June 25, 2009: New research, aimed at enhancing tourism-related organisations’ understanding of social networking and overseen by Bournemouth University academics, has identified information acquisition as the main reason for why tourists participate in online communities.
The research also identified Social-Psychological and Hedonic (enjoyment) benefits as key influencers in the participation and attitude towards sites such as Tripadvisor.com, VirtualTourist.com and LonelyPlanet.com.
