Students' use of social media during the travel process

Purpose – The purpose of the study is to explore how students as an important travel segment are involved in social media during the travel process and explore the underlying dimensions of social media use by students during the travel process. Design/methodology/approach – The quantitative research focuses on the students’ use of social media in the three phrases of the travel process – before travel, during travel and after travel separately. Survey instrument was a structured questionnaire. Data were collected through online survey using Google Drive. Descriptive statistics and principal component analysis are performed in the study to comprehend the students’ use of social media during the travel process. Findings – The findings of the study give an insight into the use of social media among students. They use mostly Facebook during the travel process, but traditional sources of information remain still relevant. Study findings reveal that social media are mostly used before travel begins and less during and after travel. There are identified two dimensions – “search for opinions” and “information and comparison” – that drive students to use social media before travel and two dimensions – “sociability” and “information” – that drive students to use social media during travel. Just one dimension labelled “sociability” emerged in relation to the use of social media after travel. Originality of the paper – The paper enhances the slim body of research on the use of social media among students during the travel process and raises awareness on social media use during the three phases of the travel process.