International Journal of Tourism Sciences

ISSN: 1598-0634 (Print) 2377-0058 (Online) Journal homepage: http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/rijt20

Social media technologies in the tourism industry:

an analysis with special reference to their role in
sustainable tourism development

Sudipta Kiran Sarkar & Babu George

To cite this article: Sudipta Kiran Sarkar & Babu George (2018): Social media technologies in the
tourism industry: an analysis with special reference to their role in sustainable tourism development,
International Journal of Tourism Sciences, DOI: 10.1080/15980634.2018.1551312

To link to this article: https://doi.org/10.1080/15980634.2018.1551312

Published online: 30 Nov 2018.

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INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF TOURISM SCIENCES
https://doi.org/10.1080/15980634.2018.1551312

Social media technologies in the tourism industry: an

analysis with special reference to their role in sustainable
tourism development
Sudipta Kiran Sarkara and Babu George b

a
International department of Hospitality Management (SIHOM), Sol International School, Woosong
University, Daejeon, Dong-gu, South Korea; bRobbins College of Business and Entrepreneurship, Fort Hays
State University, Hays, KS-67601, USA

ABSTRACT ARTICLE HISTORY

This paper attempts to examine the evolving dynamic of social media Received 2 May 2018
driven sustainable development in the tourism industry and how the Revised 10 July 2018
modern tourism businesses could grow into what might be called Accepted 24 October 2018
sustainable corporate citizenship behaviour. The full potential of social KEYWORDS
media technologies is rarely recognized as tourism firms continue to Social media; technologies;
employ social media as just yet another promotional tool. One of the sustainable development;
greatest opportunities offered by the social media platforms is that ecotourism; environment;
sustainable development no longer needs to be an isolated business ecological citizenship;
objective but could rather become a goal shared equitably among the sustainable corporate
various groups of stakeholders interested in the future of tourism. The citizenship behaviour
paper discusses tourists’ use of social media and highlights certain
common social media applications in promoting ecotourism.

Introduction
Social media have transformed the intensity of electronic practices in the tourism and
hospitality Industry (Cheng, Wong, Wearing, & McDonald, 2016). Some of the key
information-dependant activities of tourists like destination information search, infor-
mation sharing among tourists as well as destination marketing and promotion by
Destination Management Organizations (DMOs) for tourists, have been enhanced by
the use of social media in the tourism industry (Buhalis & Law, 2008; Park & Oh, 2012;
Xiang & Gretzel, 2010). The utilisation of social media in the functionalities of the
tourism and hospitality industry has grown manifold in the recent past. This is due to
the ability of social media to provide to tourism and hospitality businesses a relatively
more cost-effective and efficient means to reach existing and new customer-bases as
well as market their products and services (Hays, Page, & Buhalis, 2013).
Some of the principal uses of social media by tourists have been – travel purchase
decision-making, trip planning, and acquiring, sharing and exchange of information
related to various tourism products (Edwards, Cheng, Wong, Zhang, & Wu, 2017; Pabel
& Prideaux, 2016). Social media being enabled by UGC arms tourists with the instant

