Exploring and Prioritizing the Dimensions of Electronic Word of Mouth among Coastal Tourists of Caspian Sea by qualitative and quantitative Methods

Electronic word of mouth is the most important information source in tourists purchase decision.

Therefore, this study was conducted with the aim of exploring and prioritizing the dimensions of electronic word of mouth among coastal tourists. The method of this research is mixed in nature and developmental research in terms of purpose. Therefore, the Meta - Synthesis method has been used to explore the dimensions of ewom and the best-worst method to prioritize these dimensions.

In the qualitative section, the statistical society was 158 documentary articles, which were eventually adjusted to 28 related articles, and in the quantitative section, 10 social media managers from selected coastal tourism centers in north of the country, were selected as experts by using convenience sampling method. Data in the qualitative section, were analyzed using the seven-step method of Sandlowski and Barroso in Meta - Synthesis and in the quantitative section, data were analyzed by the best-worst method (BWM). Dimensions of ewom among coastal tourists were introduced  in 5 categories,10 axial codes and 70 open codes and their prioritization were presented by their importance. The effectiveness of the message was in the first priority, the message platform in the second priority, information exchange in the third priority, communication elements in the fourth priority and the consequences of ewom in the fifth priority.

Company managers need to recognize the characteristics of message receiver and sender and the motivations for their participation in electronic word-of-mouth, and create and expand ewom by creating platforms such as tourism websites, discussion forums and brand communities.