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International Journal of Tourism Cities

ISSN : 2056-5607

Article publication date: 22 April 2022

Issue publication date: 9 December 2022

This paper aims to provide an assessment of tourism promotion in tourist destinations and airports (TPTDs) and to organize and classify the literature on tourism promotion, with the aim of staging the importance of this topic and encouraging future research in the projection of tourism and marketing sectors.

Design/methodology/approach

The paper uses the Social Sciences Citation Index (SSCI) database to analyze the bibliometric in TPTDs topic from 2000 to 2021. Additionally, the paper also uses the visualization of similarities (VOS) viewer software to map graphically the bibliographic material. The graphical analysis uses bibliographic coupling, co-citation, citation and co-occurrence of keywords.

This study provides an amended new definition of tourism promotion, which is the efficient management of a destination’s resources and strategic plans by destination marketing organizations (DMOs) to adapt the tourism supply to market trends and will empower tourists to visit such destinations. Furthermore, results also show a new paradigm applied to TPTDs topic and classified in five first-order research streams. Digital and mobile marketing, infrastructure, branding, quality, accessibility and information factors about a specific destination which are mostly demanded by tourists are considered as an important means of promotion for the tourism industry.

Originality/value

The contribution of this study is important to identify new challenges and opportunities for researchers, DMOs, airport and airlines operators and stakeholders, as disentangling existing contradictions and applying new theoretical framework to make better future decisions by researchers and organizations to provide higher quality to new research in the context of the TPTDs.

• Tourism promotion
• Bibliometric
• Tourist destinations
• Universities

Florido-Benítez, L. (2022), "The impact of tourism promotion in tourist destinations: a bibliometric study", International Journal of Tourism Cities , Vol. 8 No. 4, pp. 844-882. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJTC-09-2021-0191

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Copyright © 2021, International Tourism Studies Association

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Promotion of urban tourism: insights into user engagement on social media

• Original Research
• Published: 12 October 2021
• Volume 23 , pages 611–632, ( 2021 )

Cite this article

• María Bonilla-Quijada   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0002-6580-2421 1 ,
• Juan Tugores-Ques 2 &
• Josep Lluís Olmo Arriaga 1  

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Interactions between tourism and social networks are among the most notable phenomena of recent times, generating new approaches, in terms of both analyses of and policies for tourism promotion. Public authorities have been forced to become involved in these new realities, adapting their promotion channels to tourists’ new behaviour patterns and carefully cultivating interactions with them. It is becoming ever more important to create and transmit an image capable of stimulating high levels of engagement. This article analyses the role of one of the most booming social networks, Instagram, applied to the case of Berlin, a leading tourist city. All posts generated over the course of a year on the German capital’s official Instagram account were encoded, and the characteristics of those that generated the most interaction with users in the form of likes and comments were analysed. Our study reveals that posts more directly intended as advertising generate more negative results, while there are differences between the elements capable of generating more likes and more comments, respectively: likes are more general in nature, while comments are more specifically linked to the Berlin brand. These findings suggest important conclusions for the more efficient development of strategies to promote interaction with users.

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Bonilla-Quijada, M., Tugores-Ques, J. & Olmo Arriaga, J.L. Promotion of urban tourism: insights into user engagement on social media. Inf Technol Tourism 23 , 611–632 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40558-021-00213-6

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DOI : https://doi.org/10.1007/s40558-021-00213-6

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A study on the impact of official promotion short videos on tourists’ destination decision-making in the post-epidemic era

1 School of Management, Anhui University, Hefeii, China

2 School of Public Administration, Southwestern University of Finance and Economics, Chengdu, China

Associated Data

The raw data supporting the conclusions of this article will be made available by the authors, without undue reservation.

The COVID-19 pandemic has had an enormous impact on traditional tourism. Influenced by the uncertainties of the current epidemic, to revive the development of tourism and local economics, local governments have used short video accounts to release tourist promotion short videos for publicizing and marketing. This study takes official promotion short videos as the research object, establishes a structural equation model based on the SOR theory, and explores the influencing factors of official short videos on tourists’ destination decisions through empirical analysis. It finds that the official promotion short videos can positively stimulate users’ perception and sentiments significantly due to the three unique features of authority, interactivity and interest, thus influencing tourists’ destination decision-making behavior. On this basis, this study proposes to improve the operation of an official short video from three aspects: enhancing the authority of official short video accounts, attaching importance to the interactive mechanism, and strengthening the creativity of short videos. It is hoped that the study may help enhance the influence of official promotion short videos and promote the high-quality development of local tourism.

Introduction

The Covid-19 epidemic spreading all over the world in 2020 not only significantly influences traditional service industries such as catering, accommodation, and tourism, but also changes consumers’ consumption habits and psychology to some extent. Affected by the COVID-19 epidemic, the number of China’s domestic tourists and tourism income both dropped sharply in 2020, and the loss of total tourism revenue was more than $600 billion ( Qiang, 2022 ). Rural tourism is one of the economic activities hardest hit by the pandemic ( Eslami and Namdar, 2022 ). This is undoubtedly disastrous for local governments that rely on tourism to eliminate poverty and develop their economies.

At present, the uncertainties of epidemic development make all industries in China take normalized epidemic prevention and control measures. Therefore, the traditional tourism publicity and promotion mode can no longer match the objectives of normalized epidemic prevention and control policy, and the tourism marketing problem has become prominent increasingly. On the other hand, after long-term home quarantine, residents may have some revenge spending, and there will be a great travel demand during the stable epidemic period. How to promote tourism through a brand-new model at a time of heightened uncertainties and risks and then revitalize the tourism industry and increase tourism revenue has become an urgent problem for local governments to solve.

Technological advances and the use of social media play an important role in driving economic development ( Li et al., 2021 ). After the outbreak of the COVID-19 epidemic, the short video platform has become the main channel not only for the public to obtain information related to the epidemic, but also for the local governments to interact with the public. On the one hand, short videos in marketing reduces consumers’ resistance to marketing and make the products more deeply rooted in people’s hearts ( Du and Lee, 2020 ). On the other hand, with the help of the short video platform accounts, local governments can create an “Internet celebrity city” with huge online traffic, which can attract tourists and promote the development of local tourism industry and the region. For instance, using the short video platforms, DING Zhen, a Tibetan boy from Litang County, Sichuan Province, became popular on the Internet. After his popularity, DING Zhen became the “image spokesperson of Litang” to help his hometown get rid of poverty. With his efforts, Litang County received more than 1,512 million tourists in 2020, achieving a tourism income of 1.66 billion yuan, an increase of 158.1% year on year, reaching a record high.

Live streaming, as a new feature of the short video platform, is of significance to the recovery of tourism ( Liu et al., 2022 ). For example, LIU Hong, director of Sichuan Ganzi Culture and Tourism Bureau, HE Jiaolong, deputy director of Xinjiang Yili Culture and Tourism Bureau, and other local tourism department leaders walked into Douyin short video live streaming room to promote local tourism resources for Internet users with their government official identity. 1 The government’s promoting tourism resources and publicizing travel destinations through short video platforms has become a new model to attract tourists and promote the development of local tourism under the current background of uncertain epidemic development.

Therefore, this study aims to explore how to better use the official promotion short videos to promote tourism resources and effectively guide potential consumers’ travel consumption under the background of the epidemic uncertainties. Based on the stimulus-organism-response (SOR) theory, this study constructs a structural equation model of the official promotion short videos’ influence on tourists’ destination decision-making behavior. With the online questionnaire data, the relationship between variables was tested by the structural equation model, and then the influencing factors of official promotion short video on tourist destination decision were analyzed. It is hoped that the present study may provide decision-making reference for promoting the development of local tourism.

Literature review

Tourist destination image and tourism promotion.

The image of a tourist destination refers to the overall impression of a tourist destination interwoven with various tourism products and elements ( Huang et al., 2002 ). In subsequent studies, this impression is further expanded into customer-based brand equity of tourist destinations, which increases the dimensions of perception, quality and loyalty of tourist destinations ( Konečnik, 2010 ). The representative image that a destination tries to communicate with the tourists is called the projected image ( Barich and Kotler, 1991 ), and this is the way a tourist destination gets itself known to more. And the emergence of popular attractions is the result of a synergy between the perceived and predicted images of the destination. Destination Management Organization (DMO), as the main body of image projection, needs to pay attention to the deviation between the official-projected image and the user-perceived image, and conduct management marketing based on the difference ( Briciu et al., 2019 ). Since the projected image of a tourist destination is affected by the tourists’ perceived image, it is necessary to build a good destination image through various promotion and marketing means, change the stereotyped cognition of tourists, and then affect their choice of destination ( Kavaratzis and Ashworth, 2008 ).

Factors influencing tourist destination decision

Tourists’ destination decision-making behavior is influenced by many factors, including tourists’ internal psychological quality and external social environment ( Mayo and Jarvis, 1981 ). The tourists’ perceived image of the destination before making the decision plays an important role in their decision, so it is necessary to focus on marketing the image of the tourist destination ( Baloglu and McCleary, 1999 ). Under the circumstances of the current global outbreak, the main factor that affects tourists’ destination decision-making is the assessment of the visual attractiveness of the tour ( Rogach et al., 2020 ). Therefore, the promotion and marketing of tourist destinations remain important in the post-pandemic era. More than that, safety should be one of the factors that influence tourists’ decision. Studies have confirmed that travel safety and security (TSS) affect the travel destination image (TDI) in the early decision-making process. Therefore, the destination marketing organization (DMO) should develop appropriate tourism marketing and management strategies to improve destination attractiveness and competitiveness ( Hsu et al., 2017 ). In addition, some scholars in China (e.g., Wang et al., 2007 ; Guo, 2009 ) have also found through research that personal perceived value also has an influence on tourists’ destination decisions and purchase intentions.

