Paper Example on Technological Innovation: Transforming Lives and Shaping the Future

INTRODUCTION

As the ages roll down through eternity, various changes take place in the midst of mankind, which aids in making their lives better. One of them is the emergence and development of technological techniques used in performing various activities such as communication, farming, efficient transportation, and education, leave alone tourism improvement. Thus, with the development of science and technology, our life has undergone earth-shaking changes. The technological methods of performing things range from social media modes of communication and exchanging of ideas between people in far places, to the developed software used in the prediction of levels of risks of various investment choices, which can then aid in the choice of the most profitable ventures. There are also technological innovations used in the analyses of markets to aid in customized advertising of various products in their respective market niches, and subsequently, the provision of products in their optimal markets for the benefit of optimization of sales, revenues, and profits.

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It can be observed that of critical importance is the innovation and use of social media platforms by humanity. Some examples of social media platforms include Facebook, WhatsApp, Instagram, Twitter, Snapchat, Tumblr, Reddit, and Sina Webo. Previously, people in organizational Quality Improvement Teams transacted information via a face-to-face conversation, but currently, most of the daily communication is through social media. Also, in the past people had to go on shopping physically in the malls or market places. Nowadays, as people are browsing social media and finding products or services that they are interested in, they can access and easily purchase their products online through the use of mobile phones or laptops. Hence, they can get whatever they want at the comforts of their homes, where they order online and wait for the sellers to deliver them to their doors. In such regards, social media has become one of the indispensable applications in our lives.

The emergence of social media not only changes the lifestyle but also the tourism field. As people's living standards continue to improve, more and more people choose to travel as a way of leisure and entertainment. The Travel & Tourism Economic Impact 2019 discovered that Travel & Tourism had become an important economic activity in most countries around the world. They also found that the contribution of the travel and tourism sector to GDP growth posted 3.9% strongly outperforming the global economy.

The research methods of the thesis would adopt quantitative research to conduct a questionnaire survey to get the tourism consumer sample on the social media platform, where is the most popular social media platform such as Facebook Instagram, etc. The reason for the use of the questionnaire survey is because the survey method has a broader spread and it is easy to get the consumer data sample.

Background

In the past, tourists used to obtain travel and tourism information from such platforms as periodicals, word of mouth from friends and relatives, and books. However, in the recent past, it has emerged that there are various approaches used by tourists to obtain information before arriving at their consumer decision making. One of them is the use of social media platforms: such as Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter: to obtain information on various elements of travel and tourism. Such happens before they can make their final decisions on their preferences of multiple products: for consumption: at their disposition, as they plan to implement their travel and tourism plans. Such tourism products that make up the activities under travel and tourism by tourists include accommodation, transportation, retail travel agents, tour operator, shopping centers that include malls, cinema theatres, museums, temples, theme parks gardens, souvenirs outlets, tourism information centers, restaurants for beverages and foods, postal services, petrol pumps, banks and ATMs, public parks, hospitals, transportations, bookings, camping sites, guest houses, self-catering, and hotels.

However, the states and nature of traditional sources of tourists' information for decision making have been well established, leaving a challenge on the current problem where the impact of emerging social media sites on the tourism consumer decision making is still vague. Hence, there is a need to establish the nature and mode of the impact of social media on tourism consumer decision making, which paves the way for the research in such a field to get conducted, as is the case of the research project at hand.

Research questions, aim, and objectives

Aims

The main aim of the research paper at hand is to explore how social media can influence tourism consumers' purchasing decision-making.

Also, there shall be the identification and establishment of the social media platforms that are mostly used by tourists in gathering information pertaining to different products of purchase in so far as their travel and tourism activities are concerned.

Finally, there shall be the enumeration of different products whose information the tourists' research in various social media sites before deciding on their purchase. In the end, there shall be the accumulation of a whole lot of information surrounding the use of social media by tourists to inform their consumer purchase decision-making processes.

Objectives

Various research objectives need to get achieved following the completion of the research project at hand. They are as follows:

• To identify the extent to which social media affects the decision making processes of tourists in so far as consumer purchase decisions are concerned
• To identify need recognition of tourists as impacted by social media
• To establish how information search of tourists is impacted by social media
• To establish how alternative evaluation by tourists is impacted by social media
• To find out how buying decision making by tourists is impacted by social media
• To establish how post-purchase stage of tourists is impacted by social media

Research Questions

In order to find the answer to the main research question, the following questions need their answers to get exhausted.

