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How Russian Travellers Use Social Media and Other Internet
Resources to Make Hotel-Choice Decisions
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Dr. Sergey P. Kazakov

Associate Professor

Chair of Enterprise Marketing

Faculty of Management

National Research University Higher School of Economics

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Moscow

Russian Federation

July 2014
 Abstract

The term Social media describes web-based and mobile technologies that are

used to turn electronic communication into an interactive dialogue and let users to

exchange user-created content. Social media resources are widely used by travelers as

channels for destinations and hotels information. Russian tourists are not an exception

to this respect. In this study, the impact of social media on customer choice and booking

decisions in hospitality industry is examined based on the case of the Russian Federation.

The research is aimed at identification of the specifics of the Russian consumers

perception towards the use of social media in comparison with other Internet resources

and traditional off-line sources for decision making for planning their travel. The results

of the study may be utilized by hotel management to rethink and renovate their on-line

strategies targeted at their respective customer audiences.

Keywords

Hospitality and Tourism, hotel management, social media, consumer behavior,

Information and Communication technologies, Russia.

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Introduction

The development of information and communications technologies (ICT) have

had a tremendous impact on the hospitality and tourism industry in recent years. Such

recognizable technology and innovation transfer activity has made this research issue an

appeal for many scholars worldwide. We can witness an emerge of a wide range of

publications dedicated to a transformation of hospitality and tourism industry under the

influence of Information and Communication Technologies or simply ICT (Law &

Jogaratnam (2005), Cho & Olsen (1998), Frew (2000a), Frew (2000b), Ho & Lee (2007),

Buhalis (2003), Buhalis and Lob (2008), Fotis, Buhalis and Rossides (2011)).

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 In the second decade of the XXI century ICT continues to drive a momentum on

changes in service products development, processes, structure of an industry, basic nature

of the competition in hospitality as well as interaction process between hotels, travel

agents, airlines and customers (Buhalis, 2003). As D.Buhalis pointed out The Internet is

one of the most influential technologies that have changed travellers behavior (Buhalis,

2008). The new term, eTourism, which explains the synthesis of ICT and Tourism became

apparent (Buhalis, 2008). However, as ICT and Social Media is a still a newly emerged

phenomena on the global scale. This area of research may require further development

and mastering although recently more papers tend to appear in specialized journals.

Another distinctive peculiarity relevant for Social Media lays in its unique ability to amend

constantly in adjusting itself to new realities, technologies and challenges faced by the

society in common and by consumers and businesses in particular. Hence, such process of

the constant changes in ICT and Social Media requires more attention to be received from

scholars as this evolution needs to be recorded and analyzed to reveal the implications and

supply industry insiders with an up-to-date information for managerial decisions in their

activities. We contribute this study to a stream of publications array to build a knowledge

base for industry congregation and community for such decisions with an emphasis on

studying one particular case of one of the worlds top growing traveling nations - the

Russians.

Background of the study

As a result of the 20-year changes in the country, the Russian hospitality and

tourism industry has undergone dramatic evolution recently. By the beginning of XXI

century the market-oriented model of Russian hospitality and tourism industry had been

formed. Since that time domestic and outbound tourism both have demonstrated the

tendency for a sharp upsurge. The total number of leisure trips traveling abroad out of the

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CIS countries has increased from 4 252 to 12 231 thousand between 2000 and 2010 while

the number of business trips abroad has grown from 11 611 thousand in 2000 to 37 750

thousand in 2013 (GosComStat of Russia, 2014). The number of hotels and similar

accommodation establishments like resorts, B&B and other lodging facilities have

increased in domestic market from 4 182 to 7 410 thousand. The number of travel

agencies operating in Russia has multiplied by 2,3 times in a time period between 2000

and 2009 and accounted 6 897 units in 2009 (GosComStat of Russia, 2010). A wide range

of macroeconomic and microeconomic factors currently influence the development of the

Russian hospitality and tourism industry.