Tourism promotion and short video marketing

With the development of new media platforms, short videos have gradually become the main channel of constructing, publicizing, and marketing the image of tourist destinations in recent years. From the perspective of tourist perception, Xiao et al. (2020) found through empirical research that Tik-Tok can affect tourists’ perception of destination image and travel intention, especially that interactive marketing plays a more significant role in the influence of short video marketing on image perception. Cao et al. (2021) also confirmed that short videos can be an effective marketing strategy for tourist destinations. On this basis, the government’s local tourism departments have also gradually strengthened the construction of short video accounts, using the celebrity effect of “Internet celebrities” to stimulate the public’s travel interest and promote the development of local tourism ( Zhang and Huang, 2022 ).

To sum up, short video, an emerging media communication platform, has a significant impact on tourists’ destination choice, and the official-projected image of local destination will also affect tourists’ perception. However, few studies took the official short video account as the research object to discuss its impact on tourist destinations. In the post-epidemic era, China’s tourism industry is also actively seeking for transformation and development and attracting consumers with new ways of travel. The government, as the regulator of the tourism industry, has the responsibility and obligation to promote the high-quality development of tourism while taking epidemic prevention and control measures and creating a safe consumption environment. Driven by the intelligent and digital transformation of the tourism industry, official promotion short videos become the first choice for the government to involve in tourist destination marketing and promotion. Through the planning and operation of official short video account and the shooting and release of official promotion short videos, the government can not only set up a good government image, but also promote the development of local economy, using government affairs new media to boost local tourism industry. Under the background of uncertain epidemic development, it is of great significance to use the official short video account to publicize and market the development of local tourism. Therefore, this study uses empirical research methods to analyze the influencing factors of official short videos on tourists’ destination decision-making. It is hoped that this study may provide a reference for local governments to use short video platforms efficiently to attract tourists, publicize tourism resources, and promote the development of local tourism.

Theoretical framework and research design

Theoretical framework.

Mehrabian and Russell (1974) proposed the famous stimulation-response model on the basis of environmental psychology, which pointed out that the external environment has an impact on the cognitive and emotional state of individuals, and thus has an impact on individual behavior. Stimulation is a factor that influences the body’s internal and external situation. It can affect the psychological state or cognitive status of an organism ( Lin and Lo, 2016 ), and then through a series of psychological or cognitive activities, organisms will take an inner and outer reaction to stimuli. The internal reaction is shown by individual attitude, and the external reaction embodied in individual behavior ( Lorenzo-Romero et al., 2016 ). The SOR model is the stimulus-organism-response model. SOR theory, as an important theoretical framework to analyze the response of external stimuli to individual psychology and behavior, constructs the relationship between external environment, individual psychology and behavior. Donovan et al. (1994) applied their improved SOR model to the shopping scene, which promoted the study of SOR model in consumers’ purchase intention and purchase behavior in the Internet era ( Djafarova and Bowes, 2021 ; Shang et al., 2022 ). In the context of new network media, the “stimulus” in SOR theory is no longer the intuitive objects in the external environment, but through pictures, videos and online interaction to stimulate the user’s consumption psychology, and then produce the consumption impulse and desire that is transferred into actual consumption behavior. Therefore, this study attempts to extend the application of SOR theory to the study of short videos affecting tourist destination decisions.

Specifically, the official promotion short videos’ production quality and the image of tourist destinations they construct will affect the psychological reaction of tourists who then make consumption decisions. When consumers, driven by certain travel purchase motives, purchase tourism products and produce a series of post-purchase behaviors in order to meet certain travel needs, it is a complete travel purchase decision. Therefore, this paper takes the official short videos as the research object and discusses the influence of its stimulus on tourists’ destination decision-making combined with the SOR model.

Research hypothesis and model construction

Based on the SOR theory, this paper constructs a structural equation model of the influence of official promotion short videos on tourists’ destination decision-making behavior ( Figure 1 ).

The structural equation model of official promotion short videos’ influence on tourists’ destination decision based on the SOR theory.

The characteristics of official short video accounts and those of short video platforms jointly determine the characteristics of official promotion short videos. In terms of official short video accounts, they have an official background. The government authorizes the official accounts to produce and release official promotion short videos ( Yu, 2020 ). Thus, the information content has official authority and credibility. This is the most distinctive feature that distinguishes official promotion short videos from other short videos. Therefore, we made the hypothesis that the official short video is authoritative. For short video platforms, on the one hand, as a kind of social media, they should meet the users’ interaction and social needs. On the other hand, their operation and development should also meet the entertainment needs of the user group, especially the young group. Hence, the video content should be creative and interesting to make users feel it enjoyable and generate the interest of continuous use after use. Therefore, we made another hypothesis that the official promotion short video is interesting and interactive. To sum up, we hypothesized that official promotion short videos are authoritative, interactive and interesting.

Combined with the SOR model, the official promotion short video, with its special communication mechanism, will be used as an external stimulus to affect the perception or sentiment of potential consumers in the process of watching and then make them produce the decision-making behavior reaction of tendency or avoidance. Taking this model mechanism as a reference, according to the existing research literature results, this study proposes the hypothesis that tourists, as potential consumers, can get stimulation from watching official promotion short videos, which are characteristic of authority, interactivity and interest. After obtaining such an external stimulus, the tourist organism will generate the cognitive reaction of obtaining perceived value, producing perceived pleasure and perceived trust. After the perception reaction is generated, it will further influence the final decision of tourists as potential consumers to accept or reject the destination (i.e., the response). This study verifies and analyzes the above hypotheses based on the questionnaire data.

The hypothesis that the official promotion short videos stimulate users

Foucault discussed the relationship between discourse and power in The Order of Discourse . In any society, once discourse comes into being, it is immediately controlled, screened, organized, and redistributed by power, and discourse serves power ( Grudin, 1996 ). The important difference between the official promotion short video and the short video released from the we-media or other institutional media lies in the official identity of the account. The new media of the CPC (Communist Party of China) and government organizations that released the official information has high prestige in the public mind. For example, “China Chang’an Net” is the Douyin account of the Political and Judiciary Commission under the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China. As the first political and legal government affairs account on the Douyin platform, it has nearly 40 million fans and popular videos with nearly 8 million likes. It fully reflects the influence and authority of the official mainstream media. The credibility of the information source is the factor with the largest weight in the dimension of communication system, which can affect the perceived risk of users ( Tang and Lai, 2021 ). However, watching the official promotion short videos can have a positive impact on the potential consumers’ impression of the travel destination ( Shani et al., 2010 ). Based on this, this paper puts forward the following hypotheses:

H1a : Authority positively affects consumers’ perceived value significantly; H1b : Authority positively affects consumers’ perceived pleasure significantly; H1c : Authority positively affects consumers’ perceived trust significantly.

Interactivity

The short video breaks the dimension limitation of time and space, has multiple communication channels, and thus highly fits the factors needed for interaction. Interactivity is one of the distinctive features of short video as a new media platform. Users can give likes, favorites, and comments to express their sentiments while watching the short videos. It is worth mentioning that the official short video account can thus have a quick and effective dialogue with users, respond to questions raised by users, enable users to fully understand the destinations, and facilitate tourists’ decision-making to a certain extent. The content of the videos also spreads further through the recognition and sharing between users. Previous studies have shown that when the travel destination has a crisis of trust due to the epidemic, the destination can respond to the negative comments on the network platform in time through the media, strengthen interaction and communication, and use crisis marketing to effectively resolve the crisis and create opportunities for development ( Aktan et al., 2022 ). Based on this, this paper puts forward the following hypotheses:

H2a : Interactivity positively affects consumers’ perceived value significantly; H2b : Interactivity positively affects consumers’ perceived pleasure significantly; H2c : Interactivity positively affects consumers’ perceived trust significantly.

The reason why the official short video platform is welcomed by the public is that compared with the traditional official media content, the short videos released by it no longer use serious and formal official words but adopt humanized narrative techniques to share vivid and relaxing stories through short videos. When making official short videos, some creative clips, interesting scripts, pictures, and sound effects are usually used to produce unique sensory effects to attract users to watch and enjoy. Most of the works tend to be colloquial and fast-paced and often use online buzzwords, which cater to the audience’s mentality of pursuing novelty and interest and further narrow the distance between the government and the public ( Jia and He, 2019 ). Therefore, it makes official information communication more relaxing and popularized so that the public can better accept it. The usefulness, interest, resonance and other characteristics of short video content determine that short video content is easier to spread and enhance user stickiness ( Fei and Koo, 2020 ). Based on this, this paper puts forward the following hypotheses:

H3a : Interest positively affects consumers’ perceived value significantly; H3b : Interest positively affects consumers’ perceived pleasure significantly; H3c : Interest positively affects consumers’ perceived trust significantly.

Hypothesis about the user response to the official promotion short video stimulus

Perceived value.

