Do Social Media Investments Pay Off?: Preliminary Evidence from Swiss Destination Marketing Organizations

Author(s):  
Thomas Wozniak ◽  
Brigitte Stangl ◽  
Roland Schegg ◽  
Andreas Liebrich
2020 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 56 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mohammad Tipu Sultan ◽  
Farzana Sharmin ◽  
Alina Badulescu ◽  
Elena Stiubea ◽  
Ke Xue

There has been increasing interest in coastal tourism, sparking a debate on the responsible environmental behavior of travelers visiting sustainable destinations. To mitigate this issue, destination marketing organizations (DMOs) and environmental activists are trying to develop strategic approaches (i.e., by using digital technologies) to enhance the sustainable behavior of travelers. Environmental responsiveness and its impact on sustainable destinations is gaining attention by companies, scholars, and institutions. However, the relevant literature has not addressed social media user-generated content regarding sustainable destinations. Sharing stakeholder knowledge, activities, and experience on social media could accomplish this goal. Hence, this paper aims to explore travelers′ responsible environmental behavior towards coastal tourism within the social media user-generated content paradigm. To measure the effect of user-generated content (UGC), i.e., cognitive triggers and affective triggers, on the responsible environmental behavior of travelers, a survey questionnaire was used to collect data (n = 506) from the world’s longest sandy sea beach, Cox’s Bazar, located in the Southern part of Bangladesh. The data were examined by structural equation modeling (SEM). The results revealed that cognitive and affective triggers of user-generated content influence travelers’ environmental concerns and attitudes, making a significant contribution to shaping responsible environmental behavior. Additionally, the findings show that environmental concerns and attitudes play a significant role in producing commitment towards a sustainable coastal tourism practice. This study contributes to the effectiveness of user-generated content for persuasive interactions with destination marketing organizations to develop sustainable tourism practices.


Libri ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 68 (4) ◽  
pp. 345-359
Author(s):  
Vicki Lawal ◽  
Peter G Underwood ◽  
Christine Stilwell

Abstract This article examines the effect of the adoption of social media in legal practice in Nigeria. It discusses some of the major challenges that have recently been experienced in the use of legal information in Nigeria within the context of the social media revolution, particularly with respect to ethics. A survey method was employed and data was collected through self-administered questionnaires to the study population comprising practicing lawyers located in various law firms in Nigeria. Outcomes from the study provide preliminary evidence on the nature of the application of social media in legal practice and the prospects for its inclusion as an important aspect of legal research in the legal education system in Nigeria.


2018 ◽  
Vol 43 (3) ◽  
pp. 349-373 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mariapina Trunfio ◽  
Maria Della Lucia

This article examines the underinvestigated topic of how destination marketing organizations (DMOs) engage stakeholders in destination management and marketing through leverage on off-line tools, official destination websites, and social media platforms. Building on a significant body of literature and advances in quantitative and qualitative research, we provide three methodological tools: two scales assessing DMO stakeholder engagement off-line and online and a social media index measuring tourist engagement. Our results confirm that in Italy regional DMOs are capitalizing on the digital platforms and off-line participatory tools to enhance stakeholder engagement in destinations’ decision making. Theoretical and managerial implications for destination management in the digital era are suggested.


2020 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Gianna Moscardo

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to highlight the rise of stories in tourism practice, identify the forces that are supporting and directing this story turn and argue for tourism researchers to pay greater attention to this new development. Design/methodology/approach This paper is based on a general review of academic and professional literature on marketing practice and experience design in tourism and an audit of destination marketing materials using story or story telling in their campaigns. Findings This paper identifies three forces supporting a story turn in tourism: building on the experiential approach to tourism; the rise of mobile social media, user generated content and gamification; and the Asian Wave in tourism. Originality/value This paper identifies a story turn in current tourism practice and reviews the increasing awareness of the value of stories in psychology, sociology and anthropology research, to suggest how this story turn may influence the nature of both tourism practice and research in the future.


