Flixbus – What’s the Conversation? Co-Creating Budget Travel

The way in which travel is experienced and valued has changed drastically in the past decade. With the growing presence of online platforms, ease of booking systems and an abundance of information, the user is in more control and more involved in the process than ever before. It is no longer a one-way process from the travel service providers to curate the experience, but the customer desires an authentic, individualistic yet reflective of intrinsic desires such as escapism and relaxation to be reflected in their purchase. Social media plays a significant role as a central hub of distribution, information and engagement with customers for travel brands. This exploratory research assesses fundamental values and societal shifts which have given growth to the collaborative economy and the prosumer to assess the changes in travel and tourism and how the branding of a service should encompass these changes. By using Flixbus as a case study, an assessment of social media content creation and the perceptions of individuals can be framed by combining interviews and a thematic content analysis. The main findings suggest that social media plays a significant role in travel consumption experience of the individual. The act of tourism itself has become a form of travel brand co-creation and social media facilitates this interaction between the brand and the ‘prosumer’. There is a constant media presence from the planning to the experience phase of a travel experience, with services welcoming user generated content more than ever.