After studying the influence of the perceived value of mobile short video on consumers’ purchase intention, scholars have found that consumers’ perceived value of mobile video is an important factor affecting purchase intention, which can have a positive impact on users’ participation behavior ( Wan et al., 2014 ). Especially in the current context of the uncertain epidemic situation, tourists cannot experience tourism resources offline and thus need to make decisions after weighing the perceived value. In the face of short video advertising and marketing, users do not blindly follow but actively choose. The core competitiveness and brand personality of short video account have a significant impact on users’ perceived value ( Zeng, 2021 ). Only when tourists perceive that the consumption behavior is meaningful and valuable can they turn their potential purchase intention into practical actions. The purpose of tourist decision-making is to maximize tourism utility. Before making a destination decision, consumers’ perceived value evaluation and psychological feelings in destination promotion videos may affect consumers’ final consumption behavior. Consumers’ perceived value has a positive impact on consumer happiness and stickiness ( Ren et al., 2021 ). Based on this, this paper puts forward the following hypothesis:

H4 : Perceived value has a positive and significant impact on tourists’ destination decisions.

Perceived pleasure

Individuals’ sentimental energy will be generated in an interactive ceremony, which is deep and strong, and will affect users’ next behavior. Studies have shown that sentimental response and product purchase intention also have a significant positive impact ( Li, 2019 ). In the process of watching the official promotion short videos, the users, as potential consumers, may be stimulated by the audio-visual effects of the videos and then gain inner pleasure, thus generating yearning for destinations and affecting their decision-making of the destinations. Based on this, this paper puts forward the following hypothesis:

H5 : Perceived pleasure has a significant positive impact on tourists’ destination decisions.

Perceived trust

The COVID-19 pandemic has seriously affected people’ willingness to travel ( Hao et al., 2021 ). After the outbreak of the pandemic, Chinese nationals reduced their preferences in all travel modes and most of the travel forms ( Huang et al., 2021 ). Influenced by the uncertainties in the current epidemic situation, the coronavirus has not been thoroughly controlled, so the risk of coronavirus contagion in tourist destinations will increase due to the gathering of people. Therefore, tourists are worried and uneasy about travel universally, and will be more anxious in the absence of official authoritative information. COVID-19 was shown to negatively affect the travel intention ( Cho, 2021 ). Tourists’ travel decisions are largely based on their own risk assessment and safety perception of the epidemic situation. Destination crisis marketing should provide positive information about destinations to ease their risk perception and enhance their trust. At this point, the government’s emergency management department should use various media to intensify epidemic information release and publicize the epidemic prevention and control measures in the tourist destinations. These measures may give tourists the right to know, eliminate their tension and anxiety caused by the information asymmetries. In this way, the government can reduce tourists’ perception of the risk and enhance their trust in government’s authority. Previous studies (e.g., Avraham, 2015 ; Assaker and O’Connor, 2020 ) have shown that when a destination is hit by a crisis such as a terrorist attack or a natural disaster, the emergency management department (DEM) can reduce tourists’ risk perception and generate a sense of trust. Based on this, this paper puts forward the following hypothesis:

H6 : Perceived trust has a significant positive impact on tourists’ destination decisions.

Data collection and analysis

Variable measure.

Based on the existing research results, this paper designed a variable measurement scale and then designed a questionnaire according to the items of each variable and the theme of this study. All the measures in the questionnaire adopted the five-level Likert scale. Seven variables were selected in this study. The basis for variable selection and questionnaire design items are shown in Table 1 .

Variable screening and basis.

Sample descriptive statistics

We distributed a total of 435 questionnaires to Chinese Internet users via an online questionnaire platform in China. Among them, the questionnaires that said they had not watched the official promotion videos, that had identical answer options throughout, and that were completed in less than 1 min were deleted. The remaining valid questionnaires were 397, with an effective rate of 91.3%. It indicates that these respondents all have had the real experience of watching official promotion short videos before they participated in the survey. 51% of the respondents were female, and 49% were male. The education level is concentrated in junior college to an undergraduate degree, accounting for 77.7%. The age is concentrated in 21–40 years old, accounting for 70.2%. Among the ways to get information about the destination, social media and asking relatives and friends are the most popular ways. In the past 3 years, about 85% of the respondents have traveled during the epidemic situation, indicating that all the respondents have certain travel experiences during the epidemic situation.

Reliability and validity test

Through SPSS25 data processing and reliability analysis, the overall standardized Cronbach ‘α coefficient of the questionnaire is 0.963, which shows that the questionnaire has good internal consistency and stability. The standard loads are all greater than 0.7, which shows that the observed variables explain the latent variables well. KMO = 0.974, indicating that the correlation between variables is strong and suitable for factor analysis. The combined reliability of Cronbach ‘α and CR of each latent variable is greater than 0.7, which shows that the internal consistency is good and it has good reliability and reliability.

The validity test is to verify the validity of the questionnaire, which is divided into aggregation validity and discriminant validity. Aggregation validity is measured by the AVE value. When AVE is greater than 0.5, the aggregation validity of the scale is good, and all latent variables AVE of this questionnaire are greater than 0.5. Discriminant validity is measured by comparing the square root of latent variable AVE with the correlation coefficient between variables. As shown in Table 2 , the diagonal is the square root of each latent variable AVE, and the rest is the correlation coefficient. The square root of each latent variable AVE in the table is greater than the correlation coefficient, which shows that the sample has good discrimination validity.

Analysis of the model fitting degree.

Hypothesis testing

According to the hypothesis of this research model, the structural equation model is constructed by AMOS24 software, and six adaptation indexes, x 2 / df , NFI, RFI, IFI, CFI, and RMSEA, are selected to evaluate the fitting degree of the structural equation. It is generally believed that when the ratio of chi-square degrees of freedom is <3, GFI, NFI, and IFI are close to 1, and RMSEA is <0.08, the fitting degree of the model is better ( Table 2 ).

The significance level of each variable was calculated by Boot Strapping, and the stability of data results was ensured by 2000 samples. When T  > 1.96, it means reaching a significant level of 0.05; when T  > 2.58, it means that it reaches the significant level of 0.01; when T  > 3.29, it means that it reaches a significant level of 0.001. Path analysis and significance level are shown in the figure. R 2 represents the degree to which the explanatory variable explains the explained variable. The analysis results are shown in Figure 2 and Table 3 .

Research model path coefficient and its significance level. *Means p < 0.05, **means p < 0.01, ***means p < 0.001.

Research results.

Official short video stimulates the user significantly and gets a positive response

Authority positively affects perceived value, perceived pleasure, and perceived trust significantly. Official short video media has strong authority because of its position of official certification, providing authentic and reliable information, owning complete and efficient internal resources, and ensuring the rapidity and credibility of its information to a certain extent ( Yu, 2020 ). In the process of searching for and receiving information, users tend to prefer credible information sources, so the authority can enhance users’ value perception and reduce risk perception ( Tang and Lai, 2021 ). Therefore, when watching the official promotion short videos, the public often has a high acceptance of the image of tourist destinations and tourism resources displayed, which stimulates their perception and sentimental response positively. At the same time, high-quality information and publicity ability, linked with offline tourism work, enable users to give feedback and enhance the authority of the government after getting a good travel experience.

Interaction positively affects perceived value, perceived pleasure, and perceived trust significantly. The interactive mechanism of official promotion short videos includes one-way behaviors such as users’ likes, comments, and sharing and two-way behaviors such as answering questions in private letters. Interactive behavior can generate group recognition ( Liu, 2021 ) and improve perception and sentimental stimulation in recognition. The more frequent and extensive the interaction covers, the more complete the destination image can be shaped. At the same time, the recommendation mechanism of the platform will also generate feedback and achieve positive growth—bring perceived value, gain perceived pleasure and enhance perceived trust in the interaction. The interaction will also deepen users’ cognitive impression of concerns, form a cognitive network of tourist destination image, and shape a good perception of urban tourism image.

Interest affects perceived value, perceived pleasure, and perceived trust significantly. The reason why short videos can get great attention and online traffic in the new Internet era cannot be separated from their own interesting and entertaining characteristics. Interesting and creative short videos can catch users’ eyes in a short time and bring high-quality perception enjoyment to users, so that they can fully understand relevant information and generate positive sentiments in just a few tens of seconds. Interesting videos can highlight marketing priorities and deepen users’ perceptions. Short videos of “magic brainwashing” are more likely to occupy users’ minds. The more interesting they are, the easier for tourists to obtain an immersive experience and relaxed and pleasant mood, so as to meet their various needs for the destination, eliminate their anxiety, and generate consumption impulses or plans.

User’s reaction positively affects their destination decision-making behavior significantly

Perceived value has a significant positive impact on tourists’ destination decision-making. In the process of watching the official promotion short videos, users can get to know the tourism resources, policies, epidemic prevention and control measures and other conditions in this area, get stimulated by the information obtained and compare the requirements of travel destinations accordingly. If they meet the needs, the users will have travel willingness and their online purchase decision will further be influenced by the reference price and online comments ( Li et al., 2017 ).

Perceived pleasure has a significant positive impact on tourists’ destination decision-making. When watching the official promotion short videos, if the users obtain a relaxed and pleasant sentimental reaction, it can not only improve their good feelings towards the tourist destination and the expectation of the destination tourism resources, but also stimulate them to respond positively, thus generating a strong willingness and desire to travel. Especially in the livestreaming e-commerce platform, consumers’ perceived pleasure and perceived trust together significantly affect their purchasing behavior ( Liu et al., 2020 ).

