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User-generated content and online reviews are highly relevant in purchase decision in the hospitality sector, including restaurants, but there is a lack of knowledge about the effect of sharing pictures in this context. This study aims to focus on the relevance of user-generated photos in online platforms for restaurants’ selection.

A research was conducted with a sample of 319 residents of Porto region, who had at least one meal in a restaurant over the 30 days before the answer of the survey and had searched online to select the restaurant.

The results show that while doing online research about restaurants, it is important for potential consumers to find pictures of food and physical evidences of restaurants generated by other users. Findings also show that consumers find user-generated photos especially at websites of reviews, although the importance of restaurant owned platforms, such as official social media pages and websites.

The research results appeal restaurant managers to understand the importance of user-generated photos in online platforms by promoting photo sharing in their restaurants with appropriate marketing activities for that purpose.

This paper expands the state-of-the-art about the importance of user-generated content, focusing on the importance of photos from restaurants shared by consumers in online platforms.

用户生成内容和在线评论, 与酒店行业, 包括饭店业中的购买决策是密不可分的。但是在这个研究领域里, 对于分享照片的影响力还尚未可知。本论文旨在研究在线平台中的用户生成照片对于饭店选择的影响。

本论文采用问卷采样形式, 问卷样本为在30天之内通过上网搜索选择饭店并且就餐至少一次的葡萄牙波尔图地区居民, 有效样本数量为319份。

人们在上网搜索饭店时, 找到食物图片和其他用户生成的有关饭店评论对于消费者决策有着至关重要的作用。本论文结果还表明, 尽管饭店运营的在线平台比如官方社交媒体网页和网站等很重要, 但是消费者在决策中最考虑的因素是那些评论型网站, 消费者会更倾向于找到用户生成的图片来帮助他们的消费决策。

本论文结果对于饭店管理者理解在线平台的用户生成图片的重要性有着很大的启示。本论文建议其管理者应该使用适当的营销手段来促使自己饭店的相关照片得到用户的分享。

本论文拓展了用户生成内容的现有认识, 研究了饭店照片被消费者分享到在线平台的重要性。

线上口碑效应 e-WOM、在线平台 、在线评论 、照片分享 、饭店管理 、社交媒体 、用户生成内容

研究论文

Despite the growing importance of visual information, user-generated photos in product reviews have received relatively little attention. We investigate whether the contextual background of a product image can influence consumers' perceptions of review helpfulness and product evaluation.

Online experiments were conducted using a scenario technique. A single factor (contextual background: low vs. high) between-subjects design was conducted in Study 1. A 2 (contextual background: low vs. high) × 2 (mental simulation: outcome vs. process) between-subjects design was conducted in Study 2.

A photo with a high (vs. low) contextual background enhances mental imagery, increasing perceived helpfulness and product evaluation. Furthermore, mental simulation plays a significant moderating role in the relationship between contextual background and mental imagery.

Based on cue utilization theory, this study identifies how the contextual background of product images affects consumers' perception and product evaluation by uncovering the underlying mechanism of mental imagery. Furthermore, the research examines the moderating effect of mental simulation while reviewing user-generated photos.

This study aims to investigate the influence of the reviewed establishment’s price level and the user’s social network size and reputation status on consumers’ tendency to post more visual imagery content. Furthermore, it explores the moderating effects of user experiences and geographic distance on these dynamics.

This study adopts a multi-method approach to explore both the determinants behind the sharing of user-generated photos in online reviews and their internal mechanisms. Using a comprehensive secondary data set from Yelp.com, the authors focused on restaurant reviews from a prominent tourist destination to construct econometric models incorporating time-fixed effects. To enhance the robustness of the authors’ findings, the authors complemented the big data analysis with a series of controlled experiments.

The reviewed establishments price level and the users reputation status and social network size incite corresponding motivations conspicuous display “reputation seeking” and social approval motivating users to incorporate more images in reviews. “User experiences can amplify the influence of these factors on image sharing.” An increase in the users geographical distance lessens the impact of the price level on image sharing, but it heightens the influence of the users reputation and social network size on the number of shared images.

As a result of this study, high-end establishments can increase their online visibility by leveraging user-generated visual content. A structured rewards program could significantly boost engagement by incentivizing photo sharing, particularly among users with elite status and extensive social networks. Additionally, online review platforms can enhance users’ experiences and foster more dynamic interactions by developing personalized features that encourage visual content production.

This research, anchored in trait activation theory, offers an innovative examination of the determinants of photo-posting behavior in online reviews by enriching the understanding of how the intricate interplay between users’ characteristics and situational cues can shape online review practices.

This study aims to examine the effects of user-generated photos (UGPs) and review valence (RV) on hotel guests’ perceived service quality, perceived price, perceived overall image and booking intention.

