Hotellsektorn och det digitala fotavtrycket : - En studie av TripAdvisor och dess påverkan på Ålands hotellmarknad

Sammanfattning: The Internet has grown to become one of the most influential tools affecting the tourism industry. This study seeks to explore a smaller piece of a widely recognized phenomenon, breaking off to study the impacts of online reviews on TripAdvisor and electronic word-of-mouth in the hotel sector. The study further attempts to identify problems and advantages with the increased use of consumer generated media-sites. One of the main motivations for this study is also the lack of profound studies examining hotel responses to online reviews and destination impacts. The scope of this study is limited to examine three hotels and their respective reviews, on the Aland Islands. Thus this study does not necessarily seek to generalize results in other instances. The identified problem in this thesis is that hotel operators experience difficulties in managing what is being written about them as the perception of time and space changes, owing to the Internet. In making progress to this problem, the study was conducted through semi-structured interviews and a thematic analysis, to understand the specifics of the context. Furthermore, this methodology was used to understand the perspectives of the informants. The results indicate that online reviews on TripAdvisor follow specific themes and are considered an important source of information for hotel operators. However, there seems to be some limitations in management, due to lack of opportunities and strategic plans of actions in the hotel sector. There is, however, a collective understanding and willingness amongst hotels to further immerse themselves in the work of managing reviews.