Promotion of tourism through social networks

Abstract

This article analyses the current situation of the use of the Internet and social networks in tourism promotion in Catalonia by the different existing regional tourism boards. The results obtained from a survey to the managers of Catalan tourism promotion entities and from observations show, on the one hand, that the use of new technologies is very unequal among the different entities, and on the other hand, that in a single year of analysis the use of social media by brands of each region has undergone a significant increase. However, representatives of Catalan tourism brands are aware of the significance of using social networks and the Internet to promote their destination because all of them have a website, and 78% of them have a Facebook profile, Twitter, and a Youtube channel. This study can serve as a tool to propose new strategies for destinations through the use of different social networks, such as Pinterest or Instagram, based on image sharing and widely used by mobile users.