AbstractsEconomics

Problematisation: Credible information on social media affects potential tourists when chosing where they will travel. Thus, the competition for the attention of potential tourists makes the credibility aspect important to explore further. Perceived credibility in social media online could be more questioned than offline sources since user generated Websites usually do not go through a review. Additionally, the understanding of online credibility is still limited, when it comes to UGC. There has not been much research emphasising the perceived credibility on user generated content. Furthermore, there seems to be a disagreement about perceived credibility existing in social media, which makes it an interesting topic. Purpose: The aim of this paper is to investigate which dimensions are positively influencing perceived credibility online and if the information on TripAdvisor was seen as credible. The purpose is also to explore if there is a relationship between perceived credibility and the dimensions user generated content, authority, communication, updates and design. The purpose of this dissertation is also to add knowledge about how potential tourists perceive credibility when they view a Website designed for tourists. Methodology: This study used a paper-based questionnaire, answered by students at Kristianstad University. Limitations: This dissertation has two main limitations. Firstly, it only examines one social media, TripAdvisor. Secondly, participants in the sample were only chosen from Kristianstad University and under certain circumstances, which made the sample limited. Conclusion: The result showed that there was a positive relationship between user-generated content, authority, communication, updates and design and perceived credibility. However, the dimension advertisement was rejected. Thus, five of six hypotheses were not rejected and had a statistical significance (P= < 0.01). Only hypothesis four, advertisements, did not have statistical significance and was rejected. The total perceived credibility for TripAdvisor’s Website, in this dissertation, was that it was seen as fairly credible.