Perceived trust has a significant positive impact on tourists’ destination decision-making. Under the background of the normalization of epidemic prevention and control in China, users are eager to travel on the one hand and worried and nervous about potential safety risks in the process of travel on the other hand, thus affecting their travel decisions. Consumer’s trust is the first key factor affecting their behavior choice ( Yang et al., 2016 ). By releasing the official promotion short videos, local governments publicize reliable information about tourism resources and display with the authoritative and official image the real situation of epidemic prevention and control in the travel destination. It can dispel users’ worries and anxiety and alleviate their risk perception of the place to a certain extent, thereby increasing their willingness to travel and influencing their subsequent decision-making behavior.

Based on the above research results, the study holds that official promotion short videos can significantly influence tourists’ destination decisions. Accordingly, the following three aspects can be used to enhance the publicity and promotion capacity of local governments’ official short videos.

Firstly, improve the authority of official short videos and strengthen the credibility of the official account. Authority is one of the remarkable features that differentiate the official promotion short video from other tourism promotion short videos, and it is also one of the important ways to enhance users’ perceived trust. Due to the uncertainties of COVID-19 epidemic development, in order to enhance users’ perception and trust, it is necessary to strengthen the credibility of the official short video account. The production and expression of official short videos should be normative, and a balance should be sought between official discourse and mass media, and the essential characteristics of seriousness and authority should not be lost in catering to netizens blindly. In the production and release of official short videos, it is necessary to ensure the authenticity and reliability of the information, edit and proofread the video carefully, and avoid false publicity and exaggerated marketing. Keep the quality while obtaining online traffic, so as to create a long-term reputation and good positive feedback. Therefore, the local government should strengthen the guidance, supervision, and content review of the official short video content, prevent the dissemination of vulgar content or that worsens the image of tourist destinations. Meanwhile, prevent it from being blindly casual, pay attention to balancing publicity and entertainment, create a healthy publicity environment, and maintain the credibility of the government media account.

Secondly, strengthen the official short video interaction mechanism and expand the influence of the official account. For short video marketing, interactive mode is an important strategy of short video marketing, which forms a cycle from watching video to paying attention to anchors to shopping through the interaction between people and commodities ( Qian, 2021 ). For the official government affairs account, interaction is an important means of communication between the government and the public. The benign interaction mechanism through likes, comments, sharing and other behaviors can not only stimulate the interactive users’ perception, sentiment and trust, but also bring exposure and communication power to the account, so as to improve the efficiency of publicity. The official promotion short video subjects should further strengthen the interactive mechanism, build a bridge of communication between the official and netizens, shorten the psychological distance between each other, enhance tourists’ recognition, develop through real-time responses and convenient services high-quality interactive channels for the public, and shape a good government image. Specifically, we can make full use of the special communication mechanism of the short video platform—theme posting online—to set agenda topics actively. That is, the official account can launch topic labeling under characteristic scenic spots or activities, actively guide tourists to post and record the travel experience online, and invite influential network key opinion leaders to experience personally. In this way, it may help generate perceptual interaction, gain sensory experience and obtain emotional resonance, and create attractive “online celebrity scenic spots” or “online celebrity projects.” In addition, tourists’ feedback and personal evaluation are also important factors in improving the image of tourist destinations. Paying attention to positive and satisfactory feedback and understanding and responding to negative feedback can better dispel tourists’ negative sentiments and improve the good feelings and trust of other tourists.

At last, stimulate the creativity of official short video content and enhance the enjoyment of the official short videos. The rapid popularity of short videos on the Internet platform is due to their eye-catching creativity and funny entertainment creation forms. With entertaining and creative language and content, the official short video improves the original blunt way of communication and makes users feel the kindness and interest of the official media. On the one hand, local governments should strengthen the top-level design, rely on the overall development strategy of the city, and sort its overall atmosphere, traditional culture, public resources, scenic spots, etc. That is, they should clarify the advantages of the tourism resources, position the characteristics of the city accurately, and enhance the users’ experience of watching the promotion short videos. On the other hand, official accounts should also pay attention to the shooting quality and editing level of short videos, deeply explore local characteristics, create original videos, adopt diversified content production methods, strengthen brand communication and brand image, and improve users’ perceived value ( Cui et al., 2019 ). The official accounts can use the popular narrative method preferred by the public to provide them with an immersive experience that delivers the sense of presence ( Cao et al., 2021 ). The local governments can also develop and integrate their own traditional food, entertainment activities, civil life, urban music, and other elements and realize the value and moral guidance through short videos, so as to highlight a good city image and stimulate tourists’ desire to travel.

Based on the SOR theory and structural equation model, this study used a questionnaire as an empirical analysis method to explore the influence factors of official promotion short videos on tourists’ destination decisions in the post-epidemic era. The research results show that the tourism promotion short videos released by government departments’ official accounts on Douyin short video platform have three characteristics: authoritative, interactive, and interesting. Furthermore, based on the tourists’ trust in the government, they are significantly stimulated after watching the official promotion short videos, which positively affect their destination decision-making behavior. Theoretically, the study contributes to expand the application scope of SOR theory from traditional consumer purchasing behavior to tourist destination decisions, which not only enriches the application scope of the theory, but also provides a new theoretical perspective for the research of tourist destination decision. Given the uncertain situation of the epidemic, this study has a positive meaning for local governments to use new media platforms to publicize and promote tourism resources and restore tourism and the local economy.

The limitation of this study is mainly reflected in the quantity of questionnaire data which is still insufficient, and the model’s validity needs to be further tested. To solve this problem, the researchers plan to conduct field investigations in selected places that benefit from the official promotion short videos, and obtain first-hand data by interviewing tourists who have watched the promotion short videos and travel to the destinations, so as to improve the effectiveness of the model.

Data availability statement

Author contributions.

JJ: propose the topic and research design and paper revision, YH: write the first draft of the paper and participate in the revision of the paper. WL: participated in the design of the questionnaire and analyzed the questionnaire data. DL: participate in paper revision. All authors contributed to the article and approved the submitted version.

This paper was supported by the National Social Science Foundation of China (Grant number: 17CGL074).

Conflict of interest

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.The reviewer MG declared a shared affiliation with the author DL to the handling editor at the time of review.

Publisher’s note

All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article, or claim that may be made by its manufacturer, is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.

1 https://www.thepaper.cn/newsDetail_forward_12213569贺娇龙、刘洪走红网络背后:基层文旅干部正寻找产业突围之路 (Behind the Internet fame of HE Jiaolong and LIU Hong: grassroots leaders in cultural and tourism departments are looking for a way to break through).

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Masters Thesis Proposal Sustainable Tourism to Emerging Destinations

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43 ROLE AND IMPACT OF SOCIAL MEDIA IN TOURISM – Contributions by Ulrike Gretzel

In this chapter I will summarize my contributions to understanding social media. I feel passionate about my research on social media because social media have changed the way we shop/consume (Zhou, Zhang & Zimmermann, 2013), learn, play, work, explore our identities and express our creativity, socialize, date (Finkel et al., 2012), find out about new trends and world events (and the latest gadgets), support causes and create movements, entertain ourselves, do research (Kozinets, 2020), fuel and follow our passions (Kozinets, Patterson & Ashman, 2017), find support, celebrate, grieve, and build our legacies; and, of course, they have revolutionized the way we travel (Gretzel, 2018). Social media have allowed me to stay in touch with family and friends, connect with new friends and colleagues, share my interests with others and join communities I never knew existed, learn about people and places, find out about hidden travel gems, and post lots of cat pictures. My drive to capture meanings and effects of social media use therefore emerges from a deep personal need to make sense of the world around me.

Besides these impacts on individual consumers, social media have also transformed the way tourism businesses and destinations can market. Social media provide especially smaller establishments and micro-entrepreneurs around the world with new opportunities to be seen and heard and to understand and connect with potential and existing customers. Importantly, social media platforms gave rise to new technological innovations like augmented reality that are revolutionizing the information landscape for consumers and businesses alike. At the macro-level, social media have not only helped create new economies (e.g., the sharing economy or, more generally put, the reputation economy) and new forms of value (co-)creation (Vargo, Maglio, & Akaka, 2008), but they have also led to significant social and political change across the globe.

At the same time, social media have brought the worst out in people, businesses, and society. They have enabled new forms of scams and identity theft, led to misinformation, discrimination, bullying, envy, hate crimes, filter bubbles and increasing polarization, have interfered with elections, and have enabled the emergence of new tech giants and new economic dependencies as well as new forms of censorship. They continue to challenge our privacy rights, make us buy junk, chain us even more to our technological devices, and sometimes keep us from experiencing RL (real life). I have been stalked on social media, have spent way too much time scrolling through feeds, and have bought unnecessary items. And I often see and hear about the negative impacts social media can have on tourism businesses and entire communities, whether it is Airbnb contributing to housing shortages or influencers leading mobs of tourists to formerly pristine areas (Gretzel, 2019).

Both aspects of social media, the good and the bad, make it absolutely critical to understand social media as more than just technological applications. My research has tried to grasp what social media are, how they are being used by whom and for what purpose, how they facilitate but maybe also hinder certain human behaviors, how they shift power, what dependencies they create, why they are so persuasive, what promises they hold in terms of making our lives better, and how they might develop in the future. And tourism is an important application area in which to study social media as a phenomenon because it provides a context in which exploration (but also stupidity, see Pratt & Tolkach, 2020), desire, mobility, risk, social dynamics, etc. lead to unique information and sharing needs and behaviors on the consumer side, while hyper-competition, fragmentation and volatility create an industry context in which social media applications seem to particularly thrive.

