Thesis[1] (original) (raw)
This chapter undertakes a ‘snapshot’ or glimpse into social aspects of tourism informatics with specific reference to the travel photographs posted on the social networking site ‘Facebook’. This analysis will focus on the travel images (photographs) generated by 10 individuals (five male and five female) from the Facebook community. It must be emphasised that the study is deliberately narrow in its focus and does not attempt to make generalisations about how photos are used by other Facebook users. The aim of the study is to begin a dialogue about the use of travel photos on this popular social networking site. Examined in this chapter are a selection of visual images and written messages surrounding the tourism encounters of the particular Facebook members between September 2007 and September 2008. As Urry (1995) has argued, “the consumption of tourist services is important yet by no means easy to understand and explain” (p. 139). Tourism is experienced in a highly visual manner and there is a need for further research in this area. This chapter explores how the photographs taken, displayed and recorded on Facebook reinforce the travel experience for the tourist; and furthermore, how these images might influence the travel decisions of those who view the photos. Wider implications resulting from this type of research for the future development for tourism informatics (e-tourism) is also explored.
Social Network Sites in Travel and Tourism: Benefits and Limitations
Journal of Engineering and Applied Sciences
The purpose of this study is to explore the most frequently used Social Network Sites (SNSs) in travel and tourism as well as to discuss and summarize their benefits and limitations for the travel and tourism industry. It is particularly useful for the author's students of Management of Travel and Tourism at the Faculty of Informatics and Management, University of Hradec Kralove who will need the knowledge of SNSs as a prerequisite for being successful in their future profession. First, this study uses the method of literature review which is applied to determine the most popular SNSs in travel and tourism. Then, thus selected SNSs are compared and evaluated. There is a number of SNSs used for the travel and tourism purposes. However, the most popular SNSs are still Facebook and Twitter. As the findings show, the SNSs used for the travel and tourism purposes provide their users with travel information and/or facilitate contacts. Among the benefits belong an easy access to various content. Limitations include lower control over this content.
2017
In the context of a general increase in tourism activity and in the number of trips, and given that the consumption preferences of tourists are changing rapidly, the need for information becomes urgent and there is a concomitant development of public and private organizations involved in providing the necessary information to tourists who reach for the first time a tourist destination. This category includes tourist information centers (TICs), tourism promotion associations and tourism clubs. Being intensively based on information, the activity of informative tourism organizations suffers multiple changes, often radical, proving to be a favorable environment for the implementation of new information technologies due to their role in terms of providing and sharing information. In this sense, Facebook has special implications, being considered one of the fastest and most effective tools of Social Media, especially regarding the distribution of information and the promotion of products and services. The major objective of this research aims to highlight the stage of development of informative tourism organizations in Romania through the filter of Facebook visibility and communication. In this regard, we analysed the current state of presence and communication on Facebook of 109 tourism entities from 25 different counties of Romania: 43 tourist information centers, 44 entities with the name of association (tourism promotion association, ecotourism associations etc.), 18 travel clubs and 4 tourist information point/offices.
Facebook plays an important role as information source, communication tool and as media for sharing travel experiences. The present study will provide perspective on tourism students' travel related usage patterns of Facebook, as today's world's largest social networking platform. The purpose is to discover similarities and differences in Facebook travel related usage patterns of tourism students comparing to non-tourism students. Results of the study suggest that most similarities are present in general use of Facebook, and in non-specific travel related usage patterns. Significant differences are recorded in "core" travel related user patterns considering posting travel related messages, content and connotation of travel related messages, content of travel related photographs and in travel specific reasons for viewing travel related photographs. It is believed that understanding differences in usage patterns in the period of higher tourism education can help students to more effectively use SNSs when dealing with travel related content in future professional life.
Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research), 2023
The study was conducted on the Municipality of San Rafael Bulacan, Philippines It focused on recognizing the impact, determined the relation and identified the effectiveness of Social Media such as Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok as advertisements towards tourist destinations in the Municipality of San Rafael Bulacan, Philippines. San Rafael is a first-class municipality in the Philippine province of Bulacan. It has a population of 103,097 people according to the 2020 census. With Metro Manila's ongoing expansion, San Rafael is now part of the Greater Manila built-up suburb area, which extends all the way to San Ildefonso, Bulacan in the North. San Rafael is 60 kilometers (37 miles) from Manila, the country's capital. A descriptive correlational design is used in the research study. The respondents were 50 working employees and 50 tourists from San Rafael River Adventure, The Spot, The Viewpoint Grape & Dragon Fruit Farm + Bambu Cafe, Hey Brew Cafe and Bypass Grill & Restaurant. Facebook is the most effective platform for looking for and promoting tourist destinations on social media. Twice a week is how often the respondents post and see the promotion of tourist destinations, and between 12:01 p.m. and 6:00 p.m. is the time when respondents usually see and post the promotion of tourist destinations on social media. The image-based, audio-based and textbased content sometimes attracts the interest of the respondents. While, video-based always attract their interest when looking for a tourist destination.Owned is the most seen and used nature of post according to the findings of the study. Natural paid promotion is the most seen than paid promotion. In addition, the actual tourist is the one who endorses the tourist destinations and Facebook is the most effective platform for looking for and promoting tourist destinations on social media in boost according to the findings of the study.
The Use of Facebook in The Promotion of Foreign Tourism in Beni Mellal Khenifra.pdf
2019
Nowadays, Social media is increasingly being adopted by destination marketing organizations. In this connection, this study aimed at studying the use of Facebook in the promotion of tourism in Beni Mellal Khenifra region. Hence, it was guided by two research questions: first, does Facebook influence travelers' decisions while considering a destination? Second, to what extent are Beni Mellal Khenifra's tourism organizations present on Facebook? Accordingly, in order to attain the objectives of the study, the researcher used a descriptive analytical research design. In this regard, in order to collect quantitative data, a questionnaire was administered to 250 travelers who have visited the region of Beni Mellal Khenifra. However, the sample size comprised of only 60 respondents because many travelers refused to fill it in, while others didn't see the messages at all for it was administered online through Facebook and Instagram.The findings pointed out that Facebook signifi...
2012
Tourism is one of the largest and fastest growing economic sectors in the world, consistently contributing to the worldwide GDP. Still, although having a territory with a diversified and valuable tourism potential, Romania reports a low contribution of its tourism to its GDP. Therefore, all entities involved in the national tourism industry must gain knowledge in order to better segment, target and attract potential tourists. Considering the fast paced growing penetration rate of the Internet, the social media and blogs within the Romanian population, and their importance in marketing tourism destination and products, the purpose of this paper is to identify tourism preferences and choices of young Romanian Facebook users regarding travel frequency, seasons allocated for tourist travel, internal versus external destinations and, respectively, types of destinations, and to identify any possible positive or negative relation between the above described aspects and variables regarding demographics and online behavior patterns such as frequency of Internet browsing, social media usage (i.e. Facebook) and blogs reading.In order to collect the necessary data, an online survey was designed and conducted among all reachable people, capitalizing on the power of Facebook online social networking and snowball sampling. The paper argues that targeting young Romanian Facebook users with tourism offers can probably be successful and profitable, while its results suggest that when targeting young Romanian Facebook users with tourism products it is essential to further segment the target using demographics criteria and online behavior variables such as Internet browsing, social media usage and blogs reading frequency.