Tourism destinations in the digital and social media age Research Proposal - 1

Tourism destinations in the digital and social media age - Research Proposal Example This can be seen in numerous industries, which has led to the emergence of new models of business aimed at capitalizing on the new opportunities, as well as to win, influence, and engage the consumer. The tourism sector has been one of the industries that have been significantly disrupted by social and digital media. As tourists become more internet-savvy, they no longer receive information through direct personal recommendations or passively. Rather, they gather experiences on travel from the internet and receive recommendations on destinations from people in the destinations they would like to visit (Hudson & Thal, 2013: p158). This research will be designed into five chapters. The first will offer considerable background information with regards to the social and digital media use in marketing tourist destination. The second chapter will involve the methodology using qualitative research through a case study as the major data collection technique. Chapter 3 will tackle an intensive literature review, aimed at narrowing down the scope of theory. The fourth chapter will consist of an empirical study, which will deal with empirical data collected via an interview with a player in tourism industry. Finally, the fifth chapter will involve analysis of the research, discussion of the results, and a conclusion. Neuts et al (2013: p74) argue that ICT advances have resulted in unprecedented challenges and opportunities to tourism, especially as the sector is information-intensive. The tourism industry demands an increased role of web 2.0 technologies, especially in the marketing and promotion of destinations. According to Hvass and Munar (2012: p97), the social and digital media have become the major tools for delivering information in the industry. Munar et al (2013: p43) concur by stating that social and digital media in marketing offers tourist destinations an added competitive advantage. Thus, almost all