Social Media – A Research Journey

My social media research journey began organically while investigating the impact of the Internet on tourism. At the time, virtual travel communities sparked my interest in travel information that was not created and promoted by traditional tourism intermediaries. However, it was not until 2006 that my interest in social media research became more focused. Two important things happened that year: 1) I was introduced to CyWorld by my Korean graduate students, who also convinced the Korean Tourism Organization to invite me to speak at the inaugural Korea e-Tourism forum about the travel stories consumers increasingly create and share online (Gretzel, Lee & Lee, 2006); and, 2) I met a group of enthusiastic people from a relatively unknown travel start-up at a conference for destination marketers in Austin, Texas who were there to convince people that their platform, TripAdvisor, would revolutionize the travel industry.

These occurrences led (besides a life-long passion for all things Korean and an addiction to social media) to formal research projects with the respective organizations and the start of a research program. The research report written for the project with TripAdvisor was the first empirical research study on online travel reviews and continues to be available on the TripAdvisor website (Gretzel, Yoo & Purifoy, 2007). Up to this point, fifteen years later, this research interest in social media has continued to keep me extremely busy because of the fast-paced and complex evolution of social media.

Social media have grown and developed in unexpected and profound ways. While my research on social media has explored many avenues and aspects connected with these technologies, there are many areas that remain virtually untouched and require examining, while others warrant re-examining. In this chapter I outline some of the streams of research to which I have contributed so far.

I wanted to depict my personal research journey in relation to social media in a somewhat systematic way to help others explore some of the topics I have been interested in. Over the years, I have written over 100 social media-related contributions that span journal articles, edited books, book chapters, conference papers, industry publications, commentaries, and even a published poem about popular hashtags. Figure 1 depicts the words that most frequently appear in the titles of these publications.

Figure 1 shows that besides addressing social media and consumer-generated media in general ways, I have done a lot of work on online reviews and have looked at impacts from consumer as well as operator and destination marketing perspectives. It also shows that I have explored social media in different geographic contexts, including China, Australia, and Iran. And, while the analysis of textual elements of social media has always been a focal area of my research, visual elements and practices (travel photos, selfies, emojis, videos, etc.) have become an ever more important part of my social media-related research interests in recent years.

Looking more broadly at these publications, my social media research addresses six different lenses through which social media can be understood. Three of these lenses pertain to the technological foundations of social media and to the informational landscape they create. The other three speak to the human side of social media and describe the social and cultural phenomena that emerge from their use (Figure 2). The six lenses or ways of understanding are, of course, highly interconnected and the diagram depicted in Figure 2 suggests that the human activity feeds back into the technological and informational infrastructure through the digital traces it creates. Thus, both technological and human perspectives are needed to grasp the complexity and dynamic nature of social media.

Before diving into the specific themes I explored using these lenses, I would like to note that there were a few publications that did not fit this classification. First, I have published articles, chapters and two edited books that give broad overviews of social media in tourism and therefore cover several, if not all, of these themes. They are listed in Table 1. The latest addition to this list is a co-authored review paper that examines general trends in the social media in tourism literature (Zarezadeh, Rastegar, & Gretzel, 2018). Second, I have one publication that looks at social media from a learning and teaching perspective (Isacsson & Gretzel, 2011). Unfortunately, I never pursued this specific theme further despite its obvious importance.

Table 1. General Social Media Publications.

General Social Media Publications

Sigala, M., Christou, E., & Gretzel, U. (Eds.) (2012). Social Media in Travel, Tourism and Hospitality . Brookfield, VT: Ashgate.

Gretzel, U., Sigala, M., & Christou, E. (2012). Social Media Change the Name of the Game in the Tourism and Hospitality Industries. The European Financial Review , October 20, 2012, http://www.europeanfinancialreview.com/?p=5648

Gretzel, U. & Yoo, K.-H. (2017). Social Media in Hospitality and Tourism. In S. Dixit (Ed.), Routledge Handbook of Consumer Behaviour in Hospitality and Tourism , pp. 339-346. New York: Routledge.

Zarezadeh, Z., Rastegar, R. & Gretzel, U. (2018). Reviewing the Past to Inform the Future: A Literature Review of Social Media in Tourism. Czech Journal of Tourism , 7(2), 115-131.

Sigala, M. & Gretzel, U. (Eds.) (2018). Advances in Social Media for Travel, Tourism and Hospitality: New Perspectives, Practice and Cases . New York: Routledge.

Gretzel, U. (2018). Tourism and Social Media. In Cooper, C., Gartner, W., Scott, N. & Volo, S. (Eds.). The Sage Handbook of Tourism Management , Volume 2, pp. 415-432. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

Social Media as Technology

The first lens refers to my work on social media in tourism that seeks to understand social media as technologies. This means looking at Web 2.0 technologies as the base on which social media are built, examining specific platforms like TripAdvisor, and investigating and classifying the technological affordances that shape social media use. I have also explored the relationship between social media and other technologies (smartphones and camera-technologies like GoPros, see Dinhopl and Gretzel, 2016) to understand the wider social media and device ecosystem and its implications for tourism.

Looking at social media as technologies also involves understanding their adoption and use. I have investigated this topic from consumer and organizational perspectives. A main thread in this research stream is how adoption is shaped by national and institutional contexts. Another key topic is whether social media allowed tourism providers to “leapfrog” earlier stages of Internet technology adoption and establish their online presence solely through social media. Finally, as a persuasion scholar, I have also examined social media as persuasive technologies. Specifically, I have conceptualized the potential of social media to induce behavioral change (e.g., regarding food waste and overtourism) and to support tourism-related activism through affordances that facilitate collective action (Gretzel, 2017).

Table 2. Social Media as Technology.

Technological Foundations

Ge, J., Gretzel, U. & Clarke, R. J. (2014). Strategic Use of Social Media Affordances for Marketing: A Case Study of Chinese DMOs. In Xiang, Z. & Tussyadiah, I. (Eds.), Information and Communication Technologies in Tourism 2014 , pp. 159-174. Berlin: Springer.

Gretzel, U. (2015). Web 2.0 and 3.0. In Cantoni, L. & Danowski, J. A. (Eds.). Communication and Technology, Handbooks of Communication Science (HOCS) series , pp. 181-192. Berlin: De Gruyter Mouton.

Dinhopl, A. & Gretzel, U. (2015). Changing Practices/New Technologies: Photos and Videos on Vacation. In I. Tussyadiah & A. Inversini (Eds.), Information and Communication Technologies in Tourism 2015 , pp. 777-788. Berlin: Springer Verlag.

Dinhopl, A. & Gretzel, U. (2016). Conceptualizing tourist videography. Journal of Information Technology & Tourism , 15(4), 395-410.

Yoo, K.-H., Sigala, M., & Gretzel, U. (2016). Exploring TripAdvisor. In Egger, R., Gula, I., Walcher, D. (Eds.). Open Tourism: Open Innovation, Crowdsourcing and Collaborative Consumption Challenging the Tourism Industry, pp. 239-255. Berlin: Springer.

Persuasive Technology

Gretzel, U. (2017). Social Media Activism in Tourism. Journal of Hospitality and Tourism , 15(2), 1-14.

Murphy, J., Gretzel, U., Pesonen, J., Elorinne, A.-L. & Silvennoinen, K. (2018). Household Food Waste, Tourism and Social Media: A Research Agenda. In Stangl, B. & Pesonen, J. (Eds.), Information and Communication Technologies in Tourism 2018 , pp. 228-239. Cham, Switzerland: Springer International.

Gretzel, U. (2019). The Role of Social Media in Creating and Addressing Overtourism. In Dodds, R. & Butler, R. (Eds.). Overtourism: Issues, realities and solutions , pp. 62-75. Berlin: De Gruyter.

Technology Adoption

Gretzel, U., Kang, M. & W. Lee (2008). Differences in Consumer-Generated Media Adoption and Use: A Cross-National Perspective. Journal of Hospitality Marketing and Management , 17(1/2): 99-120.

Shao, J. & Gretzel, U. (2012). Social media Usage by Chinese Community supported agriculture farms. CAUTHE National Conference 2012 . Melbourne, VIC, February 6-9, 2012.

Gretzel, U., Kennedy-Eden, H. & Mistilis, N. (2014). Organizational Factors Driving Technology Non-Adoption in Australian Tour Operators. 21st Annual ENTER 2014 Conference . Dublin, Ireland, January 21-24, 2014. http://ertr.tamu.edu/enter-2014-volume-4-research-notes/

Gretzel, U., Mendes Filho, L., Lobianco, M., Alonso Vazquez, M. & Mistilis, N. (2017). Technology Adoption by Tourism Operators in Australia and Brazil: An Institutional Theory Perspective. ENTER 2017 Conference.  Rome Italy, January 24-26, 2017. http://ertr.tamu.edu/content/issues/enter-2017-volume-8-research-notes/

Ge, J. & Gretzel, U. (2018). A new cultural revolution: Chinese consumers’ internet and social media use. In Sigala, M. & Gretzel, U. (Eds.), Advances in Social Media for Travel, Tourism and Hospitality: New Perspectives, Practice and Cases , pp. 102-118. New York: Routledge.

Zarezadeh, Z. & Gretzel, U. (2020). Iranian Heritage Sites on Social Media. Tourism Analysis , 25 (2/3), 345-357.

Soares, A. L., Mendes-Filho, L. & Gretzel, U. (2021). Technology adoption in hotels: Applying institutional theory to tourism. Tourism Review , 76(3), 669-680.

