Abstract:
Social Media has become a phenomenal technological advancement in present world where individuals
connect and communicate with each other. Furthermore, Social Media has become a knowledge hub where
consumers share, interact, express and engage in multitude of activities related to different products, services and
other related functions. Travel and tourism sector has been one of the key fields where consumers rely on Social
Media based information due to its’ experiential nature and the importance of sensitive information in the
decision-making process. Role of Social Media on consumer behavior has been addressed throughout the years
and it has become a moot point where the scholars and other academic professionals have identified that it needs
further researches and studies to identify the relationship as it evolves frequently. This study discusses the concepts
of Social Media and Consumer Behavior and related topics in literature review with the support of academic
references and build the conceptual framework accordingly to conduct the analysis. Author has been identified
main independent variables based on the literature review and collected 278 responses from local consumers of
particular hotel chain through a survey based questionnaire. Descriptive research method has been used to analyze
the collected data and the findings discovered that the identified variables have an impact on consumer behavior.
As concluding remarks, the study proposes that Social Media has an impact on consumer behavior and identifying
the discussed areas would benefit the organization to understand the consumer behavior and execute their
marketing plan accordingly. Recommendations were made to improve the lacking areas and limitations of the
study have been identified to provide an outline of the study. Furthermore, the study has provided future
suggestions for future researchers as there could be other Social Media related factors affect consumer behavior
in different contexts.