An online experiment where respondents were randomly assigned to one of the six conditions in a 2 (UGPs: provided vs not provided) × 3 (RV: positive vs neutral vs negative) between-subjects factorial design was used. The data of the study was collected from the travelers who used an online hotel review site to book a hotel at least once in the past 12 months. An independent sample t-test and analysis of variance were used to analyze the data of this study.

The results indicated that UGPs and RV significantly influenced hotel guests’ service quality, price, overall image perceptions and booking intention. The interaction effects of UGPs and RV indicated that positive online hotel reviews with UGPs had higher impact on hotel guests’ service quality, price, overall image perceptions and booking intention than neutral and negative online hotel reviews with UGPs.

The understanding of the effects of UGPs and RV on guests’ price, service quality, overall image perception and booking intention can help hotel managers and social media website designers to better promote the hotel and provide efficient online hotel booking environment.

This study builds the relationships between UGPs and RV and hotel guests’ perceived price, perceived service quality, perceived overall image and booking intention, which are crucial factors regarding online hotel marketing.

评估用户生成的照片对酒店客人价格、服务质量、整体形象感知和预订意愿的影响

本研究旨在探索用户生成的照片 (UGP) 和评论效价 (RV) 对酒店客人感知服务质量、感知价格、感知整体形象和预订意图的影响。

本研究采用受试者间因子设计进行了一项在线实验, 其中受访者被随机分配到 2（UGP：提供与未提供）× 3（RV：阳性 vs. 中性 vs. 阴性）中的六个条件之一。该研究的数据是从过去 12 个月内使用在线酒店评论网站至少预订一次酒店的旅行者那里收集的。使用独立样本 t 检验和方差分析 (ANOVA) 来分析研究数据。

结果表明, UGP 和 RV 显着影响酒店客人的服务质量、价格、整体形象认知和预订意愿。 UGP 和 RV 的交互作用表明, 与 UGP 的中性和负面在线酒店评论相比, 带有 UGP 的正面在线酒店评论对酒店客人的服务质量、价格、整体形象感知和预订意愿的影响更大。

了解UGPs和RV对客人价格、服 务质量、整体形象感知和预订意愿的影响, 可以帮助酒店管理者和社交媒体网站设计师更好地宣传酒店, 提供高效的在线酒店预订环境。

本研究建立了UGP和RV与酒店客人感知价格、感知服务质量、感知整体形象和预订意愿之间的关系, 这些是在线酒店营销的关键因素。

This study aims to investigate the promoting effects of the quantity and quality of online review user-generated photos (UGPs) on perceived review usefulness. The research further tests the hindering effect of human facial presence in review photos on review usefulness.

Based on review samples of restaurants in a tourist destination Las Vegas, this study used an integrated method combining a machine learning algorithm and econometric modeling.

Results indicate that the number of UGPs depicting a restaurant’s food, drink, menu and physical environment has positive impacts on perceived review usefulness. The quality of online review UGPs can also enhance perceived review usefulness, whereas facial presence in these UGPs hinders perceived review usefulness.

Findings suggest that practitioners can implement certain tactics to potentially improve consumers’ willingness to share more UGPs and UGPs with higher quality. Review websites could develop image-processing algorithms for identifying and presenting UGPs containing core attributes in prominent positions on the site.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is the first to present a comprehensive analytical framework investigating the enhancing or hindering roles of review photo quantity, photo quality and facial presence in online review UGPs on review usefulness. Using the heuristic-systematic model as a theoretical foundation, this study verifies the additivity effect and attenuation effect of UGPs’ visual elements on judgements of online review usefulness. Furthermore, it extends scalable image data analysis by adopting a deep transfer learning algorithm in hospitality and tourism.

The purpose of this paper is to use user-generated content (UGC) on social media platforms to infer the possible place brand identities of two famous metropolitan areas in Bangkok, Thailand, namely, Khaosan Road and Yaowarat (Bangkok’s Chinatown), both of which are famous for their street vendors and nightlife. These two places are interesting study sites because of recent identity conflicts among their stakeholders. The method developed in this research can help other places to better understand place brand identities and, as such, effectively plan for and manage those places.

The author used content analysis to study 782 user-generated images on Flickr and 9,633 user-generated textual reviews of Khaosan Road and Yaowarat from TripAdvisor and Google Maps’ Local Guide. MAXQDA was used to code all the images. User-generated textual reviews were studied using Leximancer. The author also introduced a positivity of concept analysis to identify positive and negative components of place brand identity.

The author developed a place brand identity framework that includes three pillars, namely, place physics, place practices and place personality. Content analysis of the images generated 105 codes and a count of the frequency of the codes that represent place brand identity. Content analysis of textual reviews created the concepts in the three pillars and identified the positive and negative concepts for both places. The results of both image and text analyses showed that street food vending is one of the most salient components of place brand identity for both Khaosan Road and Yaowarat.

