Use of Social Media during Past Travel
Social media use impacts all phases of the travel experience, including in situ. A majority of social media users from the United States have accessed their social media accounts at least daily during travel (eMarketer 2010). Consistent with general social media patterns, younger tourists connect with their social media accounts most frequently while traveling. Further, males access their social media accounts more often than females while at the destination (eMarketer 2010). Technological use during past travel may also be affected by technological use at home, including information search behaviors during travel planning (MacKay and Vogt 2012). While research has begun to examine the use of social media during travel, the influence of such use on tourists’ perceptions and behaviors has not been explored. Further, the effect of social media use during past travel on social media use in the event of a crisis during travel has not been examined. However, it is known that past travel-related behaviors can influence information search behaviors (Cahyanto and Pennington-Gray 2012; Kerstetter and Cho 2004; Schroeder 2012).