social media in tourism marketing

Advertising made simpler for you. Read about new Advertising Trends, Campaigns, and Strategies.

The Role of Social Media in Tourism Marketing

Last updated on: December 7, 2023

Social media has revolutionized the way we travel and experience the world. Imagine this: You’re scrolling through your feed, and there it is – a breathtaking photo of a serene beach or a lively cityscape, instantly transporting you to a place you’ve never been. That’s the magic of social media advertising in tourism marketing. It’s not just about stunning images and catchy hashtag, it’s a dynamic platform that bridges the gap between dream destinations and eager travelers. 

From influencer collaborations to user-generated content, social media is reshaping how we discover, plan, and share our travel adventures. So, let’s embark on a journey to explore how these digital platforms are not just selling trips, but crafting experiences and memories that last a lifetime. Welcome to the intersection of wanderlust and the digital age!

Table of Contents

The Impact of Social Media on Tourism Marketing

The transformative effect that social media platforms have had on the way tourism destinations and services are marketed and experienced by consumers. This impact can be examined through several key aspects:

Enhanced Customer Engagement and Reach: Social media platforms provide tourism marketers with tools to engage directly with a global audience. Unlike traditional marketing methods, which were often one-way and region-specific, social media allows for two-way communication. This interaction fosters a more personalized connection with potential tourists. For instance, tourism boards and businesses can respond directly to inquiries, share updates, and gather feedback in real time.

Influence on Travel Decisions: Social media has become a crucial part of the decision-making process for travelers. Platforms like Instagram, Facebook, and Pinterest are often where potential tourists seek inspiration and information. Photos, reviews, and travel stories shared on these platforms can significantly influence where people choose to travel. For example, a destination that frequently appears in Instagram posts can see a rise in popularity, sometimes called the “Instagram effect.”

Shift in Marketing Strategies: With the rise of social media, tourism marketing strategies have shifted from traditional advertising (like magazine ads and TV commercials) to content marketing and storytelling on social platforms. This involves creating engaging, shareable content that showcases a destination’s attractions, culture, and experiences. The goal is to create content that resonates with users, encouraging them to share it within their networks, thereby amplifying its reach.

Role of User-Generated Content: User-generated content , such as reviews on TripAdvisor or personal travel blogs, plays a significant role in shaping the image of a destination. Positive reviews and authentic travel stories shared by tourists can enhance a destination’s reputation, while negative experiences can have the opposite effect. Tourism marketers often encourage the sharing of user experiences to leverage word-of-mouth marketing.

Real-Time Marketing Opportunities: Social media enables real-time marketing, allowing tourism marketers to capitalize on current trends, events, or discussions. For instance, if a destination becomes popular due to a viral video or a celebrity visit, marketers can immediately use this buzz to promote the destination.

Measurable Impact and Data-Driven Strategies: Social media platforms offer extensive data analytics tools, allowing marketers to measure the impact of their campaigns, understand audience preferences, and tailor their strategies accordingly. This data-driven approach helps in making informed decisions and optimizing marketing efforts for better results.

Influencer Collaborations: Collaborating with influencers and travel bloggers who have a substantial following on social media has become a popular strategy. These influencers can offer authentic and relatable content to their followers, providing destinations with access to a targeted audience.

Key Social Media Platforms in Indian Tourism Marketing

The use of social media in the travel industry has transformed how destinations are marketed and perceived by potential travelers. Here’s an elaboration on how various platforms contribute to this dynamic field:

Facebook in Tourism Marketing

Facebook stands as a cornerstone in promoting tourism through social media. Its vast user base and sophisticated targeting options allow tourism marketers to reach a diverse audience. In India, where Facebook usage is widespread, tourism boards and companies use this platform to share engaging content, from stunning visuals of destinations to informative posts about local culture and festivals. The ability to create events, run targeted ads, and interact directly with users through comments and messages makes Facebook a valuable tool in the social media marketing for the travel industry.

Instagram as a Visual Storyteller

When it comes to the role of social media in promoting tourism, Instagram’s impact is undeniable. With its focus on visuals, Instagram is perfect for showcasing the beauty and diversity of Indian destinations. Tourism marketers leverage Instagram to post breathtaking images and videos, from the serene backwaters of Kerala to the vibrant streets of Jaipur. Hashtags and location tags enhance discoverability, while Instagram Stories and Reels offer dynamic ways to engage with audiences. Influencer collaborations further amplify reach, as travelers often seek inspiration from popular travel influencers.

Twitter for Real-Time Engagement

Twitter’s fast-paced nature makes it ideal for real-time engagement and information dissemination in the social media marketing in the tourism industry. Tourism boards and businesses use Twitter to post updates, engage in trending conversations, and provide customer service. During events or crises, Twitter becomes a crucial platform for providing timely information. The use of specific hashtags related to Indian tourism helps in segmenting the audience and engaging in relevant discussions.

YouTube – A Dynamic Showcase

YouTube advertising has emerged as a key player in social media tourism marketing. Through well-produced videos, tourism marketers can offer immersive experiences of Indian destinations. These videos range from professional documentaries highlighting cultural heritage to fun, engaging travel vlogs. YouTube also allows for longer, more detailed storytelling, which is essential in conveying the depth and richness of Indian tourism spots.

Strategies for Effective Social Media Marketing in Indian Tourism

Social media tourism marketing has become an indispensable tool. The diverse and vibrant culture, landscapes, and heritage of India offer a rich canvas for social media marketing in the tourism industry. Here’s how it can be effectively leveraged:

Creating a Compelling Narrative: The role of social media in promoting tourism is significantly enhanced when the content tells a story. For instance, the Rajasthan Tourism Department’s campaigns often focus on the historical and cultural richness of the state, weaving narratives that entice history buffs and cultural enthusiasts. This strategy helps in creating a connection with the audience, making them more likely to engage with the content and consider visiting the destination.

Utilizing Visuals and Videos: Given the visually driven nature of platforms like Instagram and YouTube, high-quality visuals and videos are essential for promoting tourism through social media. The Kerala Tourism Department, for example, effectively uses picturesque images and videos of backwaters, beaches, and cultural festivals, making it a visually appealing destination on social media platforms.

Influencer Collaborations: Influencers in the travel industry have a significant impact on their followers’ travel decisions. Collaborating with them for destination promotions can amplify reach. For instance, the Goa Tourism Department might collaborate with popular travel vloggers to showcase the beach life, nightlife, and cultural diversity of Goa, thus influencer marketing can help attract their followers to the destination.

Engaging with User-Generated Content: Encouraging tourists to share their experiences on social media and featuring their content on official tourism pages can create authenticity and trust. This approach is a key aspect of social media marketing for the travel industry, as real traveler stories are often more relatable and persuasive.

Leveraging Local Events and Festivals: Highlighting local events and festivals on social media can attract niche tourists interested in local experiences. For instance, promoting the Pushkar Camel Fair in Rajasthan or the Hornbill Festival in Nagaland can draw attention to these unique cultural experiences.

Interactive Campaigns and Hashtags: Creating interactive social media campaigns and hashtags can increase engagement and visibility. The #IncredibleIndia campaign by the Indian Tourism Department is an excellent example of a successful hashtag campaign that created a buzz and encouraged user participation.

Real-Time Updates and Information Sharing: Platforms like Twitter can be used for real-time updates, which is crucial for travel planning. Sharing information about weather conditions, festivals, or special events can be useful for tourists planning their trip.

Customer Feedback and Engagement: Actively engaging with comments, queries, and feedback on social media platforms is crucial. It not only improves customer service but also builds a community of engaged followers.

Adapting to Changing Trends: The social media landscape is continually evolving. Staying updated with the latest trends and platform features, like Instagram Reels or TikTok videos, is essential for keeping content fresh and engaging

Challenges and Solutions in Social Media Tourism Marketing

The evolution of social media tourism marketing has significantly influenced the travel industry, opening up new avenues for promoting tourism. However, it’s not without its challenges. Here’s an exploration of these challenges and the innovative solutions being adopted in the industry.

Managing Online Reputation and Misinformation

In the realm of social media marketing for the travel industry, maintaining a positive online reputation is crucial. Tourism brands must actively monitor social media channels to address misinformation and negative reviews promptly. This involves having a dedicated team to engage with customers, provide accurate information, and resolve issues quickly.

Balancing Promotional Content and Authenticity

Promoting tourism through social media requires a delicate balance between marketing and authenticity. Over-commercialized content can deter the modern traveler seeking genuine experiences. To tackle this, brands are increasingly turning to storytelling, sharing real stories and experiences of travelers. Encouraging user-generated content, where tourists share their own experiences, adds an authentic voice to the brand.

Keeping Up with Evolving Platforms and Trends

The digital landscape is ever-changing, and so is the role of social media in promoting tourism. Brands must stay abreast of the latest trends and platform updates to remain relevant. This includes experimenting with new social media features, like Instagram Reels or TikTok challenges, to engage potential tourists in novel ways.

Measuring Return on Investment (ROI)

Quantifying the success of social media marketing in the tourism industry can be complex. Tourism brands should invest in analytics tools to track engagement, conversions, and other key performance indicators. This data-driven approach helps in refining strategies and proving the value of social media marketing efforts.

The role of social media in promoting tourism is not static,  it’s a dynamic and ever-evolving aspect of the digital world that mirrors the changing preferences and behaviors of travelers. As the industry continues to innovate and adapt, social media stands as a powerful tool in the arsenal of tourism marketing, offering a pathway to connect, engage, and inspire travelers worldwide. Ultimately, the effective use of social media in tourism marketing not only enhances destination visibility but also enriches the travel experience, creating a win-win scenario for both travelers and the tourism industry.

You may also like:

Top 10 Outdoor Advertising Locations in Mumbai

Top 10 Outdoor Advertising Locations in Bangalore 2024

T20 World Cup 2024 Advertising on Disney+Hotstar & Star Sports: A Complete Guide

10 Tips on How to Create a Winning Newspaper Advertising Strategy

Sandeep Nair

Leave a reply cancel reply.

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment.

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed .

Why social media is a must-have marketing channel for tour operators

By Kevin Tjoe — 28 Feb 2022

marketing strategies   social media   tourism marketing

Updated April 2023 – Could #hashtags help grow your guest list? 

Can TikTok really boost your travel bookings?

If you’re running tours or activities in the tourism industry, chances are you’re maintaining a social media presence too. That’s because it’s the place to be found. 4.55 billion people now use social media actively, and as a population, we spend a surprising 15% of our waking hours scrolling our social feeds. That popularity translates into more bookings for many tourism businesses. 

Let’s explore the role of social media in tourism marketing at key points in the customer journey – and how you can use it to maximize your reach and impact.  

How does social media influence tourism?

The importance of social media in the tourism industry cannot be overstated. Social media and tourism pair beautifully together, because they both focus on sharing experiences. 

As highlighted by global tourism industry statistics , social media’s impact on tourism can be particularly potent for younger demographics. 46% of Generation Z travelers say Instagram influences their travel decisions, with 50% also taking cues from Facebook posts. Millennials are just as receptive to social media, with 51% saying their travel decisions are influenced or inspired by Facebook interactions. Given that Millennials alone make up 31.5% of the global population, that can be a massive share of your market you can easily and affordably reach!

So, what exactly is the role of social media in tourism marketing and at which points in the customer journey can social media have an effect?

Building awareness & providing inspiration

Those social posts about lounging over the water in the Maldives, camping at Yosemite or going on safari in Tanzania? They all inspire wanderlust and raise awareness of those unique places in the world.  Destination marketing can be just as important as promoting your specific products or services when it comes to the phenomenal impact of social media on tourism. As a result, effective social media marketing might not focus solely on inspirational content about your tours or activities but also highlight the truly amazing aspects of your special corner of the world.

Assisting with travel planning

Helping would-be guests dream about travel is a great outcome, but converting that interest to action is key for your business. Social media can be a powerful place to help customers form travel plans and solidify their travel dates. 

To encourage these positive social media effects on a tourism business, you could: 

• Post quick up-to-date videos on the best times of year to book
• Discuss any exciting events coming up in the area, and 
• Share useful tips about travel to your location

Easing the booking process

Now to convert that travel intent into active bookings. Online bookings can originate from a variety of sources – from Instagram, to big Online Travel Agents (OTAs) – so it helps to direct traffic to your own dedicated booking website or online tour scheduling software .

It’s so important that you have a secure, seamless online booking process available to capture interest from any location at any time of day. It’s also important that resellers and online travel agents can see live availability and make real-time reservations for your tours or activities, so you’ll be able to capture every ounce of that online interest.

Sharing experiences

The importance of social media in the tourism industry becomes crystal clear when you consider the way people love to share and recount their tourism experiences online. Social posts can be an incredibly important source of social proof, and a post from friends or family could be enough to inspire that next getaway. This is why it’s vital to follow up on your guest experiences with automated review requests for your website, social pages, or TripAdvisor. 

Benefits of social media marketing for tour operators

As a tour operator, you know the importance of reaching new customers and keeping existing ones engaged. Social media marketing can help you achieve both of these goals and much more.

In this section, we’ll explore some of the key benefits of social media marketing for tour operators.

Enhanced brand awareness

As a tour operator, social media marketing is an effective way to increase brand awareness. By creating and maintaining an active social media presence, tour operators can reach a wider audience and increase their visibility in the market. Social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and LinkedIn allow tour operators to showcase their products and services, share customer feedback and reviews, and create engaging content that appeals to their target audience. You can also play around with Instagram stories to show the more human side of your brand. Schedule Instagram stories to come out during peak hours when your audience is online.

By regularly posting high-quality content and interacting with followers, tour operators can build a strong online community and establish their brand as a trusted authority in the industry. This can lead to increased bookings, as customers are more likely to choose a tour operator with a recognizable brand and positive online reputation.

Increased customer engagement

Social media marketing can be a powerful tool for tour operators to increase customer engagement. By regularly posting relevant and interesting content, responding to comments and messages, and actively participating in online conversations, tour operators can create a sense of community with their customers. This engagement can lead to increased customer loyalty and advocacy, as customers feel more connected to the brand and are more likely to recommend the tour operator to others.

Targeted and relevant ads

Social media platforms like Facebook and Instagram allow tour operators to create targeted and relevant advertisements that reach potential customers who are interested in their products or services. These ads can be based on a user’s interests, demographics, behavior, and more, ensuring that they are delivered to the right audience at the right time. This level of customization and targeting helps tour operators to maximize their advertising spend and improve their ROI by reaching people who are most likely to convert into paying customers. Additionally, social media platforms offer valuable analytics and reporting tools that allow tour operators to track the performance of their ads and make data-driven decisions about their marketing strategies.

Cost-effective marketing campaigns

One of the biggest online marketing challenges tour operators face is managing their marketing budget effectively. Social media marketing provides a cost-effective solution by allowing tour operators to reach a large audience with minimal spending. Compared to traditional advertising channels like print or TV, social media platforms offer much lower costs per impression or click, allowing tour operators to stretch their marketing dollars further.

On a similar note, social media platforms offer a range of advertising options to suit different budgets and objectives, from simple boosted posts to more advanced targeting options like custom audiences and lookalike audiences. By leveraging social media marketing, tour operators can maximize their reach and engagement while keeping their advertising costs under control. 

Social media tactics to reach customers and get more bookings

Social media is an essential marketing channel for tour operators who want to reach new customers and increase bookings. However, with so many social media platforms and marketing tactics available, it can be challenging to know where to start. 

Whether you’re just getting started with social media marketing or looking to take your campaigns to the next level, these tips and tricks will help you succeed. And if you’re looking for even more tour operator marketing ideas, you can check out more tour operator marketing ideas here.

• Share high-quality photos and videos of your tours and activities to showcase your offerings and entice potential customers
• Keep your Facebook page updated with fresh content and engage with your followers through comments and messages
• Use Facebook Ads to target specific audiences based on interests, demographics, and behaviors, and drive traffic to your website or booking page
• Join relevant Facebook groups for travelers, adventure enthusiasts, or people interested in your destination to promote your tours and interact with potential customers
• Utilize Facebook Events to promote upcoming tours and activities, and encourage followers to RSVP and share with their friends and networks.

• Share visually stunning photos and videos of your tours and activities to showcase your offerings and capture the attention of potential customers
• Use Instagram Stories to provide a behind-the-scenes look at your business and create a sense of exclusivity and urgency for potential customers
• Utilize Instagram Reels to create short, engaging videos that highlight the unique experiences and adventures you offer
• Collaborate with influencers or micro-influencers who have a following that aligns with your target audience, and have them showcase your tours and activities on their Instagram accounts
• Use relevant hashtags to increase your reach and attract potential customers who are searching for content related to your destination or activities
• Engage with your followers and potential customers by responding to comments and direct messages, and by following and engaging with relevant accounts in your industry

You can check out these great examples of tour operator Instagram pages for more inspiration.

• Share updates and news about your tours and activities on Twitter to keep your followers and potential customers informed and engaged
• Use relevant hashtags to increase the reach of your tweets and attract potential customers who are searching for content related to your destination or activities
• Monitor and respond to customer questions and comments on Twitter to provide excellent customer service and build a positive reputation for your business
• Retweet and engage with other relevant accounts in the tourism industry to build relationships and increase your visibility within the community
• Create high-quality videos showcasing your tours and activities, and upload them to YouTube to provide potential customers with a virtual tour and entice them to book
• Use targeted YouTube Ads to reach potential customers who are interested in your destination or activities, and drive traffic to your website or booking page
• Collaborate with relevant YouTubers or influencers to showcase your tours and activities to their audience and expand your reach
• Create virtual tours of your destination or activities to provide potential customers with an immersive and engaging experience, even before they book
• Utilize YouTube’s analytics tools to track views and engagement metrics and adjust your content and advertising strategies accordingly
• Create inspiring travel boards on Pinterest that showcase your destination and the experiences and activities that you offer
• Use relevant keywords in your board titles, descriptions, and pins to increase visibility and attract potential customers who are searching for content related to your destination or activities
• Collaborate with relevant influencers or travel bloggers to feature your destination or activities on their boards and increase your reach
• Include a “book now” call-to-action on your pins to drive traffic to your website or booking page

• Create short, engaging videos showcasing your destination and the experiences and activities that you offer on TikTok
• Participate in trending challenges and use popular hashtags to increase the reach of your videos and attract potential customers who are searching for content related to your destination or activities
• Use TikTok Ads to target specific audiences based on interests, demographics, and behaviors, and drive traffic to your website or booking page
• Collaborate with relevant TikTok influencers or micro-influencers to feature your destination or activities in their videos and increase your reach

Key takeaways

In today’s digital age, social media has become a crucial component of any tourism business’s marketing strategy. By leveraging the power of social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, and Pinterest, tour operators can effectively promote their destination and activities, reach new customers, and increase bookings. From creating visually stunning content to engaging with followers and collaborating with influencers, there are countless ways that tour operators can use social media to drive business success.

