Digital Commons Network^™

User-Generated Content (Ugc) In Tourism: Benefits And Concerns Of Online Consumers, Stephen Burgess, Carmine Sellitto, Carmen Cox, Jeremy Buultjens

Carmen Cox

This paper examines the views of travel consumers that search for information online in relation to the specific benefits and concerns identified with user-generated content (UGC). Real contrasts in relation to views about UGC content were identified in the literature. For instance, UGC is perceived as being ‘credible’ or ‘not credible’ as an information source depending upon the view of the user. The paper reports research that examined the use of UGC by online travel consumers, sourced from an Australian tourism organisation’s online subscriber database. The study highlighted a similar range of areas that were seen as benefits and concerns …