The rapid development and spread of new technologies spear headed by ICT is

one of the main factors significantly contributing to the intensity and increase of business

or leisure domestic and international number of trips completed by Russian citizens. The

number of Internet users in Russia currently overtops 40% of the national population. It is

the matter of fact that the ICT transforms tourism and hospitality industry business

models as well as it stimulates changes in customers decision making and their entire

behavior. While a considerable share of business and leisure travelers choose

accommodation and make payment via on-line travel booking systems, obtain information

with a help of travel sites containing hotel reviews and other social media, the traditional

off-line travel agencies are supposed to shift to on-line services selling travel package tours

to chase the mass market tourists or to dig into a niche and to serve VIP sector on so called

concierge type of service, as VIPs commonly are known not to be technologically savvy .

Social media and other internet resources are widely used by travelers as

channels and sources for information on hotels and destinations. The Social Media that

are relevant to hospitality and tourism industry in Russian Federation include common

and special niche electronic media and may be distinguished in three types: public user

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generated and public user supported, business generated and public user supported and

public user generated and business supported (Balaeva, Kazakov, Predvoditeleva, 2012).

In this country, the following global meta-search and on-line booking agencies

are operated in Russian language and are widely known and used: www.Tripadvisor.com,

www.Booking.com, and www.Virtualtourist.com. Indeed, there are several Russian decent

web-sites dedicated to travel and hotel reviews such as www.travel.ru, wwww.otdih.ru,

www.otziv.ru and many others. Some local businesses created the localized web resources,

for instance, www.hotels.ru and www.ostrovok.ru that are quite similar to top global meta-

search and online booking sites and mirror their technologies and business profile. The

top social media networks in this country are Vkontakte (www.vkontakte.ru),

Odnoklassniki (www.odnoklassniki.ru), and Facebook (www.facebook.ru). Vkontakte, or

In Touch is the biggest Russian social network and is reminiscent in its interface and

functions to Facebook. Since its launch in 2007 the number of Vkontakte user base has

reached 52 million in 2014 and accounts 26 million user connections daily. Odnoklassniki

is another big social media network which is similar to the one in US known as

www.classmates.com. It is organized according to users particular school/college/

university background and aimed to classmates and green years friends search. It was

found in 2006 and accounts about for 42 million users now, nearly 10 million of them log

in into their personal pages every day. Facebook have emerged in the Russian internet

zone 5 years ago and currently enjoys a position of #3 among the Russian top social media

sites. It is the junior but rapidly growing Social Media network here with 25 million users

registered in Russia as of July of 2014. Twitter accounts currently 12 million users in this

country and is not that big as in the USA.

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 Methodology of the research

Based on the relevancy of the research area which is dedicated to the impact of

social media and other internet resources on customer decisions for booking a hotel or

travel package purchase that are likely for Russian tourists and best describe their on-line

consumer behavior, we formulate the key research objective as to reveal the specifics of

internet resources and Social Media utilization in hotel choice and booking decisions that

are distinctive to Russian consumers. Such objective provided a basis to elaborate the

following set of hypothesis:

H1: Social Media and other internet resources have an impact on consumer

behavior and influence the choice for a purchase of services provided by businesses in

hospitality and tourism;

H2: Customers make their hotel-choice decisions based on recommendations by

their friends colleagues and by availability of negative or/and positive feedback reviews left

by previous guests of the same hotel;

H3: There are vivid differences in the decision making process between business

travelers and leisure tourists;

H4: Russian consumers actively and vastly use the Internet resources for their

travel planning;

H5: There are no tangible gender differences in a consumer behavior and in a

way where men and women utilize Social Media and Internet resources for planning the

trip.

We used an updated and localized questionnaire of the similar study that was

conducted in 2010 by the Center of Hospitality Research at Cornell University and kindly

contributed to our research project by our colleagues from this institution (McCarthy,

Stock, Verma, 2010).