Simply put, prioritizing social media marketing can be a key element of a business’s overall marketing strategy, tour operators can position themselves for success in the competitive tourism industry.

Easily manage incoming bookings from your social media platforms with the help of an online booking software. For example, Rezdy automates the entire booking process with advanced tools such as real-time availability viewer, automated guest communication, and the ability to accept secure digital payments.

Ready to join the thousands of Rezdy operators that increased their bookings by an average of 27% in 2022? Start your FREE  21-day trial  or  book a demo  today.

If you enjoyed this article, be sure to subscribe to the  Rezdy newsletter , where you’ll receive weekly up-to-date learnings and news from the Experiences industry, straight into your inbox.

Start free trial

Enjoy 21 days to take a look around and see if we are a good fit for your business.

No obligations, no catches, no limits, nada

Marketing Materials

How to write a tourism newsletter that captures readers’ attention

How TikTok travel trends are helping tour operators increase direct bookings

Top tactics for social media booking growth

See Where Your Brand Stands Against Your Industry

Bring Visitors to Social With These Tourism Marketing Tips

Tourism marketing on social media has evolved. While social media has been a key player in connecting destinations with potential travelers since its inception, the medium has changed to place a greater emphasis on video content and algorithmic discovery. In order to see results from social media, marketers now have to invest in the dynamic short-form video format while also understanding how to create a content marketing strategy that sticks the landing with audiences. For tourism marketers, it’s not just about posting beautiful photos anymore but about highlighting engaging, authentic experiences that audiences will want to watch and engage with. 

Let’s dive into the world of social media marketing for tourism to help you build a robust strategy — in this blog, we explore: 

• Why social media is important for tourism.
• The best social channels for tourism marketing.
• Five steps to developing a tourism social media strategy. 

Why Social Media Is Important for Tourism Marketing

Tourism is a massive $5.8 trillion industry across the globe. To put it into perspective, the industry averages nearly one billion tourist arrivals yearly. Marketing destinations to an audience this large — a sizable portion of the global population — requires channels that are able to reach almost everyone, and nothing fits that criteria quite like social media.

Social media is electric; content can spread to thousands of people in minutes and marketers simply do not see that kind of reach outside of expensive paid campaigns. Tourist destinations can reach a global audience, engage with future travelers and showcase their unique offerings without breaking the bank. 

The benefit of modern social media is that it is simple. A ten-second video filmed on a phone can reach comparable audiences to a paid campaign. With the right strategy, particularly by optimizing content to strike gold on the algorithm, marketers can drive awareness, boost bookings and foster a community of loyal followers.

The Best Social Media Channels for Tourism Marketing 

There is no universal answer for which social channel marketers should invest in. Different channels cater to different audiences and have varying purposes depending on your brand’s goals.

• Facebook is home to an older demographic and is great to share detailed information about your offerings to audiences with buying power. However, marketers have to compete with saturated newsfeeds, and boosting posts with ad spend is the name of the game to gain an audience.
• Instagram focuses on visuals and has recently entered the world of social entertainment with Reels. Reels perform well organically, meaning marketers can gain significant traction without spending a lot on ads.
• TikTok is the channel that disrupted the market and inspired change from all platforms. It offers the opportunity to reach younger demographics who seek fun experiences, which aligns well with the tourism industry.

5 Steps To Develop a Social Media Marketing Strategy for Tourism

Successful social media campaigns for travel marketing have many moving pieces, including channel strategy, identifying audiences, creating engaging content and measuring results to make refinements. 

Here are some tips that will help bolster your tourism marketing campaigns .

Practice Social Listening

Social listening is the easiest way to determine what audiences want, how they’re talking about you and what content they’re most likely to engage with. Traditionally it has involved monitoring mentions of your brand as well as relevant keywords, however, it has evolved to include AI-powered features such as:

• Social listening trends and topics identification - to help you make better-performing content.
• Advanced filtering - to ensure you cut out all the noise, including using images as a reference for filters rather than just keywords.
• Competitive benchmarking - to help you figure out where you stack against your competitors.

Dive Into Tourist Demographics 

Understanding your target audience is key to developing content that works for them. Consider factors like age, location, interests and travel preferences. Budget is also important, as older travelers may have the buying power for all-inclusive experiences, while younger travelers may be more interested in sightseeing and other low-cost activities. These factors will help create content that resonates most with your audience demographic across social channels.

Localize Campaigns When Relevant 

Social media is global, and tourism campaigns can find a more vast audience than other mediums. Developing a global social media strategy by localizing campaigns by region and language can make them more relevant and engaging. This could involve highlighting attractions that are appealing to international audiences but old news for locals, sharing local stories, or even partnering with influencers who have traveled from afar. When it comes to tourism, there is nothing more authentic than a testimonial from a real tourist who had an amazing time, and in many cases, they will create user-generated content.

Measure Success

The best way to create a successful campaign is through experimentation and iteration. Social media analytics tools allow brands to track the performance of their campaigns in ways that native social analytics do not allow. Metrics such as engagement, reach and conversion rates are valuable to understand what’s working and what’s not — and platforms such as Dash Hudson offer even more sophisticated metrics, such as Entertainment Score , to rank how entertained audiences were by your content on a scale of 1 to 10, or Vision , which uses AI to give a star rating to content that will perform well with audiences before you even post it.

Lean Into Stunning Visuals 

Ultimately, tourism marketing is visual. High-quality images and videos make all the difference in inspiring travelers to visualize themselves at your destination. Text provides meaningful context to help drive bookings, but it is the imagery that tells the story of what your travel spot is and what experiences travelers can expect once they’re there.

Social Media Marketing Tourism Examples 

Let’s look at the brands that are already doing a good job with social media marketing in the tourism industry. The following brands come from a variety of different areas and have different target audiences, but it is clear that they excel at common factors such as entertainment and creating content that resonates with audiences.

Eden Roc Cap Cana 

Luxury resort Eden Roc Cap Cana uses social to its fullest potential, combining a mix of static imagery and dynamic video to showcase guest experiences, events and seasonal highlights.

The Viator travel app has a vibrant, digital-first approach to marketing. The brand understands that social media users care about experiences, and it also pairs its content with specific aesthetics, such as colors or astrological signs, to truly inspire viewers to picture themselves in the moment.

Celebrity Cruises 

Celebrity Cruises has a robust TikTok marketing strategy, using the video format to immerse viewers in international destinations and experiences. The brand’s top-performing posts are notably behind-the-scenes footage of the crew answering questions and having fun.

Explore Charleston

Explore Charleston uses TikTok to partner with local businesses, tourist destinations and independent creators to create a compelling narrative about the city’s vibrant community.

NYC Ferry has taken a modern, trendy approach to TikTok — appealing to Gen Z riders with humorous content and all the latest trending sounds . This is a great example of an organization taking a much different approach for TikTok, as diverse channel strategies are essential for maximizing social media impact.

Breeze Airways

Breeze Airways excels at video on Instagram, including sharing a plethora of fun Reels showcasing flights, destinations and marketing campaigns. Its focus on flight staff helps give a face to the brand, while its content helps to demystify the flying experience.

Dash Hudson For Your Tourism Strategy

Stunning visuals are a huge factor in travel — 37% of travelers in the United States used their mobile phones to find travel inspiration on social media. To make your tourism marketing as impactful as possible, brands should use a combination of compelling images and videos to entice users. 

Dash Hudson offers a suite of tools to support your tourism marketing strategy and visual content. With a wide range of features like Vision , Campaigns and Social Listening , you can create better content with AI-powered insights that predict visual performance, report on your success in just a few clicks and develop a cohesive profile of your audience. 

What is tourism marketing?

Tourism marketing involves promoting a destination, tourism-related product or service, with the goal of attracting visitors and boosting bookings.

How does social media impact tourism and travel? 

Social media has a significant impact on tourism and travel. It allows brands to reach a global audience, engage with potential travelers and showcase their unique offerings. It also provides travelers with a platform to share their experiences, influencing the decisions of others through user-generated content.

How has social media changed tourism? 

Social media has revolutionized tourism by making it more interactive and personalized. It has given travelers a way to share their experiences and opinions, and algorithms serve content to people who have expressed an interest in travel. For tourism brands, it offers a budget-friendly way to market to a large number of people.

How is social media boosting global tourism? 

Social media has removed all limitations in destination discovery. Travelers can find content about any location, get inspired by UGC, and make decisions based on what they’re seeing on their feeds. Many tourist destinations have seen sudden upticks in travelers because of social media trends, which are impossible to predict but highly beneficial when they happen.

Don’t Miss Out

Join our community of experts to get the latest social media resources, trends and tips delivered straight to your inbox
each week.

Related Articles

The Only Social Platform Marketers Need To Succeed and Scale

Social Media Marketing in Tourism: 6 Ways to Drive Success

Gravitate Team

• SEO for Manufacturers: Top Strategies for Success in 2024
• Embracing Progress: Introducing Our New Website!
• How We Design Websites with UX at the Forefront
• Website ADA Compliance (What You Need to be Compliant)
• Why you need to migrate to GA4 – like, yesterday.
• The Importance of Meta Descriptions
• Meet Julianne, Our New Account Manager!
• Google’s Newest Update: Understanding the Helpful Content and What It Means For Your Business
• Meet Rachel, Our New Digital Coordinator!
• Meet Chad, Our New Digital Coordinator!
• Why Law Firm Branding Matters & How to Build Your Brand
• The New Digital DMO Model

June 28, 2021 | Gain Knowledge

Explore our best practices for social media marketing in tourism. Discover how travel companies can engage users and attract new customers.

As the world begins to bounce back from the effects of COVID-19, people are itching to get on a plane, a train, a car, a bicycle—anything that will take them someplace new and exciting.

After so much time spent at home, we can expect a boom in the travel and tourism industry , and that means your business needs to be ready to hit the ground running.

Start planning your travel social media strategy now so that your tourism business can ride that wave of hungry travelers like a pro.

Why Social Media Marketing in Tourism Matters

Any travel business not leveraging social media is seriously missing out on prime marketing real estate.

Think about the types of posts you’re likely to run into when, say, scrolling through Instagram. Pets, food, fashion, travel, etc. are all common themes. After all, if you travel to a scenic locale but don’t document it online, did it really happen?

So, you know travel aficionados are likely to be active on social media. And since much of social media is highly visual, it provides an excellent opportunity to lure customers in with enticing pictures and videos of a sunny beach or an Italian villa.

Social media is also a place people turn to when they have questions about travel and tourism, and if your company can provide these answers, you might just have yourself a loyal customer.

One loyal customer can lead to many more as they spread the word about your company with their friends and followers.

Social Media for the Travel Industry Best Practices

We’ve established that the role of social media in the tourism industry is incredibly important. But how can you fully take advantage of the power of social media? Here are some tried and true best practices:

1. Target the RIGHT Demographic

While people from all walks of life travel, many prominent influencers and travel bloggers are young. That means that creating content that caters to this Gen Z demographic and staying on top of the latest trends and hippest social media platforms will serve you well.

Depending on your specific business, though, you may be targeting an older, more affluent audience. If most of your customers are business travelers, for instance, LinkedIn may be a good place to focus your attention.

If you provide cruise experiences, you might do well to target retirees and other people looking for a luxurious, slow-paced form of travel. So, do your research and meet your audience where they are .

2. Leverage Travel Influencers

On the note of influencers, partnering with one can skyrocket your conversion rates. See if a travel blogger can feature your site, if a travel expert can do a review, or if an influencer will rep your business.

These powerful online figures bring with them hoards of loyal followers who trust their judgement, so building good relationships here can dramatically increase the number of customers you have overnight.

That being said, don’t put all your eggs in this basket; who is “in” as an influencer can change faster than the weather, and one connection won’t save you if your marketing strategy is otherwise lacking.

Instead, think of these connections as a potential cherry on top of an otherwise glowing social media campaign.

3. Make Connections with Video

Video content has been growing in importance and popularity in the past couple of years, and this is one trend tourism companies should hop on.

A quality video showing exciting locations will make anyone start thinking about saving up for a plane ticket. Instagram and Facebook are musts for tourism agencies, but also consider posting on YouTube, SnapChat, and TikTok.

When planning video content, don’t limit yourself to pre-recorded videos either. Consider live streaming. It’s a trendy way to pull in viewers.

To enhance your video production process, use a free online video editor tool to edit your videos. Make them look more professional and polished.

4. Paid Social Ads

Ads are an easy and effective way to get your business in front of new customers.

When creating your ads, focus on targeting the correct audience and crafting ad copy that is engaging and compelling. You want something that will stop a person mid-scroll.

5. Customer Service

It’s now common for people to reach out to businesses via social media when they have questions or comments. And when you’re in the travel industry, you know your customers will always have plenty of questions!

As such, make sure your team is monitoring comments and messages on social media and is able to respond to them quickly and effectively.

6. Use a Social Media Tool

Your business needs to post consistently across your social media platforms to maintain a strong online presence, which means that organization is critical.

Rather than trying to dump all your info in an Excel sheet, you can use a tool such as Hootsuite to schedule posts and track performance.

Partnering with a travel social media agency also makes it easy to crank out quality content without anything slipping through the cracks.

Whatever your strategy looks like, consistency is key. Regularly putting out social media posts for tourism will help you increase visibility and stay top of mind for customers.

Bon Voyage!

While the tourism industry has certainly taken its hits, the future looks bright.

It’s the perfect time to dust off your social media marketing in tourism strategy and inject it with added energy and determination.

Tourism and social media dance together beautifully at all times, but especially when people are so eager for a little tourism magic in their lives.

Industrial Marketing vs Consumer Marketing: Which is Best?

Content marketing for manufacturers: top success tips, industrial digital marketing: top strategies to drive growth, hire gravitate. get results., web design & development.

We deliver compelling digital experiences to drive brands forward, engage target audiences, and drive results.

Digital Marketing

We evolve and continually enhance your digital presence to drive traffic and improve conversions.

43 ROLE AND IMPACT OF SOCIAL MEDIA IN TOURISM – Contributions by Ulrike Gretzel

In this chapter I will summarize my contributions to understanding social media. I feel passionate about my research on social media because social media have changed the way we shop/consume (Zhou, Zhang & Zimmermann, 2013), learn, play, work, explore our identities and express our creativity, socialize, date (Finkel et al., 2012), find out about new trends and world events (and the latest gadgets), support causes and create movements, entertain ourselves, do research (Kozinets, 2020), fuel and follow our passions (Kozinets, Patterson & Ashman, 2017), find support, celebrate, grieve, and build our legacies; and, of course, they have revolutionized the way we travel (Gretzel, 2018). Social media have allowed me to stay in touch with family and friends, connect with new friends and colleagues, share my interests with others and join communities I never knew existed, learn about people and places, find out about hidden travel gems, and post lots of cat pictures. My drive to capture meanings and effects of social media use therefore emerges from a deep personal need to make sense of the world around me.

Besides these impacts on individual consumers, social media have also transformed the way tourism businesses and destinations can market. Social media provide especially smaller establishments and micro-entrepreneurs around the world with new opportunities to be seen and heard and to understand and connect with potential and existing customers. Importantly, social media platforms gave rise to new technological innovations like augmented reality that are revolutionizing the information landscape for consumers and businesses alike. At the macro-level, social media have not only helped create new economies (e.g., the sharing economy or, more generally put, the reputation economy) and new forms of value (co-)creation (Vargo, Maglio, & Akaka, 2008), but they have also led to significant social and political change across the globe.

At the same time, social media have brought the worst out in people, businesses, and society. They have enabled new forms of scams and identity theft, led to misinformation, discrimination, bullying, envy, hate crimes, filter bubbles and increasing polarization, have interfered with elections, and have enabled the emergence of new tech giants and new economic dependencies as well as new forms of censorship. They continue to challenge our privacy rights, make us buy junk, chain us even more to our technological devices, and sometimes keep us from experiencing RL (real life). I have been stalked on social media, have spent way too much time scrolling through feeds, and have bought unnecessary items. And I often see and hear about the negative impacts social media can have on tourism businesses and entire communities, whether it is Airbnb contributing to housing shortages or influencers leading mobs of tourists to formerly pristine areas (Gretzel, 2019).

Both aspects of social media, the good and the bad, make it absolutely critical to understand social media as more than just technological applications. My research has tried to grasp what social media are, how they are being used by whom and for what purpose, how they facilitate but maybe also hinder certain human behaviors, how they shift power, what dependencies they create, why they are so persuasive, what promises they hold in terms of making our lives better, and how they might develop in the future. And tourism is an important application area in which to study social media as a phenomenon because it provides a context in which exploration (but also stupidity, see Pratt & Tolkach, 2020), desire, mobility, risk, social dynamics, etc. lead to unique information and sharing needs and behaviors on the consumer side, while hyper-competition, fragmentation and volatility create an industry context in which social media applications seem to particularly thrive.

Social Media – A Research Journey

My social media research journey began organically while investigating the impact of the Internet on tourism. At the time, virtual travel communities sparked my interest in travel information that was not created and promoted by traditional tourism intermediaries. However, it was not until 2006 that my interest in social media research became more focused. Two important things happened that year: 1) I was introduced to CyWorld by my Korean graduate students, who also convinced the Korean Tourism Organization to invite me to speak at the inaugural Korea e-Tourism forum about the travel stories consumers increasingly create and share online (Gretzel, Lee & Lee, 2006); and, 2) I met a group of enthusiastic people from a relatively unknown travel start-up at a conference for destination marketers in Austin, Texas who were there to convince people that their platform, TripAdvisor, would revolutionize the travel industry.

