Influence of social media in choice of touristic destination

In a society dominated by information, online communication between people, companies and groups comes as an easy, normal, ordinary solution. The spectacular development of social media applications, characterizing nowadays online communication systems, determine more and more people and businesses to use them for acquiring and giving information, for promoting or criticizing products and services. Despite the fact that the use of social media applications seem very efficient, cheap and easy to use for promoting a company’s products or services, there is a high risk of failure associated with. The organization has to take into account the messages transmitted might be received differently by the targeted users. Hence, a well documented communication strategy is needed also for social media applications which, based on community particularities, on different possible behaviors of community members, on past information and feedback, can successfully construct a positive image for the company. The purpose is to efficiently and effectively make known a company’s products and services, but also, to react fast and in the most appropriate manner when negative rumors from truly or deceitfully unhappy customers are expressed through social media channels. The current paper aims to present the main issues related to the use of social media applications in presenting and promoting a company’s products and services with special focus on hospitality and touristic services. To this purpose, a research was performed on 123 Romanian young people regarding their trusted sources of information when choosing a touristic destination. The results show that online environment is considered as a trustworthy source of information and social media channels are intensely used for acquiring information before planning a trip.

Keywords

social media, tourism, online communication, consumer behavior

JEL Classification

L83, L86, M37

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