Article abstract

Journal of Economics and International Business Management

Review Article | Published October 2018 | Volume 6, Issue 3, pp. 46-50.

doi: https://doi.org/10.33495/jeibm_v6i3.18.113

 

New trends in tourism: Heritage and social media

 


 

 

Rejla Bozdo

 

Email Author


 

Faculty of Economics, University of Tirana, Albania.



……......................................…....……...……………...................…....…........…....…..................................................………...……..….........………...........

Citation: Bozdo R (2018). New trends in tourism: Heritage and social media. J. Econ. Int. Bus. Manage. 6(3): 46-50.

……......................................…....……...……………...................…....…........…....…..................................................………...……..….........………...........



 Abstract 


According to OECD Tourism Trends and Policies 2016, consumer trends are changing the tourism landscape. According to this study, trips are becoming shorter and people are searching for more unique, personalized experiences in alternative destinations. The growing demand for unusual experiences can bring into focus cultural heritage as an important part of this experience. This paper aims to give an insight on how nations, countries, regions or cities can communicate their cultural heritage mixed with other touristic elements to attract tourists by fulfilling the needs of having a unique experience. Cultural heritage can be promoted through social media, which is now very popular all over the world. Social media plays an important role in information search, decision-making behaviors, and tourism promotion and so business in tourism industry use social media to communicate to potential tourists with objectives that consider this role. According to Global Web Index (GWI) as one of the most reliable research sources of social media statistics social media market is growing each year. Comparing to year 2016 active social media users have been increased by 21%. Specific data on social media usage give a better understanding how people behave on social networks and can help tourism industry to develop a successful communication strategy. It is of great importance to create attraction and interaction. Through social networks, people can become great promoters of the places they visit, or of the places they live. They can share their experiences and recommend places by impacting their friends with no cost for the business and high level of reliability because as we know “people trust friends”. This paper is based on secondary data and its main goal is to give a landscape of the increasingly important role that social media is playing in many aspects of tourism, and also in communicating cultural heritage. The main goal of this paper is to give data that support the idea that social media can be used in a proper way that follows new touristic trends.

Keywords  Social media   Facebook   Internet   tourism   communication   heritage  

 

 

Copyright © 2018 Author(s) retain the copyright of this article.

This article is published under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License 4.0

 

 

 References 

 

Aurkene A, Joseph TO, Alastair MM (1998). “Cultural and Heritage Tourism: Identifying niches for international travellers”, J. Tour. Stud. 9:2. http://dx.doi.org/10.1787/888933319610.

Australia Facebook Page (2017). Available at: https://www.facebook.com/SeeAustralia. Available at: http://www.openforum.com/idea-hub/topics/innovation/article/social.

Barkan T (2009). How to develop a successful social network strategy. Social Networking and Media Association. Available at: http://www.snama.org/SNAMA.

Campbell A (2009). Social media explained. American Express Open Forum. europe.PDF.

Greg R (1996). Cultural Tourism in Europe. CABI, Wallingford. http://www.tram- research.com/cultural_tourism_in.

Heritage Council of Western Australia in partnership with Tourism Western Australia (2006). “A heritage tourism strategy for Western Australia. http://culturalheritagetourism.org/what-is-heritage-tourism.

Janos C (2012). The Role and Importance of Cultural Tourism in Modern Tourism Industry, Strategies for Tourism Industry - Micro and Macro Perspectives. Available from: http://www.intechopen.com/books/strategies-for-tourism-industry-micro-and-macroperspectives/ the-role-and-importance-of-cultural-tourism-in-modern-tourism-industry.

Mangold WG, Faulds DJ (2009). Social media: The new hybrid element of the promotion mix. Business Horizons, 52(4):357-365.

OECD (2009). The Impact of Culture in Tourism. http://www.oecd.org/cfe/tourism/theimpactofcult ureontourism.htm.

OECD (2016). OECD Tourism Trends and Policies 2016, OECD Publishing, Paris. http://dx.doi.org/10.1787/tour-2016-en.

Pew Research Center (2016). Available at: http://www.pewinternet.org/2016/11/11/social-media-update-2016/SNAMA/Resources/LibraryDocumentList/Default.aspx?LibraryKey=9162f9f4-85fd-4e19-9507-7365a869ed02.

Statsmonkey (2017). Available at: https://www.statsmonkey.com/table/21281-albania-mobile-social-media-usage-statistics-2015.php.