Impact Of Social Media In Tourism

Introduction The practice of tourism, despite its economic and socio-cultural benefits, lacks a universally accepted authority on its precise definition (Pike, 2004). Nevertheless, a middle-of-the-road definition affords that tourism involves the activities that characterize all travel by individuals or groups to various destinations (Pike, 2004; Huotari, Nyberg, 2012). Destinations, on the other hand, as Pike (2004) continues to state, refer to places such as countries or cities that attract visitors for a temporary stay. For Destination Marketing Organizations (DMO’s), understanding the supply and demand nuances of tourism, and the technology involved is central to ensuring competitiveness. This paper examine the role, types, and impacts of social media at the destination level; presents examples of the social media used …show more content…
Part A: The Role, Types, and Impacts of Social Media at the Destination Level
Tourism is highly dependent on travel, as previously stated. Travel, on the other hand, is characterized by the social movement of people from one place to another, in this case, the destination. Social media is constituted primarily by a community of people reflecting all walks of life. In this respect, we can therefore argue that the role of social media at the destination level, according to Lange-Faria & Elliot (2012), is to foster human interaction. Essentially, social media plays a vital role in defining the decision-making process that informs on how travellers eventually arrive at their destination of choice (Popesku, 2014). According to Popesku (2004), most social media examples are web applications that essentially allow the user to not only post content, but also share them across multiple users within the community. Examples that depict the types of social media used at the destination level include; Facebook, Twitter,