Journal of Smart Tourism

Smart Tourism Research Center, Kyung Hee University (경희대학교 스마트관광연구소)
권호 표지
DOI QR코드

DOI QR Code

Role of Online Reviews in the Local Search Context

  • Seunghun Shin (School of Hotel and Tourism Management, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University) ;
  • Zheng Xiang (Howard Feiertag Department of Hospitality and Tourism Management, Pamplin College of Business, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University) ;
  • Florian Zach (Howard Feiertag Department of Hospitality and Tourism Management, Pamplin College of Business, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University)
  • Received : 2022.01.12
  • Accepted : 2022.03.10
  • Published : 2023.09.30
Download PDF
⟨ Previous Next ⟩

Abstract

This research aims to understand the role of online reviews in the local search context by examining the effects of reviews on the representation of tourism businesses on local search platforms (LSPs). By simulating tourists' local searches for restaurants on three LSPs, namely Google, Bing, and Yelp, this study examines how different ranking results are generated across the platforms and how online reviews contribute to the differences. The findings suggest that online reviews are incorporated into LSPs as ranking factors and, thus, affect tourists' decision-making by influencing the information search results in the local search context. As one of the earliest studies on local search, this study discusses how the existing knowledge about the role of online reviews in tourists' decision-making needs to be reevaluated in mobile and more dynamic environments, and offers practical implications for tourism businesses' search engine marketing.

