Topic: Instagram and Food tourism: A study towards consumer behavior in destination choice and travel planning ; the case of Thai millennial.
Introduction
Traveling increases our knowledge and widens our perspective and experience in different culture. There are various purposes of travel, some may seek for relaxation, leisure, discover new places, history and business. Today with the growth of tourism industry the purpose of traveling and choice of destination is changing and increasing. Food can be an factor that effect people travel option. It seem that food is no longer a nutritious substance that fulfill physical need, but can be express as an essential part of travel experience that connect people from different culture, tell story and history through local cuisine that give an authentic taste of destination. When traveling food can be understand as tangible tourism products and services. In recent years food is the main travel motivation factors that drive people to travel.
Today many countries such as Japan, Singapore and Thailand have impact from the fastest growing segment of food tourism.
After traveling to many destinations around the world the authors have raise the interest in tourism industry where people have different need and motivation when traveling.
As the trend of travel and technology is changing make people are easily accessing information on internet and social media which create challenged for many travel agencies. Today social media communication are empowered many people in all stages of their travel. Which have a significant impact from both pre and post experience that allow tourists to generated their own travel related content. A popular social media such as Instagram is one of the biggest image sharing application platform that focusing on visual image that inspire many people to travel and engage through incredible photos of people, food and destination. This has raised the question if Instagram has any effect on people’s choice of destinations and travel planning focusing on gastronomy tourism.
Today there are several articles and post online on how social media like Instagram is help for travel planning such as finding inspiring photo, location and hashtag that impact their travel decision. However the author have raise a question that do people actually use Instagram to make decision during their travel planning ?. There are many online researches toward consumer behavior in choosing their travel destination and planning effect by user generated content and electronic word of mouth on social media but there are minority of research on how Instagram as a photo sharing platform influence people decision in choosing their travel destination.
During recent years, the travel planning process have evolved. Before consumer were help to plan their travel by travel agency , however nowadays it is more common for consumer to find information about destination, hotel and activities with price available online and book by themselves. The Internet has also widened their knowledge on different destinations and thus expanded their travel options in lower price. Moreover consumer can be flexible with their plan when they make their own choice of traveling. In the digital era where technology advancement such as internet and smartphone play an important in daily life, there are significant growth of internet users using different devices such as smartphone and tablet. In 2018 there are more than …… internet user worldwide.
Along with social media such as Instagram, has increasing popularity. There are more than … users worldwide. The main users are young people age…. . Instagram has become a popular platform for its users to share their photos of daily lives and activities as well as their travel explorations. Instagram has numerous supply of videos and photos generated by users that can be an advantage for tourism provider, marketer to develop online strategy and attractive content.
The information of the dissertation is gathered through literature review and online survey focusing on Thai millennial. The purpose of this dissertation is focusing on young adult in Thailand that are Instagram users and how it influence their behaviour in their travel planning process toward gastronomy tourism. The author have seen the important of Instagram and how it can help local businesses, travel companies and destinations to develop content and online strategies to promote food tourism by take advantage of Instagram’s user generated content and study of user behaviours.
Objective:
The objective of this dissertation is to find out the ability of Instagram marketing in the concept of food tourism and investigate how Instagram influence on travel behaviour of consumer.
- To develop better understanding of how user generated content (UGC) on Instagram platform impacts decision making on gastronomy tourism in Thailand among Thai millennial.
- To identify reason and motivation of decision making process in food tourism driven by Instagram, user generated content
- To make recommendation and further suggestion for businesses in gastronomy tourism to develop marketing strategies.
The purpose of this finding also help local restaurant, tourism service provider and DMOs or destination marketing organization to promote food tourism from inbound and outbound tourism, develop effective digital marketing strategies by take an advantage of user generated content from Instagram.
When conduct this dissertation there are main questions that author want to find out:
- What social media channel Thai people use as their inspiration when looking for information for place to eat and travel ?
