THE RELEVANCE OF ONLINE REVIEWS FOR THE DEVELOPMENT OF RESTAURANT INDUSTRY

Abstract

The practice of eating-out in a restaurant is a phenomenon marked by expansion. The unprecedented development of travel for tourism purposes, both in Romania and abroad, exerts significant pressures on restaurant's management decisions. The online word-of-mouth communication becomes essential in the restaurant industry. The process of selecting a restaurant is more difficult, alongside with the constant increase of tourists' number and claims. Therefore, online reviews become more and more valuable information sources for this purpose. The results of the research presented in this article pointed out the utility of online reviews and the need to identify different situations to evaluate their relevance. The research differentiates two types of situation, i.e. visits in restaurants/bars/coffee-shops in the city of residence and, a second situation, same visits at new, unknown tourism destinations. For residents, the trust is mainly based on previous experiences. As for the visitors, the selection process of a restaurant is more difficult, but it would become much easier when it is based on online reviews. The comments section is considered to be the highest element of interest when tourists read a restaurant's online review. Also, the results indicate the constant increase of the population's degree of confidence in the assessments and recommendations which can be browsed online.

Keywords

• online reviews
• restaurants
• selection process
• young generation