Cohesion in cycling neo-tribes: a netnographic approach

ABSTRACT

People come together and create new communities around their special interests. Although the members of these communities, defined as neo-tribes, have highly individualistic, fluid and reflexive identities, they share ‘an intense sense of us’, in other words, cohesion. This study presents a netnographic examination of two different cycling communities in Turkey to explain the concept of cohesion in neo-tribes. The results of the study indicate that the neo-tribe members express their cohesion under the themes of acting together, entertaining together, collaboration, appreciation, shared values and shared concerns. This study allows for a better understanding of the cycling community and provides important insights to developing cycling for leisure, recreation and tourism purposes.

KEYWORDS:

• Special interest group
• leisure and recreational community
• cycling
• neo-tribe
• cohesion
• netnography

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Kubra Asan

Kubra Asan, PhD, is a lecturer at the School of Tourism and Hotel Management, Sinop University/Turkey. Her research interests are tourism marketing, tourist behaviour, event management, nature-based tourism and outdoor recreation.

Christina Geng-qing Chi

Dr. Christina Geng-qing Chi is professor at the School of Hospitality Business Management in the Carson College of Business, Washington State University. Her area of research includes tourism marketing, travellers’ behaviours and hospitality management. She is well published in top tier tourism/hospitality journals and widely cited. Journals she has published in include Annals of Tourism Research, Tourism Management, Journal of Travel Research, International Journal of Hospitality Management, International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management and others. Dr. Chi serves on the editorial boards for several hospitality/tourism journals and reviews papers regularly for top tier hospitality/tourism journals.

Medet Yolal

Dr. Medet Yolal is professor of marketing at Faculty of Tourism at Anadolu University, Eskisehir, Turkey. He teaches entrepreneurship, marketing and destination management. His research interests mainly focus on tourism marketing, consumer behaviour, event management and tourism development.