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 In order to test the above list of assumptions we have arranged for the online

survey using the OMI panel in 15 cities of Russian Federation that account one million

residents or more. OMI, or Online Marketing Intelligence is a company originated in the

USA and facilitates on-line consumer panels in many countries where Russian Federation

is not an exception. Customer experience in hospitality tourism services purchased and

consumed over the last year served as a key selection criterion for the sample recruitment.

As a result, n=536 surveyed in April of 2014. The analysis of modes demonstrated the

most frequent descriptives for Russian tourists that include Muscovites, 29 years old

males, who have bachelor education in live in a family of 3 people and their household

income is considered as Russian average or approximately 1 200 per month. We used a

Crombach alpha to test the data reliability and =0.892 which shows a good fit of the

collected data.

Results

The influence of Social Media and internet resources on consumer

behavior in hotel choice or travel package purchase decision making

We used the analysis of means related to the hotel choice factors that are

considered by the tourists in Russia during the buying decision making process in the

hospitality industry. The analysis of means allowed to distinguish 4 factor groups that can

be tied one to another and ranked according to their importance for the consumers (Table

1).

Table 1. Hotel choice importance factors clumping

Factor Groups according to Likerts scale of the least Mode Mean

important (1) to the most important (5)

1. Least important factors (mode=1, mean=1~2.5)

1.1. Preferred hotel brand 1 2.24

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 Factor Groups according to Likerts scale of the least Mode Mean
important (1) to the most important (5)

1.2. Loyalty programs offered by a hotel 1 2.4

2. Medium important factors (mode2~3, mean=2.5~3.5)

2.1. Travel agent recommendations 3 2.94

2.2. Information on promotions offered by a hotel 3 3.01

2.3. Recreation (fitness, park, spa) facilities near the hotel 3 3.16

2.4. Attractions and landmarks near the hotel 3 3.47

2.5. Shopping area near the hotel 3 3.1

2.6. Entertainment facilities near the hotel 3 3.16

3. Important factors (mode4, mean=3~4)

3.1. Hotel category or star rating 4 3.52

3.2. Own previous travel experience 4 3.42

3.3. Recommendations by friends and relatives 4 3.41

3.4. Recommendations by colleagues 4 3.16

3.5. On-line hotel reviews and feedback 4 3.63

3.6. Hotel video and photo materials exposed in internet 4 3.64

3.7. Hotel interior and design 4 3.62

4. The most important factors (mode5, mean=4~5)

4.1. Location 5 4.21

4.2. Room rate 5 4.15

4.3. Perceived value for money 5 4.36

4.4. Hotel reputation and general impression 5 3.84

The factors 3.5, 3.6, 3.7 that have a direct relationship with internet resources

and Social Media on-line networking bear the level of mid-to-high importance for the

consumers. Yet it should be revealed here that, according to the study, the top five

decision support sources for the consumer to select a right hotel included hotel reviews

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 Search engines (google) = 83%
On-line booking (booking.com etc.) = 32%
Hotel sites = 38%
Facebook = 7%
Twitter = 3%
Blogs = 8% On-line booking (booking.com etc.) = 39%
Youtube = 11% Meta-search engines (kayak.com etc.) =
On-line feedback sites (otziv.ru) = 10% 7%
Odnoklassniki = 8% Hotel site = 26%
Vkontakte = 24% On-line feedback sites (otziv.ru) = 47%
Other SM= 2,6% Mobile App = 4%

On-line On-line
On-line
resources k=0.85 resources k=0.67

84% 73% 51%

Information Information Booking and

Final decision
request evaluation purchase

16% 27% 49%

Off-line resoures Off-line

Ofine
resources

Call to the agency = 33% Call to the agency = 28%

Call to the hotel = 14% Call to the hotel = 16%

Fig.1. Logistic behavioral model of the consumer in a process for

the hotel information evaluation and buying decision

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and consumer general feedback sites e.g. otziv.ru (47%), on-line booking agencies e.g.

booking.com and tripadvisor.com (39%), phone call to the travel agent (28%), hotel brand

web sites (26%) and direct phone call to the hotel (16%).

