Abstract:

Market research topics and methodologies are gaining presence in the most syllabus of different types of University degrees. Market research-related subjects are becoming more and more important in marketing and business management degrees but also in tourism, engineering, history, and art degrees, among others. Today’s students will probably become business managers of different types of companies commercializing various products and services such as hotels, restaurants, or cultural products and services. Because of this, they must learn how to apply quantitative and qualitative market research techniques to know about customer needs. Traditionally, quantitative methodologies have prevailed in both research and university curriculums. However, the popularization of Information and Communication Technologies has made qualitative research more necessary than ever before. Most customers express their reviews and opinions on digital platforms such as Booking, Tripadvisor, or Trivago. And this is one of the most credible and influential sources of information for other potential customers. Because of this, it is so important that future business managers learn how to analyse the valuable information provided by customers through this type of platform. A practical exercise was proposed to a group of tourism students to identify substantial aspects and improvement areas in the management of tourism companies by using qualitative user-generated content analysis. As a result of a knowledge co-creation process, lecturer-students, the joint content analysis of all positive and negative comments compilated by all the students let us reach the following main conclusions.

On the one hand:
(I) free details personalization,
(II) good value for money,
(III) offers and promotions,
(IV) location, or
(V) ease of booking are some of the most times positively mentioned aspects.

On the other hand:
(I) room cleaning,
(II) soundproofing,
(III) staff attention, and
(IV) menu options are the main reasons for complaining.

This topic identification has critical managerial implications for improving the level of satisfaction of customers of tourism companies.

Keywords:

Market research methodology, user-generated content analysis, online reviews.