- Is user generated content is trustworthy for many people?
- Do Thai millennial inspiring for food tourism from Instagram?
- Is online content is important in their travel planning process?
- How Instagram effect on their choice of travel and destination planning?
- How visual content like Instagram have impact on their decision?
Dissertation structure:
The dissertation is organized in order starting from the introduction and objective and followed by literature reviews which will introduce the concept of food tourism, consumer behavior and social media that will be use in this research such as Instagram as a visual communication platform. In this part will include theoretical model of consumer behavior to support the information that are provided. The research process also includes methodology, process when conducting survey as well as analysis and finding. The result will be analyzed using chart and graph generated from SPSS program. In the last part will discuss about research limitation and recommendation for destination management organizations, tourism service providers and local restaurant.
Literature review:
Social media;
Social media is the social networking platforms that allow people to communicate, share and generate content with other users. Today social media plays an important role in everyday life by enable people to connect with each other, assessing information and more convenience through internet connection. Social media applications are supported by many electronic devices such as smartphones, tablets and laptops. However the concept of web 2.0 and user generated content can be overlap(Anderson, 2007).
Social media the internet based websites or applications that developed from web 2.0, that enable users to generate content and share on the internet (Anadolu University, Turkey, 2017).
Web 2.0 is modification of the World Wide Web with more technology advancement compared to Web 1.0 where application and content are created only by publisher not end users. However the development platform of Web 2.0 allow to create content, edit and share by all user. The evolution of Web 2.0 leverage social media in the next level in which user generated content play an important role to interact with each other and creating media content that available online published by end users. The term of user generated content can be indicated as media content such as articles, blog posts, website, pictures and videos created by users to promoting a brand(O’Hern and Kahle, 2013).
Social media is an interactive platform technology that benefit form web based and devices such as computers, smartphones and tablets that allow users to communicate online, create content, share, post and adjust user generated content by them self. Social networking application and sites such as Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, Youtube and Whatsapp can as social media. The original social media that utilize internet based platform are created through application which make it easier and accessible to use on devices such as smartphones and tablets. Today Web 2.0 or social media can be classified as marketing communication where widely used by young people provided an online opportunity to engage, exchange ideas and content (Beqiri, 2016). Moreover the main advantage that satisfy the needs of young generation are consistency and speed than traditional media. Social media plays an important role as marketing communication in many industries and business sectors. The emergence of user generated content has made it possible for customers to communicate with each other by sharing thoughts, ideas, information and knowledge in larger scale. Nowadays the trend of social media has changed as users have more power to control over their media with trustful information source, lead to the change in consumer behavior and decision making process that influence by social media. Today many businesses and organizations use social media as a marketing tool to convince consumers decisions (Grizane and Jurgelane, 2017).
According to the research from Hoot suite in Thailand focusing on internet usage in 2019, There are high number of Thai population access to the internet at 57 million people which 55 million people regularly browsing the internet on their smartphone. There are high number of social media users at 49 million people accessing with smartphone .
Base on the research Thai people accessing the internet more than 9 hours a day and spend more than 3 hours on social media. In Thailand, the most popular social media is Facebook followed by YouTube, Instagram and Twitter. Facebook is the social media platform that Thai people accessing at 50 million users and followed by 13 million users on Instagram and Twitter at 4.7 million people (BullVPN, 2019).
Thailand has become one of the leading social media and internet usage in the world, which is a great opportunity for social media users. Due to these reasons Thailand is increasing E-commerce businesses and many organizations and business sectors have adapted social media as the main communication channel to communicate between consumer and employee (Christopher, 2019.)