Such result demonstrates the high share of internet resources and Social Media

sites in the sources for hotel booking decision making. The ratio between on-line and off-

line or traditional resources that support hotel purchase decision making is 73%/27$. On-

line hotel booking within the last year was highlighted by 51% of the surveyed sample

participants. Hence, internet and social media produce some tangible influence on

consumer buying behavior in hospitality industry and tourism. Using the data for H1

testing also encouraged us to build a logistic consumer behavioral model which visualizes a

process of hotel information search and evaluation, further buying decision and also the

final actual spot where hotel booking is made (Fig.1).

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 The model demonstrates some decline in internet resources and Social Media

usage across the stages of the buying process unfold as conversion rates are 0.85 and 0.67

with a general conversion rate of 0.6 throughout the entire consumer activity. However,

on-line booking as a logical process end has a bit more than equal share (51%) in

comparison with traditional off-line points of hospitality services sale (49%).

Influence of negative or/and positive off-line recommendations and

on-line feedback and reviews left by previous guests on consumer intent to

book a particular hotel

Initially we had assumed that WOM recommendations usually given by a

traditional social networking environment e.g. relatives, friends and colleagues and on-line

hotel reviews, comments or rankings found in Social Media sites have strong and solid

impact on consumer decision if given both together or separately. That meant that, if

consumer sees any negative hotel review, he to she immediately drops the idea of

considering this particular hotel further and go somewhere else in a search for a better and

more positive solution. The results of the study however showed a different picture (Table

2).

Table 2. Positive and negative Social Media on-line feedback impact

on hotel booking decision

Likert's Scale: 1(very unlikely)~5(very likely) Mode Median Mean

Q: If you see positive comments about a hotel on 4 4 3.72

social media sites how likely are you to book this
hotel?

Q: If you see negative comments about a hotel on 2 2 2.37

social media sites how likely are you to book this
hotel?

The influence of off-line recommendations was tested with the assistance of hotel

choice importance factors (Table 1) and also provided the medium values of Friend

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recommendation= 3.41, Colleague recommendation=3.16 and Travel agent

recommendation = 2.41. In the data analysis, there was an attempt to find a covariance

between off-line and on-line hotel feedback but Pearsons test revealed a small level of

dependency in all cases whereas the factor value did not exceed 0.156 (p=0.000-0.005 in

all cases). ANOVA test also proved no relationships between off-line and on-line hotel

recommendations and reviews so far. Hence, traditional or off-line recommendations and

modern type of consumer feedback which spreads via internet both can shape the

customer choice as they influence on this behavior although the level of such influence

tend to be quite medium.

Decision making patterns for business and leisure tourists

According to Levenes t-test business and leisure tourists have much in common

when it comes to the search for the relevant information and making their final decision to

book a selected hotel. Still there are some differences there though in hotel choice factors

of importance for these two consumer groups as room rate (p=0.002), perceived value for

money (0.000) and off-line hotel recommendations difference (p=0.003). Type of travel,

business or leisure, also affects the specific internet resources or sites where tourists insert

the initial query for the information and make their final stop for hotel booking. Leisure

tourists are inclined to consider hotel reviews and feedback sites accompanied by Social

Media for the initial information search as more important than other internet venues

(p=0.000). Business tourists more likely will browse through on-line meta-search or

agencies (p=0.000), use mobile app like Kayak or TripIt (p=0.000); or would rather call

the hotel directly when planing their trip (p=0.000). On-line hotel reviews and feedback

provide the same level of influence on both leisure and business tourists in their final

decision as Levenes test for this group of variables uncovered p>0.05, and Pearsons 2>0

whilst p>0.05 also that demonstrates no multi collinearity between analyzed variables.

