The Role Of Culture In Word-Of-Mouth Generation And Online Reviews. The Example Of Travel & Tourism Service.

Abstract

The main goal of the dissertation is to comprehend whether culture affects customer satisfaction and the generation of Word-of-Mouth in the Tourism and Travel sector. The topic is tackled starting from an introductory description of the customer experience and customer journey map. Even though a general scheme is provided by literature, each customer experience must be shaped according to the target and product category. It is also stressed the existence of several touch points (both offline and online) along the entire consumer decision-making process, which affect the final purchasing decision.There, satisfaction levels depend on a set of variables: attitudes, habits, moods, emotions, motivations, cultural traits.

A powerful tool is Word-Of-Mouth, since it arises in every step of the customer journey. Its role has been strengthened by the advent of new technologies and social network sites, which have given the possibility to people to easily share product-based opinions. Reviews, comments, and recommendations are read, written, and shared especially in the information search and post-purchasing steps.

The phenomena gains more complexity when considering products characterised for a high level of subjectivity, intangibility, and risk. For instance, Tourism product, to which it is dedicated an entire section (Chapter III). Tourism is cultural-based itself, since it is grounded on inbound and outbound flows of foreign travellers, moved by the willingness of getting in touch with other cultures. Each cultural group has its own language, communication style, ways to express satisfaction, feedbacks, and complaints. Such gaps might emerge along the travel planning process, from the initial information step (where they get information) until Word-of-Mouth mechanisms (how and where leave reviews, on which platforms, and so on and so forth).

The last part of the examination considers a sample of 350 reviews (which have been gathered from 3-star hotels located in the city of Venice, which are registered on the OTA platform Booking), that has been randomly collected in different languages and from different contries of origin. A first exploratory research based on descriptive statistics has been carried out: reviews have been classified following the taxonomy provided by the same Booking.com platform. The categorisation has been done through the aid of NVivo, a software used mainly for qualitative analysis. Conclusions will advance not only the first results, but also limits related to the application of cross-cultural marketing techniques.