Food Tourism:
Tourism has become an important sectors to many countries in terms of generating revenue, employment and economic development. Tourism allows people to experience different cultures, geographic and history of different countries. For many countries such as France, United Kingdom, Japan and Thailand tourism is the main income that generate jobs and economic (Chatzinakos, 2016). Back in the past there are many types of tourism. Many people travel for different reasons and purposes. Some people travel for leisure and some people travel for business purposes. The trend of tourism is changing in recent years which create new destination and economic. Nowaday there are many types of tourism such as adventure, education, medication and food tourism. Today tourism demand is changing. When traveling food can be the main factor to exploring other cultures and experience. Food or gastronomy tourism can attract many tourists to the country as well as destination development and unique marketing . Food can become motivation factors for tourism which play an important role in tourist’s experience more than just nutrition. Food is a form of art that tell the story of culture and history that leverage tourist experience and serve as a symbol of each country. Food becomes the motivation in traveling, moreover food has become one of the second largest travel spending budgets.
Food tourism or gastronomy tourism can be defined as traveling to destination where local food and beverage are the main motivation factors. Today consuming food and drink is not just a physical need but it has become a recreation activities. As the modern world where people start to dine out more at restaurant, traveling to different places and increasing in eating facilities lead to touristic activities. Another factors are the rise interest in food experience affected by social media and television program have influenced the way people eat. As food plays a major part in tourism where connect people from different culture rise the interest in food tourism. Food tourism conduct of many activities such as visiting famous restaurant, food festival, harvests and brews activities , cooking class, and visiting local market. (Deneault 2002 cited Mason & O’Mahony 2007)
Food tourism is a new trend of tourism which can be called in other terms such as food tourism, gastronomy tourism, tasting tourism and culinary tourism.
Travel motivation of food tourism;
Food tourists are motivated by food to experience new tastes from different cultures and locations. Gastronomy of food tourists can be classified in the same sector of cultural holiday tourist which have high income and education, travel as a couple which the main motivation are relaxation, rest and eat. The food tourist market are become larger that spread to domestic and international tourists (Güzel, 2016).
Figure.1 : Food tourism as special interest tourism (Hall & Sharples, 2003).
Regarding the food tourism that can be called in different terms with similar meaning such as gourmet tourism, gastronomy tourism and culinary tourism. However the reason for taking a trip to destination for food might be different. Food can be the primary reason but might not be the same. (Hall & Sharples, 2003).
The figure above have divide the market into three groups shows the level of interest in food tourism from low to high. Firstly, Gourmet tourism refer to food tourist that have high interest in travelling to a destination as food is the primary reason and motivation. Moreover gastronomy and food tourism also apply to the same interest but not all activities are connected to food. Followed by culinary tourism where food is the secondary factor that fall in to moderate interest. In this area tourist show in food related activities in their travel experience. However in Rural/Urban tourism the interest in food is low, but still participate in activities such as visit restaurant and market. Lastly is the group that has no interest and motivation in food related activities (Zekan, 2013).
Consumer behavior in tourism;
The importance aspect of marketing is to understand consumer behavior in order to know how people make decisions in choosing products or destinations. There are many factors from both internal and external that influence consumer decision. In tourism planning a holiday a different than purchasing a product from the market. However it is more complex process combine with expectation that requires more time in planning and research.
To understand consumer behavior in tourism is important to look at factors that influencing consumer below.
figure ; A model of consumer behavior;
The figure above shows factors that affect on the decision making process and consumer behavior such as motivations, cultural background, age, gender and lifestyle. In cultural factors a person influence the behavior pattern and perception from society and family. As well as reference groups that influence behavior and attitude people into new lifestyle and behavior. One of the most important factors in tourism consumer behavior model is motivation. The motivation factor can be examined in researching and decision making process (Dimanche and Havitz, 1995).
Motivation factors in consumer behavior in the case of tourism is a new field of study and regarded as one of the most important factors to understand tourist behavior. Since people have different needs, manners and factors influence them. For example lifestyle, personality, demographic, income and experience. These factors all determine their motivation. Push and pull factors can be used to understand what factors motivate people to travel.
