Title: Tourism, travel and tweets: algorithmic text analysis methodologies in tourism

Authors: William Claster; Phillip Pardo; Malcolm Cooper; Kayhan Tajeddini

Addresses: College of International Management, Ritsumeikan Asia Pacific University, 1-1 Jumonjibaru, Beppu, 874-8577, Japan ' College of International Management, Ritsumeikan Asia Pacific University, 1-1 Jumonjibaru, Beppu, 874-8577, Japan; Graduate School of Management, Ritsumeikan Asia Pacific University, 1-1 Jumonjibaru, Beppu, 874-8577, Japan ' College of International Management, Ritsumeikan Asia Pacific University, 1-1 Jumonjibaru, Beppu, 874-8577, Japan; Graduate School of Asia Pacific Studies, Ritsumeikan Asia Pacific University, 1-1 Jumonjibaru, Beppu, 874-8577, Japan ' Holger Crafoord Centre, Lund School of Economics and Management, Lund University, Tycho Brahes väg 1, Box 7080, SE-220 07 Lund, Sweden

Abstract: Tourism and hospitality organisations depend on market knowledge to compete in innovation, product development, and customer relationship management. This paper shows that new forms of social media provide valuable and previously difficult to obtain real-time knowledge on tourist perceptions, concerns, and sentiment towards tourist destinations - both those already visited and those under consideration for a future visit. We show how analysis of comments from such social media as Twitter micro-blogs can be used to reveal potential and recent tourists motivations in the travel and hospitality industry in various locations.

Keywords: social media; hospitality information management; text mining; market intelligence; sentiment mining; tourism; tourist perceptions; tourist destinations; twitter; microblogs; tourist motivation; travel; tweets; text analysis.

DOI: 10.1504/MEJM.2013.054071

Middle East Journal of Management, 2013 Vol.1 No.1, pp.81 - 99

Received: 04 Jan 2013
Accepted: 19 Jan 2013
Published online: 05 Jul 2014 *

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