The advent of Web 2.0 or social media technologies gives travelers a chance to access quickly and conveniently to a mass of travel-related information. This study investigates the importance of social media in travel process in three different phases (pre-visit, on site, post-visit) from the...

Consumers can acquire information through their own search efforts or through their social network. Information diffusion via word-of-mouth communication leads to some consumers free-riding on their “friends” and less information acquisition via active search. Free-riding also has an...