These occurrences led (besides a life-long passion for all things Korean and an addiction to social media) to formal research projects with the respective organizations and the start of a research program. The research report written for the project with TripAdvisor was the first empirical research study on online travel reviews and continues to be available on the TripAdvisor website (Gretzel, Yoo & Purifoy, 2007). Up to this point, fifteen years later, this research interest in social media has continued to keep me extremely busy because of the fast-paced and complex evolution of social media.

Social media have grown and developed in unexpected and profound ways. While my research on social media has explored many avenues and aspects connected with these technologies, there are many areas that remain virtually untouched and require examining, while others warrant re-examining. In this chapter I outline some of the streams of research to which I have contributed so far.

I wanted to depict my personal research journey in relation to social media in a somewhat systematic way to help others explore some of the topics I have been interested in. Over the years, I have written over 100 social media-related contributions that span journal articles, edited books, book chapters, conference papers, industry publications, commentaries, and even a published poem about popular hashtags. Figure 1 depicts the words that most frequently appear in the titles of these publications.

Figure 1 shows that besides addressing social media and consumer-generated media in general ways, I have done a lot of work on online reviews and have looked at impacts from consumer as well as operator and destination marketing perspectives. It also shows that I have explored social media in different geographic contexts, including China, Australia, and Iran. And, while the analysis of textual elements of social media has always been a focal area of my research, visual elements and practices (travel photos, selfies, emojis, videos, etc.) have become an ever more important part of my social media-related research interests in recent years.

Looking more broadly at these publications, my social media research addresses six different lenses through which social media can be understood. Three of these lenses pertain to the technological foundations of social media and to the informational landscape they create. The other three speak to the human side of social media and describe the social and cultural phenomena that emerge from their use (Figure 2). The six lenses or ways of understanding are, of course, highly interconnected and the diagram depicted in Figure 2 suggests that the human activity feeds back into the technological and informational infrastructure through the digital traces it creates. Thus, both technological and human perspectives are needed to grasp the complexity and dynamic nature of social media.

Before diving into the specific themes I explored using these lenses, I would like to note that there were a few publications that did not fit this classification. First, I have published articles, chapters and two edited books that give broad overviews of social media in tourism and therefore cover several, if not all, of these themes. They are listed in Table 1. The latest addition to this list is a co-authored review paper that examines general trends in the social media in tourism literature (Zarezadeh, Rastegar, & Gretzel, 2018). Second, I have one publication that looks at social media from a learning and teaching perspective (Isacsson & Gretzel, 2011). Unfortunately, I never pursued this specific theme further despite its obvious importance.

Table 1. General Social Media Publications.

General Social Media Publications

Sigala, M., Christou, E., & Gretzel, U. (Eds.) (2012). Social Media in Travel, Tourism and Hospitality . Brookfield, VT: Ashgate.

Gretzel, U., Sigala, M., & Christou, E. (2012). Social Media Change the Name of the Game in the Tourism and Hospitality Industries. The European Financial Review , October 20, 2012, http://www.europeanfinancialreview.com/?p=5648

Gretzel, U. & Yoo, K.-H. (2017). Social Media in Hospitality and Tourism. In S. Dixit (Ed.), Routledge Handbook of Consumer Behaviour in Hospitality and Tourism , pp. 339-346. New York: Routledge.

Zarezadeh, Z., Rastegar, R. & Gretzel, U. (2018). Reviewing the Past to Inform the Future: A Literature Review of Social Media in Tourism. Czech Journal of Tourism , 7(2), 115-131.

Sigala, M. & Gretzel, U. (Eds.) (2018). Advances in Social Media for Travel, Tourism and Hospitality: New Perspectives, Practice and Cases . New York: Routledge.

Gretzel, U. (2018). Tourism and Social Media. In Cooper, C., Gartner, W., Scott, N. & Volo, S. (Eds.). The Sage Handbook of Tourism Management , Volume 2, pp. 415-432. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

Social Media as Technology

The first lens refers to my work on social media in tourism that seeks to understand social media as technologies. This means looking at Web 2.0 technologies as the base on which social media are built, examining specific platforms like TripAdvisor, and investigating and classifying the technological affordances that shape social media use. I have also explored the relationship between social media and other technologies (smartphones and camera-technologies like GoPros, see Dinhopl and Gretzel, 2016) to understand the wider social media and device ecosystem and its implications for tourism.

Looking at social media as technologies also involves understanding their adoption and use. I have investigated this topic from consumer and organizational perspectives. A main thread in this research stream is how adoption is shaped by national and institutional contexts. Another key topic is whether social media allowed tourism providers to “leapfrog” earlier stages of Internet technology adoption and establish their online presence solely through social media. Finally, as a persuasion scholar, I have also examined social media as persuasive technologies. Specifically, I have conceptualized the potential of social media to induce behavioral change (e.g., regarding food waste and overtourism) and to support tourism-related activism through affordances that facilitate collective action (Gretzel, 2017).

Table 2. Social Media as Technology.

Technological Foundations

Ge, J., Gretzel, U. & Clarke, R. J. (2014). Strategic Use of Social Media Affordances for Marketing: A Case Study of Chinese DMOs. In Xiang, Z. & Tussyadiah, I. (Eds.), Information and Communication Technologies in Tourism 2014 , pp. 159-174. Berlin: Springer.

Gretzel, U. (2015). Web 2.0 and 3.0. In Cantoni, L. & Danowski, J. A. (Eds.). Communication and Technology, Handbooks of Communication Science (HOCS) series , pp. 181-192. Berlin: De Gruyter Mouton.

Dinhopl, A. & Gretzel, U. (2015). Changing Practices/New Technologies: Photos and Videos on Vacation. In I. Tussyadiah & A. Inversini (Eds.), Information and Communication Technologies in Tourism 2015 , pp. 777-788. Berlin: Springer Verlag.

Dinhopl, A. & Gretzel, U. (2016). Conceptualizing tourist videography. Journal of Information Technology & Tourism , 15(4), 395-410.

Yoo, K.-H., Sigala, M., & Gretzel, U. (2016). Exploring TripAdvisor. In Egger, R., Gula, I., Walcher, D. (Eds.). Open Tourism: Open Innovation, Crowdsourcing and Collaborative Consumption Challenging the Tourism Industry, pp. 239-255. Berlin: Springer.

Persuasive Technology

Gretzel, U. (2017). Social Media Activism in Tourism. Journal of Hospitality and Tourism , 15(2), 1-14.

Murphy, J., Gretzel, U., Pesonen, J., Elorinne, A.-L. & Silvennoinen, K. (2018). Household Food Waste, Tourism and Social Media: A Research Agenda. In Stangl, B. & Pesonen, J. (Eds.), Information and Communication Technologies in Tourism 2018 , pp. 228-239. Cham, Switzerland: Springer International.

Gretzel, U. (2019). The Role of Social Media in Creating and Addressing Overtourism. In Dodds, R. & Butler, R. (Eds.). Overtourism: Issues, realities and solutions , pp. 62-75. Berlin: De Gruyter.

Technology Adoption

Gretzel, U., Kang, M. & W. Lee (2008). Differences in Consumer-Generated Media Adoption and Use: A Cross-National Perspective. Journal of Hospitality Marketing and Management , 17(1/2): 99-120.

Shao, J. & Gretzel, U. (2012). Social media Usage by Chinese Community supported agriculture farms. CAUTHE National Conference 2012 . Melbourne, VIC, February 6-9, 2012.

Gretzel, U., Kennedy-Eden, H. & Mistilis, N. (2014). Organizational Factors Driving Technology Non-Adoption in Australian Tour Operators. 21st Annual ENTER 2014 Conference . Dublin, Ireland, January 21-24, 2014. http://ertr.tamu.edu/enter-2014-volume-4-research-notes/

Gretzel, U., Mendes Filho, L., Lobianco, M., Alonso Vazquez, M. & Mistilis, N. (2017). Technology Adoption by Tourism Operators in Australia and Brazil: An Institutional Theory Perspective. ENTER 2017 Conference.  Rome Italy, January 24-26, 2017. http://ertr.tamu.edu/content/issues/enter-2017-volume-8-research-notes/

Ge, J. & Gretzel, U. (2018). A new cultural revolution: Chinese consumers’ internet and social media use. In Sigala, M. & Gretzel, U. (Eds.), Advances in Social Media for Travel, Tourism and Hospitality: New Perspectives, Practice and Cases , pp. 102-118. New York: Routledge.

Zarezadeh, Z. & Gretzel, U. (2020). Iranian Heritage Sites on Social Media. Tourism Analysis , 25 (2/3), 345-357.

Soares, A. L., Mendes-Filho, L. & Gretzel, U. (2021). Technology adoption in hotels: Applying institutional theory to tourism. Tourism Review , 76(3), 669-680.

Social Media as Information

Social media platforms and applications differ from other Internet technologies because of their emphasis on the creation, sharing and curation of consumer-generated media (CGM). My research has focused on understanding the characteristics of CGM (especially their perceived trustworthiness), the motivations and traits of their creators, and their role in travel information search and decision-making processes (Table 3). Most of this research has focused on online travel reviews. My papers on false reviews were the first in tourism to investigate the phenomenon and formed the basis for later efforts by others to inform automated false review detection.

The publication that most stands out in this section is Xiang and Gretzel (2010), because it was one of the first to define social media for the tourism context and draw attention to their increasing importance and impact in the travel domain by illustrating the extent to which social media were starting to dominate travel information search. My recent work related to this theme of social media as information looks at the impact of mobile technology on consumer-generated media creation, specifically that of online travel reviews (Mariani, Borghi & Gretzel, 2019).

Table 3. Social Media as Information.

CGM Creation

Yoo, K. H. & Gretzel, U. (2008). Understanding Differences Between Online Travel Review Writers and Non-Writers. In Hara, T. (Ed.), Proceedings of the 13th Annual Graduate Education and Student Research Conference in Hospitality and Tourism , Orlando, FL, January 3-5, 2008, pp. 21-29.

Yoo, K. H. & Gretzel, U. (2009). What Motivates Consumers to Write Online Travel Reviews? Journal of Information Technology & Tourism, Special Issue on Virtual Communities , 10(4), 283-296.

Yoo, K.-H. & Gretzel, U. (2011). Influence of Personality on Travel-Related Consumer Generated Media Creation. Computers in Human Behavior , 27(2), 609-621.

Yoo, K.H., & Gretzel, U. (2012). Use and Creation of Social Media by Travelers. In Sigala, M., Christou, E., & Gretzel, U. (Eds.), Social Media in Travel, Tourism and Hospitality (pp.189-206). Brookfield, VT: Ashgate.

Mariani, M. M., Borghi, M., & Gretzel, U. (2019). Online reviews: Differences by submission device. Tourism Management , 70, 295-298.

Role in Travel Information Search

Yoo, K. H. & Gretzel, U. (2008). Use and Impact of Online Travel Reviews. O’Connor, P., Höpken, W. & Gretzel, U. (Eds.). Information and Communication Technologies in Tourism 2008 , 35-46. Vienna, Austria: Springer.

Yoo, K. H., & Gretzel, U. (2008). The Influence of Involvement on Use and Impact of Online Travel Reviews. Hospitality Information Technology Association Conference , Austin, TX, June 15-16, 2008.

Gretzel, U. (2009). Das Online-Suchverhalten von Touristen. (in German). Zeitschrift für Tourismuswissenschaft, Special Issue on New Media, 2(1), 151-164.

Xiang, Z., & Gretzel, U. (2010). Role of Social Media in Online Travel Information Search. Tourism Management , 31 (2), 179-188.

Simms, A., & Gretzel, U. (2013). Planning a vacation using social media: Influences of demographic, psychographic, and trip-related characteristics. ENTER Conference 2013 . http://ertr.tamu.edu/ files/2013/03/enter2013_submission_15.pdf

Characteristics and Perceptions of CGM

Lee, W., & Gretzel, U. (2007). Impact of Sensory Information on Evaluations of Online Travel Reviews. In Hsu, C. and H. Tsai (Eds.), Proceedings of the 12th Annual Graduate Education and Graduate Student Research Conference in Hospitality and Tourism , Houston, TX, January 4-6, 2007, pp. 815-822.

Yoo, K.-H., & Gretzel, U. (2009). Generational Differences in CGM Perceptions and Use for Travel Planning. In J. Petrick (Ed.), 40th Annual Proceedings of the Travel and Tourism Research Association Conference . Honolulu, HI, June 21-24, 2009. Travel and Tourism Research Association.

Yoo, K. H., Lee, K. S., & Gretzel, U. (2007). The role of Source Characteristics in eWOM: What Makes Online Travel Reviewers Credible and Likeable? In M. Sigala, L. Mich, J. Murphy, and A. Frew (Eds.), Proceedings of the 14th International ENTER Conference in Ljubljana, Slovenia, January 24-26, 2007, pp. 23-34. UK, Axon Imprint.

Yoo, K.-H., & Gretzel, U. (2010). Antecedents and Impacts of Trust in Travel-Related Consumer Generated Media. Journal of Information Technology & Tourism , 12 (2), 139-152.

Yoo, K.-H., Lee, Y.-J., Gretzel, U., & D. R. Fesenmaier (2009). Trust in Travel-Related Consumer Generated Media. In W. Höpken, U. Gretzel & R. Law (Eds.), Information and Communication Technologies in Tourism 2009 , pp. 49-60. Vienna, Austria: Springer Verlag.

Maister, T. & Gretzel. U. (2018). What is Branded Content and is it Ethical? The Relevance Report 2019 . Los Angeles, CA: USC Annenberg Center for Public Relations.

Yoo, K.-H., & Gretzel, U. (2009). Comparison of Deceptive and Truthful Travel Reviews. In W. Höpken, U. Gretzel & R. Law (Eds.), Information and Communication Technologies in Tourism 2009 , pp. 37-48. Vienna, Austria: Springer Verlag.

Gretzel, U. (2022). Online Reviews. In Buhalis, D. (Ed.), Encyclopedia of Tourism Marketing and Management . Northampton, MA: Edward Elgar Publishing.

Yoo, K.-H., & Gretzel, U. (2009). Detection of Deceptive Hotel Reviews: Influences of Length and Type of Review. Proceedings of the 14th Annual Graduate Student Research Conference in Hospitality and Tourism . Las Vegas, January 4-6, 2009.

Social Media as Communication

As a tourism researcher with a PhD in Communications, looking at social media from a communication perspective is of great importance to me. Three distinct sub-streams of research belong to this theme: 1) social media as a language and rhetorical device; 2) marketing communications using social media; and, 3) communication flows mediated by travel opinion leaders and influencers (Table 4). I have adopted a linguistics lens to examine the peculiarities of social media language, such as emojis and hashtags. More recently, I have followed the visual turn in social media, with images and videos increasingly replacing text (Ge & Gretzel, 2019). In addition, I have looked at social media contents using rhetorical theory to understand argumentation and persuasion in social media contexts. Humor embedded in posts and memes plays a crucial role in grabbing the attention of social media users and eliciting engagement in the forms of likes, comments, or shares.

How to effectively market tourism services and destinations using social media is an issue with which many tourism marketers continue to struggle. Conceptualizing social media marketing communications as conversations and value co-creation opportunities that require unique approaches and extensive organizational commitment has been my focus in this research stream. Opinion leaders and influencers who translate the vast amount of available travel information into bite-sized, entertaining, and relevant contents for their loyal followers are increasingly mediating communication flows between marketers and consumers. I have been following this phenomenon for over a decade now, starting with key opinion leaders in China. Understanding the role of these influencers in destination marketing is a central theme in my current work (see Femenia-Serra & Gretzel, 2022).

Table 4. Social Media as Communication.

Linguistic and Rhetorical Perspectives

De Ascaniis, S. & Gretzel, U. (2012). What’s in a Travel Review? In Fuchs, M., Ricci, F., and Cantoni, L. (Eds.), Information and Communication Technologies in Tourism 2012 , pp. 494-505. Vienna, Austria: Springer.

Ge, J. & Gretzel, U. (2017). The Role of Humour in Driving Customer Engagement. In Schegg, R. & Stangl, B. (Eds.). Information and Communication Technologies in Tourism 2017 , pp. 461-474. Cham, Switzerland: Springer International.

De Ascaniis, S. & Gretzel, U. (2013). Communicative functions of Online Travel Review titles. A pragmatic and linguistic investigation of destination and attraction OTR titles. Studies in Communication Sciences , 13(2), 156-165.

Ge, J., Gretzel, U. & Zhu, Y. (2018). Humour in Firm-initiated Social Media Conversations – A Conceptual Model. International Journal of Digital Culture and Electronic Tourism , 2(4), 273-293.

Gretzel, U. (2015). #justsayin. Poem. CCT Conference, Fayetteville, Arkansas, June 18-21, 2015. Published in Sherry, J. F., Schouten, J., & Downey, H. (Eds.). Chicksaw Craft Threnody , p. 10. South Bend, Indiana: Aire Lyre Media.

Ge, J. & Gretzel, U. (2018). Impact of Humour on Firm-Initiated Social Media Conversations. Journal of Information Technology & Tourism , 18(1-4), 61-83.

Gretzel, U. (2017). The Visual Turn in Social Media Marketing. Tourismos , 12(3), 1-18.

Ge, J. & Gretzel, U. (2019). Social Media-based Visual Strategies in Tourism Marketing. International Journal of Semiotics and Visual Rhetoric , 2(2): 23-40.

Ge, J. & Gretzel, U. (2018). Emoji Rhetoric – A Social Media Influencer Perspective. Journal of Marketing Management , 34(15-16), 1272-1295.

Shao, J., Yi, S., Shen, Y., Gretzel, U. & Joppe, M. (2020). Research on the Influence of Emoji Communication on the Perception of Destination Image: The Case of Finland. In Paris, C. M. & Benjamin, S. (Eds.), Proceedings of the 2020 TTRA International Conference . June 16-18, 2020, Victoria, BC, Canada. Whitehall, MI: Travel and Tourism Research Association. https://scholarworks.umass.edu/ ttra/2020/research_papers/19/

Marketing Communication

Gretzel, U. (2006). Consumer-Generated Content – Trends and Implications for Branding. eReview of Tourism Research , 4 (3).

