Investigation of the Image of The Hotel Through Electronic-Word of Mouth Communication (EWOM): Antalya Case

Abstract

Consumers share their experiences electronically while purchasing or after the purchase of tourism products. These shared experiences affect the purchase decisions of other consumers who will buy similar tourism products positively or negatively. It is important for hotel businesses to analyze their image in the eyes of consumers according to the data in these environments and to manage their reputation in this way. The consumer-generated content has become a big data stack. The analysis of this big data stack is only possible with scientific text mining methods. The study aims to examine the institutional images of the hotels by reviewing the comments about the hotels. In this study, 18061 online comments obtained from thirty-five five-star hotels operating in Antalya on a travel site were analyzed using the text mining method. When the findings are examined, it is concluded that five-star hotels in Antalya have a positive image according to consumers' evaluations. As a result of the analyzes, it is seen that the tourists mostly comment on the physical structure of the hotel. Then, comments were made on food, staff, room and service issues. The price was found to be the least commented size.