Social networks and promotion of a destination

By Amandine Amphoux & Isabelle Masseglia

Article from: http://www.tourisme-tic.com/e-marketing/reseaux-sociaux-et-promotion-dune-destination-1049

Image: http://www.flickr.com/photos/10ch/3346820651/

The growing popularity of social networks is distressing the traditional marketing model. Marketing people control the message and almost the image to a certain point. That’s why the use of Social Networks like Facebook could be a great opportunity for destinations. In fact, when a destination is promoted and followed on a social network, its popularity grows; people are more and more interested by it and want to discover it.

By the way, Internet users are now able to influence consumer behavior as well as to make some marketing effort fail. In this context, French Destination Organizations are not using the social networks enough. But why? There are several reasons for that:

- First they are uncertain about the return on investment (Will the return be positive or not?)

- They want to be sure regarding the control of the destination image (Do our destination image is going to change and how?)

- The social networks are facing a huge growth worldwide and it’s a bit scary (How to control such a phenomenon?)

However the good points are strong:

- It enables the Internet users and tourist Destinations to build reliable relationships (having a Facebook page for a travel agency is in many cases a good way to be promoted and to follow customers).

- The companies in the tourism field can have a great promotion.

- The I.T. have had a big impact on the tourism industry over the last 15 years: online travels agencies (lastminute.com etc…), new business models.

- Social networks could also play in the value chain in adding some value particularly regarding the promotion of specific areas.

Aware of that, Atout France has decided to undertake a study focusing on young people about the impacts of networking on tourist destinations. Workshops are currently gathering professionals in the tourism field. It would be really interesting to follow-up this survey and to analyze it in a future article.