Yoo, K.-H., & Gretzel, U. (2010). Web 2.0: New Rules for Tourism Marketing, 41st Annual Proceedings of the Travel and Tourism Research Association Conference . San Antonio, TX, June 20-22, 2010. Travel and Tourism Research Association.

Shao, J., Davila, M.A., & Gretzel, U. (2012). Riding the Social Media Wave: Strategies of DMOs who successfully engage in social media marketing. In Sigala, M., Christou, E., & Gretzel, U. (Eds.), Social Media in Travel, Tourism and Hospitality (pp. 87-98). Brookfield, VT: Ashgate.

Gretzel, U. & Yoo, K. H. (2013). Premises and Promises of Social Media Marketing in Tourism. In McCabe, S. (Ed.), The Routledge Handbook of Tourism Marketing , pp. 491-504. New York: Routledge.

Buhalis, D., Mistilis, N., & Gretzel, U. (2014). Future eDestination Marketing: Perspective of an Australian Tourism Stakeholder Network. Journal of Travel Research , 53(6), 778-790.

Tischler, S. & Gretzel, U. (2017). Online-Marketing in Australien und Neuseeland. In Pforr, C. & Reiser, D. (Eds.), Tourismus in Australien und Neuseeland , pp. 79-94. Berlin: DeGruyter.

Ge, J. & Gretzel, U. (2018). A Taxonomy of Value Co-creation on Weibo – A Communication Perspective. International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management , 30(4), 2075-2092.

Gretzel, U. (2022). Online Reputation Management. In Buhalis, D. (Ed.), Encyclopedia of Tourism Marketing and Management . Northampton, MA: Edward Elgar Publishing.

Opinion Leadership and Influencers

Yoo, K.-H., Gretzel, U. & Zach, F. (2011). Travel Opinion Leaders and Seekers. In Law, R., Fuchs, M. and Ricci, F. (Eds.), Information and Communication Technologies in Tourism 201 1, pp. 525-536. Vienna, Austria: Springer Verlag.

Shao, J., & Gretzel, U. (2011). Social Media Created the Chinese Backpacker Star. In Frost, W., Croy, G., Laing, J., and Beeton, S. (Eds.), International Tourism and Media Conference , 28-29 November. La Trobe University and Monash University: Melbourne.

Hochmeister, M., Gretzel, U., & Werthner, H. (2013). Destination Expertise in Online Travel Communities. In Cantoni, L. & Xiang, Z. (Eds.), Information and Communication Technologies in Tourism 2013 , pp. 219-230. Berlin: Springer.

Shao, J. & Gretzel, U. (2014). Integrating Social Media Influencers into the Marketing Strategy of Chinese Travel Communities (Abstract). In Griffin, K. & Joppe, M. (Eds.). Proceedings of the ttra 2014 International Conference , Brugge, Belgium, June 18-20, 1079-1084.

Linton, H., Han, S. & Gretzel, U. (2017). TripAdvisor Super Contributors: Projecting Professionalism. Frontiers in Service Conference , June 22-25, 2017. New York.

Gretzel, U. (2018). Influencer marketing in travel and tourism. In Sigala, M. & Gretzel, U. (Eds.), Advances in Social Media for Travel, Tourism and Hospitality: New Perspectives, Practice and Cases , pp. 147-156. New York: Routledge.

Femenia-Serra, F. & Gretzel, U. (2020). Influencer Marketing for Tourism Destinations: Lessons from a Mature Destination. In Neidhardt, J. & Wörndl, W. (Eds.), Information and Communication Technologies in Tourism 2020 , pp. 65-78. Cham, Switzerland: Springer.

Femenia-Serra, F. & Gretzel, U. (2022). Destination Influencer Marketing. In Buhalis, D. (Ed.), Encyclopedia of Tourism Marketing and Management. Northampton, MA: Edward Elgar Publishing.

Social Media as a Form of Sociality

Social media get their name from their ability to connect people, and from the opportunities they provide for users to share content and socialize, i.e., discuss, debate, organize, show off, argue, and commune, online. The social aspects of social media are especially relevant for tourism as an activity that creates and fosters bonds and for which storytelling and information sharing have always been central aspects. In this context, I have looked at identity construction in online communities and among bloggers. Most of my research on online sociality has focused on the fans of TV shows that use social media to organize as a community that often engages in travel. Most recently, I have become interested in the #vanlife community as a neo-tribe with a very strong emphasis on social-media sharing (Gretzel & Hardy, 2019). My research on social media-facilitated sociality has also looked at the relationship between travelers and tourism providers/destinations. It has found that it is a rather complicated one that requires careful management because it is often short-lived and derives from a complex mix of functional and emotional needs. Table 5 provides specific references for the two sub-topics within this lens.

Table 5. Social Media as a Form of Sociality.

Identity Construction, Cyberfandom & Neo-tribes

Scarpino, M., & Gretzel, U. (2008). Cyberfandom: Understanding the new generation of media-induced travelers. In Croy, G., Beeton, S. & Frost W. (Eds.). Proceedings of the International Tourism and Media Conference . Melbourne, Australia: LaTrobe University & Monash University.

Lee, Y., & Gretzel, U. (2014). Cross-cultural Differences in Social Identity Formation through Travel Blogging. Journal of Travel and Tourism Marketing , 31(1), 37-54.

Shao, J., & Gretzel, U. (2009). Online Responses to a Chinese popular TV Series: Implications for Film-Induced tourism. In L. Lowry (Ed.), Proceedings of the 2009 Annual International Society of Travel and Tourism Educators (ISTTE) Conferenc e, October 15-17, 2009 in San Antonio, TX (Vol 21, pp.224-235). St. Clair Shores, MI: ISTTE.

Dinhopl, A., Gretzel, U. & Whelan, A. (2015). Labeling as a Social Practice in Online Consumption Communities. Special Issue on Online Consumption Communities. Psychology & Marketing , 32(3), 240-249.

Lee, Y.-J., Yoo, K.-H., & Gretzel, U. (2009). Social Identity Formation Through Blogging: Comparison of U.S. and Korean Travel Blogs. Proceedings of the 14th Annual Graduate Student Research Conference in Hospitality and Tourism . Las Vegas, January 4-6, 2009.

Shao, J. & Gretzel, U. (2018). Power of Dramas: A Comparison of Voluntourism between Chinese and American Film Tourists. In Kim, S., & Reijnders, S. (Eds.), Film Tourism in Asia , pp. 187-201. Singapore: Springer Nature.

Shao, J., Scarpino, M., Lee, Y., & Gretzel, U. (2012). Media-Induced Voluntourism in Yunnan, China. Tourism Review International , 15(3), 277-292.

Gretzel, U. & Hardy, A. (2019). #VanLife: Materiality, Makeovers and Mobility amongst Digital Nomads. e-Review of Tourism Research , 16(2/3): 1-9.

Relationship with tourism businesses and destinations

Gretzel, U. & Fesenmaier, D. R. (2012). Customer Relations 2.0 – Implications for Destination Marketing. TTRA Annual International Conference , June 17-19, 2012. Virginia Beach, VA. http://scholarworks.umass.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1755&context=ttra

Gretzel, U. & Dinhopl, A. (2014). Breaking Up is Hard to Do: Why Do Travellers Unlike Travel-Related Organizations? In Xiang, Z. & Tussyadiah, I. (Eds.), Information and Communication Technologies in Tourism 2014 , pp.267-280. Berlin: Springer.

Social Media as Experience

Social media can also be viewed from a phenomenological perspective, as an increasingly central part of human experience in everyday life and during travel. Social media impact tourism experiences and create new forms of touristic experiences. Through this lens, I have explored how social media influence the tourist gaze, how they shape experiences before, during and after the trip, and how they change tourism in specific contexts, such as city tourism and adventure travel (Table 6). In relation to the tourist gaze, I have been interested in selfies as a particularly prominent way in which social media impact on touristic practices. In Dinhopl and Gretzel (2018), we show that social media audiences are internalized and guide every detail of the experience, from planning to post-trip social media sharing. My other work has also shown that these impacts span all phases of the experience, from the dreaming phase to trip satisfaction (Sedera et al., 2017) and post-trip memory work.

Table 6. Social Media as Experience.

Social Media-Enabled Tourist Gaze

Gretzel, U. (2010). Travel in the Network: Redirected Gazes, Ubiquitous Connections and New Frontiers. In Levina, M. & Kien, G. (Eds.). Post-global Network and Everyday Life , pp. 41-58. New York: Peter Lang.

Dinhopl, A. & Gretzel, U. (2016). Selfie-taking as touristic looking. Annals of Tourism Research. 57, 126-139.

Dinhopl, A. & Gretzel, U. (2015). Consumer Soiveillance: Observations of the Self by means of New Media Technologies. In Diehl, K. & Yoon, C. (Eds.), Proceedings of the Association of Consumer Research North American Conference, Special session on iMirror/iMirror: Digital Reflections of Self-Consumption . New Orleans, LA, October 1-4, 2015, p. 134.

Kozinets, R., Gretzel, U. & Dinhopl, A. (2017). Self in Art/Self as Art: Museum Selfies as Identity Work. Frontiers in Psychology , 8:731.

Dinhopl, A. & Gretzel, U. (2016). GoPro panopticon: Performing in the surveyed leisure experience, in S. Carnicelli, D. McGillivray, & G. McPherson (Eds.). Digital Leisure Cultures: Critical Perspectives , pp. 66-79. Routledge: London.

Dinhopl, A. & Gretzel, U. (2018). The networked neo-tribal gaze. In Hardy, A., Bennett, A. & Robards, B. (Eds.). Neo-Tribes: Consumption, Leisure and Tourism , pp. 221-234. Cham, Switzerland: Palgrave-Macmillan.

Impact on Experiences Beyond the Trip

Gretzel, U., Fesenmaier, D. R., Lee, Y.-J., & Tussyadiah, I. (2011). Narrating Travel Experiences: The Role of New Media. In R. Sharpley & P. Stone (Eds.), Tourist Experiences: Contemporary Perspectives , pp. 171-182. New York: Routledge.

Sedera, D., Lokuge, S., Atapattu, M., & Gretzel, U. (2017). Likes – the key to my happiness: The moderating effect of social influence on travel experience. Information and Management , 54(6), 825-836.

Gretzel, U. (2021). Dreaming about Travel: A Pinterest Netnography. In Wörndl, W., Koo, C. & Stienmetz, J. (Eds.) Information and Communication Technologies in Tourism 2021 , pp.256-268. Cham, Switzerland: Springer.

Specific Experiences

Gretzel, U. (2015). The role of technology-mediation in the context of adventure travel. In Black, R. & Bricker, K. (Eds.), Adventure Programming and Travel for the 21st Century , pp. 451-455. State College, PA: Venture Publishing.

Gretzel, U. (2019). Social Media and the City: Mediated Gazes and Digital Traces. In Šegota, T., Sigala, M., Gretzel, U., Day, J., Kokkranikal, J., Smith, M., Henderson, J. C., Seabra, C., Pearce, P., Davidson, R., Van Zyl, C., Newsome, D., Hardcastle, J., Rakić, T., Future Agendas in Urban Tourism Research: Special Editorial, International Journal of Tourism Cities , 5(2), 109-124. DOI: 10.1108/IJTC-12-2018-0095.

Gretzel, U. (2020). The growing role of social media in city tourism. In Morrison, A. M. & Coca-Stefaniak, J. A. (Eds.). Routledge Handbook of Tourism Cities , pp. 389-399. New York: Routledge.

Social Media as Data

Social media activities lead to digital traces that, when collected for research purposes, become data. This data fuels the algorithms of social media platforms but can also (at least to some extent) be extracted and interpreted to derive research insights and marketing intelligence. While I have used many different kinds of approaches to analyzing social media data, netnography has become my method of choice because it allows me to keep contextual information intact and to derive rich and meaningful insights. Table 7 lists some of my netnography work in tourism that was not included in any of the previous tables.

Doing research on social media and research with social media has sensitized me to specific data quality issues, which are starting to receive attention in the tourism literature (Xiang et al., 2018). For instance, numerical ratings in online travel reviews do not necessarily correspond with the sentiment expressed in the review text (Jiang, Gretzel & Law, 2010). And established approaches like semiotics, which has gained in importance as social media data have become more visual, need to be adjusted to fit the social media context and need to address the ethical considerations necessary for social media research (Ge & Gretzel, 2022).

Table 7. Social Media as Data.

Netnography

Gretzel, U. (2017). #travelselfie: a netnographic study of travel identity communicated via Instagram. In Carson, S. & Pennings, M. (Eds.), Performing Cultural Tourism: Communities, Tourists and Creative Practices, pp. 115-128. New York: Routledge.

Kennedy-Eden, H. & Gretzel, U. (2021). My Heritage in my Pocket: Mobile Device and App Use by Genealogy Tourists. Journal of Information Technology & Tourism , forthcoming.

Gretzel, U. & Murphy, J. (2019). Making Sense of Robots – Consumer Discourse on Robots in Tourism and Hospitality Service Settings. In Ivanov, S. & Webster, C. (Eds.). Robots, Artificial Intelligence and Service Automation in Travel, Tourism and Hospitality, pp. 93-104. Bingley, UK: Emerald Publishing.

Kozinets, R.V. & Gretzel, U. (2022). Netnography. In Buhalis, D. (Ed.), Encyclopedia of Tourism Marketing and Management . Northampton, MA: Edward Elgar Publishing.

Rastegar, R., Zarezadeh., Z. & Gretzel, U. (2021). World Heritage and Social Justice: Insights from the Inscription of Yazd, Iran. Journal of Sustainable Tourism , 29(2/3), 520-539.

Social Media Data & Analysis

Jiang, J., Gretzel, U., & Law, R. (2010). Do Negative Experiences Always Lead to Dissatisfaction? – Testing Attribution Theory in the Context of Online Travel Reviews. In Gretzel, U., Law, R. and M. Fuchs (Eds.), Information and Communication Technologies in Tourism 201 0, pp. 297-308. Vienna, Austria: Springer Verlag.

Ge, J., Alonso Vazquez, M. & Gretzel, U. (2018). Sentiment analysis: a review. In Sigala, M. & Gretzel, U. (Eds.), Advances in Social Media for Travel, Tourism and Hospitality: New Perspectives, Practice and Cases , pp. 243-261. New York: Routledge.

Ge, J. & Gretzel, U. (2022). Social Media Semiotics. In Buhalis, D. (Ed.), Encyclopedia of Tourism Marketing and Management . Northampton, MA: Edward Elgar Publishing.

Marketing Intelligence

Gretzel, U., Lee, W. & K.S. Lee (2006). Listening to the Stories Consumers Tell. Proceedings of the Korea e-Tourism Forum . Seoul, Korea, September 8-9, 2006.

Jiang, J., Gretzel, U. & Law, R. (2014). Influence of Star Rating and Ownership Structure on Brand Image of Mainland China Hotels. Journal of China Tourism Research , 10(1), 69-94.

The Future of Social Media Research

Reflecting on my social media-related research journey fills me with gratitude to all my wonderful collaborators and co-authors. Very often it was them who charted the paths forward and it was their passion that inspired me. Thinking about the different themes that I have explored with them also makes me feel antsy because it is pretty clear that there is so much more that warrants investigation. Given the dynamic nature of social media, I realize that many themes remain underexplored and that many of the topics should be re-investigated as social media technologies and use cultures continue to evolve. Thus, while it is nice to summarize my research in this area and emphasize my contributions, I see the greatest value of this exercise in providing a research framework that illustrates different ways of understanding social media and, thus, can help with identifying research priorities and gaps.

I often get asked about the future of particular platforms or types of CGM. My answer is always that social media will continue to take on new forms and will transform our lives in ways that we cannot yet anticipate. But I also add that one thing is for certain: they are here to stay and will continue to shape tourism in wonderful as well as disruptive ways. Thus, there will be no shortage of social media-related research topics in the future.

Written by Ulrike Gretzel, University of Southern California, USA Read Ulrike’s letter to future generations of tourism researchers

Dinhopl, A. & Gretzel, U. (2016). Conceptualizing tourist videography. Information Technology & Tourism , 15(4), 395-410.

Femenia-Serra, F. & Gretzel, U. (2022). Destination Influencer Marketing. In Buhalis, D. (Ed.), Encyclopedia of Tourism Marketing and Management . Northampton, MA: Edward Elgar Publishing.

Finkel, E. J., Eastwick, P. W., Karney, B. R., Reis, H. T., & Sprecher, S. (2012). Online dating: A critical analysis from the perspective of psychological science. Psychological Science in the Public Interest , 13(1), 3-66.

Gretzel, U., Lee, W. & Lee, K.S. (2006). Listening to the Stories Consumers Tell. Korea e-Tourism Forum . Seoul, Korea, September 8-9, 2006.

Gretzel, U., Yoo, K. H. & M. Purifoy (2007). Online Travel Reviews Study . Technical Report. College Station, TX: Laboratory for Intelligent Systems in Tourism. Accessed online at (August 1, 2021): https://www.tripadvisor.com/pdfs/OnlineTravelReviewReport.pdf .

Isacsson, A. & Gretzel, U. (2011). Facebook as an edutainment medium to engage students in sustainability and tourism. Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Technology , 2(1), 81-90.

Jiang, J., Gretzel, U., & Law, R. (2010). Do Negative Experiences Always Lead to Dissatisfaction? – Testing Attribution Theory in the Context of Online Travel Reviews. In Gretzel, U., Law, R. and M. Fuchs (Eds.), Information and Communication Technologies in Tourism 2010 , pp. 297-308. Vienna, Austria: Springer Verlag.

Kozinets, R. V. (2020). Netnography: The essential guide to qualitative social media research . London: Sage.

Kozinets, R., Patterson, A., & Ashman, R. (2017). Networks of desire: How technology increases our passion to consume. Journal of Consumer Research , 43(5), 659-682.

Pratt, S., & Tolkach, D. (2020). Stupidity in tourism. Tourism Recreation Research , https://doi.org/10.1080/02508281.2020.1828555 .

Vargo, S. L., Maglio, P. P., & Akaka, M. A. (2008). On value and value co-creation: A service systems and service logic perspective. European Management Journal , 26(3), 145-152.

