required. 67

research articles were examined relevant to online review studies and utilizing the

systematic review approach. Coming from the seven major hospitality journals, the 67

articles that were examined were the published articles from January 2000-July 2015. A

thematic framework was presented on this study, and this framework was highly

developed in incorporating interactions using the quantitative evaluation features. The

result illustrated that the verbal, reputation, and social features of online reviews

influenced with the significant effect of consumer decision-making and business

performance.
Information on value and quality are limited for consumers who purchased products

occasionally, and because of this, consumers depended on outside sources (Viglia and

Buhalis, 2016). According to Mauri and Minazzi, (2013); Sparks et al., 2013) as cited by

(Viglia and Buhalis, 2016), professional reviewers were the major outside sources of

information, however, independent consumers did not recognize this because of the

inadequate information despite of professional reviewers having contact in larger market.

For consumers’ decision-making, online reviews played a very important role; and

Tripadvisor, and Booking.com also played a significant function when it comes to online

reviews in the hotel industry. Therefore, this study investigated the effects of online

reviews on the occupancy rate of the hotels. Through the use of regression analysis, the

findings have shown the impact of aspects of consumer reviews on the hotels situated in

Rome regarding the occupancy rate, the number of aspects that may influence the result

on demand was separated. The result showed that in spite of the review score, the

number of reviews still obtained a positive effect, however, with a negative effect on the

intention to revisit. This implied that the higher the number of online reviews, the more

that the occupancy rates get affected.

Planning a trip to other place which is unfamiliar and looking for a hotel, a traveler

normally thinks of searching and checking on the internet for a possible hotel before

deciding to book an accommodation on where to stay. Looking for a perfect

accommodation always comes with the travelers’ personal and budget requirements. The

travelers also considered various customer reviews they read before making a decision

to book for a hotel, (Sreejesh and Anusree, 2016). Therefore, this study examined on the

role of webcare as a service failure recovery strategy on the intentions of customers in

making hotel bookings with levels of observed severity and review agreement as the

factors. The study also examined the mechanism in which webcare can identify the

negative impact of perceived severity and review agreement on customers hotel booking

intention. As for the result of this study, it was found that there was a lower possibility of

booking intention from the customers who were able to identify the high severe service

failure and this result was supported by identified review agreement as compared to the

customers who were exposed to low review agreement.

Xinyuan, Z., Liang, W., Xiao, G., and Rob, L., (2015) investigated on how online

reviews and source features have affected travelers on online hotel booking intentions.

According to Sigala (2009) as cited by (Xinhuan et al. 2015), travel destination and

services were often expressed through online reviews. Consumers were dependent on

the information on products and services provided by the hotels and this was an original

belief of other customers (Senecal and Nantel, 2004). Therefore, the study developed a

model and examined the data collected from business travelers in Mainland China. The

findings have shown that there were six features of online reviews and one source

attribute have been identified and these were, usefulness, review expertise, timeliness,

volume, valence, and comprehensiveness. With the use of regression analysis, the result

showed that there is a positive significant relationship between the six features of online

reviews and respondents’ online booking intentions. While it was found out that negative

online reviews and online booking intentions have no negative significant impacts, and

positive online reviews on booking intentions were found not statistically significant.

Somohardjo, N., (2017) commented that nowadays, after more than two decades,

leaving the house for shopping is no longer relevant for the consumers especially when
internet have emerged because everything became possible just like booking for a

holiday. Consumers were spending more time to shop online and created a bigger

difference on shopping online and offline. The effect of online reviews became a

motivating factor for the marketers because it played an important function in consumers’

decision journey. Therefore, Somorhardjo (2017) study investigated on the effect of online

review elements on the consumer review attitude and purchase intention. Based on the

findings, review attitude and purchase intention were influenced by online reviews.

Constantinides and Holleschovsky, (2016) explained that sharing of opinions and

experiences on companies, brands, products and/or services and creating of word-of-

mouth online community is a form of consumer-generated content which is the primary

element of electronic word-of-mouth (eWOM). The different online platforms for product

reviews and recommendations vary according to the objectives, functions, and attributes.

Constantinides and Holleschovsky mentioned that companies are required to identify the

different online review platforms in order to effectively respond on them and also to be

aware of their characteristics for the continuous assessment on how these reviews have

influenced the purchasing decision of the consumers. The study has highlighted the four

main types of online review platforms, and these are retail websites, independent

reviewing, video sharing and personal blogs platforms. The stated four main types of

platforms represented the product reviews in different forms and gave emphasis on the

attributes of review function. The result underscored the significance of the credibility and

usability of online review platform on consumer trust in the reviews as a factor in the

consumer decision-making process.

 For the consumers to give updates for their holiday or hotel destination for booking,

they are using internet, and the number of internet users are growing. Travelers have

minimal opportunity to assess the service quality they received or if this can even meet

their expectation especially when they do not have the actual experience on a particular

hotel or destination (Browning, V., So, K., and Sparks, B., 2013). According to Litvin,

Goldsmith, & Pan, 2008; Papathanassis&Knolle, (2011) as cited by (Browning et al. 2013)

holidays were considered as intangible product which was tough to assess because it is

produced and consumed simultaneously and the consumers do not have time to make

an evaluation before the consumption. Murphy, Mascarado, and Benckendorff (2007) as

cited by (Browning et al. 2013) stated that consumers regarded online reviews as their

most reliable source of information in selecting destinations for holiday. Therefore,

Browning et al. (2013) investigated on how the hotel reviews influence on consumers’

attribution of service quality and firms ability to control service delivery. The result has

shown that it was more possible to produce service quality attributions if hotel review

evaluation is relevant to main services. Customers’ attributions on controllability for

service delivery were affected by recently posted reviews and the negative reviews

bringing an adverse influence on consumers’ perceptions.

