ABSTRACT
The Internet has affected the travel and tourism industry in various ways such as marketing, distribution channel and information search for tourism products and services, to name a few. With developments in web technology particularly that of virtual communities, blogs, e-review sites and photo sharing websites, the industry is again challenged to cope with the changes they bring into tourism consumption as well as the delivery of tourism products. According to Stepchenkova, Mills and Jiang (2007), virtual communities revolutionised the way people socialize, exchange information, access resources and perform transactions. Inevitably, these communities have also penetrated tourist’s and travellers’ practices. Virtual travel communities have empowered tourists in many ways but not limited to:
1 building a community of consumers with shared goals and interests; 2 connecting with other travellers; 3 exchanging of information; 4 holistic evaluation of their travel experiences; and 5 more convenient communication tool.