Social Media as Information

Social media platforms and applications differ from other Internet technologies because of their emphasis on the creation, sharing and curation of consumer-generated media (CGM). My research has focused on understanding the characteristics of CGM (especially their perceived trustworthiness), the motivations and traits of their creators, and their role in travel information search and decision-making processes (Table 3). Most of this research has focused on online travel reviews. My papers on false reviews were the first in tourism to investigate the phenomenon and formed the basis for later efforts by others to inform automated false review detection.

The publication that most stands out in this section is Xiang and Gretzel (2010), because it was one of the first to define social media for the tourism context and draw attention to their increasing importance and impact in the travel domain by illustrating the extent to which social media were starting to dominate travel information search. My recent work related to this theme of social media as information looks at the impact of mobile technology on consumer-generated media creation, specifically that of online travel reviews (Mariani, Borghi & Gretzel, 2019).

Table 3. Social Media as Information.

CGM Creation

Yoo, K. H. & Gretzel, U. (2008). Understanding Differences Between Online Travel Review Writers and Non-Writers. In Hara, T. (Ed.), Proceedings of the 13th Annual Graduate Education and Student Research Conference in Hospitality and Tourism , Orlando, FL, January 3-5, 2008, pp. 21-29.

Yoo, K. H. & Gretzel, U. (2009). What Motivates Consumers to Write Online Travel Reviews? Journal of Information Technology & Tourism, Special Issue on Virtual Communities , 10(4), 283-296.

Yoo, K.-H. & Gretzel, U. (2011). Influence of Personality on Travel-Related Consumer Generated Media Creation. Computers in Human Behavior , 27(2), 609-621.

Yoo, K.H., & Gretzel, U. (2012). Use and Creation of Social Media by Travelers. In Sigala, M., Christou, E., & Gretzel, U. (Eds.), Social Media in Travel, Tourism and Hospitality (pp.189-206). Brookfield, VT: Ashgate.

Mariani, M. M., Borghi, M., & Gretzel, U. (2019). Online reviews: Differences by submission device. Tourism Management , 70, 295-298.

Role in Travel Information Search

Yoo, K. H. & Gretzel, U. (2008). Use and Impact of Online Travel Reviews. O’Connor, P., Höpken, W. & Gretzel, U. (Eds.). Information and Communication Technologies in Tourism 2008 , 35-46. Vienna, Austria: Springer.

Yoo, K. H., & Gretzel, U. (2008). The Influence of Involvement on Use and Impact of Online Travel Reviews. Hospitality Information Technology Association Conference , Austin, TX, June 15-16, 2008.

Gretzel, U. (2009). Das Online-Suchverhalten von Touristen. (in German). Zeitschrift für Tourismuswissenschaft, Special Issue on New Media, 2(1), 151-164.

Xiang, Z., & Gretzel, U. (2010). Role of Social Media in Online Travel Information Search. Tourism Management , 31 (2), 179-188.

Simms, A., & Gretzel, U. (2013). Planning a vacation using social media: Influences of demographic, psychographic, and trip-related characteristics. ENTER Conference 2013 . http://ertr.tamu.edu/ files/2013/03/enter2013_submission_15.pdf

Characteristics and Perceptions of CGM

Lee, W., & Gretzel, U. (2007). Impact of Sensory Information on Evaluations of Online Travel Reviews. In Hsu, C. and H. Tsai (Eds.), Proceedings of the 12th Annual Graduate Education and Graduate Student Research Conference in Hospitality and Tourism , Houston, TX, January 4-6, 2007, pp. 815-822.

Yoo, K.-H., & Gretzel, U. (2009). Generational Differences in CGM Perceptions and Use for Travel Planning. In J. Petrick (Ed.), 40th Annual Proceedings of the Travel and Tourism Research Association Conference . Honolulu, HI, June 21-24, 2009. Travel and Tourism Research Association.

Yoo, K. H., Lee, K. S., & Gretzel, U. (2007). The role of Source Characteristics in eWOM: What Makes Online Travel Reviewers Credible and Likeable? In M. Sigala, L. Mich, J. Murphy, and A. Frew (Eds.), Proceedings of the 14th International ENTER Conference in Ljubljana, Slovenia, January 24-26, 2007, pp. 23-34. UK, Axon Imprint.

Yoo, K.-H., & Gretzel, U. (2010). Antecedents and Impacts of Trust in Travel-Related Consumer Generated Media. Journal of Information Technology & Tourism , 12 (2), 139-152.

Yoo, K.-H., Lee, Y.-J., Gretzel, U., & D. R. Fesenmaier (2009). Trust in Travel-Related Consumer Generated Media. In W. Höpken, U. Gretzel & R. Law (Eds.), Information and Communication Technologies in Tourism 2009 , pp. 49-60. Vienna, Austria: Springer Verlag.

Maister, T. & Gretzel. U. (2018). What is Branded Content and is it Ethical? The Relevance Report 2019 . Los Angeles, CA: USC Annenberg Center for Public Relations.

Yoo, K.-H., & Gretzel, U. (2009). Comparison of Deceptive and Truthful Travel Reviews. In W. Höpken, U. Gretzel & R. Law (Eds.), Information and Communication Technologies in Tourism 2009 , pp. 37-48. Vienna, Austria: Springer Verlag.

Gretzel, U. (2022). Online Reviews. In Buhalis, D. (Ed.), Encyclopedia of Tourism Marketing and Management . Northampton, MA: Edward Elgar Publishing.

Yoo, K.-H., & Gretzel, U. (2009). Detection of Deceptive Hotel Reviews: Influences of Length and Type of Review. Proceedings of the 14th Annual Graduate Student Research Conference in Hospitality and Tourism . Las Vegas, January 4-6, 2009.

Social Media as Communication

As a tourism researcher with a PhD in Communications, looking at social media from a communication perspective is of great importance to me. Three distinct sub-streams of research belong to this theme: 1) social media as a language and rhetorical device; 2) marketing communications using social media; and, 3) communication flows mediated by travel opinion leaders and influencers (Table 4). I have adopted a linguistics lens to examine the peculiarities of social media language, such as emojis and hashtags. More recently, I have followed the visual turn in social media, with images and videos increasingly replacing text (Ge & Gretzel, 2019). In addition, I have looked at social media contents using rhetorical theory to understand argumentation and persuasion in social media contexts. Humor embedded in posts and memes plays a crucial role in grabbing the attention of social media users and eliciting engagement in the forms of likes, comments, or shares.

How to effectively market tourism services and destinations using social media is an issue with which many tourism marketers continue to struggle. Conceptualizing social media marketing communications as conversations and value co-creation opportunities that require unique approaches and extensive organizational commitment has been my focus in this research stream. Opinion leaders and influencers who translate the vast amount of available travel information into bite-sized, entertaining, and relevant contents for their loyal followers are increasingly mediating communication flows between marketers and consumers. I have been following this phenomenon for over a decade now, starting with key opinion leaders in China. Understanding the role of these influencers in destination marketing is a central theme in my current work (see Femenia-Serra & Gretzel, 2022).

Table 4. Social Media as Communication.

Linguistic and Rhetorical Perspectives

De Ascaniis, S. & Gretzel, U. (2012). What’s in a Travel Review? In Fuchs, M., Ricci, F., and Cantoni, L. (Eds.), Information and Communication Technologies in Tourism 2012 , pp. 494-505. Vienna, Austria: Springer.

Ge, J. & Gretzel, U. (2017). The Role of Humour in Driving Customer Engagement. In Schegg, R. & Stangl, B. (Eds.). Information and Communication Technologies in Tourism 2017 , pp. 461-474. Cham, Switzerland: Springer International.

De Ascaniis, S. & Gretzel, U. (2013). Communicative functions of Online Travel Review titles. A pragmatic and linguistic investigation of destination and attraction OTR titles. Studies in Communication Sciences , 13(2), 156-165.

Ge, J., Gretzel, U. & Zhu, Y. (2018). Humour in Firm-initiated Social Media Conversations – A Conceptual Model. International Journal of Digital Culture and Electronic Tourism , 2(4), 273-293.

Gretzel, U. (2015). #justsayin. Poem. CCT Conference, Fayetteville, Arkansas, June 18-21, 2015. Published in Sherry, J. F., Schouten, J., & Downey, H. (Eds.). Chicksaw Craft Threnody , p. 10. South Bend, Indiana: Aire Lyre Media.

Ge, J. & Gretzel, U. (2018). Impact of Humour on Firm-Initiated Social Media Conversations. Journal of Information Technology & Tourism , 18(1-4), 61-83.

Gretzel, U. (2017). The Visual Turn in Social Media Marketing. Tourismos , 12(3), 1-18.

Ge, J. & Gretzel, U. (2019). Social Media-based Visual Strategies in Tourism Marketing. International Journal of Semiotics and Visual Rhetoric , 2(2): 23-40.

Ge, J. & Gretzel, U. (2018). Emoji Rhetoric – A Social Media Influencer Perspective. Journal of Marketing Management , 34(15-16), 1272-1295.

Shao, J., Yi, S., Shen, Y., Gretzel, U. & Joppe, M. (2020). Research on the Influence of Emoji Communication on the Perception of Destination Image: The Case of Finland. In Paris, C. M. & Benjamin, S. (Eds.), Proceedings of the 2020 TTRA International Conference . June 16-18, 2020, Victoria, BC, Canada. Whitehall, MI: Travel and Tourism Research Association. https://scholarworks.umass.edu/ ttra/2020/research_papers/19/

Marketing Communication

Gretzel, U. (2006). Consumer-Generated Content – Trends and Implications for Branding. eReview of Tourism Research , 4 (3).

