The Introduction of Netnography in Tourism

 

Netnography is a qualitative research system that involves the ethnographic study that is performed by the means of online platforms to investigate digital communities and the habits of purchasing behavior by the customers. Netnography can also be thought as a specific sequence of behaviors for conducting research from the inside and around the social networking sites. Netnography is a subset of research procedures which is based on the observation of the participant that include collection of data, processing the data, subjecting the data to research ethics, and representation of the data. A considerable quantity of information in netnography emerges and reflects in the digital footprints of a spontaneously occurring public conversation that are recorded by the modern communications’ infrastructure. Netography basically make use of these conversations as the core data and it is also an explanatory research approach that utilizes anthropology's traditional, in-person subject monitoring methodologies to the study of encounters and relationships manifested via communications networks.

Netnography is the collection and analysis of information regarding people's free social behavior on the online platform. The main difference is that this information is acquired when customers are acting naturally, as contrast to study surveys, in which customers occasionally reply to avoid humiliation or to impress the surveyors. Few examples of the research methods that make use of netnoghraphy are analysis of blogs, tweets and facebook.

 

Types of Netnography

·      Auto-Netnography: Because of the fact that the investigator should portray the information by the means of their own identification, auto-netnography is the important and localized type of netnography. It is similar to auto-ethnography which means that it includes personal and autobiographical components. An auto-netnography, on the other hand, must have a notably critical component in its awareness of the netnographer's own place in a moment infused with digitally mediated communication.

·      Symbolic Netnography: The most prevalent type of netnography is symbolic netnography that is both regional and complementing. Increasingly using social media data and engagement to create identities for the people or the websites in order to guide the decisions on business. It mainly focuses on a specific community or field site in order to show the group's activities, values, and also to provide a more action-based understanding of specific customers.

·     Digital Netnography: Digital netnography is known as the center of complementary axiology and worldwide attention. It connects the statistical information analysis to understanding based on the cultural aspects, which means it includes a vast number of social data which are often delt with a focus on deeper understanding on the cultural aspects rather than just focussing on the statistical patterns alone. Digital netnography, like symbolic netnography, always seeks to strengthen the existing economic, management, and community practices.

·    Humanist Netnography: Humanist netnographies focuses on research problems with a broad social implication. This type of netnography attempts to answer such concerns and affect societal change by using social media platforms or information which is acquired from the online methods. This puts the researcher squarely in the role of an advocate, and may even drive him or her into the action.

History of Netnography

Netnography first appeared in the United States in the 1990s, when the online platform was still in its development as a word - based medium. The majority of online groups remained restricted as text-based groups and social networking sites, and computer-mediated interactions were significantly lower that are incorporated into everyday life than they are now. Members of online communities, with exception of users in several other learning scenarios, might not always share a similar assigned work or purpose and, in certain cases, it may only be able to get in touch with each other through the means of Internet. This might also inspire outsiders to gather to talk about various topics or take appropriate steps of shared interest, generating and maintaining lengthy or perhaps even close to the end connections between people and community of practice. In 2007 Antikainen stated that as the participants or members of the internet/online communities study through taking part in discussions, the manager of the online group plays an important role in facilitating contents that are high quality, he stated that “quality content give members better possibilities to learn”. Kozinets in 2002 considered netnography as ‘the new qualitative research methodology’ which makes use of the ethnographic research methods in order to study the various cultures and communities that are developing through the means of electronic networks.

Netnography and Tourism

When analyzing tourism activities via internet communities, often these tourism research moves away from post-positivist conceptual frameworks of innovation, during which Web 2.0 is viewed as little more than a space that is ruled by generally applicable data communication methods, and also human operators are objectified via overly simplistic and unchanging concepts of human behavior. Furthermore, netnography methods enable exceptional understanding of tourist and consumer experience in the digital hospitality and tourism environments in which travelers are particularly engaged in linking user-generated material and experiences.

According to the article 'Netnography in Travel - Beyond Web 2.0,' tourism is again embracing Web 3.0, 4.0, and 5.0 to draw consumers.

Web 3.0 allows for the usage of digital, enhanced, and hybrid worlds. Customers will have access to collaborative guidebooks, high standard photographs within which people can really see how customers are interacting and start exploring the above marketing materials, and that could be implemented to virtual experiences as that of the access of consumers to digital hotel industry and destinations such as Second Life to comprehend the utilization of avatars and virtual identities out of a political and social factor of perspective.

Geospatial tools, engaging instructions, activity monitoring technologies, and destination-based are indeed the key instruments which investigators inside the tourism sector should study and apply for Web 4.0.

One of most revolutionary application of netnography is the combination of artificial intelligence and emotion production. An excellent illustration of this would be Hilton's concierge robot (dubbed 'Connie'); this robot answers tourists' questions while learning from encounters, and the robot is able to adapt to people's needs. As a result, Web 5.0 is characterized as the "web of thinking," as something of an emotional link between tourism and technology.

Author: Arun Purayidathil Pavithran

#Netnography #Blog #e tourism #Travel #Tourism #Customers #tourism business 

References

Kozinets, R.V., 2020. E-tourism research, cultural understanding, and netnography. Handbook of e-Tourism, pp.1-16.

Sajjadian, F., Sheikh, R., Souri, M.E. and Sana, S.S., 2018. Application of rough set and netnography in tourism marketing analysis. Journal of Modelling in Management.

Tavakoli, R. and Wijesinghe, S.N., 2019. The evolution of the web and netnography in tourism: A systematic review. Tourism Management Perspectives, 29, pp.48-55.

Kozinets, R.V. and Gretzel, U., 2022. Netnography (pp. 1-3). Edward Elgar Publishing.

Gholamhosseinzadeh, M.S., Chapuis, J.M. and Lehu, J.M., 2021. Tourism netnography: How travel bloggers influence destination image. Tourism Recreation Research, pp.1-17.