CONTACT Babu George bpgeorge@fhsu.edu Fort Hays State University, USA

© 2018 Tourism Sciences Society of Korea
2 S. K. SARKAR AND B. GEORGE

ability to transmit word-of-mouth information (eWOM) electronically among them-

selves (Abou-Shouk & Hewedi, 2016; Nusair, Erdem, Okumus & Bilgihan, 2012).
For businesses in the tourism & hospitality industry and tourism promotional
bodies, the key functions of marketing and promotion, customer satisfaction and
retention, service recovery as well as provision of personalised services to customers,
can now be strategically and effectively delivered with the aid of social media (Baniyai &
Potwarka, 2011; Cheng et al., 2016).
Online social networking platforms like Facebook, Google +, YouTube and Trip
Advisor have been some of the widely used social media sites by tourists and tourism
organisations in the recent past (Abou-Shouk & Hewedi, 2016). The most comprehen-
sive role played by a social networking site in facilitating travel and tourism operations
has been Facebook. A wide range of innovative hospitality operational practices has
been enabled by Facebook, some of which are customer engagement and co-creation,
convertibility in room reservations and upholding of hotel brand image (Pabel &
Prideaux, 2016; Wilthiam, 2011). As for tourists, Facebook has particularly enabled
sharing and exchange of travel plans, travel information & knowledge as well as travel
experiences (Gretzel & Yoo, 2008; Nusair et al., 2012). From an organizational point of
view, the online social network – Twitter, also enables ‘tracking and directing the
customer’s attention to travel related products and services’ (Nussair et al., 2012,
p.210). Other social media sites like Flickr, Trip Advisor and the more recent,
Instagram – have enabled tourists with the multiple functionality of sharing visual
and audio-visual images of trip experiences, opinions, reviews and comments online, in
a diverse platform involving access to a range of social networking sites concurrently
(Pabel & Prideaux, 2016; Edwards et al., 2017). Such social media platforms have
provided an innovative means to handle marketing information for tourism businesses
strategically (Abou-Shouk & Hewedi, 2016; Roult, Gauddette, Auger, & Adjizian, 2016).

Tourists’ use of social media – from trip planning to experience sharing and
curation
Social media platforms have become one of the most effective ways of communication in
especially when it comes to larger communities (Ayeh, Leung, Au, & Law, 2012).
Schmalleger and Carson (2008) found the importance of self-expression, social interactions
with likeminded people and desire to share as some of the main motivations for people to
participate in online activities. Detailed information, networking opportunities, as well as
opportunities to save time and cost in acquiring information are some of the main aspects
members of a social community seeks (Hlee, Cheng, Koo, & Kim, 2017).
Past studies on social media usage by tourists have been primarily in the areas of
tourist decision-making on destination selection, purchases of travel products in desti-
nations, trip planning, service experience sharing by means of textual, visual and audio-
visual content (Ayeh et al., 2012; Chung & Buhalis, 2008; Sreenivasan, Lee, & Goh,
2012; Xiang & Gretzel, 2010). Xiang and Gretzel (2010) and Ayeh et al. (2012) focused
on the role of social media in enabling travellers decision-making aspects in relation to
purchase, as well as travel planning. These studies identified the influence of social
media enabled interactions -textual, visual and audio-visual – among tourists (that lead
to the generation of eWOM), on their decisions to choose destinations and plan for
 INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF TOURISM SCIENCES 3

their trips to such destinations. The tourists’ generated eWOM becomes a useful
resource for tourism business organizations and DMOs in taking strategic business
decisions (Ayeh et al., 2012). However, previous studies have also significantly covered
key aspects of trust and reliability issues in social media use by tourists, motivations and
benefits of participating in social media communities of travel, as well as the influence
of social media on visit intentions of tourists (Bosangit, McCabe, & Hibbert, 2009;
Nussair et al., 2012; Paris, Lee, & Seery, 2010; Parra-Lopez, Bulchand-Gidumal,
Gutierrez-Tano, & Diaz-Armas, 2011; Schmallegger & Carson, 2008; Scott &
Orlikowski, 2012; Volo, 2010; Wang & Fesenmaier, 2004).
Therefore, previous studies have identified a number of motivational factors that
have led to the use social media by tourists. In addition to the factors discussed already,
previous studies have also examined functional, social, psychological, socio-
psychological, as well as hedonic aspects that have led tourists to increasingly use social
media (Chung & Buhalis, 2008; Parra-Lopez et al., 2011; Xiang & Gretzel, 2010). While
functional aspects are related to trip planning and travel-decision making purposes,
hedonic aspects are about the gratifying experiences of tourists in interacting in social
media communities (Chung & Buhalis, 2008). Social media communities of tourists
have also been observed to bring to them socio- psychological benefits as such com-
munities provide a sense of belonging (and affiliation) and identity (Parra-Lopez et al.,
2011). Association with social media communities enables tourists to build relation-
ships via many-to-many interactions that initiate a process of socialisation (Parra-Lopez
et al., 2011; Sarkar, Au, & Law, 2014). Previous studies have looked into the significance
of socialisation in social media communities and factors that have led to satisfaction in
socialisation in such communities of tourists ( Sarkar et al., 2014; Sarkar, Au, & Law,
2017).