In order to express personal trip-related reviews and opinions, social media

networks helped the travelers in expressing their thoughts about their experiences.

Travelers were also providing their vital evaluation aside from expressing their personal

experience that could be used by other travelers to help them ease their hesitation about

the information (Kim, W., and Park, S., A., (2017). This study of Kim et al (2017) about

the social media review rating versus traditional customer satisfaction aimed to examine
on how the hotel performance was affected by the traditional customer satisfaction and

social media review ratings, and this study investigated which among the affiliated online

travel intermediaries were providing the most reliable, credible and valid provider of

review ratings about hotel performance. According to the studied findings of this study,

the result had shown that social media review rating was more significant predictor as

compared to traditional customer satisfaction on hotel performance metrics, and

Tripadvisor was named as the finest hotel performance predictor in social media review

ratings among other intermediaries.

Social Media / Social Media Marketing

According to Hajli, N. (2014), new opportunities have been offered by social media

to the consumers and these opportunities have been utilized to interact with other users.

Social media have been used by online communities in generating content that were able

to share and connect with other internet users. This study of Hajli on the impact of social

media to the consumers also helped in identifying the beneficial outcome that the

businesses obtained. Lu et al. (2010) (as cited by Hajli, 2014) described that in the

modern years that the internet has emerged, the internet progressions have given

innovative systems which can be used for the development of the businesses and one of

the great examples is the online communities which are form in social media. Social

interactions that were available in the social media helped improve the level of trust of the

consumers and also lessen the possible risks. The study underwent a survey for data

gathering in order to identify how social media helped consumers in the social interaction

process and developed trust and intention to buy. The result of the study showed that
trust has directly and significantly affected the buying intention of the consumers and

social media sites usage convenience was also one of the contributing factors.

Iacovou (2016) described that the transformation in the way the internet was being

applied in today’s generation had significantly affected the hospitality and tourism

industry. The industry has been using the push marketing strategy which was the

traditional way of promoting products and services to the customers. Since the

emergence of internet, this traditional push marketing strategy was transformed into pull

marketing which means using word-of-mouth referrals and social media marketing

promotions. Touibia et al. (2011) (as cited by Iacovou, 2016) explained that utilizing the

traditional push marketing was to increase awareness, to reach out and invite potential

customers with the use of promotional tools such as printed brochures or pamphlets as

their form of advertisement. Yet, the traditional mass marketing was no longer effective

and slowly became outdated since the emergence of internet and customers were more

dependent in using social media, Gounaris et al. (2010) (as cited by Iacovou, 2016). This

study of Iacovou aims to find out the factors which caused the lacking of social media and

marketing activities integration in hospitality industry. The result showed that there were

factors that inhibited the hospitality and tourism industry to fully integrate marketing and

social media in their marketing activities. The study particularly mentioned the main

factors that made the hospitality and tourism industry to prevent this action were because

of the current customer behavior when it comes to using of social media which sometimes

are uncontrollable and the marketing departments being dependent on its foreign partners

in promoting their products and services and not disclosing important information

particularly in the aspects of money, time, effort, and training. This study offered important
information for the future researchers who would desire to do a research involving social

media marketing development.

Businesses included their online activities by using social media platforms for their

product and service marketing and promotions, (He et al., 2017). Social media comments

especially in the Facebook and Tripadvisor are being taken seriously by businesses and

customers because this can affect them both. Social media information analysis can help

businesses in getting more ideas on how to develop and improve their own products, can

even seek for suggestions on how to design and plan their marketing strategies and

search for solutions that would be suggested by customers through their online reviews

and utilize this for competitive advantages. According to Rathore et al., (2016) as cited by

He et al. (2017), found that other businesses were using social media as their advantage

in involving customers in the development of their products by reading comments and

suggestions from online reviews; in this way, they can improve and enhance their

products according to the preferences of the customers. This study conducted by He et

al. aimed to examine online customer reviews in relation to different hotels using the

following elements: words preprocessing, text mining and sentiment analysis techniques.

The result found that overall review star rating showed a relationship with the sentiments

scores of customers’ online reviews in both title and full content.

Jain et al. (2018) investigated the relationship of customer and brand on social

media platforms, the effect of brand loyalty and word-of-mouth as intervened by brand

trust. There was a scarcity on this line of study especially in the relationship of customer

and brand in social media as commented by Jain et al. Lou et al. (2015) as cited by (Jain

et al.) social media was considered as the fastest and effective way in finding potential
customers and at the same time, maintaining the good relationship they developed. The

researchers’ purpose to investigate the relationship of customer-brand that affected the

brand loyalty and word-of-mouth through brand trust, a conceptual model was formed

and utilized in order to answer the researchers’ research problems. The findings had

shown that customer-brand relationship, brand loyalty and word of mouth did not fully

influence the brand trust. But on the other hand, the study found that the result on

customer-brand relationships, brand loyalty, and word-of-mouth was insignificant in

connection to the satisfaction variable.

