Journal of Tourism and Hospitality Management

The Influence of Social Media on the Travel Behavior of Greek Millennials (Gen Y)
Mary Constantoglou, Nikolaos Trihas

Abstract
Generation Y presents both opportunities and challenges to marketers. The aim of this paper is to investigate the influence of social media on Greek Millennials’ trips in three different phases (pre-trip, on-site, post-trip), providing a better understanding of the main features of this type of tourists’ online behavior. In order to meet the above objective, survey was conducted via a structured self-completed questionnaire in a sample of 261 Millennials in Greece. The results of the study revealed that Millennials are heavy users of Internet and social media, which they use in all three phases of their holiday trips, however, to a different extent and for a different purpose. Facebook, Instagram and TripAdvisor are the dominant social media in this process. However, traditional word-of-mouth seems to be still a very important, credible, and influential source of travel information. Findings and discussion of this study are useful to tourism marketers, academic researchers and other stakeholders interested in understanding the role of social media in this generation’s travel behavior.

Full Text: PDF     DOI: 10.15640/jthm.v8n2a2