Xiang, Z., Du, Q., Ma, Y., & Fan, W. (2018). Assessing reliability of social media data: lessons from mining TripAdvisor hotel reviews. Information Technology & Tourism , 18(1), 43-59.

Xiang, Z. & Gretzel, U. (2010). Role of Social Media in Online Travel Information Search. Tourism Management , 31 (2), 179-188.

Zhou, L., Zhang, P., & Zimmermann, H. D. (2013). Social commerce research: An integrated view. Electronic commerce research and applications , 12(2), 61-68.

Women’s voices in tourism research Copyright © 2021 by The University of Queensland is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License , except where otherwise noted.

Share This Book

Positive and negative effects of Social Media on the Tourism industry

Social media tourism statistics

Importance of social media in the tourism industry, impact of social media on tourism, impact of social media influencers on tourism, negative effects of social media on the tourism industry, advances in social media for travel, tourism, and hospitality, examples of tourism social media campaigns.

The social media phenomenon has this incredible power to impact various industries . The tourism industry seems to be very susceptible to the effects of social media platforms . To what extent, though?

The travel industry is among the early adopters of new technologies and solutions . Social media networks enabled the sector to improve various processes and deliver better experiences to travelers worldwide.

Let’s see the most crucial social media tourism statistics , followed by the effects of social media on tourism , and some of the most noteworthy examples of social media use in the sector .

The relationship between social media platforms and the travel industry is best understood through relevant stats. Here are the most interesting social media tourism statistics. 

When it comes to travelers and social networks, it’s surprising to discover that almost 85% of millennials use someone else’s social posts when planning their vacations . Around 43% of them won’t go on a vacation if they can’t be sure that their followers can see their vacation posts , while 34% book a hotel because they saw it via user-generated content. 

People from all corners of the world keep using social media channels to talk about their travels. In fact, 74% of people who travel use social media while on vacation . During 2019, social media users kept generating a travel-related hashtag search volume of 1 million every week . 

According to recent research, social media became a vital part of tourism companies’ strategic operations during the pandemic, and consumption increased by 72% .  

Social media tourism statistics also reveal some interesting shifts in tourism marketing strategies pursued by travel agencies, hotels, travel agents, and OTAs. 

The travel industry continues to be the most engaging industry on Instagram, with an average engagement rate of 1.41% . The engagement rates on Twitter are 0.04%, TikTok 8.74%, and Facebook 0.27%. The spike in TikTok travel industry posts engagement indicates that this social media channel can provide very lucrative opportunities to the travel sector in the future. 

Representatives of tourism businesses use various marketing channels in their mix. However, the International Tourist Research Centers found out that 88% of tourism businesses actively use social media to promote destinations and offers and understand the attitudes of consumers. 

Paid ads continue to be the favorite social media marketing strategy for travel marketers, and the most attractive platform is Facebook . According to recent research, almost 80% of travel marketers use Facebook to launch paid ad campaigns to achieve a range of goals, from increasing awareness to boosting booking rates. 

With the above stats in mind, it’s pretty clear that social media is quite an important asset for the tourism sector. 

When it comes to the importance of social media in the tourism industry, we first have to acknowledge the opportunities social media platforms deliver to hotels, travel agents, agencies, and OTAs. The power of social media lies in the sheer number of people who use it daily:

• Facebook has 2.93 billion monthly active users ;
• Instagram has 1 billion monthly active users ;
• Twitter has 290.5 million monthly active users ;
• TikTok has 1 billion monthly active users .

Any business or individual involved in the tourism sector can create and use these social media platforms for free. They can create official profiles and use them to provide relevant information, answer users’ questions, or engage with users to create a large following. No wonder many marketers use social media to help hotels and travel agents increase visibility. 

More importantly, social media platforms offer paid marketing opportunities . They have access to a ridiculous amount of information on their users. It’s important because it enables travel marketers to launch comprehensive marketing strategies. The platforms have advanced targeting options allowing marketers to target very specific demographics.

Another important factor is engagement and interaction. Social media platforms are also communication channels. They also support the integration of AI and chatbots that travel companies can use to answer important questions or enable online booking. 

Finally, travel companies can use social media with social media analytics software . It can help them make sense of the data, measure KPIs such as engagement and click-through rate, and gauge followers’ sentiment.

Leverage Mize Tech for Better Engagement

Drive growth with innovative solutions. Discover how Mize Tech can elevate DMCs.

Social media’s impact on tourism is huge . The best way to understand is to discover what people do before going on a trip. Social media helped create this environment where people are invited to research a tourist destination and share personal photos and videos. In other words, social media has completely changed the way people make travel decisions.

In fact, according to GlobalData, 30% of Gen Z and 32% of millennials see a direct engagement with a brand as the most important purchasing decision factor . The same report indicates that social media has also changed the best customer services paradigm. Travel companies now use social media channels to enhance customer service and offer availability 24/7/365.

Social media has also enabled travelers to do comprehensive research on destinations. An average traveler has 400 digital moments on average before making the booking decision, and almost 90% of those experiences are mobile experiences. 

One of the studies reveals that 27% of travelers make the initial decision to travel to a specific destination thanks to Facebook posts. 

Social media didn’t only transform how travel and hospitality companies market their offer but also how they interact with customers to facilitate direct bookings. A recent survey by GuestCentric discovered that 49% of hoteliers see social media as the second most important marketing and sales priority. We are talking about a 4.5% increase over one year.

Finally, we have reviews via social media. Travelers are four times more likely to choose a hotel with reviews higher than other hotels at the same price point. 76% of travelers are willing to spend more when booking a hotel if most reviews are positive and the score is high. 

More importantly, properties that responded to over 50% of the reviews posted via social media were able to boost occupancy rates by a staggering 6.4% . 

Influencer marketing is one of the most effective digital marketing strategies. Influencers have become important for the tourism sector. However, they are still not as important as organic social media reviews and posts.

Authentic photos and videos have more value to travelers than paid and staged visuals influencers create and share. Almost 40% of people report that influencer photos and videos don’t impact their decisions when choosing a hotel or resort. 

However, one of the recent studies suggests that this might change in the foreseeable future as social media influencers have the potential to impact all stages of the travelers’ decision-making process, including:

• Information search;
• Evaluating alternatives;
• Purchase decisions;
• Satisfaction;
• Experience sharing.

It partially applies to a tourism business interested in attracting young travelers. It appears that young travelers positively respond to social media influencers, specifically Instagram influencers . Influencers have the power to affect their followers’ intention to visit the places featured in their content.

At the same time, it’s equally important to consider how tourism positively impact and benefits local communities . Explore the synergy between tourism and community development in our focused piece, where we uncover the myriad ways tourism can be a force for local empowerment.

Beyond the significant impact of social media influencers on tourism, there’s a critical need for tourism businesses to craft travel experiences that remain etched in customers’ memories. Uncover effective strategies and practical tips to achieve this by delving into our comprehensive guide about customer journeys in the travel and tourism sector.

Social media doesn’t only have positive effects on the tourism industry. It also has the potential to negatively affect it. One of the biggest concerns for tourism brands is maintaining the brand image. However, as one comparative study finds out , negative interactions on the official social media posting can potentially hurt a travel brand’s image.

The problem with social media is that negative comments don’t only spread among the followers. Potential customers can see these comments and start to second-guess their decisions to travel with the company or book through it.

Finally, as we’ve all seen in the past, social media can negatively affect the tourism industry in one geographical location. The event that comes to mind is the Maldives tourist authority’s Twitter campaign idea . Instead of promoting the tourism industry, the campaign backfired, and the entire sector in the Maldives suffered.

The tourism and hospitality sectors didn’t become interested in leveraging social media only because of billions of people using it. It goes beyond destination marketing via paid ads and influencers. Over the last decade, there have been some significant advances in social media that benefit the entire travel industry.

Take Facebook, for instance. The platform has released a Marketing API , which travel companies can use to streamline advertising on Facebook. Additionally, companies can use Conversions API to enrich their internal marketing data with Facebook’s data. It helps them optimize ad targeting, run a cost-efficient operation, and achieve specific goals.

The advances helped make the Facebook ad platform one of the most comprehensive paid ads platforms online.

When it comes to promoting destinations to reflect modern travelers’ expectations, Instagram hit the sweet spot with the 2020 Reels update . Instagram users, including influencers, can create stunning 15-second videos to highlight some destinations, activities, or services. 

The best way to understand the power of social media is to look at some campaigns and the extent of their success.

#ArtsinLB – destination social media marketing

Long Beach arts and culture are among the main tourist attractions in this location. However, the city of Los Angeles managed to take center stage. To bring culture and arts back into the spotlight, Long Beach CVB decided to use social media influencers for every major social channel, including Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube. 

The results were outstanding. The #ArtsinLB generated almost 2,000 unique posts, and the posts generated 38 million impressions . 

Visit Wiltshire – driving social engagement through the roof

Visit Wiltshire is a renowned tourism development organization. After receiving funding from the Discover England Fund, the organization decided to use a multi-channel marketing approach with social media as its central piece. 

The organization was mainly focused on building a social following on Facebook, creating content with engagement in mind.

The campaign lasted for six weeks, and the results were that audience reach increased by 125%, and social engagement actions increased by 156% . 

Discover Your South Africa – increase the number of visitors and considerations

South African Tourism is one of the leading organizations in Africa’s travel sector. The organization wanted to increase the number of visitors from Ireland and the UK. Social media platforms appeared to provide the best opportunities to promote destinations in South Africa to this specific demographic . 

They created a sharable interactive quiz featuring Instagram-like square images. The campaign turned out to be a huge success – it reached 1.5 million UK and Irish users, and the bookings increased by 57% .

Beekman Tower – increasing click-through rates

Beekman Tower is a renowned Manhattan hotel and one of the top tourist attractions in this borough of New York City. The hotel wanted to keep attracting the valued guests while staying true to the modern-classic experience it offers. They decided to go for social media because the hotel market in this area is fast-paced, and competition is harsh. 

The social media campaign targeted Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. After social listening and analysis, they created content that perfectly resonates with their target audience. Every post generated 3,000 impressions on average, but more importantly, posts generated 1,500 clicks on average . 

At this point, the ties between social media and the tourism industry have become inseparable. The impact of social media on tourism and hospitality is immense. Today we have tourism businesses of all sizes leveraging social media to increase awareness, engage with potential guests, and improve bookings. 

Given the current situation, it’s safe to assume that we will continue to see travel companies using social media to establish a better position in their target market. 

Subscribe to our newsletter

Yay you are now subscribed to our newsletter.

Marc Truyols has a degree in Tourism from the University of the Balearic Islands. Marc has extensive experience in the leisure, travel and tourism industry. His skills in negotiation, hotel management, customer service, sales and hotel management make him a strong business development professional in the travel industry.

Mize is the leading hotel booking optimization solution in the world. With over 170 partners using our fintech products, Mize creates new extra profit for the hotel booking industry using its fully automated proprietary technology and has generated hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue across its suite of products for its partners. Mize was founded in 2016 with its headquarters in Tel Aviv and offices worldwide.

Related Posts

Opening Up to New Markets While Maintaining the Brand 

8 min. Case study of adapting the Mize brand for the East Asia market Making a cultural adjustment  – finding the balance between global and local  The process of growing globally can be very exciting and, at the same time, challenging. Although you are bringing more or less the same products and vision, the way […]

Travel Niche: What It Is, How to Leverage It, Case Studies & More

14 min. Niche travel is one of the few travel sectors that have maintained their pre-COVID market growth. By catering to specific traveler segments, niche travel developed products around adventure travel, eco-tourism, LGBTQ+ travel, and wellness retreats. Take adventure tourism as only one segment of the niche tourism market.  In 2021, it reached 288 billion […]

4 Lessons You Can Learn From the Best Tourism Campaigns

13 min. Businesses in the tourism industry rely heavily on marketing to generate leads and boost conversion rates. Tourism marketing is as old as tourism itself – and it always reflects the destination and service benefits relevant to the current travelers’ needs, wants, and expectations. In other words, tourism campaigns must constantly move forward, and […]

Digital Travel Summit APAC 2024

August 14 - 15, 2024

Equarius Hotel, Sentosa, Singapore

The Role of Social Media in Tourism Marketing

Social media has changed every single aspect of our lives, including the way we consume. These developments have significantly affected businesses mainly through enabling new marketing strategies. Tourism, being one of the most vibrant sectors of the global economy, is undoubtedly a part of all these...

What’s the Social Media Impact on Tourism?

By Erick Tomaliwan

Share this article:

• Facebook icon
• LinkedIn icon
• Twitter icon

Ever driven up to a house and gotten the sense that the owners couldn’t care less about keeping it presentable? 

When it comes to tourism, social media can be considered the virtual equivalent of your front yard. If you haven’t cut the lawn in a year and have left a bunch of garbage out front, you’re not exactly going to entice guests to come in for tea. 

In how you care about your business and aim for it to be welcoming to guests, people’s initial interaction with your social media channels will determine whether to explore further. Welcome potential customers into your tourism business with a solid first impression. 

When’s the last time someone asked for your business card? Phone number? Now, how about your Instagram handle? 

The travel industry’s presence on mobile has exploded compared to where it was even a few years ago. Social media is paving the way for people from different corners of the world to plan their trips and share their experiences abroad. 

Regardless of where you are in the world, social media has an impact on tourism, which is why you should include it in your digital marketing strategy.

The importance of social media in the tourism industry

Social media channels are tools designed to help you own your brand and share interesting information about your company. Social media marketing for tour companies has drastically altered the landscape, offering sneak peeks to different corners of the world while inspiring people to travel. 

More people are using platforms like Facebook, Instagram and Youtube as search engines to decide where and when to venture to next. Geographic and trending hashtags on Instagram make it easy for social media users to hone in on what they’re looking for.

Using these wisely will encourage and make it easy for people to find your company within seconds. From there, it’s a matter of sharing content they will be intrigued by to keep users engaged. 

Despite the restrictions that vary between countries, guests are planning trips in 2021 even before international travel is widely available again. This speaks to the importance of activity providers and tour operators maintaining an active presence on social platforms. 

Signalling that you’re open for business, you care about your customers and you’re welcome to guests is all made easier with an active presence on social media. Choose to be intentional about how you invest time online, taking 20 minutes a day to check in, respond to comments and share helpful insight within your industry. With more travelers looking to align booking choices with their values, social media gives you the opportunity to identify what matters to you.

As an expert in the tourism industry, your story is yours to tell. With social media, you’re able to connect with your audience faster and more direct than ever. Be intentional about finding out what they’re searching for and make it your purpose to post visually stimulating content with helpful information. In doing so, you’ll give followers a sense of the type of experience you set out to provide. 

Consider the booking journey  

Social media can influence decision-making throughout the trip planning process. Traveling is exciting and there are so many unknowns when guests first start evaluating their options! Focus on creating ways to answer questions and plant ideas as people are just starting to consider their options.

People are drawn in by beautiful photos. By using captivating, real-life images paired with personality-infused captions, you’ll intruigue your audience. Consider addressing common questions and sharing helpful tips as part of creating a happy guest experience.

Post a ‘top 5 tips’ list along with a photo showing off what the view is like once a guest arrives on site. Structure your social media posting schedule to be consistent so that you maintain a regular connection with your followers.

Here are some points along the booking journey to engage with your followers on social media:

Maybe your followers are getting lost in their browser dashboard photo or googling ‘tropical vacations’. Meet them where they are at with some wanderlust-inducing visuals that allow them to transport themselves there emotionally.

If there are secretive locations or activities only those ‘in the know’ get to enjoy, tease what makes them worth exploring. Your efforts on social media should highlight what makes you stand out from the rest.

Known favourably as keeping 17-tabs open ‘just in case’, the planning phase of the booking journey is all about ideas. It’s easy for people to research travel ideas using location and activity-specific hashtags on social media.

You can use social media to offer tips and ideas to inspire and help to streamline their trip planning. Consider sharing sneak peeks of tours-in-action, cozy-looking accommodations and remarkable sights to set the wheels in motion for people exploring your business.

Why not give them a reason to keep coming back to your social media channel for trip-planning inspiration? 

This is where the commitment happens as a result of having easy accessibility to the ‘book now’ button. As a tour operator, your goal needs to be to make the booking process streamlined, answering questions along the way.

Once a guest decides to book, your role is to guide them through the process, reducing friction as much as possible. Ensure key information is clearly communicated and the necessary intel is right there.

Make pricing buttons easy to find and let them know if they can book directly within the social media channel or provide a re-direct right to your website.  

Experiencing

This segment of the booking journey is the real deal. The goal should be to design an enjoyable booking experience from beginning to end. Experience comes down to every single interaction a guest has with your brand.

Imagine being halfway across the world, attempting to book a kayaking tour without knowing where the best spots are to explore. Put yourself in the guest’s position and see what kind of questions come to mind. Then, build your posts with the customer experience front of mind.

You may have a way of eloquently describing the activities you offer on your website, but does this match how your audience searches for the tours, activities, or information you offer? Tease new activities, adventures and tours on your social feed with the intent of igniting an emotional response for your viewer.

Be sure to address questions like: 

• Is your business kid-friendly? 
• Can I bring my dog? 
• How long can I expect to be on tour?
• Where are the nearest facilities?
• What are your COVID-19 safety protocols?
• When are tours/activities available?
• What should I bring to this experience?

This leg of the customer experience takes place before, during and after a guest interacts with your travel business. It might look like publishing a short video of the fun move your guide showed them they could do while on a zipline or a photo of a camouflaged creature in the back 40 while on a mountaineering trek.

A critical element of sharing on social media is making use of feedback you receive. People widely use social media to highlight firsthand accounts of interactions with brands – both the good and the bad.

Plus, positive reviews can inspire future customers to book with you, especially if they happen to be considering booking with a competitor. Your goal is to foster an atmosphere of trust that you can be relied upon to meet, and more importantly, exceed their expectations. 

The role of social media in tourism marketing

Social Media is the virtual equivalent of sitting around a campfire and sharing stories – acting as a hub for sharing photos, meant to inspire others to experience the same thing for themselves.

As a snapshot or highlight reel of best moments, social media is a powerful marketing tool for tour and activity operators. A well-curated social channel can take care of your advertising needs, customer service and engagement strategy.

