Destination Information Sources for Itinerant Holidaymakers: A Study of Island Hoppers in Greece

Abstract

This article explores information sources for destination decision-making in the under-researched context of mobile tourism with a quite low level of pre-tour decisions. The questionnaire-based study attends to this gap through updated documentation of vacationer use of online networking sites, review sites, and other information sources. The results show that conventional word-of-mouth was still decisive for destination choices in this context of island hopping in the Aegean, Greece. Websites with traveller evaluations proved more popular than guidebooks, indicative of the advance of user-generated content (eWOM). Nevertheless, guidebooks were nearly as important as review sites, contrasting several studies and indicative of a continued or renewed guidebook interest. Despite some earlier assertions, there were only small differences in employment of internet-based information sources between younger "digital natives" and older "digital immigrants". Information conveyed through social networking sites was of little importance for destination decision-making for these tourists, contradicting some of the literature. Particularly to attract younger holidaymakers and first-time visitors, destination marketing organisations might encourage more vacationers to post photographs and videos on the internet (visual eWOM).