Online Social Networks (OSNs) have become important social
platforms for computer-mediated communications (Ellison, Vitak,
Gray, & Lampe, 2014; Majchrzak, Faraj, Kane, & Azad, 2013),
acting as cyber “coffee shops” where people are able to find and
then electronically ‘talk’ to others with similar interests (Ayeh, Au,
& Law, 2013). As a Web 2.0 technology, OSNs are gaining attention
as knowledge sharing platforms for the travel and tourism industry
as more and more travelers are using this method to exchange
information (Bradley, Sparks, &Weber, 2015; Kandampully, Zhang,
& Bilgihan, 2015; Law, Buhalis, & Cobanoglu, 2014; Morosan,
Bowen, & Atwood, 2014). They have been recognized as
innovative knowledge sharing networks (e.g. product reviews,
trends, restaurant and hotel reviews, and travel blogs) by enabling
users to connect, share, and interact with others (Inversini &
Masiero, 2014; €Oz, 2015; Uhrig, Bann, Williams, & Evans, 2010).
They are powerful platforms that allow users to collaborate and
contribute to developing, extending, rating, commenting on travel
related experiences (destination reviews, TripAdvisor things to do
lists, Yelp reviews, restaurant Instagram pages, etc.). Among OSNs,
TripAdvisor has more than 175 million reviews. Tourism and hospitality
stakeholders often open and manage accounts on
numerous platforms including Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest,
Vine, Snapchat, Twitter and Googleþ. OSNs have therefore
become the mainstay of a digital marketing strategy for the travel
industry. It is estimated that online reviews influence more than
US$10 billion in online travel purchases every year