The aim of this study is to reveal how influencer communication takes place during collaborations with travel agencies and to evaluate how they communicate with their followers in this context. The study has a descriptive nature and covers the collaborations of “Korea Tourism Organization & Meryem Can,” “Visit Dubai & Meryem Can,” “Visit Dubai & Gülnihal Eren (Cocobolinho),” and “Costa Cruises & Gülnihal Eren (Cocobolinho)” as case studies. Within this framework, collaborations with different travel agencies are examined through the relevant content on the official Instagram accounts of influencers. At the same time, this compilation study shows that influencers actively participate in social networks during the experiential process of travel agencies. Additionally, the preference for female influencers who collaborate in the tourism industry is considered as another feature of the study.
TopIntroduction
Today, it is a fact that we are able to promote and advertise anything through social media applications as well as to reach more audiences. The changes and transformations experienced with social media platforms in every sector also can also be seen in the field of tourism. It is seen that tourism companies are sharing posts on the social media platforms in order to reach their target audience. In this way, tourism companies aim to announce their desired travel routes, campaigns, discounts, and draws through social media platforms. In this context, we can say that tourism companies have started to focus on social media platforms as well as the traditional promotional types.
In this direction, it is possible to talk about influencers who are included in our lives as a result of social media applications and environments. Influencers are people who produce content in line with a specific topic and share this content with their followers through social media platforms. Influencers are considered as a new type of third party that uses social media platforms to change and transform their followers' thoughts (Freberg et al., 2010). It is stated that the influencers have a guiding power over their followers.
Therefore, it is seen that influencers share their experiences, opinions and thoughts about a brand or product with a sincere language. Producing contents consistently on social media platforms enables influencers to establish a virtual bond with their followers. In this context, one of the factors that creates a virtual connection between influencers and their followers is that they are able to appeal to their common tastes and likes. As a result the followers identifies with the influencers and they see them as one of their own friends. In this regard, influencers are considered as people who appeal to large audiences and are in a trusted position (Lou & Yuan, 2018).
Followers are more likely to interact with influencers than other celebrities. The posts of influencers on social media accounts for brand collaborations are usually in the form stories, posts, videos, reels and visuals. Brands that realize the interaction and virtual bond between influencers and their followers are entering the process of cooperation with influencers through social media platforms. Brands carry out the influencer collaboration process in order to reach more people from their target audience, direct them to buy their products, to remind their brand and to create a bond. In this context, influencers are considered as a communication tool by brands. In this way, the process of communicating with the target audience proceeds more actively. In addition, as a result of the cooperation, the followers are able to gain information about the brand / product in a faster and more practical way. Influencer followers are able to discover more than one brand as they are trying to gain information about a new product in this process. Therefore, the followers are aware of the brand and its product variety or the products of the trending brands. Influencers who go to the brand collaboration process are aware of which content and which products their followers might like. Therefore, influencers pay attention to this process when choosing the products of the brands that they will produce content and promote. Otherwise, the influencers are aware that their cooperation made with the brand or product may not be liked and besides, their followers trust in them will be damaged. As a result, they tend to carry out a meticulous and regular process during the brand cooperation process. In addition, influencers today use concepts such as “collaboration”, “paid partnership”, “advertisement” in their contents they share. In this way, it can be said that they are displaying a more transparent approach towards their followers.
Influencers are experiencing many different brands, products and environments from categories such as clothing-fashion, beauty and make-up, lifestyle, parent-child, fitness, sports, food, do-it-yourself and travel. In this context, it is possible to say that many influencer categories exist today. When travelling is observed among these categories, we are able to observe influencers who cooperate with tourism agencies. Travel agencies on social media platforms are also aware of influencers' ability to direct and influence their followers. So as a result, nowadays it can be seen that travel agencies and influencer cooperation processes are taking place more frequently.