Are you influenced by other people's travel experiences? - A study of the herd behaviour of tourists on the example of Budapest
(R2024-122698)

AUTHORS

Török Réka Szabina, University of Szeged; Eva Bundsag, University of Szeged, Faculty of Economics and Business Administration

ABSTRACT

Social influence has been strongly observed since the emergence of social media and review platforms that have radically changed travellers' behaviour. The aim of this study is to link the accommodation choice decision mechanism with the phenomenon of herd behaviour to provide a more accurate picture of tourists' purchasing behaviour. The study focuses on interdisciplinary basis and aims to answer the question How does shopping behaviour manifest itself in the online information search and final decision making of travellers? An online questionnaire was conducted in relevant groups of social sites. Besides the survey, an experiment was conducted to investigate accommodation engagement before and after the opinions were obtained. The results confirmed the role of reviews in touristic decisions and revealed what makes a customer comment credible. The personal attributes of the commenter have little while, the level of detail, the number of stars, and reviews have a medium influence. Also, experimentally, the herd behaviour effect has been confirmed. Keywords: tourism decision making, herd behaviour, online reviews, behavioural economics