Social media has been the outlet of consumers in expressing their comments

through a negative review on a product or service they experienced. However, some

organization did not know how to respond in an appropriate manner on the negative

comments they received coming from the consumers which restraining them in improving

their service and even giving a bad image to the organization. Because of this, a business

problem was determined in this study that due to the negative comments posted by

consumers on social media based on their experiences on product or service that can be

read and assessed by readers; this has affected the purchase behavior of potential

customers. The study found that an organization was in need of appropriate strategy in

managing and responding the negative comments (Wagner, 2015). Dinnen and

Hassanien (2011) as cited by (Wagner, 2015) explained that organization should

understand and appreciate the importance of engaging to consumers and persuading

them to share their experiences on social media, may it be good or bad, for as long as it

can help the organization to enhance their marketing strategy, improve their service and

can help them in establishing their own competitive advantage among its competitors.
 According to Silvar and Bayer (2017), the use of internet and mobile devices, the

world and the marketing had restructured its concept with the help of technology

advancement. The communication in business-to-business, business-to-customer,

customer-to-customer, and customer-to-business became possible because of the

internet and online world. Digital media or now known as social media became the way

in maintaining good relationship with the customers, and also obtaining much more

possible customers. The first thing that always came to the customers’ awareness when

they heard about online referrals was online reviews of other guests particularly reviews

that can be read in one of the most popular social media platform which is the Tripadvisor.

People who are engaged and connected in the online world were considered as the

citizen of the cyber world because they spent most of their time in digital environments,

(Silvar and Bayer, 2017). The research proposed to study on the use of online referrals

in hospitality industry on a selected European branded hotel chains under the category

of luxury hotels and budgeted hotels. The result showed an average performance of

majority luxury hotels in online referrals marketing strategy and those under the category

of budget hotels had shown worst hotel performance.

Social media has been known worldwide and users were adopting and using this

platform in sharing information and experiences ((Sotiriadis, 2017). Sharing evaluated

services was the thing that businesses were facing and considering it as a major issue

and challenge especially when consumers were starting to share their post-experiences.

Sotiriadis(2017), also stated that social media platforms had given better opportunities to

customers to share their feedbacks and opinions about their experiences and it also

became an avenue for the tourism consumers and service providers to have an open
communication. According to Oz (2015) as cited by (Sotiriadis, 2017), social media

platforms were also considered as the social networking site that offered a modern way

of sharing information among consumers and allows tourism consumers to be connected

with other potential customers. This study presented a synthesis coming from the

published academic research from previous years (between 2009 and 2016). According

to the findings of this study, the researcher determined the three main themes that the

scholars were studying and there were two major categories in this study which were

named as consumer perspective and provider perspective.

Oz (2015) described internet as functioning into two directions of sharing

information on top of its traditional single direction of information exchange. As Web 2.0

commenced a modern internet application for human social interaction and resulted to an

extensive adoption of consumers and businesses, the birth of social media and user-

generated content (UGC) became a huge event. Zeng and Gerritsen (2014) as cited by

(Oz, 2015) described social media as a successful way in combining marketing and online

communication as a marketing strategy and it effectively connect with consumers

especially in the tourism industry. This study of Oz (2015) conducted a quantitative

research to determine the social media used by consumers for their travel. The findings

had shown that 96% of the consumers were using social media in their everyday lives,

and 95% for travel-related purposes. Consumers were using social media during the pre-

travel and the user-generated content (UGC) has a high possibility in influencing their

purchase decision. Moreover, the findings highlighted the value of using social media in

the integration of marketing strategy and social media and businesses must properly deal

with the consumers’ information sharing.

The tourism organization of Denmark is marketing their country using the official Tourism

website which is the Visit Denmark (Zhang, 2015). This marketing strategy has the

objective to invite tourists and large group for conference and conventions coming from

other countries that can help generate revenue for Denmark’s tourism industry.

According to Pike (2004) as cited by (Zhang, 2015) it is a challenging job to promote a

destination because the destination marketing organizations (DMOs) normally facing

trials before reaching their goals and they are required to create a brief message that will

introduce and represent the destination and will captivate the attention of target clients.

Visit Denmark based its marketing strategy on the modern and advanced technology.

According to Zhang (2015), DMO understood the fact that in this digital and technology

advanced world, businesses and organizations must be present and must integrate its

marketing strategy on social media because it is one of the easiest and accessible ways

to communicate and to create relationship with future customers by connecting to social

media on mobiles and tablets. The researcher concluded that the social media have two

characteristics which are the two-way communication and user-generated content and

these two helped branding and communication in social media marketing strategy.

Having experienced significant interaction with the service providers was giving

the consumers the intention to build and develop a relationship with them, (Song, S.,

&Yoo, M. 2016). According to Wang and Hsu (2012) as cited by (Song and Yoo, 2016),

during then process of service interaction, this became an important factor for the

consumers to acknowledge and experience satisfaction on the service. The service

consumption process had been transformed because of the emergence and popularity of

social media and it also became bidirectional. Therefore, this study examined on how the
customer’s purchase decision was being affected by social media during the pre-

purchase stage of service consumption. The result has shown that social media has a

positive impact on consumers’ purchase decision when it comes to functional and

monetary benefits. At the same time, it was found having no relationship with customers’

decision when it comes to socio-psychological benefits. And lastly, there was a

relationship with customers’ purchase decision when it comes to hedonic benefits.

