Can Google Trends data provide information on consumer’s perception regarding hotel brands?

Abstract

Previous studies show that search engine query data is a valuable predictor for tourism demand forecasting. The goals of this study are to identify the current positions of hotels in the perception of the customer and to propose a method for practitioners to increase the visibility of consumer's mind perception of hotel brands. The study used volume of travel queries 30 hotel chains in the Turkey constructed from Google Trends and analyzed search query time series data (2014–2018). To visualize the position of brands was conducted social network analysis techniques. The results show that search engine query data regarding hotels reveal the positioning consumer’s mind of hotels. The study offers that Google Trends data is useful. In addition, the study proposes a method for practitioners. Tourism businesses could use search engine data to reveal its place in the consumer’s mind and change the consumer perception over the years.