From dreaming to believing: a review of consumer engagement behaviours with brands’ social media content across the holiday travel process

ABSTRACT

This paper reviews social media user engagement behaviours with brands and proposes a new stage within the travel process. Specifically, the pre-trip stage is examined and investigation into a two sub-stage split is proposed; pre-purchase and post-purchase. Dubbed the Believing phase, this paper calls for research into the patterns of engagement behaviour towards hotel brands’ content at this currently under-researched stage. Current social media-focussed research examines influence on purchasing decisions of users, social media usage on-site, and post-trip evaluation. There remains a conceptual gap highlighting the behavioural patterns of users during the period between initial purchase and subsequent departure.

KEYWORDS:

• Social media
• consumer behaviour
• engagement
• holiday travel process
• pre-trip
• content marketing
• hospitality marketing
• hotels
• online content
• decision-making process

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.