Title: The influence of social media on destination choice of Omani pleasure travellers

Authors: Abdulaziz Mohammed Alsawafi

Addresses: Department of International Business Administration, Al Rustaq College of Applied Sciences, P.O. Box 10, PC 329, Al Rustaq, Oman

Abstract: In order to gain a clear understanding of factors that affect destination choice, this paper sought to explore the influence of social media on Omani outbound pleasure travellers' destination choices. The main data collection method involved 35 in-depth interviews with actual Omani outbound travellers. The analysis process led to the development of five themes regarding the influence of social media on their destination choice. These themes have been labelled as the credibility of social media information; the influence of age on the use of social media; the advancement of technology has a huge impact on using social media; the effectiveness of social media as a marketing tool and social media and traditional media complement each other. Hence, based on these themes, it could be concluded that the majority of participants interviewed believe that social media has an effect on their destination choice. Finally, the contribution of the current study would result from aiding the tourism and marketing industries to understand the use and influence of social media on destination choice of Omani travellers (as representing Arab and Muslim tourists).

Keywords: destination choice; social media; Oman; outbound travellers; thematic analysis.

DOI: 10.1504/IJQRS.2018.091566

International Journal of Qualitative Research in Services, 2018 Vol.3 No.1, pp.77 - 91

Received: 07 Apr 2017
Accepted: 09 Jan 2018
Published online: 04 May 2018 *