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Overall, leisure and business tourists show the similar consumer behavior patterns with

some vivid specific signs of ambiguity as described above.

The level of internet usage by tourists in Russia for travel planning

Russian tourists actively use internet in their travel planning as 51% of surveyed

sample indicated reference to internet resources at various stages of the hotel and package

buying process. With respect to computing and communications devices, Russians mostly

use notebook computers (42,7%), tablet computers e.g. Apple iPad or Samsung Galaxy

(29%), desk top computer (21%) or smartphones (7%). Mobile devices including tablet

computers and smartphones together account 36% share in devices used by consumers for

hotel search and booking. This fact may be good reason to give momentum for further

mobile applications development, their active promotion and vast distribution. The

Technology Readiness Level Index (TRLI)(Bennett and Maton, 2010) mean for Russian

hospitality industry and tourism consumers was calculated as good as 3.4 out of 5 as a

maximum TRLI possible value. Almost everyone, or 99.3% of surveyed sample

participants use the computer and internet at least once in an every day routine.

As standard question set that is used to identify the TRLI value has a capability to

provide scale variables and there is a possibility to split all the sample into homogeneous

groups that can be clumped due to similarity in their responses. The factor analysis

discovered three distinctive groups of hospitality industry and tourism consumers with

respect to their internet usage level and attitude towards the latest advances in technology.

The first group may be named as Advanced and confident users and accounts 25% of the

dispersion. Mistrustful users (18%) who also utilize internet resources very heavily for

the life needs but prefer to refrain from the on-line transactions in a belief that this activity

is not secure. Non experienced and non accepting users (12%) badly tend to accept new

technologies and rather prefer to use the traditional off-line methods, especially travel

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agents, for information search and evaluation. The remaining 44% of the dispersion

accounts 7 other groups that have a big scale of ambiguity in factor values and thus can be

interpreted.

Gender differences in on-line consumer behavior for hotel choice and

booking

In majority of the cases men and women demonstrate different behavioral

patterns in a decision making and hotel booking as well as in a ways of information search

and evaluation. We again have exploited the Levenes t-test for most of the consequent

variables to test the commons and differences between two genders. First the gender pair

was tested for the hotel choice importance factors to determine the differences (Table 3).

Table 3. Levenes t-test results for gender similarities and differences

in hotel choice importance factors

Hotel choice factors of importance Similarity/ Which p value

Difference gender
more
important
to
Location difference female 0.008
Hotel category and star rating similarity - 0.658
Preferred hotel brand difference male 0.008
Hotel customer loyalty programme difference male 0.027
participation
Room rate difference female 0.032
Value for money perception difference female 0.004
Hotel reputation and general impression difference female 0.000
Previous experience similarity - 0.062
Hotel recommendations by friends difference female 0.023
Hotel recommendations by colleagues similarity - 0.815

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 Hotel choice factors of importance Similarity/ Which p value
Difference gender
more
important
to
Hotel recommendations by travel agent difference female 0.029
On-line hotel reviews or other forms of similarity - 0.093
feedback

Promotions announced by the hotel similarity - 0.694

Video and photo materials demonstrating difference female 0.004
hotel facilities on-line
Hotel interiors (lobby, room, sea view, difference female 0.039
restaurant and hotel territory)
Recreation and sports facilities in the hotel similarity - 0.481
(SPA, swimming pool, tennis court etc.)
Tourists attractions near the hotel difference female 0.000
Shopping ares near the hotel difference female 0.000
Entertainment and dining facilities near the similarity - 0.271
hotel

Hotel reviews and other forms of on-line feedback produce the same level of

influence on both men and women. Both genders yet equally consider hotel star rating,

own previous experience, colleagues recommendations, hotel promotions and some

facilities availability as hotel choice importance factors for themselves. Other factors

demonstrate differences in a way men and women evaluate the hotels and tour packages.