As a tour operator, time and energy are in limited supply. Focus on what you feel is key for your ideal guest and what information will be most helpful. ou can share firsthand recommendations of fun things to do, ways to explore and tours to participate in, along with your personal experiences as an authority in the tourism industry.

When thinking of what to post on social media as a tourism company, try infusing personality and practicality in your content. For instance, if you are returning from a guiding weekend, Facebook can act like a travel journal complete with personal accounts, photos and videos meant to draw a viewer into your offering. 

Sharing reviews online helps curious followers to perceive your company as trustworthy. Ensure your posts are engaging and offer value, making sure to include guests in the conversation. 

Travelers are more likely to book an experience or location after reading through reviews. Leverage social sharing to highlight what you do well and point out what makes you worth booking with. 

Social media marketing tips

• Share photos from a first-person perspective
• Showcase views of mountain vistas or sitting in a kayak
• Give a glimpse of the sounds (or lack thereof) while enjoying stargazing at your resort
• Demo food + even DIY recipes offered by your resort
• Opportunities to include your pet in outdoorsy adventures 

Sharing travel inspiration on social media is one of the visual platform’s strongest selling features. You can get really granular with what you offer and use the power of storytelling to compel your audience. Promoting a helpful, enjoyable and positive experience will give followers a reason to stop scrolling and discover about what you have to share. 

Keeping your sanity with social media 

If you know you cannot dedicate, or just don’t want to allocate time to managing another social feed pick a handful of feeds to focus on. It’s a good idea to claim your business name on social media, with a redirect to where you are most active on social feeds. 

As an experience provider, you know how important quality images are. Try planning out your content schedule in advance. Batch the process by making it a weekly task on a regular posting schedule as part of your marketing strategy. It’s more about consistency than publishing for the sake of posting. 

Realistically, if you’re focused on managing the daily tasks of running a business, perhaps posting every day is a stretch. Instead, try aiming to post 3 times a week, during times when your followers are likely to be online. 

Start exploring insights in the social media platforms you may already have active accounts with, including Instagram and Facebook, along with your website. You may notice your followers find value in specific content including sample itineraries or reviews from previous guests. 

Social media users appreciate hearing about real-life customer experiences. So, focus on connecting with your followers in the way you would interact with a guest in real life.

Final thoughts

Social media absolutely plays a role in the tourism industry whether you offer experiences, lodging or tours. Make social platforms work for you by honing in on the kind of guests you want to attract and what they are looking for as they plan their next adventure. 

Create visually engaging content that’s inspiring and relevant to your followers. Social media’s impact on tourism connects the dots for travelers longing to experience something new and exciting. Curating an active social media presence will have a positive impact on your tourism business, especially if you focus on sharing content that is both emotionally and visually appealing.

If you’re looking for creative ways to optimize your business, integrate social media in a way that helps you focus on continuing to create amazing opportunities for people to discover and rave about your tourism business.

Want more social media marketing tips right in your inbox?

Subscribe to the Checkfront Newsletter

Read new tips on how to get more bookings every month.

Related Articles

How to write ATV tour descriptions that drive bookings (with examples) 

Learn how to write ATV rental descriptions with SEO-ready language that help you sell more bookings

• Marketing Strategies

Easy & effective pricing tactics for activity and rental operators

Ever wondered why at the movie theatre you’re likely to opt for a Large Popcorn instead of a Small or…

Search Blog

Subscribe to our newsletter.

Get tips and strategies to grow your business and impress your guests.

Blog Categories

• Booking Management
• Business Tips
• Guest Experience
• Operator Highlights

5 Powerful Ways Social Media Tourism Marketing Will Boost Your Business

by straightupwebsites | Mar 25, 2022 | Uncategorized | 0 comments

The impact of social media tourism in the travel industry is profound .

It allows businesses like yours to connect with potential customers in ways that have never before been possible . 

It also allows customers to communicate with each other, and learning how to tap into these networks is vital!

Social Media Tourism can Work for You!

It creates a community of travellers who can share their experiences and help each other plan trips. 

That’s great news for your travel business if you know how to take advantage of it!

At Straight Up Website, we’re all about empowering your travel business. So, in this article, I’ll explore the power of social media tourism and its crucial role in your marketing strategy.

Social Media has a Powerful Impact on Tourism Marketing

Social media and tourism provide a unique opportunity for marketers to connect with potential customers. 

After all, tourism marketers can create an emotional connection with potential customers through social media. 

That can be a powerful motivator for people to travel and engage with products and services!

Social media allows tourism marketers to share engaging and inspiring content with potential customers via digital marketing. 

That combination of personal connection and exciting content has changed the role of social media for travel industry businesses.

Here’s why…

The Importance of an Active Posting Strategy is Huge!

84% of millennials use online reviews and postings to work out their travel plans. 

That means they’re searching the web for what others say about your destination or service. 

According to this study from Cornell , positive reviews attract far more significant numbers of venue visitors. 

More excitingly, they also enable companies to increase prices and profitability!

So Much Support is Available

Many companies have developed ways to support businesses with their online offers in recent years. 

Industry organisations like VisitBritain frequently run workshops on the power of social media marketing . 

But here’s the critical part…

You need to develop an integrated marketing plan to harness the power of user-generated content. 

My post here is a good starting point for learning more about it.

How Has Social Media Been Used to Successfully Market Tourism Destinations?

Social media allows potential visitors to connect with a destination and get a sense of what it offers. 

Providers can also use it to share special offers and discounts , encouraging people to book a trip.

Examples of Successful Social Media Tourism

– The VisitBritain campaign “Inspiring the World to Travel to Britain” successfully increased tourism traffic. The campaign featured photos and videos of people from all over the world enjoying different aspects of British culture. VisitBritain promoted it extensively through social media.

– The Australian Tourism Board created a social media campaign called “There’s Nothing Like Australia.” The campaign featured videos of people from all over the world talking about why they love Australia. People shared the videos on social media , and the hashtag #ILoveAustralia generated buzz. The result was a significant increase in tourism traffic .

The social media campaign “#FeedYourAdventure” promoted a new zip line attraction at the Adventure Park in New York. The campaign featured visitors zip lining and enjoying other activities at the park. Visitors shared posts on social media, and the park saw increased visitors .

Did you notice what those examples all had in common?

Feature Images and Videos of Awesome Experiences!

These examples show how social media can successfully market tourist destinations . 

By featuring images and videos of people enjoying a destination, social media can create a sense of excitement . 

What’s more, it can even encourage people to visit you!

How to use Social Media Tourism to Connect Customers With Your Business

When it comes to tourism marketing, making a connection is critical . 

Social media provides a fantastic interactive platform for businesses to connect with their target audiences. 

By building relationships with potential tourists on several platforms, businesses can create trust and credibility, increasing sales and profits .

Make use of Popular Platforms and Networks.

Some of the most popular social media platforms for tourism marketing include Facebook , Twitter , Instagram , Snapchat , and Pinterest . 

These platforms allow businesses to share information about their products or services with potential customers worldwide. 

They let businesses connect with customers more personally, leading to higher customer satisfaction and loyalty .

Get Personal with your Customers

Overall, social media provides a powerful tool for businesses to reach their target audiences. 

It helps them build relationships to increase sales and profits too. 

Companies can connect with potential tourists personally, interact, and engage, increasing tourism traffic and revenue.

According to Forbes , consistency comes top of the list when building those personal relationships. 

My top tips for combining social media and tourism are:

Provide Value . The content you post has to be worth something to the reader. It could be a special offer, an original review, or a new image of a well-known destination. 

You must generate worth for your reader if you want them to trust you with their holiday. 

Trust Your Authenticity . Your voice needs to stand out when it comes to social sharing. 

Keep your posts and content related to your brand message or online strategy. Social media platforms promote original user-generated content, and the tourism industry thrives on it. 

Track the Algorithm . Trends change, and so do the algorithms that drive user interaction. Keep on top of what’s hot and which strategies to use by working with experts . 

Set Some Targets . Consistent posting works . Search engines learn that your feeds are active and full of quality content. 

You could define a set number of specific posts or regularly post on related topics in a particular time frame. 

Brands that build followers and influence develop a dynamic online reputation .

You can discover just how much a WordPress travel website, complete with social media integration, should be costing you here .

How to use Social Media to Market Your Tourist Destination

Digital marketing will sell your destination when done well. 

So, what should you do if you want to use social media for your tourism business?

The first step is to understand your audience and their social media platforms. 

Once you know that, you can start creating content relevant to them and their interests. 

Remember, it’s not just about promoting your business. 

It’s also essential to engage with your audience and create a social media presence that is friendly and welcoming.

The Six Golden Rules for Destination Marketing

• Use social media to create a strong relationship with your customers. Show them that you appreciate their business by promptly responding to their comments and questions.
• Utilise several social media platforms to give your customers exclusive deals and discounts. 
• Make sure that the information on your social media pages is up-to-date and accurate. It should integrate seamlessly with your website.
• Use social media to share photos and videos of your destination. That will give potential customers a taste of what your destination offers.
• Keep in mind that social media is a two-way street. It’s not just about broadcasting your message; it’s also about listening to what your customers say. Use social media to gather feedback about your destination and improve based on what you hear.
• Increase brand use and visibility. When users interact with your brand, they are more likely to remember your name when ready to book a vacation.
• Don’t Forget The Tourist Buying Journey

Your brand should always target the tourist buying journey regardless of your platform . 

When tourists are looking to buy something, the level of service you provide informs their decision making . 

That’s because tourists frequently search for things specific to their needs and interests. 

They want to find the best deals on flights, hotels, and activities. They also want to learn about the culture and attractions of their visiting destination!

Social Media Tourism and the Tourist Journey

Broken down simply, your social media marketing needs to target customers in the four phases of their buying journey:  

Awareness . Your travel company should reach out across the web, using a range of channels, using the right SEO strategies . That’ll generate interest in your destination and get potential customers to learn more about it.

Evaluation : You can help tourists compare different sites and destinations and find the best deals in the sector. That builds trust and aids decision making . 

Purchase : Regular posting as part of a strategy makes it easy for tourists to buy tickets or book a hotel. By positioning yourself as an expert guide , you become their go-to for buying a holiday.

Post Trip : Social media allows everyone to share positive experiences and post valuable content after completing a trip. Resharing users’ posts is a great benefit of digital marketing!

Conclusion: Social Media Tourism is full of Business Benefits for You!

Social media and tourism have become an integral part of many people’s lives. It’s a powerful tool that connects visitors and destinations alike. 

When used effectively, social media can be a great asset to any business in the tourism industry. 

​​ Need help with your social media marketing ?

Let us know. We are here to support you on your journey. It’s of even more value when correctly integrated into your business website. 

If you need some advice, check out my article on why it’s crucial to maintain your travel website here .

Enjoy building your tourism business through social media, and thanks for reading!

Comment below if you have any questions!

Have you used social media tourism to boost your business marketing successfully? Tell us about your experience below!

Sign Up and Receive Exclusive Offers .

We promise no spam. Just pure value.

Join Now for FREE

• More Networks

Enter Your Info Below And We'll Send You The AI Script That Is Making Me $100-250/Day Passively

Expedia Group Media Solutions

How to attract travelers with data-driven tourism marketing.

By Expedia Group Media Solutions

June 5, 2024

Did you know that 60% of travelers start planning their trip without a specific destination in mind? 1 Data like this can change how and when you communicate with travelers. By understanding travelers’ buying journeys from looking to booking and the latest travel trends, destination marketers can attract travelers and even shape destination decisions. 

Travel data and trends can help you understand and appeal to your target audience better. The ability to attract travelers could get more complicated as third-party cookies are phased out, which is why leveraging our robust first-party data can provide the audience insights you need. Keep reading to learn how data in the Path to Purchase report and our Unpack ’24 travel trends study can give you the competitive advantage you need to create data-driven destination marketing campaigns that resonate with travelers.  

Travel marketing along the path to purchase

As a destination marketer, you can use Path to Purchase insights to inform your strategy and get your message across clearly to your intended audience in the fragmented travel and tourism industry.   

Destination indecisiveness is high

Nearly three in five travelers surveyed didn’t have a specific destination in mind or considered multiple destinations when they first decided to take a trip. More than 80% of travelers from Mexico and 62% of travelers from the U.K. were undecided on their destination, indicating that these travelers may be even more open to destination inspiration. 2   

What this means for destinations

Location indecisiveness in the early stage of travel planning creates opportunities for destination marketers to determine destination decisions. Targeting travelers while they’re still in the inspiration phase is the key to building awareness for your brand and showing what makes your destination unlike any other. 

To appeal to travelers’ wanderlust and keeping costs in mind in this phase and throughout the purchasing journey, travel advertisers should consider showing breathtaking locations and interesting experiences along with compelling deals and clear calls to action to drive travelers to conversion. It’s also important to know how long people spend looking for vacation inspiration, so you know when to launch your campaign to attract more visitors.  

Travelers spend 33 days looking for inspiration for travel destinations  

We know that advertisers want to have a clear view of travelers’ buying journeys and the potential touch points they can have with travelers. That first moment, when travelers look for inspiration, is a key opportunity to influence travelers’ choices, and the window to reach people is 33 days long on average. 3  

Your current strategy might be to advertise to an audience that already showed an interest in your location, but the data is clear that there’s a large opportunity to create impactful ads that drive those looking for inspiration to consider new destinations — including yours. 

It’s also important to note that two-thirds of travelers were influenced by an ad during the inspiration phase of their journey. 4  

What this means for destinations:

Inspiration can come from many sources, like family recommendations or advertisements, so destinations need to ensure that they have a multi-channel approach to appeal to travelers during this stage. All our solutions help get your destination in front of our motivated travel audience.  

If you’re looking to take your budget further, you could consider a co-op campaign . These campaigns are cost-effective and help marketers meet collective goals, and we do the heavy lifting to connect complementary destinations, hotels, airlines, and more to engage jointly with travelers and drive demand. 

When it comes to connecting with travelers across channels, destination marketing organizations (DMOs) see over 80% higher engagement with our native display ads compared to standard display ads. 5 Our native advertising solution uses contextually relevant, non-disruptive ads seamlessly integrated across our 200+ travel websites and apps. These experiential ads allow you to highlight multiple features and images with a single placement and create a pleasing experience for travelers when they’re looking for inspiration or ready to book.   

VisitScotland used native advertising to engage travelers with immersive and informative ad placements across prominent homepages and hotel search results pages. By implementing native advertising, the marketing campaign generated an above average click-through rate (CTR) and an 80:1 return on ad spend (ROAS). The campaign’s success elevated the visibility of VisitScotland and effectively engaged qualified travelers, resulting in increased bookings. 

You can also leverage in-app ads as part of our native advertising solution to gain a competitive advantage. Did you know that on average, in-app ads drive 150% more conversions than mobile web ads? 6 This is one more lever you can pull to execute a successful marketing strategy.  

Travelers use social media the most for inspiration 

Social media is where people seek authentic travel experiences and reviews when considering hotels, activities, or destinations. For travelers considering what to book, 65% of them use social media for inspiration. 7  

For those in destination marketing, tapping into social media as part of your mobile marketing strategy is an effective way to get travelers to consider your destination. You could add a human touch to your mobile marketing campaigns by utilizing influencer marketing at this stage. If you’re working for a convention and visitors bureau, you can engage travelers on social media by highlighting what they could expect if they choose your destination by using captivating images and copy that highlight authentic experiences.  

Discover the latest travel marketing trends 

Let’s look at a few more trends that can help you learn how to promote a destination by implementing specific insights into travelers’ behaviors in your campaigns. Our Unpack ’24 study is a glimpse into eight predicted trends we see shaping the travel and tourism industry this year. Based on extensive data and a global survey of 20,000 travelers, the report highlights the growing popularity of alternatives to well-known vacation spots, traveling to see a concert, and booking a trip because of a movie or TV show. You can find more trends in the full study, and you can dive even deeper with our quarterly insights and research .

We’ve pulled trend takeaways to help shape your marketing campaigns and get your destination in front of our global audience of high-value travelers who are coming to dream about, research, and book travel on our trusted brands.   

Travelers are booking destination dupes 

Destination dupes are budget-friendly alternatives to popular travel spots that offer similar experiences, usually without the hefty price tag or crowds. Think of it as the travel equivalent of finding a high-quality, affordable alternative to a luxury brand. For example, travelers might choose Pattaya over Bangkok or Perth instead of Sydney to enjoy a comparable vibe and attractions at a fraction of the cost. One in three travelers polled said they’ve booked a destination dupe. 8  

What this means for destinations  

If you think your location could be a dupe, it’s time to position yourself as an alternative. You know what your destination has to offer, and we can help you tell that story to potential travelers. Does it have something in common with a higher-profile location? Try turning that into an advantage and highlight the elements your destination has in common with more well-known places. To take it a step further, you could showcase promotions or deals in your advertising that could appeal to cost-conscious travelers. 

Concerts are driving tourism 

Tour tourism is a popular emerging area of leisure travel. This trend sees concertgoers looking beyond their local venues to catch a show, with 40% of travelers saying they would travel for a concert as an excuse to visit a new place, while 30% would travel because tickets were cheaper elsewhere. 9  

When Taylor Swift’s 2024 tour schedule was announced for Asia and Australia, travel searches increased by over 250% year over year for the corresponding tour cities. Similarly, when the 2024 European tour dates were announced, travel searches for May to August 2024 increased by nearly 65% for cities with corresponding tour stops. 10 To reach travelers venturing out of town for a concert, you could target certain search windows, lean into influencer marketing, or create packages with local establishments to provide more value for potential attendees.  

Our data-driven audience extension solution can help you reach customized audience segments, like those traveling during a certain time, to make sure your destination is in front of the right people, at the right time, and with the right message using targeted marketing. 

Set-jetting could be your untapped travel marketing trend

Set-jetting, planning trips inspired by TV shows and movies, is more popular than ever. More than half of travelers say they’ve researched or booked a trip to a destination after seeing it on a TV show or in a movie. In fact, travelers say TV shows influence their travel decisions more than Instagram, TikTok, and podcasts. 11  

You can lean into this source of travel inspiration where people want to book because they were inspired by a particular location. We helped one of our partners, Brand USA , create an immersive and interactive experience and debuted this innovative approach to travel booking with a shoppable streaming platform that delivers unique video content to replicate what travelers would experience at a destination. 

