Travel Community Netnography

Travel community netnography applies netnography, ethnography adapted to the study of online communities, to the forums, social-media groups, blogs and review communities where travellers gather to share experiences, advice and meaning. Developed by Robert Kozinets (2002, 2010), netnography offers a rigorous, ethically grounded set of procedures for entering an online community, immersing in its communications, and interpreting the symbolism, meanings and consumption practices of its members. In tourism it is used to understand how travellers construct destinations, make decisions, perform identity and form attachments through naturally occurring online interaction, observed unobtrusively rather than provoked by an interviewer. Kozinets positioned netnography as faster, less costly and more naturalistic than offline ethnography while demanding the same interpretive depth, reflexivity and ethical care.