User-Generated Content in Social Media: A Twenty-Year Bibliometric Analysis in Hospitality

Abstract

This article aims to present a bibliometric analysis regarding social media platforms and User-Generated Content (UGC) in hospitality. One hundred fifty-one peer-reviewed articles were analyzed using Webster’s and Watson’s (2002) methodology, a concept-driven methodology that helps analyze different concepts and contexts of a research field. Articles classified into five areas and a bibliometric analysis were presented to discuss the publication year, journals and publishers, authors, number of citations, research method implemented, social networking and users’ perceived value, user-generated content and travel planning, e-Word-of-Mouth (e-WOM) and brand image building, and hotel performance. The findings of this study showed that the number of studies in this field has increased over the last decade. However, exploration of the subject needs to be promoted (particularly experimental) because research in hospitality social media is still in the early phases on the grounds that publications concentrate on explicit subjects, regions, and sources of publication.

Keywords

• social media networking
• social media marketing
• user-generated content
• e-Word-of-Mouth
• hospitality