According to Kambil (2008) as cited by (Aluri, A., Slevitch, L., and Larzelere, R.,

2015) commercial websites had modified from unidirectional information provider format

(Web 1.0) into multidirectional collaborative web technologies (2.0) as a manifestation of

the growing and developing social media, and Ting et al (2013) stated that majority of the

hotel businesses were also starting to connect with social media networks for their

websites. Aluri et al. (2015) research study aimed to examine if the embedded social

media channels are effective and also, to determine if the overall experience of the

travelers has been enhanced by using the hotel websites. The researchers utilized a true-

experimental, between-group and post-test-only design, and ANOVA was utilized as

statistical treatment to analyzethe data. The findings of this study had shown that

embedded social media channels on the hotel websites had helped developed and

improved the travelers’ social satisfaction.

King and Rice (2015) as cited by (Chen, H., Tun-Min, J., and Yuan, J., 2017)

explained that the two leading online travel agencies and had the accounts of

approximately 60 percent of the indirect online travel market shares in the USA, were the

Expedia and Priceline Group. Chen, H. et al (2017) commented that these OTA’s (online

travel agencies) acquired exceptional and distinctive online business models which
consist of opaque-selling mechanism. This online business model presented big

discounts; however, it refused to disclose the name of the vendors or suppliers not until

the purchase is completed. This study of Chen, H. et al aimed to investigate on how the

degrees of recognized information affected the consumers’ evaluation and intentions to

purchase in making hotel reservations using an opaque-selling travel website. Based on

the studied result, it showed that it led into two different directions when it comes to

purchase intention and information inquiries; and these two directions were the perceived

risks and perceived benefits. For the consumers to finally make a booking decision, the

consumers would have to do a debating process which required them to assess and

evaluate the general consequence and value of the hotel arrangement and transaction

stated on the website.

Facebook page became a promising marketing channel because marketing

activities, posts and other source of online information can be posted for free and can be

employed by both small and/or big-time entrepreneurs and other personalities (Palma,

A., 2016). However, marketers became uncertain when unpaid promotion material had

been sorted out in Facebook in 2014 and they would be charged if they opted to post

advertising online. With the use of articles with relevant subject on emotions and needs,

therefore this study aimed to understand the consumer behavior according to the

consumers’ personal perspective. Based on the studied result, there was still a possibility

for revenue increase despite of the free advertising on Facebook. On the contrary, Palma

(2016) suggested that the aggressiveness of the promotion, and consumer behavior were

still the factors that can make marketing successful in using Facebook as a marketing

tool
 It is easier for consumers to access social media platforms to search and check

for online reviews on products and services. A pragmatic attempt in exploring the

influential effects of consumer behavior was still remained insufficient in the Philippines,

in spite of the fact that online product reviews were very common. This study aimed to

identify interaction effects in connection to product quality and review valence. Two

different films were viewed by 117 business school students from two universities in Metro

Manila; and students gave detailed information regarding their perspectives, attitudes and

behavioral intentions on either to recommend or to purchase a copy of electronic film.

Therefore, the result had shown that in evaluations, attitudes and behavioral intentions of

the consumers were affected by review valence, and also, the effects of review valence

did not change in accordance to the product quality (Zarco, T., 2015).

According to Arceo et al. (2018) before establishing a business, one of the factors

that motivated the entrepreneurs was the integration of entrepreneurship and social

media. Small business entrepreneurs were also using social media as one of the most

successful and effective tools that could help in the faster growth of the business. Arceo

et al. (2018) also mentioned that social media platforms also facilitated in building group

of social media users and creating a social community wherein customers can share

information and opinions. The objective of this study was to give a profound

understanding on how social media and social media users influenced the customers’

purchase intention in the restaurant industry. The result showed that consumers were

influenced by different social media users from different online community group.

Furthermore, businesses were also influenced by social media especially in utilizing free-

of-charge and faster and accessible competitive advantages (Arceo et al. 2018).
 The five major travel influencers from Beautiful destination were brought in the

country by the Philippines Department of Tourism (DOT) to create and promote Tourism

in the Philippines on Instagram and Snapchat (The Manila Times, 2016). These five major

travel influencers are a respected and award-winning creative technology agency that

creates and develops lifestyle portfolio through Instagram and Snapchat. Founder and

CEO of The Beautiful Destination Jeremy Jauncey, also a travel social media expert

headed the Brand Partnerships along with travel drone pioneer Tom Jauncey and

Instagram travel photographer and videographer and one of the bests from London,

Jacob Riglin and other members as part of this brand partnership. According to Jeremy

Jauncy, “Advertising is evolving away from an art of interruption and towards an art of

inclusion. We’re showcasing living, breathing, destinations stories in real time and are

incredibly excited about partnering with the Philippines Department of Tourism to harness

the power of Instagram&Snapchat,” Jeremy Jauncy, The Manila Times (2016). Jaucy also

commented that the Philippines have been named as the social media capital of the world

and DOT can use this as strength in terms of social media promotions.

