The strategic role of virtual communities and social network sites on tourism destination marketing

Abstract

Internet has an enormous diffusion and radically changed most of our economic and social life and impacted the way we communicate, work and conduct business. The emergence of Web 2.0 or Travel 2.0 brings together the concept of social networking/virtual communities and applies it to the tourism industry. The importance of Travel 2.0 features and tools, and specifically of social media environments, is growing fast and many tourism businesses are changing their approach to the manners of presenting themselves online (Au, 2010; Jones & Yu, 2010; Schegg et al., 2008). However, tourism operators have not yet fully understood the new technological world by and still many concerns, such as credibility of the information online, possibility to forge for particular interests by unscrupulous competitors, privacy, overload of useless information, in addition to the usual (in the technology arena) lack of resources or skill shortage are the most reported issues are brought forward. This study analyzes factors that influence tourists’ involvement in virtual communities and asserts that virtual communities and social network sites (SNSs) support tourism organizations to develop and improve their marketing functions, as they can understand better their customers’ satisfaction and behavior, to reach worldwide customers in a cost effective way, to engage in a direct dialogue with the customers and undertake corrective actions to improve their offering, and ultimately influence tourists’ destination choice. Synergies and interdependence among those involved can reinforce relations and coordination of activities when all parts involved cooperate to promote a uniform and complete tourist experience. To this end, the role of social media and information technology is of significance for destination marketing