Theres no tangible differences in the impact of the on-line positive or negative

hotel reviews and rankings on men and women when they make their decision for the hotel

booking. Yet both gender representatives are equally inclined to leave their own hotel

reviews after experiencing hotel services and upon return back home from the travel

(Table 4).

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 Table 4. Levenes t-test results for gender similarities and differences

in positive or negative hotel feedback impact on consumer behavior and

readiness to leave the hotel review on-line after return from the travel

Questions for variables determination Similarity/ Which p value

Difference gender
more
important
to
Q:If you see the positive hotel review on-line difference female 0.000
how likely you will book this particular hotel?
Q:If you see the negative hotel review on-line similarity - 0.3
how likely you will book this particular hotel?
Q:How likely you will leave an on-line review similarity - 0.744
if you receive a positive hotel stay experience?
Q:How likely you will leave an on-line review similarity - 0.345
if you receive a negative hotel stay experience?

The analysis of frequencies allowed to determine which internet resources and

Social media sites are preferred by men and women at the early stages of the travel

planning and used as initial information search sources (Table 5).

Table 5. Frequency analysis results demonstrating the gender

preferences in internet resources and Social Media sites used at the early

travel planning stages for information search

Internet resources and Social Media sites Preferred by a

gender of
General search engines (e.g. Google, Yahoo, Yandex) both genders
Meta-search engines and on-line travel agencies (e.g. Kayak, male
Expedia, Ostrovok)
Hotel brand web-site ( e.g. marriott.com) female
Facebook male
Twitter male
Blogs female
Youtube male
Tripadvisor female

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 Internet resources and Social Media sites Preferred by a
gender of
Odnoklassniki male
Vkontakte male
Other Social Media sites both genders
Calling the travel agent female
Direct calling the hotel male

Following the information in Table 5, most internet web sites and Social Media

on-line networks may be distinguished as male or female resources as both genders have

a different preferences when applying for the information at the initial stages of their travel

planning. These gender differences remain when it comes to a final stop of the entire

buying process and where consumers make their final hotel choice decision and proceed to

booking. The internet resources and traditional off-line points of hotel accommodation

sales according gender preferences is shown in a Table 6.

Table 6. Frequency analysis results demonstrating the gender

preferences in internet resources and off-line purchase options used at the

later stages of consumer decision making process for a hotel booking

Internet resources or off-line options to book a hotel Preferred by a

gender of
On-line travel agencies (e.g., Booking.com, Expedia.com, male
hotels.ru)
Meta-search engines (e.g. kayak.com) male
Hotel brand web-site ( e.g. marriott.com) male
Hotel review sites with booking capabilities (e.g. female
Tripadvisor.com, otziv.ru)
Direct hotel booking with a phone call male
Off-line travel agency office female
Mobile applications both genders

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 Internet resources or off-line options to book a hotel Preferred by a
gender of
Other ways to book a hotel female

Here we need to emphasize the dominance of men in a usage of the majority of

on-line resources to book a hotel, whilst women would rather go to a local travel agency

office and make their purchase there, and also hotel review sites with a booking

capabilities like tripadvisor.com are more appealing for females than for males at their

final buying stop. Overall, when it comes to the usage of on-line resources for the hotel

booking 53% of those who make on-line transaction were men and 47% were women. Men

also use smartphones more often for on-line booking (65%) as well as desktop computers

(61%) and women showed more preference towards tablet computer devices (58%).

Computer notebooks are equally used by both genders for the same matter.

Summarizing the results of the study we can deduce the following on the

hypothesis testing:

H1 - fully confirmed;

H2 - partly confirmed according to medium correlation between on-line and off-

line hotel choice factors that are important for travelers;

H3 - partly confirmed as similar and different consumer behavioral patterns do

exist depending on the purpose of the travel which can be leisure or business tourism;

H4 - fully confirmed;

H5 - partly confirmed as men and women may act the same and also differently

in entire travel planning process.