Our Media Studio team concepted and built this unique approach to destination exploration that allows travelers to quickly and easily book their trip as they immerse themselves in what the destination has to offer. Brand USA is the first partner to use this trailblazing solution, and we’re excited to roll out this approach for other destinations across the globe. 

Reach your goals with the leading travel media network  

We know it can be difficult to act on emerging market trends. That’s why we’re here to help you understand consumer behavior and travel trends to ensure your destination stands out from the rest using our expertise, innovative technology, and powerful platform. All our advertising solutions focus on helping DMOs stand out in a crowded marketplace and drive tourism, and we can help you find the perfect combination for your specific needs.  

To learn more about the array of advertising solutions we provide and how your destination can leverage data, contact one of our experts today. 

Expedia Group Media Solutions is the world's leading travel media network. We connect advertisers with hundreds of millions of travelers across the globe. Our exclusive first-party data on traveler trends, search behavior, and booking data provides travel marketers with unique insights to inform their strategies. We offer a full-funnel suite of solutions to help you convert travelers, and our digital experts can help you create advertising campaigns that deliver.

Recommended for you

destination marketing

Destination organizations: Supporting the tourism industry, sustainable travel, and more

products and solutions

Connect with travelers on Black Friday, Cyber Monday, Travel Tuesday

Atout France, CRT Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur launch multi-million euros campaign

Why destination video marketing works

How to Create a Social Media Marketing Strategy in 9 Easy Steps [Free Template]

Creating your social media marketing strategy doesn’t need to be painful. Create an effective plan for your business in 9 simple steps.

A social media marketing strategy is a summary of everything you plan to do and hope to achieve on social media. It guides your actions and lets you know whether you’re succeeding or failing.

The more specific your plan is, the more effective it will be. Keep it concise. Don’t make it so lofty and broad that it’s unattainable or impossible to measure.

In this post, we’ll walk you through a nine-step plan to create a winning social media strategy of your own. We’ve even got expert insights from Amanda Wood, Hootsuite’s Senior Manager of Social Marketing.

How to create a social media strategy:

Bonus: Get a free social media strategy template   to quickly and easily plan your own strategy. Also use it to track results and present the plan to your boss, teammates, and clients.

What is a social media marketing strategy?

A social media strategy is a document outlining your social media goals, the tactics you will use to achieve them and the metrics you will track to measure your progress.

Your social media marketing strategy should also list all of your existing and planned social media accounts along with goals specific to each platform you’re active on. These goals should align with your business’s larger digital marketing strategy.

Finally, a good social media plan should define the roles and responsibilities within your team and outline your reporting cadence.

Create. Schedule. Publish. Engage. Measure. Win.

Creating your own social media marketing strategy (video guide)

No time to read the whole article? Let Amanda, Hootsuite’s own Senior Manager of Social Media Marketing, guide you through our free social media marketing strategy template in less than 10 minutes:

How to create a social media marketing strategy in 9 steps

Step 1. choose goals that align to business objectives, set s.m.a.r.t. goals.

The first step to creating a winning social media strategy is to establish clear objectives and goals. Without goals, you have no way to measure success and return on investment (ROI) .

Each of your social media marketing goals should be SMART : s pecific, m easurable, a ttainable, r elevant and t ime-bound.

Psst: Need help getting started? We’ve got social strategy guides for small businesses , financial services , government , higher education , healthcare , real estate , law firms , and non-profits .

Oh, and if you need examples of smart social media goals , we’ve got you covered there too.

Once you’ve decided on your goals, track them in a social media strategy doc — grab our free template if you don’t have one already.

Track meaningful metrics

Vanity metrics like number of followers and likes are easy to track, but it’s hard to prove their real value. Instead, focus on things like engagement, click-through, and conversion rates.

For inspiration, take a look at these 19 essential social media metrics .

You may want to track different goals for different social media networks, or even different uses for each network.

For example, if you use LinkedIn to drive traffic to your website, you would measure click-throughs. If Instagram is for brand awareness, you might track the number of Instagram Story views. And if you advertise on Facebook, cost-per-click (CPC) is a common success metric.

Social media goals should align with your overall marketing objectives. This makes it easier to show the value of your work and secure buy-in from your boss.

Start developing a successful social media marketing plan by writing down at least three goals for social media.

“ It’s easy to get overwhelmed by deciding what to post and which metrics to track, but you need to focus on what you want to get out of social media to begin with,” says Amanda Wood, Hootsuite’s Senior Manager of Social Marketing. “Don’t just start posting and tracking everything: match your goals to your business, and your metrics to your goals.”

Step 2. Learn everything you can about your audience

Get to know your fans, followers, and customers as real people with real wants and needs, and you will know how to target and engage them on social media.

When it comes to your ideal customer, you should know things like:

• Average income
• Typical job title or industry

Here’s a simple guide and template for creating audience/buyer personas .

Don’t forget to document this information in your strategy doc!

Social media analytics can also provide a ton of valuable information about who your followers are, where they live, and how they interact with your brand on social media. These insights allow you to refine your strategy and better target your audience.

Jugnoo, an Uber-like service for auto-rickshaws in India, used Facebook Analytics to learn that 90% of their users who referred other customers were between 18- and 34-years-old, and 65% of that group was using Android. They used that information to target their ads, resulting in a 40% lower cost per referral.

Check out our guide to using social media analytics and the tools you need to track them .

Step 3. Get to know your competition

Odds are your competitors are already using social media, and that means you can learn from what they’re doing.

Conduct a competitive analysis

A competitive analysis allows you to understand who the competition is and what they’re doing well (and not so well). You’ll get a good sense of what’s expected in your industry, which will help you set social media targets of your own.

It will also help you spot opportunities and weaknesses you can document in your social strategy doc.

Maybe one of your competitors is dominant on Facebook, for example, but has put little effort into X (Twitter) or Instagram. You might want to focus on the social media platforms where your audience is underserved, rather than trying to win fans away from a dominant player.

Use social media listening

Social listening is another way to keep an eye on your competitors.

Do searches of the competition’s company name, account handles, and other relevant keywords on social media. Find out what they’re sharing and what other people are saying about them. If they’re using influencer marketing, how much engagement do those campaigns earn them?

Pro tip : Use Hootsuite Streams to monitor relevant keywords, hashtags and accounts in real-time.

Try Hootsuite for free. You can cancel anytime.

As you track, you may notice shifts in how your competitors and industry leaders are using social media. You may come across new, exciting trends. You might even spot specific social content or a campaign that really hits the mark—or totally bombs.

Use this kind of intel to optimize and inform your own social media marketing strategy.

Just don’t go overboard on the spy tactics, Amanda advises. “ Make sure you aren’t ALWAYS comparing yourself to the competition — it can be a distraction. I’d say checking in on a monthly basis is healthy. Otherwise, focus on your own strategy and results.”

Step 4. Do a social media audit

If you’re already using social media, take stock of your efforts so far. Ask yourself the following questions:

• What’s working, and what’s not?
• Who is engaging with you?
• What are your most valuable partnerships?
• Which networks does your target audience use?
• How does your social media presence compare to the competition?

Once you collect that information, you’ll be ready to start thinking about ways to improve.

We’ve created an easy-to-follow social media audit guide and template to walk you through each step of this process.

Your audit should give you a clear picture of what purpose each of your social accounts serves. If the purpose of an account isn’t clear, think about whether it’s worth keeping.

To help you decide, ask yourself the following questions:

• Is my audience here?
• If so, how are they using this platform?
• Can I use this account to help achieve my goals?

Asking these tough questions will keep your social media strategy focused.

Look for impostor accounts

During the audit, you may discover fake accounts using your business name or the names of your products.

These imposters can be harmful to your brand—never mind that they’re capturing followers that should be yours.

You may want to get your accounts verified too to ensure your fans know they are dealing with the real you.

Here’s how to get verified on:

• X (Twitter)

Step 5. Set up accounts and improve profiles

Decide which networks to use.

As you decide which social networks to use, you will also need to define your strategy for each.

Benefit Cosmetics’ social media manager, Angela Purcaro, told eMarketer : “For our makeup tutorials … we’re all about Snapchat and Instagram Stories. [X], on the other hand, is designated for customer service.”

Hootsuite’s own social team even designates different purposes for formats within networks. On Instagram, for example, they use the feed to post high-quality educational infographics and product announcements and Stories to cover live events or quick social media updates.

View this post on Instagram A post shared by Hootsuite 🦉 (@hootsuite)

Pro tip : Write out a mission statement for each network. A one-sentence declaration to keep you focused on a specific goal.

Example: “We will use X for customer support to keep email and call volumes down.”

Or: “We will use LinkedIn for promoting and sharing our company culture to help with recruitment and employee advocacy.”

One more: “We will use Instagram to highlight new products and repost quality content from influencers.”

If you can’t create a solid mission statement for a particular social media channel, you may want to ask yourself if it’s worth it.

Note : While larger businesses can and do tackle every platform, small businesses may not be able to — and that’s ok! Prioritize social platforms that will have the most impact on your business and make sure your marketing team has the resources to handle content for those networks. If you need help focusing your efforts, check out our 18-minute social media plan .

Set up your profiles

Once you’ve decided which networks to focus on, it’s time to create your profiles. Or improve existing ones so they align with your strategy.

• Make sure you fill out all profile fields
• Include keywords people would use to search for your business
• Use consistent branding (logos, images, etc.) across networks so your profiles are easily recognizable

Pro tip : Use high-quality images that follow the recommended dimensions for each network. Check out our always-up-to-date social media image size cheat sheet for quick reference.

We’ve also got step-by-step guides for each network to walk you through the process:

• Create a Facebook business page
• Create an Instagram business account
• Create a TikTok account
• Create a X (Twitter) business account
• Create a Snapchat account
• Create a LinkedIn Company Page
• Create a Pinterest business account
• Create a YouTube channel

Don’t let this list overwhelm you. Remember, it’s better to use fewer channels well than to stretch yourself thin trying to maintain a presence on every network.

Optimize your profiles (and content) for search

Never heard of social SEO ? It’s time to learn.

44% of Gen Z consumers use social platforms to research their purchase decisions, which means it’s extra critical that your channels are optimized for social search.

That means making sure your profile names are clear and descriptive, you’re including relevant hashtags and keywords in your bio and on every post, and you’re using features like alt text and captions to include your target keywords as naturally as possible.

Step 6. Find inspiration

While it’s important that your brand be unique, you can still draw inspiration from other businesses that are great on social.

“ I consider it my job to stay active on social: to know what’s trending, which campaigns are winning, what’s new with the platforms, who’s going above and beyond,” says Amanda. “This might be the most fun step for you, or the hardest one, but it’s just as crucial as the rest of them.”

Social media success stories

You can usually find these on the business section of the social network’s website. ( Here’s Facebook’s , for example.)

Case studies can offer valuable insights that you can apply to your own social media plan.

Award-winning accounts and campaigns

You could also check out the winners of The Facebook Awards or The Shorty Awards for examples of brands that are at the top of their social media game.

For learning and a laugh, check out Fridge-Worthy, Hootsuite’s bi-weekly awards show highlighting brands doing smart and clever things on social media.

Your favorite brands on social media

Who do you enjoy following on social media? What do they do that compels people to engage and share their content?

National Geographic, for example, is one of the best on Instagram, combining stunning visuals with compelling captions.

View this post on Instagram A post shared by National Geographic (@natgeo)

Then there’s Shopify. The ecommerce brand uses Facebook to sell themselves by showcasing customer stories and case studies.

And Lush Cosmetics is a great example of superior customer service on X. They use their 280 characters to answer questions and solve problems in an extremely charming and on-brand way.

Source: lushcosmetics on X

Notice that each of these accounts has a consistent voice, tone, and style. That’s key to letting people know what to expect from your feed. That is, why should they follow you? What’s in it for them?

Consistency also helps keep your content on-brand even if you have multiple people on your social media team.

For more on this, read our guide on establishing a compelling brand voice on social media .

Ask your followers

Consumers can also offer social media inspiration.

What are your target customers talking about online? What can you learn about their wants and needs?

If you have existing social channels, you could also ask your followers what they want from you. Just make sure that you follow through and deliver what they ask for.

Step 7. Create a social media content calendar

Sharing great content is essential, of course, but it’s equally important to have a plan in place for when you’ll share content to get the maximum impact.

Your social media content calendar also needs to account for the time you spend interacting with the audience (although you need to allow for some spontaneous engagement as well).

Set your posting schedule

Your social media content calendar lists the dates and times at which you will publish types of content on each channel. It’s the perfect place to plan all of your social media activities—from images, link sharing, and re-shares of user-generated content to blog posts and videos. It includes both your day-to-day posting and content for social media campaigns.

Your calendar also ensures your posts are spaced out appropriately and published at the best times to post .

Pro tip: You can plan your whole content calendar and get recommended best times to post on every network based on your past engagement rate, impressions, or link click data in Hootsuite.

Hootsuite’s Best Time to Publish feature

Determine the right content mix

Make sure your content strategy and calendar reflect the mission statement you’ve assigned to each social profile, so that everything you post is working to support your business goals.

(We know, it’s tempting to jump on every meme, but there should always be a strategy behind your social media marketing efforts!)

You might decide that:

• 50% of content will drive traffic back to your website
• 25% of content will be curated from other sources
• 20% of content will support lead-generation goals (newsletter sign-ups, ebook downloads, etc.)
• 5% of content will be about your company culture

Placing these different post types in your content calendar will ensure you maintain the right mix.

If you’re starting from scratch and you’re not sure what types of content to post, try the 80-20 rule :

• 80% of your posts should inform, educate, or entertain your audience
• 20% can directly promote your brand.

You could also try the social media content marketing rule of thirds :

• One-third of your content promotes your business, converts readers, and generates profit.
• One-third of your content shares ideas and stories from thought leaders in your industry or like-minded businesses.
• One-third of your content is personal interactions with your audience

Whatever you decide on, be sure to document it in your strategy doc.

Don’t post too much or too little

If you’re starting a social media marketing strategy from scratch, you may not have figured out how often to post to each network for maximum engagement yet.

Post too frequently and you risk annoying your audience. But, if you post too little, you risk looking like you’re not worth following.

Start with these posting frequency recommendations:

• Instagram (feed): 3-7 times per week
• TikTok: 3-5 times per week
• Facebook: 1-2 times per day
• X (Twitter): 1-5 times per day
• LinkedIn: 1-5 times per day

Pro tip : Once you have your social media content calendar planned out, use a scheduling tool to prepare messages in advance rather than updating constantly throughout the day.

We might be biased, but we think Hootsuite is the best social media management tool. You can schedule social media posts to every network and the intuitive calendar view gives you a full picture of all your social activity each week.

Try It Free

Step 8. Create compelling content

Remember those mission statements you created for each channel in Step 5? Well, it’s time to go a bit deeper, a.k.a. provide some examples of the type of content you’ll post to fulfill your mission on each network.

If you’re not sure what to post, here’s a long list of social media content ideas to get you started. Or (to make it even easier) you can use an AI tool like OwlyWriter to generate on-brand content in a flash.

The idea here is to:

• Keep your content aligned with the purpose of each network;
• Show other stakeholders (if applicable) what kind of content they can expect to see on each network.

This last point especially will help you avoid any tension when your colleagues want to know why you haven’t posted their case study/whitepaper/blog post to TikTok yet. It’s not in the strategy, Linda!

Ideally, you will generate content types that are both suited to the network and the purpose you’ve set out for that network.

For example, you wouldn’t want to waste time posting brand awareness tweets if you’ve designated X/Twitter for primarily customer support. And you wouldn’t want to post super polished corporate video ads to TikTok, as users expect to see short, unpolished videos on that platform.

It might take some testing over time to figure out which type of content works best on which type of network, so prepare to update this section frequently.

We won’t lie: content creation isn’t as easy as everyone not on the social team seems to think. But if you’re struggling, Amanda suggests going back to basics.

The first question to ask is: is there cohesion between your content types? Is your content providing value? Do you have a good mix of entertaining, or educational content? What does it offer that makes a person stop and spend time? Creating a few different content pillars or categories that encompass different aspects of storytelling for your brand, and what you can offer your audience is a good start.

This brings us to Step 9.

Step 9. Track performance and make adjustments

Your social media marketing strategy is a hugely important document for your business, and you can’t assume you’ll get it exactly right on the first try.

As you start to implement your plan and track your results, you may find that some strategies don’t work as well as you’d anticipated, while others are working even better than expected.

That’s why it’s important to document your progress along the way.

Look at performance metrics

In addition to the analytics within each social network (see Step 2), you can use UTM parameters to track social visitors as they move through your website, so you can see exactly which social posts drive the most traffic to your website.

Benchmark your results

You’ve got your numbers, but how do they stack up to the competition in your industry? Industry benchmarks are a great way to evaluate your performance against other businesses in your category.

If you’ve got Hootsuite Analytics , you can use our built-in social media benchmarking tool to compare the performance of your social accounts against the average of brands in your industry with just a couple of clicks.

You can set up custom timeframes, switch between networks — Instagram, Facebook, X (Twitter), LinkedIn, and TikTok — and look up benchmarks for metrics like followers, audience growth rate, engagement rate, clicks, shares, and much more.

You’ll also find resources to improve your performance  right in the summary section:

Re-evaluate, test, and do it all again

Once this data starts coming in, use it to re-evaluate your strategy regularly. You can also use this information to test different posts, social marketing campaigns, and strategies against one another. Constant testing allows you to understand what works and what doesn’t, so you can refine your social media marketing strategy in real time.

You’ll want to check the performance of all your channels at least once a week and get to know the basics of social media reporting so you can track your growth over time.

Pro tip: If you use Hootsuite, you can review the performance of all your posts on every network in one place. Once you get the hang of checking your analytics, you may even want to customize different reports to show specific metrics over a variety of different time periods.

Surveys can also be a great way to find out how well your social media strategy is working. Ask your followers, email list, and website visitors whether you’re meeting their needs and expectations, and what they’d like to see more of. Then make sure to deliver on what they tell you.

Finalizing your social media strategy

Spoiler alert: nothing is final.

Social media moves fast. New networks emerge, others go through demographic shifts.

Your business will go through periods of change as well.