Push factors help to identify factors that make people want to go to travel which mostly are intangible or sociology psychological motives such as service, leisure, relaxation, health and adventures. While pull factors help to explain the actual destination choice that can be referred to as tangible factors of the destination such as food and beverages, accommodations, destination and historical site and marketed image of destination. (Nikjoo and Ketabi, 2015)
In tourism marketing it is crucial to have knowledge on travel motivation to interpret travel behavior in order to implement the right marketing strategies and attract and help tourists in their decision making process.
Tourist information searching process;
When selecting a destination one of the most important processes is searching for information such as accommodation, activities and places to eat. During this process there are many sources of information which involves a lot of effort in terms of trustworthy and price details. In the past before the emergence of the internet, the limitation of information makes travel agents play an important part in people travel decisions by provide useful sources of information that also helps people to plan their trip and provide services in booking all of the hotel and activities. On the other hand in the digital era where people can access easily on the internet information online allow consumers to have alternative options to conduct their own travel research especially in the area of interest.(Choi et al., 2011). During information search stage the search can be both internal and external. Internal search can be referred as recover memory or recall their past experience of consumers. While external search is occur when the consumer does not have knowledge or experience which lead them to seek information from sources such as online information, , word of mouth, report and review from other people. (Pan and Fesenmaier, 2006) Information search process that traveler often use to plan their trip is external search such as advice from a travel agency, review , friends and family and social media. Moreover traveler tend to give credibility to information from word of mouth more than other types of information (Hernández-Méndez, Muñoz-Leiva and Sánchez-Fernández, 2013).
One of the most credibility and influence sources of information is Word of mouth, WOM. the definition can be described as non commercial communication from person to other, often concerned about experience, attitude toward product, service and brand. When planning a travel destination people place importance on information advice from peers, family and others. This also means that information plays and important role in word of mouth generated from consumer themselves. Nowadays the technology advancement such as internet allow people to share information about their experience and attitude on the internet , which can be called as electronic word of mouth communication ( eWOM). With the growth of social media make eWOM become major source of information (Tuisku et al., 2017). On the other hand it can be classify as user generated content. However in online environment this kind of information can be misinterpreted and difficult to determine (Cam et al., 2019.)
As the digital technology is changing beside electronic word of mouth and verbal communication people also interested in visual communication. Instagram, a popular social media application that focus on image sharing platform allows people to share content such as photos and videos on the internet. Many people use Instagram to share their experience, travel, food and lifestyle with others. As a result Instagram can be an important visual information and electronic word of mouth platform that influencing decision making and perception in choosing a travel destination. According to survey on decision marking on eWOM and user generated content from US traveler concluded that 84% of millennial tend to plan their trip based on user generated content such as photos on social media and word of mouth. In recent years external information becomes the powerful source of information and gain attention from many people and travelers around the world. Many social media platforms are used to share information, pictures, video and experience by travelers. These factors encourage many businesses , organization or even destination sectors to use social media platforms and develop new marketing strategies to attract more customers and travelers (Fodness and Murray, 2019).
Decision making process in tourism;
The decision making process in tourism can be complicated and risky due to the nature of the services that provide are often intangible which mean that tourism experience, people often spend money on product and service that is not tangible such as experience and relaxation. By this user generated content play an important role in their travel decision making process to make sure that they experience will be tangible.
The figure below is the consumer behavior model that consist of 5 phrases. The first phrase in decision making is problem recognition which begin from people need and desire in travel. For example people might seek for adventure, relaxation or food when traveling. During this stage people may concern on information such as transportation, travel budget, activities and places for local food to eat. This lead to information search stage where people use different sources of information in the process. The next stage is the evaluation where people may influence from user generated content and both tradition and electronic word of mouth. User generated content in this stage can be photos and review from travelers who have experienced before. When there is enough information and trustworthy sources of information lead to purchasing stage, where people decided to purchase transportation tickets, booking a hotel or restaurant. Lasty is post purchase behavior is after people experienced products or services. This stage can create both positive and negative experience and attitude toward traveller decision process whether to return to the destination (Kotler, P. & Armstrong, G. 2010) .
