Factors Affecting UAE Consumers’ Attitudes Towards Using Social Networking Sites in Hotel Selection

Abstract

This study focuses on the influence of social networking sites on travelers' attitudes towards hotel selection in the UAE. A social networking site (SNS) is a form of social media that provides a platform for people to connect with each other. It is very important to examine how individual travelers are utilizing SNS when they select a hotel. Therefore, the objective of this study is to investigate if Perceived Ease of Use (PEU), Perceived Usefulness (PU), and Perceived Risk (PR) have any influence on attitude toward using social media (ATUSM). The study will use an exploratory research design which employs quantitative data. Convenience sampling technique was used to distribute the self-administered survey questionnaires on different hotels in the UAE. As hypothesized, the results show the positive effect of Perceived Ease of Use (PEU), Perceived Usefulness (PU), and Perceived Risk (PR) on consumers' attitude toward using social media (ATUSM) in hotel selection.

Keywords: social networking sites, attitude, perceived ease of use, perceived usefulness, perceived risk, hotel selection

DOI: 10.7176/JMCR/66-03

Publication date:March 31^st 2020