According to Bo Lundqvist, as compared to way of life 10 years ago, the standard

Filipino in today’s time has more available consumption, mainly in the BPO companies

because of the economy development and expansion and the arrival of foreign investors.

This phenomenon has given the food service industry the opportunity because of the

Filipino people being fond of eating good food. Considering that Philippines were known

for an exceptional number of social media users certainly influenced consumer behavior

and preference. Effective social media online community engagement and customer

satisfaction is beneficial for food establishments, and also an advantage for the
establishments that have not yet adopted this kind of trend in the marketing approach of

food industry. These statements were stated by Bo Lundqvist, President and CEO of

Retail Associates during the 1st Food Service Technology Summit which was help at

DusitThani Makati. The event discussed on the general concerns relevant to the impact

of social media on the food service retailers. Bo Lundqvist recommended that food retails

must invest in social media and also to integrate technology in their operation as part of

their marketing tool. (Philstar Global 2017).

Social Media Brand Strategies / Branding

There are modern methods of sharing feedbacks and comments on the products

and services during the birth of social media and these can be easily accessed with the

use of the internet (Moro and Paulo, 2018). As described by Pires et al., (2006) (as cited

by Moro and Paulo, 2018),consumers are now having a substantial number of immediate

means to persuade other consumers by means of their opinions, suggestions,

recommendations or even complaints and this event has motivated the consumers to be

more empowered. Tsimonis and Dimitriadis,(2014) (as cited byMoro and Paulo, 2018),

considered the incorporation of social media and brand strategies were mandatory and

businesses were obliged to pursue for their competitive advantage because the

competition was extremely high in any part of the world. From the moment that social

media has started, tourism and hospitality have been innovative in adopting online

reviews in getting customer’s reactions and opinions, (Moro and Paulo, 2018).Tripadvisor

was noted as one of the most recognized consumer-generated content sites and known

for the online review sites which are directly interrelated to tourism and been influencing
the huge number of potential travelers in their decisions, JeacleandCarter,(2011)(as cited

by Moro and Paulo), in order to reveal the factors for incorporating social media and

tourism and hospitality industry brand strategies, the researcher gathered related

literature from the Google Scholar. 213 articles were studied related to brand/branding

and social media and the findings had shown that the studies were primarily mentioning

brand building stages and no other no other topical areas were found such as co-branding

or franchising.

According to Hahn et al. (2016), the increase in using and popularity of social

media it also became an important strategy for the businesses to have a connection with

its customers and develop consumers’ brand awareness and engagement. Businesses

were also adopting the importance of social media because this helped them in engaging,

connecting and collaborating with the consumers for the development and success of the

business. Enginkaya and Yilmaz, (2014) (as cited by Hahn et al. 2016), explained that

due to the strong competition among businesses, social interaction resources became

very important to businesses’ brands because consumers were connecting directly to the

brands and became the reason and allowed brands to build relationship with its

customers. Moreover, social media was also regarded as cost-efficient in marketing

strategy and became beneficial for businesses compared to the traditional way of

marketing. However, according to Henning-Thurau et al. (2004) (as cited by Hahn et

al2016), there was a disadvantage in the online social networks. Businesses have no

control on their brands since some information that were published online are

unpredictable, and can cause miscommunication and misconception among consumers.

Therefore, the study aimed to examine the effects of trust and consumer emotional
response to advertisements on brand evaluation in an online social media context. The

result had shown that in the social media context, consumers trust was significant. Also,

consumers who had positively responded to the evaluated brand have a higher level of

trust on brand.

With the help of the internet, the means of communication has changed and how

people connect with each other, (Teixeira et al. 2018). E-commerce appeared as a normal

effect of the internet rapid change that caused everything accessible, including the

products, services, ideas, information and other things that can be searched and seen

online. Teixeira et al. described online world as an exact opposite compared to what the

real world is. One of the main advantages that a consumer can get in using the internet

is the new way of acquiring information of any products and services. They also

commented that internet made it easier for the consumers to check, compare and

purchase product, and service online. For the e-commerce, the competitive advantage

for them was they can easily connect to an extensive number of online purchasers and

made the transaction simpler. However, these advantages also came with disadvantage

aspect of internet usage. Due to the powerful influence of digital world Teixeira et al.,

concluded that consumers and brands understand that internet and social media became

the source of information for the customer to express and share their experience on

product and service and this word-of-mouth became an important part of social interaction

that influenced the social marketing.

Electronic Word-of-Mouth (eWOM) / Word-of-Mouth (WOM)

 According to Pihlaja et al. (2017), it is essential for the marketing managers to

recognize and be aware of the advantages and disadvantages of customer-to-customer

(C2C) online community forums, review sites, and other social media platforms wherein

electronic word-of-mouth are present and can be easily accessed by customers,

especially nowadays that internet is accessible. Traditional word-of-mouth was far more

different in the electronic word-of-mouth because traditional WOM required a face-to-face

communication between marketers and customers, and these two have the possibility to

influence each other and the tendency to develop a connection with a little chance for

unfairness; and these characteristic of traditional WOM were not present and applied in

eWOM, (Brown and Reingen, 1987) as cited by Pilahja et al. As this study intended to

identify and reveal the characteristics of social eWOM, the researchers followed a case

study methodology using an illustrative example to explain the characteristics of social

eWOM. The result had shown that the nonpublic characteristics of social eWOM were

only exclusive to a restricted social network because it has an intended audience. While

in anonymous eWOM, it was shown to the public audience who were not identified.

