Reasons for using private blogs: Toward Korea tourism

Introduction

The Internet supports large online communities and helps the users exchange their data, information, and entertainment activities on social networking sites (SNSs). The high-speed exchange of information implies that SNSs can facilitate information collection and consumption by consumers and have considerable influence on their everyday lives (Hong, 2004).

Because Facebook and Twitter cannot be accessed in China, the Chinese SNS market is led by local service providers, mainly Weibo, RenRen, QQ, and Weixin. These are SNS platforms that facilitate efficient information exchange and easy communication in China. Therefore, they not only play an important role in marketing in China but also affect social and economic elements by their application to various commercial areas. In 2013, China had approximately 630 million SNS users (China Electronic Commerce Research, 2012), which reveals the considerable influence of SNSs on Chinese users’ social and economic lives.

China’s rapid economic development and Chinese students’ intense interest in and desire for education have accelerated the trend for Chinese students to study at universities and colleges overseas. In South Korea, the number of Chinese students increased from 5607 in 2003 to 40,109 in 2014, representing almost half (47.3%) of all foreign students (84,891) in South Korea in that year (Ministry of Education, 2016). The number of Chinese visitors to Korea also increased from 2,837,000 in 2012 to 5,847,000 in 2015, an increase of 106% in three years (KTO, 2016). The resulting increase in the articles posted in SNSs about study and travelling in Korea provides timely information on Korean tourism to friends or family members in China and may thereby further increase the Chinese visitors to Korea.

Consumers in China may be directly and indirectly affected by posting information and photos pertaining to Korean tourist attractions on Chinese SNSs. Blog content may be about experiences and knowledge related to living in Korea, and this exposure may attract the attention of other Chinese users. However, even with the increased use of SNSs, little research has attempted to examine the motivation of the reviewers, and the motivational factors influencing their decision to write reviews on SNSs regarding tourist attraction in Korea. The development of effective tourism marketing will necessitate research on precise reasons for reviewing, i.e., the motivational factors on SNSs.

This study focuses on Chinese students attending universities in Korea after visiting major tourist attractions in Korea. The purpose of the study is to identify the important attributes of their motivation for posting reviews on their blogs. The results have important implications for tourism practitioners wishing to better understand tourists who want to visit tourist attractions in Korea and offer valuable insights for developing effective marketing strategies. The results are also expected to help SNS firms and marketers by considering the current quality of the role of major SNSs in China.

Literature review

Online consumers generally obtain desired information through various channel venues, such as chat rooms, news groups, and bulletin boards instead of through offline friends and colleagues (Brown et al., 2007). Consumers exchange their information and experiences with respect to delivered contents, including advice and complaints obtained directly or indirectly online (Chun and Jung, 2006; Lee and Lee, 2004).

SNS is an everyday gathering zone for existing and new friends to share experiences. This virtual social world offers the key benefit of being unconstrained by time or space. Young people especially are strongly connected to SNS to the extent and it has become an indispensable part of their daily lives (Hong and Chiu, 2016; Indrajit and Saha, 2015).

Consumers are greatly influenced in terms of their consumption behavior by any information and experience acquired by others from online (Kim, 2011). In general, because consumers tend to consider information acquired from others as more reliable than messages in advertising (Lee, 2004), transmitted information, which can induce positive assessments and intentions toward recommendations for products and services, can have considerable influence on others’ decision-making processes (Kim, 2011). That is, consumers trust other consumers more than advertising and companies. Therefore, online reviews can persuade consumers who write online reviews to identify their tendency clearly. Thus, the motivations for posting online reviews can be an important factor in tourism and online marketing. According to Brown et al. (2007), people’s reviews about a particular tourism service and their SNSs for writing, such as blogs, are defined as digitized content and can be provided through the Internet for tourists’ enjoyment and decision-making process. Online information provides tourists with information for specific decision-making and behavioral decisions (Kim, 2001), reflecting their decision-making behaviors.