Keywords

References

  1. Ahlers, D., & Boll, S. (2007). Location-based web search. In A. Scharl & Tochtermann (Eds.), The geospatial web (pp. 55-66). Berlin: Springer.
  2. Amin, A., Townsend, S., Van Ossenbruggen, J., & Hardman, L. (2009). Fancy a drink in Canary Wharf?: A user study on location-based mobile search. In T. Gross (Eds.), Human-computer interaction - InterAct (pp. 736-749). Berlin: Springer.
  3. Berberich, K., Konig, A. C., Lymberopoulos, D., & Zhao, P. (2011). Improving local search ranking through external logs. In Proceedings of the 34th International ACM SIGIR Conference on Research and Development in Information Retrieval(pp. 785-794). Association for Computing Machinery.
  4. Cardoso, B., & Magalhaes, J. (2011). Google, Bing and a new perspective on ranking similarity. In Proceedings of the 20th ACM International Conference on Information and Knowledge Management (pp. 1933-1936). Association for Computing Machinery.
  5. Delgado, J. (2019, May). What travel marketers should know about people searching for experiences. Google consumer insights. Retrieved from https://www.thinkwithgoogle.com/consumer-insights/travel-experience-marketing/
  6. Gaul, V., & Baul, S. (2019, October). Location-based services market (industry report A00149). Retrieved from https://www.alliedmarketresearch.com/location-based-services-market. Allied Market Research.
  7. Ghose, A., Ipeirotis, P. G., & Li, B. (2012). Designing ranking systems for hotels on travel search engines by mining user-generated and crowdsourced content. Marketing Science, 31(3), 493-520. https://doi.org/10.1287/mksc.1110.0700
  8. Gonzalez-Rodriguez, M. R., Martinez-Torres, R., & Toral, S. (2016). Post-visit and pre-visit tourist destination image through eWOM sentiment analysis and perceived helpfulness. International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management, 28(11), 2609-2627. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJCHM-02-2015-0057
  9. Google. (2014). Understanding Consumer's Local Serach Behavior, Think with Google. https://www.thinkwithgoogle.com/marketing-strategies/search/how-advertisers-can-extend-their-relevance-with-search-download/
  10. Huang, H., Gartner, G., Krisp, J. M., Raubal, M., & Van de Weghe, N. (2018). Location based services: Ongoing evolution and research agenda. Journal of Location Based Services, 12(2), 63-93. https://doi.org/10.1080/17489725.2018.1508763
  11. Lamsfus, C., Wang, D., Alzua-Sorzabal, A., & Xiang, Z. (2015). Going mobile: Defining context for on-the-go travelers. Journal of Travel Research, 54(6), 691-701. https://doi.org/10.1177/0047287514538839
  12. Li, J., Xu, L., Tang, L., Wang, S., & Li, L. (2018). Big data in tourism research: A literature review. Tourism Management, 68, 301-323. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tourman.2018.03.009
  13. Li, X., Pan, B., Law, R., & Huang, X. (2017). Forecasting tourism demand with composite search index. Tourism Management, 59, 57-66. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tourman.2016.07.005
  14. Lincoln, J. (2020, March). Bing, S E O vs. Google SEO (Updated 2020). Ignite Visibility. Retrieved from https://ignitevisibility.com/how-is-bing-seo-different-than-google-seo/
  15. Litvin, S. W., Goldsmith, R. E., & Pan, B. (2008). Electronic word-of-mouth in hospitality and tourism management. Tourism Management, 29(3), 458-468. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tourman.2007.05.011
  16. Long, B., & Chang, Y. (2014). Mobile search ranking. In Relevance ranking for vertical search engines (pp. 81-105). Newnes.
  17. Lv, Y., Lymberopoulos, D., & Wu, Q. (2012, August). An exploration of ranking heuristics in mobile local search. In Proceedings of the 35th International ACM SIGIR Conference on Research and Development in Information Retrieval (pp. 295-304). Association for Computing Machinery.
  18. Mariani, M. M., Borghi, M., & Gretzel, U. (2019). Online reviews: differences by submission device. Tourism Management, 70, 295-298. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tourman.2018.08.022
  19. Middleton, S. E., Kordopatis-Zilos, G., Papadopoulos, S., & Kompatsiaris, Y. (2018). Location extraction from social media: Geoparsing, location disambiguation, and geotagging. ACM Transactions on Information Systems, 36(4), 1-27.
  20. Mihm, D. (2010, June 7). The local search ranking factors. Mihmorandum. Retrieved from https://www.davidmihm.com/blog/google/local-search-ranking-factors/, 5.
  21. Mudambi, S. M., & Schuff, D. (2010). Research note: What makes a helpful online review? A study of customer reviews on Amazon.com. MIS quarterly, 185-200.
  22. Murphy, R. (2020). Local Consumer Review Survey 2020. BrightLocal. https://www.brightlocal.com/research/local-consumer-review-survey/
  23. Nicas, J. (2018). Febraury. How YouTube drives people to the Internet's darkest corners. Wall Street Journal. Retrieved from https://www.wsj.com/articles/how-youtube-drives-viewers-to-the-internets-darkest-corners-1518020478#:~:text=YouTube%20says%20these%20recommendations%20drive,deciders%20of%20what%20people%20watch.&text=When%20users%20show%20a%20political,often%20with%20more%2Dextreme%20viewpoints.