Negative online-word-of-mouth or NOWOM had already been acknowledged in the

marketing world to have a negative effect on brands (Wilson et al. 2017). However,

despite of this claim on NOWOM, this study found out the contradictory effect on

consumers who already built a relationship and connection to a brand. According to

Kumar et al. (2016) as cited by (Wilson et al.), marketers considered the online-word-of-

mouth as an issue because this caused them difficulty on their strategic marketing and

became a challenging part in understanding its power in manipulating the business sales.

However, researchers Ahluwalia (2000, 2002), Kirmani et al. (1999), Roehm and Brady
(2007), as cited by (Wilson et al.), argued about the pervasiveness of the negative effects

of online word-of-mouth, considering that consumers usually assess any information they

read online prior to purchase, and positive reviews of brands were one of the factors that

eases the effects of negative reviews on brands. This study of Wilson et al (2017) that

examined on the effects of negative online word-of-mouth on consumers’ behavioural

intentions on brand, and the findings have shown that according to the conducted three

studies based on the three product categories (clothing, smart phones, and hotels), the

researchers found that consumers with a high self-brand-connection (SBC) to negative

online-word-of-mouth (NOWOM) had the high probability of getting more closer and

engaged to a brand.

Wu (2013), on his study describing word-of-mouth which consists of both negative

and positive characteristics of provided service coming from organization before the

customers will decide on purchasing. This word-of-mouth can be in form of

recommendation or warning coming from family or friends that can influence the

customers purchase decision. According to Harrison-Walker, (2001a) as cited by (Wu,

2013), in the hospitality industry, word-of-mouth became the primary and important

means of communication of the consumers and future customers, and the customers and

service providers. The moment that technology advancement has increased in the

hospitality industry, internet was ultimately used in different areas of the organization and

the conventional way of communication of customer-to-customer has been transformed

into electronic word-of-mouth (eWOM). The result of this study showed the variation of

words being used by customers that represented the different customers’ perception on

hotels’ attributes of American and Chinese hotels.

 Khan, S. (2017) illustrated that in recognition to technology advancement, the

growth of electronic word-of-mouth (eWOM) have massively transformed the way the

marketing has been introduced to the world market and the way the consumers were

behaving on products and services. The electronic word-of-mouth (eWOM) became

important because it covers a huge online community, reaching the target consumers

really fast and also providing intermediaries and fair judgment about the product and

services for customers. The study aimed to investigate the user-generated content

published by hotel’s customer on Tripadvisor to determine the reviews that were intently

analyzed and discussed. Based on the result found in the study, the common concerns

that the hotel guests were addressing are the following: room, staff, hotel transport

connectivity and proximity of the hotels to other establishments. These concerns can be

regarded as compliments or complaints depending on the service provided by the hotel

establishments. The researchers proposed that the hoteliers must frequently check and

monitor any form of electronic word-of-mouth that is available for the guests to read. This

is ordering to prevent future problems they might encounter because this will seriously

affect the image and hotel performance.

According to Park, S. B. (2016), the current customers’ consumption desire, has

evolved because of the change in perspective and the rising progress in making

remarkable experience. Gilmore and Pine (2002) as cited by (Park 2016) commented that

service providers must create distinctive characteristics in their themes or services that

can make a difference among other competitors because of the strong competition in the

hospitality and tourism industry. Park stated that in providing a remarkable experience for

customers, and proposing distinctive products or services compared to other competitors,

a new theory has been developed by the researchers, because this was believed as an

effective method in producing additional value in customer experience. The research

had proposed two models through a literature review to show the antecedent that actually

affects the memorable travel experiences of the tourists. The study examined the

relationships relating to post-experience and antecedents’ memory in cruise tourism and

375 travelling tourists has been employed to answer the online survey. The result

highlighted the significant effect of word-of-mouth and the study stated that quality of

travel experience had an important function in influencing hedonic value compared to

utilitarian value which conveying the effect to memory.

Negative word-of-mouth were usually expressed privately by consumers to some

of their friends and families, or even directly say it to the service providers especially the

customers who were not satisfied with the service they experienced (Bradley, G. L.,

Sparks, B. A., & Weber, K., 2015). Electronic word-of-mouth avenues had significantly

developed for the past years because of its rapid increase and it gave the consumers the

opportunity to expose complaints publicly. Therefore, this study examined how the

consumer-generated negative online reviews had affected the hospitality employees and

businesses. NOR_stress (negative online review stress) which is an “occupational stress

due to being targeted by online reviews”, was presented to this study and the also the

“strategies for researching and managing the impact of negative online reviews”, (Bradley

et. al, 2015). According to the social implication of this study, due to the bad impact of

negative online reviews to consumers, it resulted to lowering of customers’ support and

success of the companies. Furthermore, it also affected the human and social in an

unfortunate stress, humiliation, loss of respect, and professional relationship.

