Examining the effect of message characteristics, popularity, engagement, and message appeals: evidence from Facebook corporate pages of tourism organisations

This study investigated the use of Facebook marketing by tourism brands to manage the promotional branding of national and state tourism organisations in the Indian context. This sought to unravel the underlying mechanisms of social media marketing by tourism brands on Facebook, which is one of the major digital platforms in India with highest number of active users in gross terms. From a total of 12 tourism departments with active Facebook pages, five tourism departments were selected based on their level of high social media activity. Content from 1095 Facebook posts of five tourism brand pages were analysed to find answers to three research questions concerning message characteristics, popularity and engagement, and message appeals. Findings of the study suggest that positive emotional appeals would be most effective while dealing with experiential products. It further indicates that mere acquisition of social media fans and followers does not result in better engagement. The findings of this study have practical implications for tourism companies who wish to expand into emerging markets such as India.