In decision making process visual content can be used as a travel experience where people can get a sense of tangible tourism product from video and photo content generated from both brands and users. According to the research from the University of Queensland stated that videos and pictures is a major part that influence people to travel and make travel booking. The impact of visual media affect consumer behavior in purchasing tourism products and services. As mentioned earlier the nature of tourism are often intangible however with the help of visualizing media and digital technology provide people with visual knowledge and experience for their decision making (Ge and Gretzel, 2018).
Instagram;
Today an increasing number of smartphone users, there are many popular social media applications that focusing on visual communication. The research shows that visual communication is important to them. Visual communication are preferred by millennial to work compared to Baby Boomers (Brumberg, 2018).
There are several visual social media applications that is a major player in the market including Instagram, you tube and interest. YouTube is a well known as a free video sharing platform that anyone can access. For Pinterest is a social media application and website focusing in photo sharing. These social media enable users to create a short description or message however it focuses more on video and photo content ( Ihsanuddin and Anuar, 2019).
Instagram is a photo sharing social application that enables users to adjust their photos and share on the application from devices such as smartphones and tablets. Instagram is released in 2010 by Mike Krieger and Kevin Systrom. The application is easy to use with clear navigation system in 2019 there are more than 500 million users active daily with more than 1 billion Instagram users. Each day 100 million photos and videos were uploaded on the platform which 70% are young adults (Omnicoreagency.com, 2019). Social media in Thailand was ranked in top 10 countries that have high social media usage (https://www.bangkokpost.com, 2019). In Thailand Instagram users consist of 19.9% of the population which means that there are almost 14 million people on Instagram ( Hootsuite,2019). According to the global survey the result based on that population age from 16-64 found that they spent time on the internet around 9.1 hours daily and 65% were active on Instagram (Bangkok Post, 2019).
The popularity of Instagram attract both consumer and business sectors to share their brand , products and services. The application can be connected camera and photo gallery from devices such as smartphones and tablets. By this consumer can adjust their photos and videos to be more attractive and unique style before posting. Instagram user will have their own profile that acts as an online gallery for others to see depend on the account owner. Posting photos on Instagram is simple, the post will appear on the feed of other people who are following. Instagram feed show videos and photos from people who were following , have similar interests and from advertisements.
Posting photos on Instagram is easy via smartphone and other devices. When posing a short description and hashtag can be added under the post to categorize content that people are interested which can increase user engagement to the post for example #foodporn, #food to eat in london and #travel. Hashtag help user see image on their interest which is also a form of user generated content. The concept of the hashtag originated from Twitter and have been adapted in many social media and website such as Facebook, Instagram and Interest (Rauschnabel, Sheldon and Herzfeldt, 2019).
Figure above show the screenshots of Instagram hashtag related food and place to eat under hashtag of #place to eat in london and #food porn.
Moreover Instagram user can tag other users in the post as well as location. This results in when users clicking location feature they will see photos that other users have been posting from the same location. This allow Instagram users to see all videos and photos to get an idea and experience of the actual location. Moreover Instagram can connect posts and comments that users generated allows photos and videos to be shared by other users creating high engagement.
Due to the popularity of the application developer continuously develop new features and activities. The major feature introduced by Instagram in 2016 is Instagram story which similar to feature in Snap chat. The story post will display in the feed in a short period of time. Later this feature was upgraded into live video, following hashtag,repost and save features(Sharma and P, 2017).
Tourism and the use of Instagram;
Today Instagram is a powerful social media when traveling. The increasing number of hashtags related to travel is more than 180 million posts. People rely on Instagram in finding information and destination. As the author have interest in traveling and also an Instagram users who use the application when planning for a vacation. The author browse on the application in different elements such as restaurants, hotels, local market, cafe and main attractions. Moreover hashtag during search process on Instagram is also important. When visiting London the author want to find famous restaurants that recommend by users by looking at hashtag about food for example #place to eat in london to get idea by observing visual content generated from other users to make decisions.
