Tourist Social Media Engagement: Conceptualization and Indicators

Introduction

In the hospitality and tourism industry, social media (SM) are profoundly changing traveler behaviors, mostly in the travels’ information searching, planning, and post-experience sharing stages. The globally increasing penetration rates and the popularity of SM in travel decisions transformed these platforms into an essential component of marketing strategies of hospitality and tourism companies. Additionally, SM has become a prevalent source of marketing intelligence of tourism companies (Albayrak et al., 2020), thus making them indispensable tools for destination managers and hospitality companies, among others.

Social media, which broadly refers to online tools based on social interactions and user-generated content, is characterized by three main features that distinguish these technologies from other web-based tools: real-time communication, many-to-many interactions, and user-generated content. Indeed, social media users can interact in real-time with peers in many-to-many networks by posting their comments, photos, or videos in real-time. These features have boosted social media diffusion worldwide at both individual and organizational levels (Peters et al., 2013).

Overall, social media are transforming the tourism industry from its traditional and information. Since the search for information is a critical aspect of tourists' purchase-decision process, the importance of social media for the tourism industry is evident. Social media have radically changed how tourists interact with tourism brands and make purchasing decisions. Before deciding to travel, most tourists look for online information and reviews provided by managers and other tourists on social media. Indeed, the literature demonstrates that travel decisions are influenced by social media, and tourists’ online behavior could predict the demand for destinations (Villamediana et al., 2019).

One essential aspect to analyze in this regard is customer engagement (CE). In today’s highly dynamic and interactive business environment, the role of customer engagement in co-creating customer experience and value is receiving increasing attention from business practitioners and academics alike. It is suggested that within interactive, dynamic business environments, CE represents a strategic imperative for generating enhanced corporate performance, including sales growth, superior competitive advantage, and profitability (Brodie et al., 2013).

It should be stressed that the mere presence of a destination or a DMO in a virtual environment is not enough to promote the image of the destination and to heighten intentions to visit. In fact, social media should be viewed as a strategic resource to increase tourism and for obtaining a holistic understanding of the tourist experience (Galvez-Rodriguez et al., 2020), as the presence of tourism brands in social media is not enough to have an impact on tourists' purchase decisions; it is necessary to generate engagement (Villamediana et al., 2019).

The level of engagement obtained will depend on the user's involvement in and interaction with the information provided on social media about the destination, considering both the amount of time and the degree of attention dedicated to its evaluation (Rodríguez et al, 2020).