Collaborative information seeking during leisure travelling : triggers and social media usage

• Introduction. Tourists travelling in groups tend to search for information in collaboration with tour mates and on social media. However, collaborative information seeking during group travelling has been relatively understudied. This paper aims to investigate the triggers that prompt collaboration between tour mates, and to identify the circumstances of social media usage in such collaboration.Method. The in-depth group interviews were conducted with thirty-four tourists (twelve travel groups) who had taken group trips in the past three months.Analysis. Qualitative content analysis was used to analyse interview transcripts. The data were categorised and sub-categorised through open coding.Results. The results revealed that, during travel, tourists collaborated to seek, share, and synthesise information and make group decisions to reschedule on-site travel activities and to coordinate the tour group (e.g., managing preferences and conflicts). Our study found that social media played a vital role for a group of tourists under a variety of circumstances, including re-planning the trip, sharing travel updates and queries, obtaining up-to-date local news, and communicating with tour mates and families and friends back home.Conclusion. The findings of this study may advance our understanding of the dynamic online information needs and information seeking in a group setting.

Subject headings

NATURVETENSKAP  -- Data- och informationsvetenskap -- Systemvetenskap, informationssystem och informatik (hsv//swe)

NATURAL SCIENCES  -- Computer and Information Sciences -- Information Systems (hsv//eng)

Keyword

Computer and Systems Sciences

data- och systemvetenskap

Publication and Content Type

ref (subject category)

art (subject category)