Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Figure 38.1
Mediation of tourist experience with technology-assisted mediators (source:
Tussyadiah and Fesenmaier 2009: 27).
Robinson 2009: 570). Volo (2012) noted that several researchers have pointed out that blogs
published on VCs are growing in popularity because of their perceived credibility of consumer
opinions which are seen as more authoritative word-of-mouth communications than traditional
tourist information sources.
Travel blogs are also being used for travel advertisements. Huang, Cho and Lin (2010) attested
that travel blogs carry many Internet ads and attract a wide range of bloggers. These included
target advertisements (built in by the blog service providers to lead bloggers to click through
more information) and placement advertisements (which are posted inside the content of blogs
by blog hosts or respondents). In this context, blogs were also suggested to play a positive role in
the processing of ad messages which are an infl uential factor in the purchase intention.
Theoretial and marketing implications of travel blogs
Theoretical implications
Travel blogging has become part of tourist practices and tourist experiences; hence an in-depth
understanding of blogs can contribute to theories on tourist experiences. Few researchers had
started using blogs to gain deeper understanding of tourist experiences as told by bloggers.
Volo (2010) explored how bloggers write about the essence of experience; Bosangit (2012)
demonstrated how tourist experiences were constituted in and through discourses generated in
travel blogs; and Bosangit, Dulnuan and Mena (2012) put forward travel blogging as part of the
post-consumption stage of the tourist experience.
Blogs as naturally occurring, vast and diverse data of travel experiences can reveal aspects on
tourist experiences that have remained elusive to researchers and marketers. A discourse analysis
of travel blogs showed that tourist experiences are retold by bloggers to their readers as
experiences which elicited responses (emotional, intellectual physical) from them and whose
value and meaning to them adds to their memories, self-identity and evolved self which became
part of their life story (Bosangit 2012). Tourist experiences as told in travel blogs are seen to be
refl ecting also the individual's life goals and projects throughout the whole duration of the trip.
Travel blogging was observed to be used by tourists to share various stories of challenges
