ABSTRACT
The current investigation grew out of an interest in how social media platforms, such as travel forums and Facebook, influence the travel decision-making of young independent travellers in Asia. This chapter explores how knowledge is shared virtually, and the nature of virtual peer support that enhances the experience of novice travel for Asian youth tourists to Hong Kong. It explores relevant theoretical and methodological avenues before outlining the study and its results in regard to travel decision-making and virtual communities. The main aim of Sotiriadis and van Zyl's (2013) study was to investigate the way users of one kind of social media (Twitter) employ e-WOM to make decisions about what tourism services to purchase, as well as the factors influencing the use of information retrieved from this social media (SM). Novice or less experienced travellers were also a feature of the sample interviewed. Accordingly, there was more reason for such a group to seek peer support regarding travel decisions.
