Vol. 9, No. 1 & 2, 2016 Indian Institute Of Tourism And .

FROM THE EDITOR’S DESKThe all-encompassing phenomenon of tourism in the New Millennium is remarkably distinct from its modernised pedigreetracing back to the 1950’s, both in its text and context. The tourism system that a fast transforming context has eventuatedhas been such an environment that is highly diversified and competitive, impacting not only the overall dynamics within theindustry but equally on the conduct of the business of tourism itself. On the one hand, tourism is expanding and spreadinggeographically as never before which in the process has been giving momentum to the introduction of new destinations andexperiences that a diversified spectrum of tourists are striving for. On the other, intense competition on the domain of supplyand across the destinations increasingly witnessing to emergence of newer paradigms in policies and strategies as well asthe momentum in entrepreneurial initiatives. Many studies have already established that increasing access to the technologyas never before, particularly the mobile internet connectivity, would be a game changer especially the manner in which theproduction, distribution and consumption of the tourism occur.An equally striking aspect of tourism is the transformation in the population demographics and consumer preferences. Theclassical population pyramid in many countries is undergoing fast changes notably an increase in proportion of the peopleabove 60 years and that can be observed invariably across societies. This segment is adequately experienced as touristconsumers and has adequate reserve of disposable income, but when it comes to spending, they are evidently seen exercisingdiscretion on such items of more personally rewarding encounters and experiences. Equally notable pattern is an increasingspectrum of tourists who are conscious and aware of their social and environmental footprints as well as power to createpositive changes. For them, consumption in itself is a medium to express their concern towards ethical development behavior.Modern tourism consumption is no longer conspicuous and that is becoming evident particularly in their choice of products,service providers and destinations. Indeed, there are segments of tourists now making responsible choices based on explicitdemonstration by the supply-side in their adherence to the sustainable and ethical offers, and this trend is gaining fastmomentum. This in turn, offers a variety of possibilities and new opportunities for varied stakeholders in the future. Already,there exists a pattern in the product development, service delivery standards and diversification of the supply offeringsjustifying this trend in tourism consumption.Equally, the process of urbanization being underway is both challenge and opportunity for tourism. The earlier emerge from‘reverse migration’ but of a different sort having. On the one hand, different motives and dispositions stemming primarilyfrom the generation of urban dwellers who have either totally lost connects with their roots or those fearing the loss of it andhence emerge there a longing to establish and strengthen those ties. Yet another spectrum encompasses of the people desirousof ‘getting-away’ from their mundane engagements and life environments. The momentum is further pushed by those insearch of temporary escape from the growing pressure and tensions of urbanism. The consistent increase in the personalincome and other demand driving factors like competitive product offerings and ease of its access are the sets of driverspropelling the spread of travelers to the peripheries, and often, to unknown geographies.As the fast growth and diversification intourism is underway, the development process is also becoming more complex andembracing. And that necessitates critical explanations especially on the manner in which newer forms of the demand and itsmanifestations are going to not only impact the production and consumption cycle but also on the socio-economic changesand transformation processes that tourism eventuates. However, as Graham Dann put it sometimes back, if policy makers areoften accused of being insufficiently proactive towards the ever-expanding phenomenon of tourism, the same charge can alsobe legitimately levelled against theoreticians.Perhaps the concern of Dann and many others on the disproportionate academic attention and the engagements to that of themagnitude of tourism as an agent of development and change could largely be attributed to the very existence of tourism asdiscipline of study itself. For, many scholars treat the very disciplinarity of tourism as contentious since they consider it asdefying the established tenets of being a discipline. This, albeit the fact that the theories and explanations on the phenomenonof development have reached a stage where ‘there can either be as many disciplines or the very discipline can no longer berelevant’!

That said, the criticisms do merit reference primarily on account of the very nature of tourism and its existence of industrialand production structure. As can be evident, tourism continue attracting considerable attention because it is a critical globalbusiness function now impacting the economies and societies at large. For this very reason, a critical body of tourism-specificknowledge has already been created and that the scholarly engagement on the phenomenon of tourism would continue toincrease in the future. The contributions in this volume hopefully would add to further understanding and explaining of thephenomenon of tourism and its developmental manifestations.Prof. Sutheeshna Babu. SEditor

International Journal of Tourism and TravelVolume 9, Issue 1 & 2, 20161. Determinants of Social Media Use Across Tourist LifecyclePhases - An Empirical Investigation of Tourist MotivesAnsted Iype Joseph, S. Victor Anand Kumar1-102. Impact of Healthcare Utilities and Law & Order Conditions onTourism: A Study on Community-based Tourism in NorthEast IndiaMridul Dutta, Nayan Barua11-173. Multi-Stakeholder Perceptions about Sustainable Tourismin Goa: A Structural Equation ModelingCarmelita D’ Mello, Santana Fernandes, Friedrich M. Zimmermann,Subhash Kizhakanveatil Bhaskaran Pillai, Jacob Ganef Pah18-304. Rural Tourism in India: Relevance, Prospects and PromotionalStrategiesShikha Kapur31-495. Potential of Rural Tourism in India A Synoptic ViewRidhi Sharma50-55Journal is also available online at www.publishingindia.com