On Instagram there are plenty of useful information generated by travelers and local people. By using hashtag traveler can discover new destination that are different and more excited than the main tourist attraction. Instagram produce many popular travel and food bloggers that travel around the world and share their experiences through videos and photo content that inspire many people. Blog is a social network that gather people who have same interest. Travel blogger use blog to express their experiences, tips of travel. Many travel bloggers gain high follower from Instagram where they post beautiful pictures with attached link to their blog for more information. These blogger can be called as influencer who affect on consumer purchasing behavior and decision making process. Influencer can be travelers, singers, celebrities and photographers. In tourism market influencers and bloggers have significant impact on consumer opinion in mass areas.
A famous Instagram travel influencers such as Jack Morris that also well known in the username as @doyoutravel. Jack Morris travel around the world and change the way of traveling. As a celebrity travel influencer he got more than 2.7million followers. He use Instagram features such as location, tag, hashtag, story, and live features when posting travel related photos. With his talent in photographing skills published on Instagram create new tourist destination.
Instagram and marketing;
Pictures and videos play an important role in tourism marketing by supporting tourism products and services to be more tangible. The destination management organizations (DMOs) should consider Instagram as a part of their marketing. Visual communication allow consumer to connect with the products or services, DMOs can use Instagram to attract more people to the destination by creating social engagement through different features of the application (Zeng, 2013).
Instagram and food tourism;
Travelling trend has been evolved these days, people are craving for authentic tastes and experience of local food from different cultures instead of chain restaurant that can be found everywhere. A significant part of travel planning is also influenced by food as people want to discover new taste and experience while traveling. Instead of traveling for business, leisure, adventure and education. Food exploration can also be the main motivation of traveling as well which means that people choose destination based on food attractions. The rise of this trend impact from social media. Everyday there are millions post of photos related to food on different social media platforms(ACHADIAT KAUTSAR, 2019) . Food photography is one of the most famous contents on Instagram that can be boosting tourism. In recent years, food tourism is increasing popularity according to the research of US food traveler, seek for unique dining experience which increased to 51% in 2013. Local food tour gain attention in travel planning process. The major factors that influence people in food tourism are food photography on social media such as Instagram. There are more than 168 million posts relate to food on Instagram. Hashtag such as #food porn received more than 203 million posts in 2019 and still increasing each day. With so much attention focusing on food many people travel around the world to try local food and drink. For example Thai people travel to Taiwan just to try the authentic taste of local Mala hotpot and traditional bubble tea.
the digital age where Instagram is the place for sharing beautiful and inspire photos such as food and traveling. Today when visiting a restaurant it is a normal habit for some people to take a photo of the food before eating. Food photography is one of the most famous contents on Instagram that can be boosting tourism. In recent years, food tourism is increasing popularity according to the US food traveler seek for unique dining experience which increased to 51% in 2013. Local food tour gain attention in travel planning process. The major factors that influence people in food tourism are food photography on social media such as Instagram. There are more than 168 million posts relate to food on Instagram. Hashtag such as #food porn received more than 203 million posts in 2019 and still increasing each day. With so much attention focusing on food many people travel around the world to try local food and drink. For example Thai people travel to Taiwan just to try the authentic taste of local Mala hotpot and traditional bubble tea. Moreover, according to the study about food role in decision making have shown that food is important factors in tourist decision and in choosing destination. The consumer generated content such as food and travel on Instagram not just reflect their interest and lifestyle but also influence other users that accessing information. As the numerous food contents that expanding on Instagram and other social media have again attention to other media and business sectors. There are new food website, blog, online article published as well as DMOs use Instagram to attract people and promote new food destination via social media (Shankman, 2015)
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