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There has been exponential growth in the power exercised by social media in hospitality and tourism. The power of social media platforms as stakeholders has been widely accepted by both academics and industry practitioners. However, to the best of the current authors' knowledge, there has been no conceptualization of the power attributable to social media. On this basis, it is both timely and necessary to establish theoretical grounds that explain the concept of social media power and its application in hospitality and tourism. A hierarchical model that characterizes social media power is constructed in the present article by bringing together fundamental power discourses, media effect theories, and technology determinism. The authors identify definitions and sources of social media power at different levels of the power pyramid and present various technological mechanisms that trigger such sources. This conceptual study proposes theoretical foundations for future research and theory-building. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Social media are acknowledged as an important information source that influences tourists' travel choices. However, qualitative studies that take an inductive approach to identify the roles of social media by investigating how social media affect travel choices are limited. By interviewing 21 tourists who had recently taken trips, this article aimed to identify the roles that social media played in the tourists' choices of six travel components (destination, transportation, accommodation, food and dining activities, attractions, as well as shopping and leisure activities). Four roles have been identified: Need Generator, Supporter, Guider and Approver. Theoretical and practical implications along with future research suggestions are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, the number of publications on social media has increased exponentially. Although several attempts have been made to review social media studies in tourism and hospitality, the social structure of collaborative networks has yet to be analysed. By performing authorship and co-authorship analyses of 385 articles, this study explored the progress of social media research and analysed key authors' productivity, educational background and centrality in research communities. Regional differences in socially constructed social media knowledge were investigated. Networks between universities were also analysed and compared based on region. Findings suggest future research directions for various regions and provide important implications to the academia and industry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The crucial role of sensory dimensions in customer experiences has been supported in literature. However, traditional self-reported sensory measurements have limited capacity in capturing the multi-dimensional experiences sensed by individuals and articulating the distinct effect of different sensory dimensions on actual behavior. This study is the first attempt to test the effects of positive and negative experiences involving all five senses (sight, smell, sound, taste, and touch) on customer ratings. The sensory experiences reported in social media reviews were captured and explored using text mining and sentiment analysis. The findings show that although the majority of customers' experiences were positive, the negative sensory experiences had higher effect on customer rating. Furthermore, the five senses had different weights in forming overall experience, which provides theoretical contributions to the literature on sensescapes, prospect theory, and discourses on satisfiers and dissatisfiers. • New methodological technique to analyze big online review data. • New multidimensional sensory experience sentiment scale. • Application of the scale to restaurant reviews demonstrate the effect of five sensory experiences on customer ratings. • Taste, touch and sight experiences are the most important components of memorable restaurant experiences. • The negative sensory experiences have higher effect on customer rating, compared to their positive counterparts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]