All of this means that your social media marketing strategy should be a living document that you review and adjust as needed. Refer to it often to stay on track, but don’t be afraid to make changes so that it better reflects new goals, tools, or plans.

When you update your social strategy, make sure to watch our 5-step video on how to updating your social media strategy for 2024:

Social media strategy template

Ready to start documenting? Grab your free social media strategy template below!

What’s next? When you’re ready to put your plan into action, we’re here to help…

Save time managing your social media marketing strategy with Hootsuite. From a single dashboard you can easily:

• Plan, create, and schedule posts to every network
• Track relevant keywords, topics, and accounts
• Stay on top of engagement with a universal inbox
• Get easy-to-understand performance reports and improve your strategy as needed

Try Hootsuite for Free

With files from Shannon Tien .

Do it better with Hootsuite , the all-in-one social media tool. Stay on top of things, grow, and beat the competition.

Become a better social marketer.

Get expert social media advice delivered straight to your inbox.

Christina Newberry is an award-winning writer and editor whose greatest passions include food, travel, urban gardening, and the Oxford comma—not necessarily in that order.

Amanda Wood is a senior social marketing professional who combines analytical and creative thinking to build brands.

As head of social at Hootsuite, Amanda oversees the global social strategy encompassing organic and paid social on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, TikTok, and LinkedIn, a social engagement and listening strategy, and an employee advocacy program.

As the leader of a high-performing social team, she has extensive experience collaborating with creatives to bring campaigns to life on social and drive business results.

Related Articles

How To Set and Exceed Social Media Goals [9 Examples]

Struggling with structuring your efforts on social? Set yourself up for success with our guide to setting and achieving smarter social media goals.

How to Run the Easiest Social Media Audit [FREE TEMPLATE]

A social media audit is the best way to review and improve any social marketing strategy. Check in on your efforts with this free template.

How to Create a Social Media Calendar and Stay Organized

Social media content calendars are the best way to plan and organize your content. Build one in 4 easy steps or use our free templates.

Social Media Marketing Tools: The Complete Guide

Automate your work, save time, and build better relationships with your audience by using the right social media marketing tools.

Digital Marketing in Tourism

• Living reference work entry
• First Online: 04 December 2021
• Cite this living reference work entry

• Christian Maurer 5  

534 Accesses

4 Citations

Information and communication technologies have contributed significantly to the development and growth of the tourism industry. Tourists use the Internet in all phases of the customer journey. In 2020, the typical user spent on average 6 h and 43 min online each day, which was about 40% of their waking life. Mobile devices account for more than half of all the online time, but most Internet users still use a combination of mobiles and computers to access the Internet. Therefore, digital marketing offers great opportunities for tourism organizations and suppliers to promote and sell their offers and to establish long-lasting relationship with their customers. This chapter discusses the development of digital marketing in tourism and illustrates the evolution over various steps. A brief history of the development of digital marketing for tourism businesses and an outline of its benefits and challenges will be provided. This chapter focuses on website publishing, traffic building, and digital marketing campaign planning. Challenges and future developments of digital marketing conclude this chapter.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Institutional subscriptions

Andrews M, Luo X, Fang Z, Ghose A (2015) Mobile ad effectiveness: Hyper-contextual targeting with crowdedness. Market Sci 35(2):218–233

Article   Google Scholar  

Batra R, Keller KL (2016) Integrating marketing communications: new findings, new lessons and new ideas. J Market 90:122–145

Berger S, Lehmann H, Lehner F (2001) Location-based services in the tourist industry. Inf Technol Tour 5(4):243–256

Buhalis D (2003) eTourism. Information technology for strategic tourism management

Google Scholar  

Buhalis D, Foerste M (2015) SoCoMo marketing for travel and tourism: Empowering co-creation of value. J Destination Market Manage 4:151–161

Chaffey D, Smith PR (2017) Digital marketing excellence. Planning, optimizing and integrating online marketing. Routledge

Charlesworth A (2014) Digital marketing. A practical approach. Elsevier

Book   Google Scholar  

Chung J, Buhalis D (2008) Information needs in online social networks. Inf Technol Tour 10:267–281

Czernik T, Fuchs M, Höpken W (2008) Test market studies for email-marketing: an alpine hotel case study. In: 4 th International conference: an enterprise odyssey: tourism, governance, and entrepreneurship, University of Zagreb, Faculty of Economics, June, 2008 / [ed] Galetić, Lovorka & Čavlek, Nevenka, Zagreb: Faculty of Economics & Business, pp 1414–1425

Dietrich G (2014) Spin Sucks. Communication and reputation management in the digital age. Pearson

Duarte Santo J, Lima Silva Ó (2020) Digital marketing strategies for tourism, hospitality, and airline industries. In: Saura JR, Palos Sancheu PR, Reyes-Menendez A (eds) The digital tourism business: a systematic review of essential digital marketing strategies and trends, pp 1–22

Evans H (2017) “Content is King” – Essay by Bill Gates (1996) https://medium.com/@HeathEvans/content-is-king-essay-by-bill-gates-1996-df74552f80d9 . Accessed on 4 Feb 2020

Gelter H (2017) Digital tourism – An analysis of digital trends in tourism and customer digital mobile behaviour for the Visit Artic Europe project. http://www.lme.fi/media/vae-outcomes/rd-results/report-visit-arctic-europe-mission-3-summary-2.pdf . Accessed on 5 Apr 2021

George R (2021) Marketing tourism and hospitality. Concepts and cases

Goodall D (2009) Owned, bought and earned media. https://danielgoodall.wordpress.com/2009/03/02/owned-bought-and-earned-media/ . Accessed on 28 Feb 2020

Hays S, Page SJ, Buhalis D (2013) Social media as a destination marketing tool: its use by national tourism organisations. Curr Issues Tourism 16(3):211–239

Hootsuite (2020) Digital 2020. Global Digital Overview. https://wearesocial.com/digital-2020 . Accessed 25 Oct 2020

Hanlon A (2019) Digital marketing. Strategic planning and integration. Sage Publications

Hvass KA, Munar AM (2012) The takeoff of social media in tourism. J Vacat Market 18(2):93–103

Kannan PK, Li H (2017) Digital marketing: a framework, review and research agenda. Int J Res Market 34:22–45

Kingsnorth S (2016) Digital marketing strategy. An integrated approach to online marketing. Kogan Page

Labanauskaite D, Fiore M, Stašys R (2020) Use of E-marketing tools as communication management in the tourism industry. Tour Manage Perspect 34:1–8

Li H, Kannan PK (2014) Attributing conversions in a multichannel online marketing environment: an empirical model and a field experiment. J Market Res 51:40–54

Liedke L (2020) 100+  Internet statistics and facts for 2020. https://www.websitehostingrating.com/internet-statistics-facts/ . Accessed on 3 Feb 2020

Majeed S, Zhou Z, Lu C, Ramkissoon H (2020) Online tourism information and tourist behaviour: a structural equation modeling analysis based on a self-administered survey. Front Psychol 11:1–15

Mkwizu KH (2020) Digital marketing and tourism: opportunities for Africa. Int Hosp Rev 34(1): 5–12

Muñoz-Leiva F, Hernández-Méndez J, Liébana-Cabanillas F (2018) Etourism advertising effectiveness: banner type and engagement as moderators. J Services Market 32(4):462–475

Oliveira O, Panyik E (2015) Content, context, and co-creation: digital challenges in destination branding with reference to Portugal as a tourist destination. J Vacat Market 21(1):53–74

Pan B, Li X (2011) The long tail of destination image and online marketing. Ann Tour Res 38(1):132–152

Ryan D (2017) Understanding digital marketing. Marketing strategies for engaging the digital generation. Kogan Page

Salman M, Zhimin Z, Changbao L, Haywantee R (2020) Online Tourism Information and Tourist Behavior: A Structural Equation Modeling Analysis Based on a Self-Administered Survey. Front Psycho 11:1–15

Schultz D, Schultz H (1998) Transitioning marketing communications into the twenty-first century. J Market Commun 4(1):9–26

Sutherland W, Jarrahi MH (2018) The sharing economy and digital platforms: a review and research agenda. Int J Inf Manage 43:328–341

Thakran K, Verma R (2013) The emergence of hybrid online distribution channels in travel, tourism and hospitality. Cornell Hosp Q 54(3):240–247

W3C (2020) Making the Web Accessible. Strategies, standards, and supporting resources to help you make the Web more accessible to people with disabilities. https://www.w3.org/WAI/ . Accessed on 1 Mar 2020

Xiang P, Gretzel U, Fesenmair D (2009) Semantic representation of tourism on the internet. J Trav Res 47(4):440–453

Yang K, Min JH, Garza-Baker K (2019) Post-stay email marketing implications for the hotel industry: role of email features, attitude, revisit attention and leisure involvement level. J Vacat Market 25(4):405–417

Download references

Author information

Authors and affiliations.

IMC University of Applied Science Krems, Krems an der Donau, Austria

Christian Maurer

You can also search for this author in PubMed   Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Christian Maurer .

Editor information

Editors and affiliations.

Department of Hospitality and Tourism Management, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Blacksburg, VA, USA

Zheng Xiang

Department of Tourism Studies and Geography, Mid Sweden University, Östersund, Sweden

Matthias Fuchs

Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, USA

Ulrike Gretzel

Department of Business Informatics, University of Applied Sciences Ravensburg-Weingarten, Weingarten, Germany

Wolfram Höpken

Section Editor information

Department of Economics, Geography, Law and Tourism, The European Tourism Research Institute, Mid-Sweden University, Östersund, Jämtland, Sweden

The Howard Feiertag Department of Hospitality and Tourism Management, Pamplin College of Business, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, VA, USA

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2021 Springer Nature Switzerland AG

About this entry

Cite this entry.

Maurer, C. (2021). Digital Marketing in Tourism. In: Xiang, Z., Fuchs, M., Gretzel, U., Höpken, W. (eds) Handbook of e-Tourism. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-05324-6_82-1

Download citation

DOI : https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-05324-6_82-1

Published : 04 December 2021

Publisher Name : Springer, Cham

Print ISBN : 978-3-030-05324-6

Online ISBN : 978-3-030-05324-6

eBook Packages : Springer Reference Business and Management Reference Module Humanities and Social Sciences Reference Module Business, Economics and Social Sciences

• Publish with us

Policies and ethics

• Find a journal
• Track your research

Numbers, Facts and Trends Shaping Your World

Read our research on:

Full Topic List

Regions & Countries

Publications

• Our Methods
• Short Reads
• Tools & Resources

Read Our Research On:

Internet & Technology

6 facts about americans and tiktok.

62% of U.S. adults under 30 say they use TikTok, compared with 39% of those ages 30 to 49, 24% of those 50 to 64, and 10% of those 65 and older.

Many Americans think generative AI programs should credit the sources they rely on

Americans’ use of chatgpt is ticking up, but few trust its election information, whatsapp and facebook dominate the social media landscape in middle-income nations, sign up for our internet, science, and tech newsletter.

New findings, delivered monthly

Electric Vehicle Charging Infrastructure in the U.S.

64% of Americans live within 2 miles of a public electric vehicle charging station, and those who live closest to chargers view EVs more positively.

When Online Content Disappears

A quarter of all webpages that existed at one point between 2013 and 2023 are no longer accessible.

A quarter of U.S. teachers say AI tools do more harm than good in K-12 education

High school teachers are more likely than elementary and middle school teachers to hold negative views about AI tools in education.

Teens and Video Games Today

85% of U.S. teens say they play video games. They see both positive and negative sides, from making friends to harassment and sleep loss.

Americans’ Views of Technology Companies

Most Americans are wary of social media’s role in politics and its overall impact on the country, and these concerns are ticking up among Democrats. Still, Republicans stand out on several measures, with a majority believing major technology companies are biased toward liberals.

22% of Americans say they interact with artificial intelligence almost constantly or several times a day. 27% say they do this about once a day or several times a week.

About one-in-five U.S. adults have used ChatGPT to learn something new (17%) or for entertainment (17%).

Across eight countries surveyed in Latin America, Africa and South Asia, a median of 73% of adults say they use WhatsApp and 62% say they use Facebook.

5 facts about Americans and sports

About half of Americans (48%) say they took part in organized, competitive sports in high school or college.

REFINE YOUR SELECTION

Research teams, signature reports.

The State of Online Harassment

Roughly four-in-ten Americans have experienced online harassment, with half of this group citing politics as the reason they think they were targeted. Growing shares face more severe online abuse such as sexual harassment or stalking

Parenting Children in the Age of Screens

Two-thirds of parents in the U.S. say parenting is harder today than it was 20 years ago, with many citing technologies – like social media or smartphones – as a reason.

Dating and Relationships in the Digital Age

From distractions to jealousy, how Americans navigate cellphones and social media in their romantic relationships.

Americans and Privacy: Concerned, Confused and Feeling Lack of Control Over Their Personal Information

Majorities of U.S. adults believe their personal data is less secure now, that data collection poses more risks than benefits, and that it is not possible to go through daily life without being tracked.

Americans and ‘Cancel Culture’: Where Some See Calls for Accountability, Others See Censorship, Punishment

Social media fact sheet, digital knowledge quiz, video: how do americans define online harassment.

1615 L St. NW, Suite 800 Washington, DC 20036 USA (+1) 202-419-4300 | Main (+1) 202-857-8562 | Fax (+1) 202-419-4372 |  Media Inquiries

Research Topics

• Email Newsletters

ABOUT PEW RESEARCH CENTER  Pew Research Center is a nonpartisan fact tank that informs the public about the issues, attitudes and trends shaping the world. It conducts public opinion polling, demographic research, media content analysis and other empirical social science research. Pew Research Center does not take policy positions. It is a subsidiary of  The Pew Charitable Trusts .

© 2024 Pew Research Center

• Starting a Business
• Growing a Business
• Small Business Guide
• Business News
• Science & Technology
• Money & Finance
• For Subscribers
• Write for Entrepreneur
• Entrepreneur Store
• United States
• Asia Pacific
• Middle East
• South Africa

Copyright © 2024 Entrepreneur Media, LLC All rights reserved. Entrepreneur® and its related marks are registered trademarks of Entrepreneur Media LLC

A Fifth Walt Disney World Theme Park Could Be Coming Soon — Here's What We Know A unanimous agreement was reached in primary voting between Disney and the Central Florida Tourism Oversight District (CFTOD) on Wednesday.

By Emily Rella Edited by Melissa Malamut Jun 6, 2024

Fans of Walt Disney World in Orlando, Florida, might be in for a treat after initial votes have been cast in favor of a massive expansion plan for the theme park.

A unanimous agreement was reached in primary voting between Disney and the Central Florida Tourism Oversight District (CFTOD) on Wednesday, which would allow for the existing theme park to expand outward, build additional hotels and retail spaces, and allow Disney the opportunity to create an additional theme park if the company desires.

The project is expected to cost upwards of $17 billion over the next two decades.

Related: Disney to Begin Cracking Down on Password Sharing in June

"With Walt Disney World's substantial investments, we anticipate economic growth, job creation, and support for local businesses, alongside environmental stewardship and workforce housing initiatives, benefiting Central Florida's community," District Administrator, Stephanie Kopelousos, told Business Insider in a statement.

This could mark Disney's fifth major theme park in the area, which currently operates Magic Kingdom, Epcot, Hollywood Studios and Animal Kingdom.

The agreement will also see at least $10 million allocated toward housing projects and donating land "for public infrastructure improvements" in the area. Disney would be required to use local contractors for construction projects should the expansion plan get approved and would also be required to make sure that 50% of all contracted business be local to Florida.

Disney has not yet publicly disclosed or confirmed the plans for a new park, though the rumor mill has been churning for years.

Referred to as the "fifth gate" by Disney fanatics , Disney CEO Bob Iger referenced the potential project during a Q1 2024 earnings call back in February.

"We're already hard at work at basically determining where we're going to place our new investments and what they will be," Iger said . "You can pretty much conclude that they'll be all over, meaning every single one of our locations will be the beneficiary of increased investment."

Related: Peltz Sells Disney Stock After Board Fight, Makes $1 Billion

Disney laid off an estimated 14% of its Pixar team last month as part of restructuring and moving toward more "quality" content over "quantity," namely on its streaming service Disney+, per Iger's remarks during a Q4 2023 earnings call.

Disney was up just under 10% year over year as of Thursday afternoon.

Entrepreneur Staff

Senior News Writer

Want to be an Entrepreneur Leadership Network contributor? Apply now to join.

Editor's Pick Red Arrow

• The First Openly LGBTQ+ Person to Conquer the 7 Summits Reveals How 5 Lessons Learned on His Climbs Helped Him Grow a Business to $5 Million in Sales
• Lock How to Start a Passive Income Side Hustle That Uses Assets You Already Own, From 3 People Who Make Thousands of Dollars Doing It
• 'People Have the Right to Protect Their Likeness': Hollywood Lawyer Says Scarlett Johansson's OpenAI Controversy Is Only the Beginning
• Lock 5 Tech Products That Make Traveling Easier This Summer
• 'It Was Pretty High Risk': Leader of the World's Largest Architecture Firm Says Going 'Off Track' Led to Being a CEO
• Lock 5 Habits That Will Help You Leave Your 9-5 and Increase Your Income, According to a Former Nurse Who Did It

Most Popular Red Arrow

5 small business marketing tactics to see results this quarter.

Five quick and effective small business marketing strategies that can yield both short-term results and long-term success.

How to Break Out of AI-Fueled Analysis Paralysis

Instead of getting overwhelmed by an abundance of data, leaders should focus on clear use cases and quick wins.

Is One Company to Blame for Soaring Rental Prices in the U.S.?

The FBI recently raided a major corporate landlord while investigating a rent price-fixing scheme. Here's what we know.

How to Close the Trust Gap Between You and Your Team — 5 Strategies for Leaders

Trust is tanking in your workplace. Here's how to fix it and become the boss your team needs to succeed.

Jack Dorsey Says Social Media Has an Algorithm Problem, and Elon Musk Agrees: 'We Are Being Programmed'

"The public square cannot be owned by one company," Dorsey said. "The public square, by default, is the Internet."

Save $139 on This VPN Unlimited Subscription

Rated 4.6/5 stars on the app store, this VPN solution works with all of your devices.

Successfully copied link