Article can be accessed online at http://www.publishingindia.comDETERMINANTS OF SOCIAL MEDIA USEACROSS TOURIST LIFECYCLE PHASES - ANEMPIRICAL INVESTIGATION OF TOURISTMOTIVESAnsted Iype Joseph*, S. Victor Anand Kumar**AbstractSocial media has now emerged as an essential tool for tourists looking to not just plan their next vacation but also to use it during their vacationand beyond. This paper has brought to the fore, the motives behind the use of social media as a tool by tourists during the three phases of thetourist lifecycle; Pre-trip, In-Trip and Post-trip. From the primary data collected from domestic and international tourists, the motives thatinfluenced their use of social media across the lifecycle phases have been identified using factor analysis and the relative importance of thesefactors have been analysed. Knowledge and understanding of these factors will enable destination marketing organizations and other tourismproviders to utilize social media as a marketing tool to influence the tourists’ travel planning.Keywords:Tourist Lifecycle, Social Media, Travel Planning, Tourist Decision MakingINTRODUCTIONThe tourism industry has been influenced by sociotechnological changes such as the emergence of the Internetand the World Wide Web (Buhalis and O’Connor, 2005;Beritelli Bieger and Laesser, 2007; Buhalis and Law, 2008;Law, Leung and Buhalis, 2009). The prominence of socialmedia has become a game changer and has transformed theway in which people interact with others and influence thechoice of others. Kaplan and Haenle in (2010) describe socialmedia as a group of Internet-based applications that are builton the ideological and technological foundations of Web 2.0,and that allow the creation and exchange of User GeneratedContent (UGC). Social media has allowed its users tocommunicate and also discover like-minded individuals andform communities based on mutual interests. This uniqueability of social media has allowed it to garner multitudesof users who increasingly use it for connecting with others.As cited by several industry reports, today’s tourists arerelying more than ever on online word of mouth. Thetourism and hospitality industry is leveraging social mediato promote its services and to engage travellers in a varietyof ways. As social media continues its meteoric rise in itsreach and influence, tourism providers cannot depend ontraditional media (print, radio, TV and so on) alone to craftconsumer perception of their product.Tourists utilize the diverse social media plat forms as toolsto educate themselves about destinations and influenceother travellers. Tourists’ use of social media encompassesthe entire journey, from pre-trip through in-trip to post-trip.Tourism marketers would be able to create strategies aroundsocial media if they better understood the motives behindsocial media use during each of the phases in the touristlifecycle.REVIEW OF LITERATUREThis article investigates the motives behind the use ofsocial media by tourists in the three phases of the travellers’travel planning process (pre-trip, during-trip, and posttrip) suggested by Engel, Blackwell, and Miniard (1990).Dasgupta (2011) has classified the ‘tourist lifecycle’ intothree phases; pre-trip, trip and post-trip.Social media has drastically changed the way individualsplan and consume travel (Gretzel and Yoo, 2008; Hudson* Doctoral Research Scholar, Department of Management Studies, Pondicherry University, Pondicherry, India.Email: ansted2000@yahoo.com** Associate Professor, Department of Management Studies, Pondicherry University, Pondicherry, India.Email: victor.dms@pondiuni.edu.in

2 International Journal of Tourism and Travel and Thal, 2013). Litvin, Goldsmith and Pan (2008) suggestedthat potential tourists can rely on others’ experiences for theirdecision-making, due to the experiential nature of tourismproducts. Social media tools are used throughout the travelplanning process and after holidays for sharing experiences.Influence from social media, particularly in reputationalareas, will strongly affect final decisions in holiday plans(Fotis, Buhalis and Rossides, 2011). As tourism-relatedproducts and services are high-priced, high involvement,and well-differentiated in nature, travellers generally collectand review various forms of travel information early in thetravel decision-making process in order to minimize the riskof making wrong decisions (Jeng and Fesenmaier, 2002).With the rising popularity of websites that contain contentthat is generated by travellers, a number of scholars coinedthe paramount importance of social media in the researchphase of the travel planning process (Cox, Burgess,Sellitto, and Buultjens, 2009; Yoo and Gretzel, 2010; Lo,McKercher, Lo, Cheung and Law, 2011; Tussyadiah, Parkand Fesenmaier, 2011). Huang, Baseu, and Hsu (2010)opined that obtaining travel information appeared to be theprimary motivation driving the travellers’ use of UGC andsocial media. During the planning stage “Looking at otherconsumers” comments/materials on online travel reviewsites’ was the most frequently used source of information(Gretzel and Yoo, 2008).UGC, or so called electronic word-of-mouth (eWOM), is anew form of WOM that serves similar informational needsby offering non-commercial, detailed, and experientialinformation (Litvin, Goldsmith and Pan, 2008). It istherefore becoming a vital information source to potentialtourists (Chung and Buhalis, 2008) and is seen as moretrustworthy than information provided by the destinationor tourism service provider; this can subsequently beconsidered as substitute for word of mouth (Yoo and Gretzel,2009; Fotis, Buhalis and Rossides, 2011).Yoo and Gretzel(2011) suggested that eWOM could provide informationwith an access beyond the boundaries of one’s immediatesocial circle. Through searching the content on social media,consumers can not only collect travel information fromfriends and relatives who are within their social network, butalso acquire more extensive information from Internet usersaround the world.Thevenot (2007) added that the travel experiences andperspectives of previous consumers could be shared with

I.J. Tourism and Travel Research Unit Indian Institute of Tourism and Travel Management (IITTM) Govindpuri Gwalior 474011 MP INDIA Fax.: 91-751-2344054 E-mail : iittm.journal@gmail.com Disclaimer: The views expressed in the articles carried in T&T do not reflect the opinion of Indian Institute of Travel and Tourism Management