The Utilization of Social Media Marketing in Destination Management Organizations

The emerging use of social media fundamentally changes the communication and interaction of societies and organizations. It revolutionizes the way organizations market their products and interact with their customers. Social media acts as an agent of change within the marketing and communication of organizations. In particular, the tourism sector is affected by these disruptive changes. Social media influences and changes the interaction between touristic supply and demand sides fundamentally. These upcoming opportunities and challenges are especially relevant for destination management organizations (DMOs), which try to coordinate and market the intangible and immaterial tourism product of a destination. Social media marketing transforms the classical marketing and communication of these destination management organizations. Nevertheless, destination management organizations are still in an experimental stage of utilizing social media as a marketing tool, as they slowly start to realize the potential benefits of social media as an agent of change. This study investigates how DMOs in alpine regions implement social media marketing in their classical marketing strategies through a quantitative survey. Furthermore, the paper outlines which upcoming challenges and opportunities DMOs face by conducting qualitative interviews with social media managers in the destinations. Finally, implications and recommendations for DMOs are presented to cope with the emerging use of social media as a marketing tool.