Google Trends in tourism and hospitality research: a systematic literature review

Abstract

Purpose

This paper aims to conduct a review of the literature published, between 2006 and 2018, that used search engine data on tourism and hospitality research, namely, Google Insights for Search and Google Trends. More specifically, it intends to identify the purpose and context of the data use, ascertaining the main findings and reviewing the methodological approaches.

Design/methodology/approach

A systematic literature review of Scopus indexed research has been carried out. Given the novelty of search engine data use in tourism and hospitality research and the relatively low number of search results in Scopus, other databases were used to broaden the scope of analysis, namely, EBSCO and Google Scholar. The papers selected were subjected to content and statistical analyses.

Findings

Google Trends data use in tourism and hospitality research has increased significantly from 2012 to 2017, mainly for tourism forecasting/nowcasting; knowing the interest of users’ searches for tourist attractions or destinations; showing the relationship between the official tourism statistics and the search volume index of Google Trends; and estimating the effect of one event on tourism demand. The categories and search terms used vary with the purpose of the study; however, they mostly focus on the travel category and use the country as the search term.

Originality/value

Google Trends has been increasingly used in research publications in tourism and hospitality, but the range of its applications and methods used has not yet been reviewed. Therefore, a systematic review of the existing literature increases awareness of its potential uses in tourism and hospitality research and facilitates a better understanding of its strengths and weaknesses as a research tool.

研究目的

本文回顾2006年至2018年发表文献使用酒店旅游相关的搜索引擎数据, 即Google Insights for Search 以及Google Trends。确切地说, 本文旨在研究数据使用目的和背景, 归纳主要研究成果和研究方法。

研究设计/方法/途径

本文采用Scopus索引, 由于旅游酒店领域使用搜索引擎数据的文献较少, Scopus搜索结果样本量较低, 本文扩展到其他数据库, 即EBSCO以及Google Scholar。选定的样本文献采用文本分析和统计分析法。

研究结果

旅游酒店领域中对Google Trends数据使用的增加主要集中在2012年到2017年, 主要研究领域有（1）旅游预测/即时预报；（2）了解用户搜索旅游景点或目的地的需求；（3）官方旅游数据和Google Trends搜索量索引之间的关系；以及（4）评估大事件对旅游需求的影响。文献归类和搜索名词根据研究目的而不同。然而, 大多数文章使用‘旅游’归类以及使用国家作为搜索关键词。

研究原创性/价值

Google Trends在酒店旅游领域研究中的使用逐渐增加, 但是据作者所知, 其应用的范畴和方法仍处在起步阶段。因此, 对现有文献的系统回顾可以提高对其在旅游酒店领域中应用的认知, 并且本文结果使其作为研究工具的优劣分析更深理解。

关键词

Google Trends, Google insights for search, 搜索引擎数据, 旅游酒店研究, 系统文献回顾

Citation

Dinis, G., Breda, Z., Costa, C. and Pacheco, O. (2019), "Google Trends in tourism and hospitality research: a systematic literature review", Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Technology, Vol. 10 No. 4, pp. 747-763. https://doi.org/10.1108/JHTT-08-2018-0086