 Lim, L.M.,(2016) profoundly investigated the influence of electronic word of mouth

from various social media platforms and how it affects tourist intention to purchase tour

packages for Puerto Princesa Palawan, Philippines. Vimaladevi and

Dhanabhakaym(2012), as cited by (Lim, L.M. 2016), described that word-of-mouth

(WOM) was one of the most effective and powerful way of sharing information of the

people in the earlier days. Therefore, the positive impact of electronic word-of-mouth on

purchased intention was emphasized on the result of this study. But, it was found out that

purchase intention and willingness to pay has no significant relationship.

Online Reputation

The online market mitigated its operational expenses and lowering rates because

it allowed the organization to connect with its audiences in an exceptional level, and this

approach has helped the organization to have a competitive advantage (Procerpio, D.,

2016). Online markets have built a good relationship with its customers and it also

reached the individual and personal requirements of the customers. The study focused

on the two sections which were the online reputation management and competition

between online and offline markets. The study utilized the econometrics method in order

to measure and quantify the influence of information in the digital world in both the industry

and the market. On the first part, based on the studied effect of the management review

responses, which were performed in two hotel review platforms (Tripadvisor and

Expedia), the result have shown that review responses were regularly responded by

hotels in Tripadvisor and no regular responses made in Expedia. A difference-in-

differences design is being used to determine the random effects of management

responses on ratings. Improvement of ratings was analyzed and it illustrated that hotels

that are responding to reviews were more likely to attract consumers, and would also post

a good review. On the second part, based on the competition between online and offline

markets, the study used a peer-to-peer markets and how it affects on the traditional

industry. The study employed the Airbnb and with combined data with Texas hotel

industry. The result showed that hotel industry that was affected, responded by lowering

hotel rates and this impact benefited the consumers and not just the businesses that

shared the economy.

Chris Campbell (2015), on “How Online Reviews and Reputation Can Support

Your Social Media Strategy” stated that roughly 75 billion entries are posted or shared

on the Facebook page, 2 billion photos on Instagram, 400 million message tweets on

Twitter, and about 4 billion viewed videos on YouTube. These figures give the

marketers a notion that they would want to be in the same places wherein users are

consuming their time online. Review shape reputation was the area where review

management penetrates and can strengthen the social media strategy. Online

reviews published by users on Tripadvisor, Facebook and Google became the newest

most effective type of word-of-mouth. As explained by the researchers from Cornell

University, online reviews can manipulate the status and reputation of the business

especially to those who make an online product purchase, giving five-star ratings and

making a service or product seem extra appealing, and contrary to those consumers

who are giving low ratings and negative reviews are major disgust for consumers.

According to a study by ShareThis and Paley Center for Media,strong positive review
can help influence a consumer to spend roughly 9 percent additional for product and

service.

United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) predicted that in the year

2020 1.6 billion international tourist arrivals are expected to achieve because in the 21 st

century, tourism has been considered as the leading leisure activity (Kosmic and Dorcic,

2016). Attracting people and businesses was one of the factors that the tourism

destinations were competing for. The researchers also stated that it was easier for the

tourism destinations to achieve and compete for tourist’s awareness, employment, and

money if the destination possesses a good image and reputation; a destination that

possessed a good reputation can create a competitive advantage and can strengthen the

idea that a destination is worthy to visit. This study of Kosmic and Dorcic, (2016) aimed

to investigate the concept of tourism destination competitiveness and online reputation.

The findings showed that based on the keywords reputation and competitiveness that

were used to analyze this study; the researchers found that there were 14 full-length

articles under the keyword reputation, and 87 full-length articles for competitiveness. The

articles used in searching and analysis were published journals and articles in tourism

and hospitality journals.

Online reputation is putting the hotels in growing pressure as the social media itself

is gaining its popularity, (Xie, K., Zhang, Z., Zhang Z., Singh, A., and Lee, S.K., 2016).

Because according to (Levy et. al, 2013) as cited by (Xie, K., et al, 2015) it is difficult to

accomplish the stability when it comes to service quality, and on the aspect of products

and services performance, service failure is cannot be avoided. The purpose of the study

of (Xie, K., et al., 2015) was to measure the effects of responses coming from the
managers on consumers’ electronic word-of-mouth and hotel performance. The findings

stated that it only resulted to an average of 0.235 stars in the Tripadvisor ratings based

on the managerial responses. The volume of succeeding consumer eWOM had risen to

17.3 percent. And also, an average effect of ratings and volume of consumer electronic

word-of-mouth on hotel performance based on managerial response.

According to Casado-diaz, A.,B.,Perez-naranjo, L., M., and Sellers-rubio, R.,

(2017), there were two indicators or signals that were considered in their study and these

are the reputation and prices. And with these two signals, the hotels’ brand reputation

was considered as one of the most important signals. Wu et al. (2012) as cited by (Diaz

et al. 2016), stated that consumers will feel minor risk and will be more eager to decide in

making a hotel booking if the hotel is possessing a credible image. Information acquired

by consumers through internet by means of electronic word-of-mouth (eWOM), was

considered as an important signal for the consumers’ decision-making process. This

study of Diaz et al. (2016) aimed to analyze on how the eWOM affected the purchase

intention of the consumers while taking the hotel’s brand image into consideration. The

study conducted two online scenario-based experiments utilizing factual information

coming from Tripadvisor. The results of the study showed that consumers’ hotel purchase

intention was higher and brand image got lower. Therefore, hotel price can possibly help

in preventing the negative impact of poor ratings based on the analyzed results.