Limitation of the research

The resulting sample appeared to bear a clumping type with a predominance of

respondents, that live in Moscow and are males aged of 29. Due to the fact that currently

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there is no reliable official statistics available in Russia that reflect the properties of the

population according to the sample selection criteria for the online survey, it was

impossible to re-weigh the sample. In this context, analysis of the collected data was

carried out as is, and resulting clumping sample type may be attributed to limitations of

the study. This consequently did not allow to accomplish a factor analysis for the hotel

choice factors to fully classify and describe groups that are specific to Russian tourists.

Managerial Implications

Based on the findings of the study, we can propose the following list of activities

that will allow businesses in hospitality industry and tourism to use their innovative

potential and improve their value for customers with a use of ICT:

1) Take into consideration on-line feedback and place an immediate response on-

line, apologizing for customers that somehow are not satisfied with their experience and

thank guests who have placed a positive feedback;

2) Eliminate reasons that impel hotel guests to leave a negative feedback as

quickly as possible, however this is true mainly for the hotel services as some of the hotel

peculiarities like location cannot be changed over night or at all;

3) Offer a compensation for the negative experience in a form of specific

compliment, e.g. give away a free room upgrade and tangible discounts for services

available in the hotel for the next stay;

4) Encourage guests to write their on-line reviews, shoot and upload their video

and photo materials dedicated to the hotel with a help of a variety of marketing activities -

contests, gifts and discounts;

5) Re-think and update hotel web site and ensure its convenient usability and

modern state-of-the-art web design;

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 6) Initiate or further strengthen collaborations with Social Media networks,

online travel agencies and meta-search sites using partnership marketing tools or exploit

the advertising opportunities provided by these internet businesses;

7) Establish a presence in various social media by creating corporate pages and

actively manage groups in Social Media with a frequent information update about the hotel

properties, facilities, services and currently undergoing marketing campaigns;

8) Take into account gender differences when developing appropriate messages

targeted to different groups of customers and Social Media networks users;

9) Recognize the growth of mobile applications importance and commence their

development and integration into communications with target customers;

10) Further develop ICT and IT integration with a business processes in

hospitality businesses, including the software capabilities to blend with on-line internet

resources and mobile applications that will increase the processing speed and quality in

interaction with customers.

These activities will help to ensure a more intimate contact with the target

customer audiences. They will also improve the efficiency of business in the hospitality

and tourism by providing a closer link with the market and provide opportunities to

improve the hotel and travel agency business model based on innovations brought by IT

and ICT.

Proposed directions for the future research

Given the fact of tourist-oriented Social Media on-line networks and other

internet resources rapid development which occurred most recently, there is a need for a

series of similar research projects that will make the present and other similar studies

longitudinal, because it is obvious that the results of the subsequent research will vary

from the previous studies. In this regard, it is also relevant to track a longitudinal

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dynamics of relationship and coexistence between traditional off-line and new on-line

sources of information in their impact on consumer choice in the final stage of hotel and

travel package booking

In addition, future studies should also take into account the rapidly growing

sector of mobile applications as the present study depicted that the aggregate share of

mobile devices, e.g. tablet computers and smartphones, was 36% amongst the devices

utilized these days by tourists for going on-line and web-browsing.

Conclusion

The present study certainly can not find all the needed answers to questions

related to the Social Media and online resources research area relevant for the hospitality

industry and tourism. Nevertheless, the results of the present research can be considered

as situational analysis of the current specifics of Russian consumers behavior including

their preferences in the search for hotel information both off-live and on-line; and the

decision to book a hotel room or purchase the whole travel package. The results of the

study demonstrate the importance of Social Media and other internet tools for consumer

choice in the Russian Federation.

As it is impossible to predict the trend of development of online resources and

their impact on the hospitality industry development with a great level of certainty, so it is

necessary to point up once again the call for a series of similar research projects in the

future.

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