The author suggested several place branding strategies for the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration such as turning Khaosan Road into a music scene for both visitors and locals, controlling excessive and aggressive commercialism, sponsoring the production of creative and authentic content, initiating a compelling online campaign that focusses on the items sold in Yaowarat, hosting a spotlight event such as a seafood festival and improving hygiene and walkability.

Both the advancement of digital technologies and the complexity of stakeholders create a need for empirical studies on place branding involving the participation of the widest possible range of stakeholders and studies on the influence of social media. This research is the first to use both image and text analyses to study place brand identity from UGC. The use of both analyses allows the two methods to complement one another while mitigating the weaknesses of each.

This study aims to provide a critical reflection of the application of image recognition techniques in visual information mining in hospitality and tourism.

This study begins by reviewing the progress of image recognition and advantages of convolutional neural network-based image recognition models. Next, this study explains and exemplifies the mechanisms and functions of two relevant image recognition applications: object recognition and facial recognition. This study concludes by providing theoretical and practical implications and potential directions for future research.

After this study presents different potential applications and compares the use of image recognition with traditional manual methods, the main findings of this critical reflection revolve around the feasibility of the described techniques.

Knowledge on how to extract valuable visual information from large-scale user-generated photos to infer the online behavior of consumers and service providers and its influence on purchase decisions and firm performance is crucial to business practices in hospitality and tourism.

Visual information plays a crucial role in online travel agencies and peer-to-peer accommodation platforms from the side of sellers and buyers. However, extant studies relied heavily on traditional manual identification with small samples and subjective judgment. With the development of deep learning and computer vision techniques, current studies were able to extract various types of visual information from large-scale datasets with high accuracy and efficiency. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is the first to offer an outlook of image recognition techniques for mining visual information in hospitality and tourism.

The purpose of this paper is to identify the motives for posting or sharing food photos using social media, focussed within the context of fine dining (FD) restaurants.

Ethnographic fieldwork was conducted in France by combining analysis of qualitative diary research and transcripts of focus group discussions.

The motivation to take food images can be broadly categorised according to experiential (hedonism, altruism and passion collecting) and symbolic (social status, uniqueness, self-esteem and self-presentation) benefits.

This research is limited by its relatively small sample size and the inability to consider the direct influences of demographic variables and attitudes to FD and social media. Moreover, the cultural context of the study needs to be considered as the study took place in France.

User-generated images are increasingly an integral aspect of the holistic dining experience. Luxury restaurants need to leverage the opportunities of user-generated content. The FD experience needs to be visually captured and expressed. This can include both tangible and intangible attributes.

Although the literature has provided a comprehensive overview of social media behaviour, the efficacy of a gastronomic perspective is limited. To the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study to investigate consumer-generated postings of images of food within the luxury restaurant classification.

This paper aims to assess the effect of narrative transportation, portrayed action and photographic style on viewers’ likelihood to comment on posted consumer photos.

Integrating visual semiotics and experiments, this research examines the influence of consumer photos on viewers’ likelihood to comment on the visualised narrative. One pilot, three experimental and a content analysis involve photos varying in their narrative perspective (selfie vs elsie) and portrayed content (no product, no action or directed action). The authors also test for the boundary condition of the role of the photographic style (snapshot, professional and “parody” selfie) on the likelihood to comment on consumer photos.

Viewers are more likely to comment on photos displaying action. When these photos are selfies, the effect is exacerbated. The experience of narrative transportation – a feeling of entering a world evoked by the narrative – underlies this effect. However, if a snapshot style is used (primed or manipulated) – namely, the photographic style appears genuine, unconstructed and natural – the superior effect of selfies disappears because of greater perceived silliness of the visualised narrative.

Managers should try to motivate consumers to take selfies portraying action if their aim is to encourage electronic word-of-mouth.

Organisations can effectively use consumer photos portraying consumption for educational purpose (e.g. eating healthfully and reducing alcohol use).

This research links consumer photos and electronic word-of-mouth and extends the marketing literature on visual narratives, which is mainly focused on company rather than user-generated content.

This chapter examines a popular online trend—photo-sharing—in an understudied region, the League of Arab States. In contrast to online information from official bodies, anyone with Internet access can view and create destination photos. This study first searched for destination photos on Flickr.com, a popular photo-sharing website, from 22 Arab countries, and then content analyzed 589 Muslim and travel photos. The key results included Egypt with the most destination photos and Saudi Arabia with the most Muslim images. Common Muslim images were mosques and women with headscarves. This chapter shows that Flickr photos represent Arab images and are possible destination recommendations.