According to Kim (2008), consumers spread negative information through their product reviews based on word-of-mouth (WOM) communication. On the other hand, positive reviews and realistic online reviews have positive effects on consumers’ interest attitudes and purchase (Suh et al., 2009; Sung et al., 2012). Record storage involves saving interesting information and experiences on SNSs in daily life and can be defined as looking back on any information and fulfilling a desire that is reflected in some subconscious memory. Therefore, record storage is deemed as a means to preserve some information of interest, such as diaries, notes, and letters, through SNSs.

Joinson (2008) asserted that the motives of people who use SNSs such as Facebook include a desire to (1) contact interesting people, (2) find old friends with whom contact has been lost, and (3) maintain current relationships. Twitter can be used to pursue information and facilitate dissemination, encourage participation in social or personal issues, and store individual memories or data as well as human interactions.

Most online users share their thoughts and opinions with others. Because information is often obtained through WOM communication on the Internet, Internet use has increased rapidly (Brown et al., 2007). Internet users share their daily lives or personal information with others, and companies can promote and manage their products or services in an effectively manner. Information on tourist attractions can be easily disseminated through WOM communication. In addition, online users write their opinions and comments for any information and share photos with one another.

Because consumers can easily obtain comments and reviews through WOM communication (Ketelaar et al., 2015; Park and Yoo, 2006; Tatar and Eren-Erdoğmuş, 2016), various activities or experiences related to tourist attractions can induce tourism (Sotiriadis and van Zyl, 2013; Yang, 2008). Therefore, online users’ opinions, comments, postscripts, reviews, and recommendations play important roles in Internet-based information sharing for content or particular functions as part of the Web. To increase the effectiveness of WOM-derived information on the Internet, various types of information such as text, videos, and images are used to enhance the reality for any information on products and services (Ratchford et al., 2001).

The increased amount of consumer-generated travel information enhances information transparency, so that travelers are more likely to believe information generated by consumers than by product suppliers. Jalilvand and Samiei (2012) reported that more than 80% of leisure travel buyers made purchase decisions based on consumer-generated content (Albarq, 2014; Yoo and Gretzel 2011). Understanding consumer motivations for sharing travel information on SNSs is vital for suppliers to develop better marketing strategies to encourage consumers to share positive information.

Methodology

Results

Table 1 shows the demographic characteristics of the 315 respondents. Among the 315 respondents, 46.7% (n = 147) were female. More than half of the respondents were between the age of 23 and 26 (65.1%), about a third (33.0%) were 25 and 26, and a few were under 20 (5.1%) and above 29 (4.8%). In addition, slightly more than a third were graduate students (38.4%), and a quarter were seniors (25.4%).

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Table 1.

Demographic characteristics of students in the sample (n = 315).

Variable	Frequency	%
Gender
Male	168	53.3
Female	147	46.7
Age
Under 20	16	5.1
20–22	39	12.4
23–24	101	32.1
25–26	104	33.0
27–28	40	12.7
29 and over	15	4.8
Year in school
Freshman	28	8.9
Sophomore	29	9.2
Junior	57	18.1
Senior	80	25.4
Graduate student	121	38.4

Principle component factor analysis with Varimax rotation was conducted to analyze 28 motivational variables for postscripts based on eigenvalues (≥1) and factor loadings (≥0.5). As shown in Table 2, seven factors with 28 variables were abstracted for the interpretation of the scale. All factor loading scores were greater than 0.555 (ranging from 0.555 to 0.930) after an orthogonal rotation using Varimax method. Eigenvalues were all greater than 1.023. Cronbach’s alpha scores were 0.704 and over, which were all higher than the minimum cut-off score of 0.60 (Green and Salkind, 2008). The result explained 73.64% of the total variance in the Kaiser–Meyer–Olkin (KMO) measure of sampling adequacy (0.913), which exceeded the recommended threshold of 0.60 (Hair et al., 1998). In addition, the Barlett test of sphericity was 2217.476 (p = 0). There were seven factors: “alleviation of negative emotions” (five items), “information offerings” (five items), “record storage” (four items), “self-expression” (four items), “social interactivity” (three items), “expression of positive emotions” (four items), and “group power” (three items). According to the reliability test, the reliability coefficients for the seven factors ranged from 0.704 to 0.871, which exceeded the recommended threshold of 0.70 (Nunnally and Bernstein, 1994). These results demonstrated the sufficient internal consistency.