Yoo, K.-H., & Gretzel, U. (2010). Web 2.0: New Rules for Tourism Marketing, 41st Annual Proceedings of the Travel and Tourism Research Association Conference . San Antonio, TX, June 20-22, 2010. Travel and Tourism Research Association.

Shao, J., Davila, M.A., & Gretzel, U. (2012). Riding the Social Media Wave: Strategies of DMOs who successfully engage in social media marketing. In Sigala, M., Christou, E., & Gretzel, U. (Eds.), Social Media in Travel, Tourism and Hospitality (pp. 87-98). Brookfield, VT: Ashgate.

Gretzel, U. & Yoo, K. H. (2013). Premises and Promises of Social Media Marketing in Tourism. In McCabe, S. (Ed.), The Routledge Handbook of Tourism Marketing , pp. 491-504. New York: Routledge.

Buhalis, D., Mistilis, N., & Gretzel, U. (2014). Future eDestination Marketing: Perspective of an Australian Tourism Stakeholder Network. Journal of Travel Research , 53(6), 778-790.

Tischler, S. & Gretzel, U. (2017). Online-Marketing in Australien und Neuseeland. In Pforr, C. & Reiser, D. (Eds.), Tourismus in Australien und Neuseeland , pp. 79-94. Berlin: DeGruyter.

Ge, J. & Gretzel, U. (2018). A Taxonomy of Value Co-creation on Weibo – A Communication Perspective. International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management , 30(4), 2075-2092.

Gretzel, U. (2022). Online Reputation Management. In Buhalis, D. (Ed.), Encyclopedia of Tourism Marketing and Management . Northampton, MA: Edward Elgar Publishing.

Opinion Leadership and Influencers

Yoo, K.-H., Gretzel, U. & Zach, F. (2011). Travel Opinion Leaders and Seekers. In Law, R., Fuchs, M. and Ricci, F. (Eds.), Information and Communication Technologies in Tourism 201 1, pp. 525-536. Vienna, Austria: Springer Verlag.

Shao, J., & Gretzel, U. (2011). Social Media Created the Chinese Backpacker Star. In Frost, W., Croy, G., Laing, J., and Beeton, S. (Eds.), International Tourism and Media Conference , 28-29 November. La Trobe University and Monash University: Melbourne.

Hochmeister, M., Gretzel, U., & Werthner, H. (2013). Destination Expertise in Online Travel Communities. In Cantoni, L. & Xiang, Z. (Eds.), Information and Communication Technologies in Tourism 2013 , pp. 219-230. Berlin: Springer.

Shao, J. & Gretzel, U. (2014). Integrating Social Media Influencers into the Marketing Strategy of Chinese Travel Communities (Abstract). In Griffin, K. & Joppe, M. (Eds.). Proceedings of the ttra 2014 International Conference , Brugge, Belgium, June 18-20, 1079-1084.

Linton, H., Han, S. & Gretzel, U. (2017). TripAdvisor Super Contributors: Projecting Professionalism. Frontiers in Service Conference , June 22-25, 2017. New York.

Gretzel, U. (2018). Influencer marketing in travel and tourism. In Sigala, M. & Gretzel, U. (Eds.), Advances in Social Media for Travel, Tourism and Hospitality: New Perspectives, Practice and Cases , pp. 147-156. New York: Routledge.

Femenia-Serra, F. & Gretzel, U. (2020). Influencer Marketing for Tourism Destinations: Lessons from a Mature Destination. In Neidhardt, J. & Wörndl, W. (Eds.), Information and Communication Technologies in Tourism 2020 , pp. 65-78. Cham, Switzerland: Springer.

Femenia-Serra, F. & Gretzel, U. (2022). Destination Influencer Marketing. In Buhalis, D. (Ed.), Encyclopedia of Tourism Marketing and Management. Northampton, MA: Edward Elgar Publishing.

Social Media as a Form of Sociality

Social media get their name from their ability to connect people, and from the opportunities they provide for users to share content and socialize, i.e., discuss, debate, organize, show off, argue, and commune, online. The social aspects of social media are especially relevant for tourism as an activity that creates and fosters bonds and for which storytelling and information sharing have always been central aspects. In this context, I have looked at identity construction in online communities and among bloggers. Most of my research on online sociality has focused on the fans of TV shows that use social media to organize as a community that often engages in travel. Most recently, I have become interested in the #vanlife community as a neo-tribe with a very strong emphasis on social-media sharing (Gretzel & Hardy, 2019). My research on social media-facilitated sociality has also looked at the relationship between travelers and tourism providers/destinations. It has found that it is a rather complicated one that requires careful management because it is often short-lived and derives from a complex mix of functional and emotional needs. Table 5 provides specific references for the two sub-topics within this lens.

Table 5. Social Media as a Form of Sociality.

Identity Construction, Cyberfandom & Neo-tribes

Scarpino, M., & Gretzel, U. (2008). Cyberfandom: Understanding the new generation of media-induced travelers. In Croy, G., Beeton, S. & Frost W. (Eds.). Proceedings of the International Tourism and Media Conference . Melbourne, Australia: LaTrobe University & Monash University.

Lee, Y., & Gretzel, U. (2014). Cross-cultural Differences in Social Identity Formation through Travel Blogging. Journal of Travel and Tourism Marketing , 31(1), 37-54.

Shao, J., & Gretzel, U. (2009). Online Responses to a Chinese popular TV Series: Implications for Film-Induced tourism. In L. Lowry (Ed.), Proceedings of the 2009 Annual International Society of Travel and Tourism Educators (ISTTE) Conferenc e, October 15-17, 2009 in San Antonio, TX (Vol 21, pp.224-235). St. Clair Shores, MI: ISTTE.

Dinhopl, A., Gretzel, U. & Whelan, A. (2015). Labeling as a Social Practice in Online Consumption Communities. Special Issue on Online Consumption Communities. Psychology & Marketing , 32(3), 240-249.

Lee, Y.-J., Yoo, K.-H., & Gretzel, U. (2009). Social Identity Formation Through Blogging: Comparison of U.S. and Korean Travel Blogs. Proceedings of the 14th Annual Graduate Student Research Conference in Hospitality and Tourism . Las Vegas, January 4-6, 2009.

Shao, J. & Gretzel, U. (2018). Power of Dramas: A Comparison of Voluntourism between Chinese and American Film Tourists. In Kim, S., & Reijnders, S. (Eds.), Film Tourism in Asia , pp. 187-201. Singapore: Springer Nature.

Shao, J., Scarpino, M., Lee, Y., & Gretzel, U. (2012). Media-Induced Voluntourism in Yunnan, China. Tourism Review International , 15(3), 277-292.

Gretzel, U. & Hardy, A. (2019). #VanLife: Materiality, Makeovers and Mobility amongst Digital Nomads. e-Review of Tourism Research , 16(2/3): 1-9.

Relationship with tourism businesses and destinations

Gretzel, U. & Fesenmaier, D. R. (2012). Customer Relations 2.0 – Implications for Destination Marketing. TTRA Annual International Conference , June 17-19, 2012. Virginia Beach, VA. http://scholarworks.umass.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1755&context=ttra

Gretzel, U. & Dinhopl, A. (2014). Breaking Up is Hard to Do: Why Do Travellers Unlike Travel-Related Organizations? In Xiang, Z. & Tussyadiah, I. (Eds.), Information and Communication Technologies in Tourism 2014 , pp.267-280. Berlin: Springer.

Social Media as Experience

Social media can also be viewed from a phenomenological perspective, as an increasingly central part of human experience in everyday life and during travel. Social media impact tourism experiences and create new forms of touristic experiences. Through this lens, I have explored how social media influence the tourist gaze, how they shape experiences before, during and after the trip, and how they change tourism in specific contexts, such as city tourism and adventure travel (Table 6). In relation to the tourist gaze, I have been interested in selfies as a particularly prominent way in which social media impact on touristic practices. In Dinhopl and Gretzel (2018), we show that social media audiences are internalized and guide every detail of the experience, from planning to post-trip social media sharing. My other work has also shown that these impacts span all phases of the experience, from the dreaming phase to trip satisfaction (Sedera et al., 2017) and post-trip memory work.

Table 6. Social Media as Experience.

Social Media-Enabled Tourist Gaze

Gretzel, U. (2010). Travel in the Network: Redirected Gazes, Ubiquitous Connections and New Frontiers. In Levina, M. & Kien, G. (Eds.). Post-global Network and Everyday Life , pp. 41-58. New York: Peter Lang.

Dinhopl, A. & Gretzel, U. (2016). Selfie-taking as touristic looking. Annals of Tourism Research. 57, 126-139.

Dinhopl, A. & Gretzel, U. (2015). Consumer Soiveillance: Observations of the Self by means of New Media Technologies. In Diehl, K. & Yoon, C. (Eds.), Proceedings of the Association of Consumer Research North American Conference, Special session on iMirror/iMirror: Digital Reflections of Self-Consumption . New Orleans, LA, October 1-4, 2015, p. 134.

Kozinets, R., Gretzel, U. & Dinhopl, A. (2017). Self in Art/Self as Art: Museum Selfies as Identity Work. Frontiers in Psychology , 8:731.

Dinhopl, A. & Gretzel, U. (2016). GoPro panopticon: Performing in the surveyed leisure experience, in S. Carnicelli, D. McGillivray, & G. McPherson (Eds.). Digital Leisure Cultures: Critical Perspectives , pp. 66-79. Routledge: London.

