THE USAGE OF SOCIAL MEDIA IN DESTINATION MARKETING: A RESEARCH ON CITTASLOW IN TURKEY

Cittaslow movement as a local development model has become increasingly important all overthe world since 1999. One of the important factor for the sustainability of this movement is communicated with both local residents and destination visitors accurately and conscious way about the principles and the benefits of Cittaslow philosophy and the unique features of the destination. At this point, social media is a key tool in destination marketing for Cittaslow destinations due to its features such as providing a competitive advantage, reaching a global audience, rapid dissemination of information, communicating with consumers. In this regard the study focuses the role of social media in destination marketing. The aim of the research is to determine how and at what level Cittaslow in Turkey use social media in destination marketing. In accordance with this purpose, content analysis technique was used and Facebook was chosen as social media channel. Among 11 Cittaslow in Turkey, 7 Cittaslow destinations (Gökçeada, Halfeti, Perşembe, Seferihisar, Şavşat, Vize, Yalvaç) that have an official municipality Facebook page were included to the research. This destinations’ posts between January 2016 and June 2016 were analysed in terms of content, frequency and interactivity by utilising the categories Hays et al. (2013) created in their study. The findings of this study show that, Seferihisar Municipality uses social media more effectively in terms of content and post frequency but they also reveal that interactivity which is one of the most important features of social media is not adequately heeded by all Cittaslow destinations in Turkey.