Digital Travel Memories: a Comparison of Physical and Online Travel Experiences in the Terms of Recollection

Abstract

The study aims to undertake a comparison of physical and online travel experiences in terms of their recollection and the differences between each experience. Digitalization of travel is explained as visiting a place virtually by means of digital devices instead of visiting it physically. In the first part of the research, in which both qualitative and quantitative research methods were used, the viewer comments written under two most-viewed walking tour videos on YouTube were examined by using sentiment and text analysis which are among the social network analysis methods. In the second of the research, focus groups study are conducted with qualitative and experimental design. The focus groups consist of participants who visited the two cities (selected as sample) either physically (control groups) or online (experimental group). In the sentiment analysis, it was concluded that the positive and neutral sentiment expressions were higher than negative expressions, and in the text analysis individuals approached the online walking tours as a travel experience., In the focus groups research, it was observed that the use of natural sounds, the high visual quality in the videos are effective on individual's recollection of their travel in the online travel experiences. The content of the memories of physical travel experiences is usually about human interactivity and social life. In both travel experiences, it was determined that the information obtained by the individuals about the place through the media strengthens the recall of the images of their travel experiences.