2012 ◽  
Vol 18 (3) ◽  
pp. 197-206 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yumi Lim ◽  
Yeasun Chung ◽  
Pamela A Weaver

A one-way conversation with consumers in destination branding was pervasive when destination-marketing organizations created and generated their destination brands. However, social media has made a two-way conversation possible with consumers participating in the development of a destination brand identity/image. This study investigates consumer perception of destination brands created by consumer-generated videos and destination-marketing organization videos. The findings suggest that consumer-generated videos do not carry the same destination brand as destination marketer-generated videos. In addition, consumer-generated videos have little positive impact on a destination brand. This study provides insight into destination-branding strategies with respect to the roles that social media plays in creating destination-brand identity and image.


Cittaslow movement as a local development model has become increasingly important all overthe world since 1999. One of the important factor for the sustainability of this movement is communicated with both local residents and destination visitors accurately and conscious way about the principles and the benefits of Cittaslow philosophy and the unique features of the destination. At this point, social media is a key tool in destination marketing for Cittaslow destinations due to its features such as providing a competitive advantage, reaching a global audience, rapid dissemination of information, communicating with consumers. In this regard the study focuses the role of social media in destination marketing. The aim of the research is to determine how and at what level Cittaslow in Turkey use social media in destination marketing. In accordance with this purpose, content analysis technique was used and Facebook was chosen as social media channel. Among 11 Cittaslow in Turkey, 7 Cittaslow destinations (Gökçeada, Halfeti, Perşembe, Seferihisar, Şavşat, Vize, Yalvaç) that have an official municipality Facebook page were included to the research. This destinations’ posts between January 2016 and June 2016 were analysed in terms of content, frequency and interactivity by utilising the categories Hays et al. (2013) created in their study. The findings of this study show that, Seferihisar Municipality uses social media more effectively in terms of content and post frequency but they also reveal that interactivity which is one of the most important features of social media is not adequately heeded by all Cittaslow destinations in Turkey.


Author(s):  
Yi Xuan Ong ◽  
Tao Sun ◽  
Naoya Ito

AbstractThe power of social media influencers (SMIs) as effective endorsers for destinations and tourism products have been widely acknowledged. Despite being characterised as content generators by prior research, little has been done to examine how consumers perceive content produced by SMI, a key component of destination marketing campaigns. Moreover, parasocial relationship between SMI and the follower has been proven to enhance the persuasive impact of SMIs. Hence, this study aims to shed light on how consumers would assess the SMI and the content the SMI produced, as well as the effect of parasocial relationship on processing SMI destination marketing campaigns. Findings (N = 501) have highlighted that argument quality of SMI content has a stronger direct impact on campaign attitude, destination image and travel intention, as compared to source credibility. With the application of the Elaboration Likelihood Model (ELM) as a framework, this study illuminates consumers’ interaction with the SMI destination marketing campaign and extends prior studies in understanding the importance of SMI content and parasocial relationship as a significant tool for future destination marketing.


Author(s):  
Jo-Chun Liao ◽  
Yao-Chin Wang ◽  
Chin-Hsun Tsai ◽  
Bei Zhao

Sharing photos on social media has become a vital tourist behavior during a journey. However, gratifications behind such sharing in tourists’ minds is not yet fully clarified in tourism literature. Therefore, based on Uses and Gratifications theory (U&G), this study develops and validates a scale measuring gratifications of travel photo sharing on social media (GTPS). In Study 1, we conducted an exploratory factor analysis with responses from 200 tourists (47.50% individualistic culture and 52.50% collectivistic culture). In Study 2, we implemented confirmatory factor analysis with responses from 300 tourists (100% collectivistic culture). In Study 3, using samples from 200 tourists (50% individualistic culture and 50% collectivistic culture), we examined the relationships between GTPS dimensions and mobile phone involvement. Finally, we developed a 13-item GTPS with four dimensions: social attraction, mental accomplishment, self-disclosure, and habitual pastime. The GTPS can be applied by destination marketing organizations (DMOs) to analyze tourist behavior in different cultural settings. Based on GTPS, DMOs can further develop related services and products for tourists as well as design destination marketing activities.


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