Dinhopl, A. & Gretzel, U. (2018). The networked neo-tribal gaze. In Hardy, A., Bennett, A. & Robards, B. (Eds.). Neo-Tribes: Consumption, Leisure and Tourism , pp. 221-234. Cham, Switzerland: Palgrave-Macmillan.

Impact on Experiences Beyond the Trip

Gretzel, U., Fesenmaier, D. R., Lee, Y.-J., & Tussyadiah, I. (2011). Narrating Travel Experiences: The Role of New Media. In R. Sharpley & P. Stone (Eds.), Tourist Experiences: Contemporary Perspectives , pp. 171-182. New York: Routledge.

Sedera, D., Lokuge, S., Atapattu, M., & Gretzel, U. (2017). Likes – the key to my happiness: The moderating effect of social influence on travel experience. Information and Management , 54(6), 825-836.

Gretzel, U. (2021). Dreaming about Travel: A Pinterest Netnography. In Wörndl, W., Koo, C. & Stienmetz, J. (Eds.) Information and Communication Technologies in Tourism 2021 , pp.256-268. Cham, Switzerland: Springer.

Specific Experiences

Gretzel, U. (2015). The role of technology-mediation in the context of adventure travel. In Black, R. & Bricker, K. (Eds.), Adventure Programming and Travel for the 21st Century , pp. 451-455. State College, PA: Venture Publishing.

Gretzel, U. (2019). Social Media and the City: Mediated Gazes and Digital Traces. In Šegota, T., Sigala, M., Gretzel, U., Day, J., Kokkranikal, J., Smith, M., Henderson, J. C., Seabra, C., Pearce, P., Davidson, R., Van Zyl, C., Newsome, D., Hardcastle, J., Rakić, T., Future Agendas in Urban Tourism Research: Special Editorial, International Journal of Tourism Cities , 5(2), 109-124. DOI: 10.1108/IJTC-12-2018-0095.

Gretzel, U. (2020). The growing role of social media in city tourism. In Morrison, A. M. & Coca-Stefaniak, J. A. (Eds.). Routledge Handbook of Tourism Cities , pp. 389-399. New York: Routledge.

Social Media as Data

Social media activities lead to digital traces that, when collected for research purposes, become data. This data fuels the algorithms of social media platforms but can also (at least to some extent) be extracted and interpreted to derive research insights and marketing intelligence. While I have used many different kinds of approaches to analyzing social media data, netnography has become my method of choice because it allows me to keep contextual information intact and to derive rich and meaningful insights. Table 7 lists some of my netnography work in tourism that was not included in any of the previous tables.

Doing research on social media and research with social media has sensitized me to specific data quality issues, which are starting to receive attention in the tourism literature (Xiang et al., 2018). For instance, numerical ratings in online travel reviews do not necessarily correspond with the sentiment expressed in the review text (Jiang, Gretzel & Law, 2010). And established approaches like semiotics, which has gained in importance as social media data have become more visual, need to be adjusted to fit the social media context and need to address the ethical considerations necessary for social media research (Ge & Gretzel, 2022).

Table 7. Social Media as Data.

Netnography

Gretzel, U. (2017). #travelselfie: a netnographic study of travel identity communicated via Instagram. In Carson, S. & Pennings, M. (Eds.), Performing Cultural Tourism: Communities, Tourists and Creative Practices, pp. 115-128. New York: Routledge.

Kennedy-Eden, H. & Gretzel, U. (2021). My Heritage in my Pocket: Mobile Device and App Use by Genealogy Tourists. Journal of Information Technology & Tourism , forthcoming.

Gretzel, U. & Murphy, J. (2019). Making Sense of Robots – Consumer Discourse on Robots in Tourism and Hospitality Service Settings. In Ivanov, S. & Webster, C. (Eds.). Robots, Artificial Intelligence and Service Automation in Travel, Tourism and Hospitality, pp. 93-104. Bingley, UK: Emerald Publishing.

Kozinets, R.V. & Gretzel, U. (2022). Netnography. In Buhalis, D. (Ed.), Encyclopedia of Tourism Marketing and Management . Northampton, MA: Edward Elgar Publishing.

Rastegar, R., Zarezadeh., Z. & Gretzel, U. (2021). World Heritage and Social Justice: Insights from the Inscription of Yazd, Iran. Journal of Sustainable Tourism , 29(2/3), 520-539.

Social Media Data & Analysis

Jiang, J., Gretzel, U., & Law, R. (2010). Do Negative Experiences Always Lead to Dissatisfaction? – Testing Attribution Theory in the Context of Online Travel Reviews. In Gretzel, U., Law, R. and M. Fuchs (Eds.), Information and Communication Technologies in Tourism 201 0, pp. 297-308. Vienna, Austria: Springer Verlag.

Ge, J., Alonso Vazquez, M. & Gretzel, U. (2018). Sentiment analysis: a review. In Sigala, M. & Gretzel, U. (Eds.), Advances in Social Media for Travel, Tourism and Hospitality: New Perspectives, Practice and Cases , pp. 243-261. New York: Routledge.

Ge, J. & Gretzel, U. (2022). Social Media Semiotics. In Buhalis, D. (Ed.), Encyclopedia of Tourism Marketing and Management . Northampton, MA: Edward Elgar Publishing.

Marketing Intelligence

Gretzel, U., Lee, W. & K.S. Lee (2006). Listening to the Stories Consumers Tell. Proceedings of the Korea e-Tourism Forum . Seoul, Korea, September 8-9, 2006.

Jiang, J., Gretzel, U. & Law, R. (2014). Influence of Star Rating and Ownership Structure on Brand Image of Mainland China Hotels. Journal of China Tourism Research , 10(1), 69-94.

The Future of Social Media Research

Reflecting on my social media-related research journey fills me with gratitude to all my wonderful collaborators and co-authors. Very often it was them who charted the paths forward and it was their passion that inspired me. Thinking about the different themes that I have explored with them also makes me feel antsy because it is pretty clear that there is so much more that warrants investigation. Given the dynamic nature of social media, I realize that many themes remain underexplored and that many of the topics should be re-investigated as social media technologies and use cultures continue to evolve. Thus, while it is nice to summarize my research in this area and emphasize my contributions, I see the greatest value of this exercise in providing a research framework that illustrates different ways of understanding social media and, thus, can help with identifying research priorities and gaps.

I often get asked about the future of particular platforms or types of CGM. My answer is always that social media will continue to take on new forms and will transform our lives in ways that we cannot yet anticipate. But I also add that one thing is for certain: they are here to stay and will continue to shape tourism in wonderful as well as disruptive ways. Thus, there will be no shortage of social media-related research topics in the future.

Written by Ulrike Gretzel, University of Southern California, USA Read Ulrike’s letter to future generations of tourism researchers

Dinhopl, A. & Gretzel, U. (2016). Conceptualizing tourist videography. Information Technology & Tourism , 15(4), 395-410.

Femenia-Serra, F. & Gretzel, U. (2022). Destination Influencer Marketing. In Buhalis, D. (Ed.), Encyclopedia of Tourism Marketing and Management . Northampton, MA: Edward Elgar Publishing.

Finkel, E. J., Eastwick, P. W., Karney, B. R., Reis, H. T., & Sprecher, S. (2012). Online dating: A critical analysis from the perspective of psychological science. Psychological Science in the Public Interest , 13(1), 3-66.

Gretzel, U., Lee, W. & Lee, K.S. (2006). Listening to the Stories Consumers Tell. Korea e-Tourism Forum . Seoul, Korea, September 8-9, 2006.

Gretzel, U., Yoo, K. H. & M. Purifoy (2007). Online Travel Reviews Study . Technical Report. College Station, TX: Laboratory for Intelligent Systems in Tourism. Accessed online at (August 1, 2021): https://www.tripadvisor.com/pdfs/OnlineTravelReviewReport.pdf .

Isacsson, A. & Gretzel, U. (2011). Facebook as an edutainment medium to engage students in sustainability and tourism. Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Technology , 2(1), 81-90.

Jiang, J., Gretzel, U., & Law, R. (2010). Do Negative Experiences Always Lead to Dissatisfaction? – Testing Attribution Theory in the Context of Online Travel Reviews. In Gretzel, U., Law, R. and M. Fuchs (Eds.), Information and Communication Technologies in Tourism 2010 , pp. 297-308. Vienna, Austria: Springer Verlag.

Kozinets, R. V. (2020). Netnography: The essential guide to qualitative social media research . London: Sage.

Kozinets, R., Patterson, A., & Ashman, R. (2017). Networks of desire: How technology increases our passion to consume. Journal of Consumer Research , 43(5), 659-682.

Pratt, S., & Tolkach, D. (2020). Stupidity in tourism. Tourism Recreation Research , https://doi.org/10.1080/02508281.2020.1828555 .

Vargo, S. L., Maglio, P. P., & Akaka, M. A. (2008). On value and value co-creation: A service systems and service logic perspective. European Management Journal , 26(3), 145-152.

Xiang, Z., Du, Q., Ma, Y., & Fan, W. (2018). Assessing reliability of social media data: lessons from mining TripAdvisor hotel reviews. Information Technology & Tourism , 18(1), 43-59.

Xiang, Z. & Gretzel, U. (2010). Role of Social Media in Online Travel Information Search. Tourism Management , 31 (2), 179-188.

Zhou, L., Zhang, P., & Zimmermann, H. D. (2013). Social commerce research: An integrated view. Electronic commerce research and applications , 12(2), 61-68.

Women’s voices in tourism research Copyright © 2021 by The University of Queensland is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License , except where otherwise noted.

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