Destination Tourism Services Suppliers Attitude toward the Role of Social Media in Tourism Destination Marketing in the City of Ramsar

Document Type : Research Paper

Author

Assistant Professor in Tourism Management, University of

Abstract

Introduction
Nowadays, social media have been converted into a participatory status and made it possible for people to act as a medium and share their information (Kietzmann et al., 2011; Li & Wang, 2011). Recent studies have shown that presence of social media in the tourism suppliers marketing has been one of the mega trends that could have a significant impact on tourism system (Minazzi, 2015; Leung et al., 2013). Social media emerged at a time that tourism suppliers had reduced their budgets for the development of destinations (Hays et al., 2013), but the power of the social media is so high that it should be used to make a significant growth in tourism development (Stankov et al., 2010).
 
Materials and Methods
 The population of this study included tourism suppliers of Ramsar that was obtained through field survey 579 people. To determine the sample, Morgan table was used and the number of 234 persons was determined as sample size. Sampling method was in the form of Simple Random Sampling. Data were obtained through the researchers' questionnaire. To build the research questionnaire, exploratory approach was used. The test of the hypothesis of the present study was performed through the techniques of structural equation modeling using AMOS and SPSS23.
 
Discussion and Results
To investigate the impact of social media on marketing activities of tourism suppliers in the city of Ramsar, this study considered a main hypothesis and four sub hypotheses. The sub hypotheses were examined and confirmed, which the results were aligned with previous results (Minazzi, 2015). With the discussion and analysis the hypothesis and comparison with previous similar studies, it can be concluded that main hypothesis of this study was confirmed, that Social media has a significant impact on tourism suppliers marketing in Ramsar destination.
 
Conclusions
Considering the results of tests performed, it can be said that from the perspective of tourism suppliers in Ramsar, the role of social media in marketing activities, are classified in forms of marketing research, advertising and promotion, interaction and communication and tourism product distribution. Accordingly, it is determined that the destination activists also believe that marketing research has been benefited from the impact of social media to a greater extent than other dimensions. Finally, according to the results, practical suggestions for tourism suppliers were offered:
1- Emphasis of tourism suppliers on social media, that is most widely used among tourists and advertising on the media to encourage decision-making and attracting more tourists while saving the advertising costs;
2- According to research, there are not appropriate network, channel, website and virtual space tourism in the city of Ramsar, this work needs to be done.
3- Because the impact of social media on marketing research is higher than other tourism marketing activities in Ramsar, destination activists have to look at marketing research in the form of suggestions above.
 
Keywords: Social Media, Tourism Destination Marketing, Tourism Industry.
 
References

Hays, S., Page, S.J. and Buhalis, D. (2013). Social media as a destination marketing tool: its use by national tourism organizations, Current Issues in Tourism, 16(3): 211-239.
Kietzmann, J.H., Hermkens, K., McCarthy, I.P. and Silvestre, B. S. (2011). Social media? Get serious! Understanding the functional building blocks of social media, Business Horizons, 54(3): 241-251.
Leung, D., Law, R., van Hoof, H. and Buhalis, D. (2013). Social Media in Tourism and Hospitality: a Litrature Review, Journal of Travel & Tourism Marketing, No. 30: 3-22.
Li, X.  and Wang, Y.C. (2011). China in the eyes of western travelers as represented in travel blogs, Journal of Travel & Tourism Marketing, 28(7): 689-719.
Minazzi, R. (2015). Social Media Marketing in Tourism and Hospitality, Springer Cham Heidelberg New York Dordrecht London.
Stankov, U., Lazić, L. and Dragićević, V. (2010). The extent of use of basic Facebook user-generated content by the national tourism organizations in Europe, European Journal of Tourism Research, 3(2): 105-113.

Keywords

References

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Journal of Tourism Planning and Development
Volume 5, Issue 19
March 2017
Pages 75-93

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