  24. Pan, B., & Fesenmaier, D. R. (2006). Online information search. Annals of Tourism Research, 33(3), 809-832. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.annals.2006.03.006
  25. Pan, B., & Li, X. R. (2011). The long tail of destination image and online marketing. Annals of Tourism Research, 38(1), 132-152. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.annals.2010.06.004
  26. Pan, B. (2015). The power of search engine ranking for tourist destinations. Tourism Management, 47, 79-87. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tourman.2014.08.015
  27. Pedrana, M. (2014). Location-based services and tourism: Possible implications for destination. Current Issues in Tourism, 17(9), 753-762. https://doi.org/10.1080/13683500.2013.868411
  28. Pollak, T. (2018, October). How mobile search is driving today's instore shopping experience. Think with google. Retrieved from https://www.thinkwithgoogle.com/consumer-insights/in-store-mobile-shopping-behavior/
  29. Raper, J., Gartner, G., Karimi, H., & Rizos, C. (2007b). Applications of location-based services: A selected review. Journal of Location Based Services, 1(2), 89-111. https://doi.org/10.1080/17489720701862184
  30. Richard, R. (2014, January). Local SEO (and sales). VIRAYO. Retrieved from https://virayo.com/seo/why-customer-reviews-are-important-for-local-seo/
  31. Sparks, B. A., & Browning, V. (2011). The impact of online reviews on hotel booking intentions and perception of trust. Tourism Management, 32(6), 1310-1323. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tourman.2010.12.011
  32. Statcounter. (2020, May). Search engine market share worldwide - May 2020. Statcounter Globalstats. Retrieved from https://gs.statcounter.com/search-engine-market-share
  33. Sterling, G. (2019, November). Google Maps the dominant local search tool, followed by Facebook and Yelp. Search engine land. Retrieved from https://searchengineland.com/google-maps-the-dominant-local-search-tool-followed-by-facebook-and-yelp-325699
  34. Tabarcea, A., Gali, N., & Franti, P. (2017). Framework for location-aware search engine. Journal of Location Based Services, 11(1), 50-74. https://doi.org/10.1080/17489725.2017.1407001
  35. Teevan, J., Karlson, A., Amini, S., Brush, A. J. B., & Krumm, J. (2011). Understanding the importance of location, time, and people in mobile local search behavior. In Proceedings of the 13th International Conference on Human Computer Interaction with Mobile Devices and Services (pp. 77-80). Association for Computing Machinery.
  36. Theuring, J. (2020, March). Bing vs. Google: Search engine comparison. Impression. Retrieved from https://www.impression.co.uk/blog/bing-differ-google/
  37. Tsai, A. (2013). The small business online marketing handbook: Converting online conversations to offline sales. Chichester, UK: John Wiley & Sons.
  38. Tsaur, S. H., & Tzeng, G. H. (1996). Multiattribute decision making analysis for customer preference of tourist hotels. Journal of Travel and Tourism Marketing, 4(4), 55-69. https://doi.org/10.1300/J073v04n04_04
  39. Uberall. (2018, August)[Study]. 82% of mobile shoppers doing "near me" searches. Uberall. Retrieved from https://uberall.com/enus/company/press-releases/study-82-of-mobile-shoppers-doing-near-me-searches
  40. Wang, D., Xiang, Z., & Fesenmaier, D. R. (2016). Smartphone use in everyday life and travel. Journal of Travel Research, 55(1), 52-63. https://doi.org/10.1177/0047287514535847
  41. Webber, W., Moffat, A., & Zobel, J. (2010). A similarity measure for indefinite rankings. ACM Transactions on Information Systems, 28(4), 1-38. https://doi.org/10.1145/1852102.1852106
  42. Whitespark (ND). The U. S. Local Search ecosystem. Retrieved from https://whitespark.ca/local-search-ecosystem/
  43. Xiang, Z., Du, Q., Ma, Y., & Fan, W. (2017). A comparative analysis of major online review platforms: Implications for social Media Analytics in hospitality and tourism. Tourism Management, 58, 51-65. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tourman.2016.10.001
  44. Xiang, Z., Wober, K., & Fesenmaier, D. R. (2008). Representation of the online tourism domain in search engines. Journal of Travel Research, 47(2), 137-150.
  45. Yang, K., Cheng, X., Hu, L., & Zhang, J. (2012). Mobile social networks: state-of-the-art and a new vision. International Journal of Communication Systems, 25(10), 1245-1259. https://doi.org/10.1002/dac.1380
  46. Yoon, S., Kim, J., & Connolly, D. J. (2018). Understanding motivations and acceptance of location-based services. International Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Administration, 19(2), 187-209. https://doi.org/10.1080/15256480.2017.1305316
  47. Zhekov, N. (2017, October). Understanding the 2017 U.S. local search ecosystem. Whitespark. Retrieved from https://whitespark.ca/blog/understanding-2017-u-s-local-search-ecosystem/