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Table 2.

Factor analysis results (n = 315).

Motivational factor	Factor loading	Eigenvalue	Variance explained (%)	Cronbach’s alpha
Mitigation of negative emotions		8.490	28.301	0.871
Expression of bad experiences	0.883
Expression of negative emotions	0.930
Help to overcome negative emotions	0.869
Expression of angry emotions	0.901
Help to relieve dissatisfaction	0.735
				0.753
Information offering		4.834	16.112
To provide useful information	0.854
To provide helpful information	0.892
To provide simple information	0.918
To provide beneficial information	0.848
To save time in offering information	0.555
				0.806
Record storage		2.623	8.742
To remember experiences	0.847
To look back on experiences	0.874
To expand recall of experiences	0.815
To recall experiences in the future	0.798
				0.719
Self-expression		2.269	7.566
To express enjoyment for culture	0.799
To show a cultural life	0.794
To express aggressive consumers	0.771
To show knowledge for attraction	0.768
				0.704
Social interactivity		1.656	5.520
Prefer “likes” for postscripts by friends	0.750
Prefer comments on postscripts	0.786
Prefer sharing for postscripts by friends	0.650
				0.744
Expression of positive emotions		1.196	3.988
To express pleasure	0.829
To express happiness	0.821
To express a feeling of joy	0.782
To express a feeling of excitement	0.725
				0.723
Group power		1.023	3.412
To enhance service quality by postscripts	0.711
Believe the company accepts opinions	0.637
Solve any problems	0.646

Conclusion, discussions and implications

This study examined the factors motivating Chinese students studying in Korea to write reviews on SNSs. The results have important implications for marketing practitioners targeting Chinese students studying in Korea in devising strategies for Korea tourism.

Various motivational factors for review on SNSs were examined for their effect to write reviews, and the results are expected to serve as fundamental data for the development of more effective marketing strategies.

The motivation to express positive emotions was a significant factor that motivated the writing of reviews on SNSs. This suggests that convenient facilities and promotional materials for tourist attractions should be improved to increase tourists’ motivation to express positive emotions. For example, Chinese websites and SNSs should allow users to easily arrange their trips and obtain information on tourism in Korea.

Regarding motivational factors, traditional plays, beautiful scenery, and traditional foods can offer Chinese tourists firsthand experiences during their visit to Korea that allow them to retain their individual experiences. Therefore, experience-based programs, regionally fascinating products, and souvenirs should be developed based on tourists’ desires and needs because potential Chinese tourists are likely to be affected by such offerings, both directly and indirectly. Many functions can be added to SNSs in terms of uploading video clips, advertising, and telling tourism stories by tourists. Certain SNSs can be operated to leave postscripts, reviews, complaints and problems, and solutions can be offered to the government and related organizations.

Understanding the motivations of SNS use will help increase SNS users’ involvement. The SNS platform lifecycle is shortening due to increased competition and quickly emerging new technologies. A key issue for SNS companies is extending platform life, and a potential solution is increasing the level of user involvement. This would help SNS companies to understand how to extend platform life, while also encouraging users to stay longer at the platform. Facebook’s new feature, Stories, aims to inspire users to share their stories and its first topic was “Remembering.” Thereby, Facebook demonstrates its clever understanding of an important motivation: stories can be posted for storage, i.e., on record on Facebook.

The study results showing the significant effects on various motivational factors reveal the need for further empirical research on the Chinese market to expand the tourism market in Korea. Effective marketing strategies can be developed based on the level of motivation to enhance Chinese students’ intentions.

This study has some limitations. The generalizability of the results may be limited because data were collected from Chinese students only in the southern part of Korea and Seoul region. In this regard, future research should compare Chinese students studying in Korea with those residing in China to find distinct factors influencing their intentions to write reviews.