Brand Loyalty / Brand Equity

Cicek and Erdogmus, (2012) illustrated that brand has created an image in the

awareness of the consumers which was good and outstanding image and they became
overpowering that affected and gained the loyalty of the consumers. According to Keller

(2008), Aaker, (1991) and Kapferer (1997), as cited by (Cicek and Erdogmus, 2012), due

to brand loyalty coming from consumers, it helped the businesses in terms of sales

revenue, profits, market share, helped with the improvement and growth of the business

and facilitated with the business standing in the marketplace. Cicek and Erdogmus,

(2012) stated that the primary subject of research of the sellers and marketers were

developing and maintaining consumers brand loyalty because this helped the firms in

creating good image in the market. The study aimed to examine the impact of social

media marketing on consumers brand loyalty. The result have shown that customers

brand loyalty had positively influenced by brand with the following factors such as, if brand

offers beneficial promotion, offers appropriate content, offers prevalent content, and when

brand can be seen and emerge in different social media platforms. The result of the study

on brand loyalty was considered as a ground breaking in this new millennium of marketing

and offers propositions of numerous techniques for the industry practitioners which are

applicable for the business.

Sánchez-Casado, N., Confente, I., Tomaseti-Solano, E., &Brunetti, F. (2018), on

their study “The role of online brand communities on building brand equity and loyalty

through relational benefits.” The study aimed to quantify the effect of two relational

benefits. According to Meyer-Waarden 2007, 2008; Rosenbaun et al. 2005; and Vesel

and Zabkar 2009, as cited by (Sachez-Casado, et al. 2018), in the previous years, the

presence of the social media in the business was to facilitate in improving customer loyalty

and build a relationship between business and customers, and traditional firms on the

other hand have created and planned methods in captivating customers loyalty and they
included it as part of their business programs. The study conducted a survey to Italian

and Spanish customers who were social media users and online brand community

members. The result have shown that customer-based brand equity (CBBE) was affected

by social and exploration, and customer loyalty was affected by monetary and recognition

benefits. The researchers suggested that the result of this study can help existing relevant

studies by giving awareness about the influence of social media to businesses and

customers from other countries.

User –Generated Content

Tourism students were more knowledgeable on any travel-related content

published on Facebook as compared to students from other fields and were more

possible to be influenced by the travel-related contents, (Binder, D., Lukas, C., and

Szabo, Z., 2017). The study aimed to determine if there was a difference on the impact

of user-generated content on Facebook based on the travel destination preferences of

tourism and non-tourism students. Finding the determining factors on the differences that

affect the user-generated content on the travel destination preferences of two groups of

students on different fields and the utilization of online questionnaire has been employed

and distributed to the seven Austrian faculties. The result showed that students under

tourism field are frequently following the topics of travel and holidays content on Facebook

as compared to student from different fields. However, the found difference is minimal

and the identified factor that proved the difference between tourism and non-tourism

student was the level of Facebook usage.

Travel Website

King and Rice (2015) as cited by (Chen, H., Tun-Min, J., and Yuan, J., 2017)

explained that the two leading online travel agencies and had the accounts of

approximately 60 percent of the indirect online travel market shares in the USA, were the

Expedia and Priceline Group. Chen, H. et al (2017) commented that these OTA’s (online

travel agencies) acquired exceptional and distinctive online business models which

consist of opaque-selling mechanism. This online business model presented big

discounts; however, it refused to disclose the name of the vendors or suppliers not until

the purchase is completed. This study of Chen, H. et al aimed to investigate on how the

degrees of recognized information affected the consumers’ evaluation and intentions to

purchase in making hotel reservations using an opaque-selling travel website. Based on

the studied result, it showed that it led into two different directions when it comes to

purchase intention and information inquiries; and these two directions were the perceived

risks and perceived benefits. For the consumers to finally make a booking decision, the

consumers would have to do a debating process which required them to assess and

evaluate the general consequence and value of the hotel arrangement and transaction

stated on the website.

Synthesis

The recent related studies and related literatures being considered in this present

study wereto enhance the understanding and knowledge of the researcher.The previous

literature and studies discussed aboutthe impact of social media on consumers and how

they utilized the internet advancement in online interaction, online communication, and
hotel booking online which has been a phenomenon since it emerged during the year

2000’s. Other previous studies also discussed about the use of social media in creating

and developing brand strategies of hospitality and tourism. Social media had been used

by hospitality and tourism in order to reach and be connected with the larger audience

and target market. Some studies examined about the credibility and impact of online

reviews on the brand image of the hotel establishments which was one of the factors that

the consumers were also taking into consideration when it comes to checking online hotel

brands. In relation to the recent and present study, it aims to be familiar with the negative

and the positive areas of online reviews and social media especially the credibility of it,

and be the foundation to improve the brand image of Boracay Hotels.

This present study focused on the effects online tourist reviews and social media

brandon customers’hotel booking decision.Throughout the years, technology has been

more developed, online community became more extensive, and online communication

and interaction became more accessible and widely used by the consumers. In this study,

the researcher pointed out the attributes of social media and characteristics of online

reviews with the following cognitive and affective domains that affected the behavior of

the customers towards deciding in online hotel booking. Likewise, this study focused on

the factors that the customers are considering prior to making any decision to book a

hotel reservation online.