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Hays, S., Page, S., Buhalis, D., 2012, Social media as a destination marketing tool:
An exploratory study of the use of social media among National Tourism
Organisations, Current Issues, 16(3), pp.211-239
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13683500.2012.662215
Social media as a destination marketing tool:
An exploratory study of the use of social media among National Tourism
Organisations
Abstract
Social media are gaining prominence as an element of Destination Marketing Organisation
(DMO) marketing strategy at a time of public sector cuts and a need to seek greater value
in the way marketing budgets are spent. Social media offers NTOs with a tool to reach a
global audience with limited resources. The aim of this paper is to explore the usage of
social media among the DMOs of the top ten most visited countries. The study uses
content analysis and semi-structured interviews to examine the usage and impact of social
media marketing strategies and identifies a framework of best practice for other NTOs.
The paper argues that social media usage among top destination marketing organisations
is still largely experimental and that strategies vary significantly.
Keywords: DMOs Social media Twitter Facebook
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Introduction
The creation and accessibility of the Internet has fundamentally changed our daily lives
and in the case of tourism, it has reshaped how travellers access information, the way they
plan for and book trips, and the way they share their travel experiences (Buhalis and Law,
2008; Senecal and Nantel, 2004; Xiang and Gretzel, 2010). One current, significant
development in evolution of the Internet is the increasing prevalence of social media
platforms that enable Internet users to collaborate and communicate via publishing original
content such as blogs, videos, wikis, reviews, or photos.
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Research has already
established that social media websites, facilitating consumer-generated content (CGC),
are widely used by online travellers (Gretzel, 2006; White and White, 2006). Researchers
and journalists have also noted that when planning a trip, consumer-generated content
and reviews (via sites like Tripadvisor.com), are widespread and may even undermine the
authority or reliability of a traditional destination marketing organisations (DMOs) or
conventional advertisements (Gretzel et al., 2000; Gretzel, 2006; Rand, 2006). With usage
and the significance of social media in tourism growing, it is pertinent to conduct, research
into how tourism companies and organisations are responding to these developments
given that many companies remain uncertain of how to utilise social media to their
marketing advantage. This study seeks to understand how widespread the usage of social
media is among the marketing organisations of top international tourism destinations. More
specifically, this paper has four specific research objectives:
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A glossary in Appendix 1 outlines many of the technical terms associated with the use of social media on the internet.
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1. To examine the ways in which, and for what purposes, top national DMOs are
strategically employing social media to market their destinations.
2. To demonstrate the varying degree of usage of social media among top national DMOs.
3. To determine what factors, if any, contribute to a high and/or advanced level of social
media activity
4. To identify examples of best practice from the use of social media by NTOS
To meet these research objectives, this paper commences with a review of the literature
on social media and its use in Tourism. This is followed by a discussion of the research
methodology employed and the analysis and findings. The paper then outlines the
implications of the study.
Social Media and Tourism
Social media are changing the way society consumes and contributes to the creation of
information. Technology now allows individuals to easily contribute their thoughts,
opinions, and creations to the Internet, and thus, to a wide public of many other
individuals. This has radically altered the way in which information is created and
disseminated.
As market intelligence reports show, social media are undoubtedly gaining popularity and
arguably gaining importance. For example, data from comScore and Mintel infer that the
number of unique internet visitors has risen from 55 million per month in 2008 to almost 70
million in 2011. The means in which tourism-related information is circulated and the way
people plan for and consume travel has been deeply transformed by the Internet (Buhalis
and Law, 2008; Senecal and Nantel, 2004; Gretzel et al., 2000; Xiang and Gretzel, 2010).
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Therefore it is pertinent to evaluate the current research and theoretical framework
associated with social media, in relation to tourism. The first key dimension to recognise is
the shift from Web 1.0 to Web 2.0.
The shift from ‘Web 1.0’ to ‘Web 2.0’
Prior to the latest incarnation of the Internet, Web 2.0, the Internet functioned solely in one
direction - a “read-only” format (Borges, 2009). That is, published information was static
and interaction with other Internet users and/or publishers was basically non-existent.
When interaction was available, HTML was merely used to send email communications.
Most websites are still Web 1.0 websites that exist for the primary purpose of providing
content to be read but not interacted with (Borges, 2009: 35). The purpose of these
websites is “to offer information about a company, organization, or person” (Borges,
2009:35).
Beginning in the mid-2000s, a new generation of websites emerged. These websites make
up the latest version of Internet- Web 2.0 which primarily is propelled by user-generated
content. Web 2.0 describes the Internet in its latest incarnation, which incorporates new
developments to the Web, such as social media and social network sites (Brake and
Safko, 2009). Schegg et al. (2008: 152) note that the evolution of Web 1.0 to Web 2.0
marks a shift from “users rather than organizations taking charge [of the Internet].”
Thevenot (2007) expands on this notion, asserting that as social media rises in popularity,
the general public gains more power as the authority of marketers and institutions
declines. In relation to tourism, marketers and institutions no longer have ultimate control
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over the image of their destination or product. Rather, anyone with access to the Internet
has the freedom to contribute information to the subject.
TABLE 1 HERE
Table 1 summarises some major characteristics of Web 2.0 websites. Ultimately, Web 2.0
facilitates the integration of the following five functional properties: information
representation, collaboration, communication, interactivity, and transactions (Gretzel et al.,
2006: 147).
Kaplan and Haenlein (2009) argue that Web 2.0 is the natural next progression in the
evolution of the Internet. The Internet essentially originated as a place, a Bulletin Board
System (BBS), where users could exchange “software, data, messages, and news”
(Kaplan and Haenlein, 2009: 60). In the 1990s, personal users could create homepages in
a fashion similar to the way people today create blogs; corporate webpages were
introduced in the mid-1990s and became common in the early 2000s (Kaplan and
Haenlein, 2009: 60). Therefore, Kaplan and Haenlein (2009: 60) contend that social media
brings the Internet “back to its roots” by creating a place for users to exchange information.
But what do we mean by social media.
Defining and Understanding Social Media
Social media are a current and constantly evolving phenomena, it is important to
understand how previous researchers have defined key terms and phrases. Wang et al
(2002: 408) raise an important issue when explaining that the phrase ‘virtual community’
“is not hard to understand, but slippery to define. The same is true for social media, and
terms used when discussing it.