1. What is the social media impact on the need recognition of tourists?
2. What is the social media impact on information research of tourists?
3. What is the social media impact on the alternative evaluation of tourists?
4. What is social media's impact on buying decision-making of tourists?
5. What is the social media impact on the post-purchase stage of tourists?

Literature Review

Customer/consumer Decision-Making Process

The consumer decision-making process refers to a method that is used by the marketers in the identification as well as tracking of the process of decision making by customers from the start to the point where they make purchases.

In our daily lives, each individual can be the next potential consumer and make purchasing decisions. It is important to understand what the stage of the customer decision-making process is. Customer decision making is an option from a wide variety of products or services tries to solve a problematic issue like:

- what to buy, - where to buy - when to buy - how to buy - how much to buy.

Therefore, the consumer decision-making process is also a perspective for a consumer to solve problems. The process of customer purchase includes the most basic five steps: the first step is to recognize the problem/ need recognition; the second step is to find information/ information search; the.e third step is to determine which options are available/ Evaluation of alternatives, and the fourth step is to select products or services/ Purchase decision; The fifth step is customer behavior after shopping/ Post-purchase behavior. There are five steps are shown below:

The above model is critical to anyone making some decisions related to marketing. The marketer is then forced to put under consideration the entire buying process as opposed to the purchase decision alone, where it can be overdue for the business to influence the choices on the side of customers. Such is a relatively rational standardized consumer purchase decision-making process, but in real life, there are too many places where we need to make consumer decisions. Also, the customers can either skip or even reverse some stages during their purchasing decision making processes.

Kotler and Keller (2012, p. 166) believe that consumers don't always pass through all five stages-they may skip or reverse some. Sometimes people make a decision directly come out of habits.

Consumers are faced with the need to make decisions about products or services all of the time. Some of these decisions are very important and entail a great effort, whereas others are made more or less automatically, and they also point out the consumer is not always rational (Solomon, Bamossy, and Askegaard, 2006, p292).

When people make decisions, they are relatively rational. One makes a decision that he considers is rational, but others do not think so. Moreover, Individual has different needs for products and services; there is no absolute rationality decision making in our life.

The above five stages of the consumer decision-making process can be further expounded as brought out below:

Problem recognition/Need recognition

It is the stage in which the buying process begins. The buyer is able to recognize a need or problem or even responds to certain marketing stimuli, such as those sparked by intensive advertisements. In such a case, the customer will have identified the gap that needs to get satisfied by specific types of products.

The problem identification/need identification is the first and the most important step of consumer buying behavior. A consumer recognizes a problem or needs that can be met by acquiring a product or service.

Kotler and Keller (2012, p, 167) claim that internal or external stimuli can trigger consumer needs. Internal stimuli refer to a personal perception experienced by the consumer, such as hunger, thirst, and so on. The internal stimuli of tourists are that they are eager to travel.

A need also can be caused by External stimuli. For example, a person may see a social media ad for a Hawaiian vacation, which inspires thoughts about the possibility of making a purchase.

According to Solmon et al. (2006, p.48) found that perceptual vigilance is a factor in selective exposure. Consumers are more likely to be aware of stimuli that relate to their current needs. These needs may be conscious or unconscious. For example, a consumer who rarely notices travel ads will become very much more conscious of them when he or she would plan to travel. An Airline ad for a cheaper fare flight to somewhere else that would otherwise go unnoticed becomes significant when one glances on social media before your vacation is coming soon.

Social Media impact on Problem recognition /Need recognition

Consumers' needs and wants are fulfilled through marketing offerings--some combination of products, services, information, or experience offered to a market to satisfy a need or wants.

Some recent studies have suggested that social media play an important role not only for consumers in travel information search but also as a tourism marketing tool (Chan & Denizci Guillet, 2011; Huang, 2011; Inversini, Cantoni, & Buhalis, 2009; Munar, 2010; Xiang & Gretzel, 2010). Social media is one of the most powerful marketing tools available. Not only because of its low marketing cost but also because it is a 7 * 24-hour uninterrupted globa...