Social media as a sustainable development platform

Prior to the emergence of Social media sometime in the early 2000s, information and
communication technologies (ICT) have been facilitating operations of sustainable tourism
and ecotourism in particular. It is therefore essential to look how ICT, since the beginning
of its use in tourism, has played a role in sustainable tourism and ecotourism in particular.
The Internet technology has been for a long time providing opportunities for ecotourism
enterprises to have a direct access to existing and potential markets (Harris & Vogel, 2007).
Besides the commercial benefits of internet, it has also played a key role in the establishing
the awareness on tourism driven by indigenous communities in natural areas based on
their knowledge on conservation as well as sustainable utilization of natural resources (Hlee
et al., 2017). However, the utilization of internet technologies as a communication medium
in the context of ecotourism has been insignificant (Lu & Stepchenkova, 2012). Internet
technologies belonging to the Web 1.0 generation were not able to facilitate a dyadic or
many-to-many communication. As a result, prior to the advent of social media, commu-
nication as an attribute of internet technologies has not been evident in the uses of ICT in
sustainable tourism and ecotourism in particular. The utilization of social media platforms
(and social networking sites) was not evident in the operations of ecotourism.
Moreover, analysing the uses and applications of information and communication
technology (ICT) in the field of ecotourism has been relatively less researched by past
4 S. K. SARKAR AND B. GEORGE

studies (Ali & Frew, 2010; Touray & Jung, 2010). Lai and Shaffer (2005) and Donohoe
and Needham (2008), examined the uses and adoption of internet technologies in
marketing ecotourism based on certain criterions of sustainability. However, a wider
perspective in terms of the role of ICT in sustainable tourism and ecotourism, has been
examined in the past studies of Gretzel, Go, Lee, and Jamal (2009), Touray and Jung
(2010), Sigala and Marinidis (2010), and Ali and Frew (2010). The significance of the
applications of ICT in areas of local community participation, heritage tourism, com-
munity-oriented democratic destination planning, environmental issues and commu-
nity-based enterprises, were examined by these studies. Ali and Frew (2010) focused on
the role of ICTs in enabling DMOs in a number of criterions with relation to manage-
ment of sustainable tourism. While they found that the use of ICTs by DMOs resulted
in tourist satisfaction, there was a significant lack of awareness on appropriate utiliza-
tion of ICTs in the effective management of sustainable tourism by DMOs. Moreover,
Gretzel et al. (2009) observed the role played by online communities and digital story-
telling in fostering heritage tourism in the context of rural communities. Touray and
Jung (2010) found the usefulness and barriers to implementation of ICTs in maximising
positive impacts for stakeholders in the context of sustainable tourism development in
UK. Though the above studies provide a good coverage of some of critical aspects with
relation to the role played by ICTs in sustainable tourism, none of them focused on the
role of social media platforms in terms of communication, socialisation and promotion
of awareness of sustainable tourism. However, Guzzo, Andrea, Ferri and Griffroni
(2013) demonstrated a framework involving the role of social media in the development
of sustainable tourism in terms of spreading awareness on sustainable practices in
tourism, social factors affecting tourists and sustainability, as well as development of
innovative practices in sustainable tourism. Han, McCabe, Wang and Chong (2017)
highlighted on the abilities of social media sites to initiate, via UGC-based content,
environmental awareness and responsibility that can lead towards pro-environmental
(and collective) social behaviour in online communities of tourists.
In terms of use of ICTs and social media in the context of ecotourism and ecotourists for
their knowledge sharing and socializing purposes, these studies made no specific reference.

Social media applications in ecotourism

Ecotourists find socialisation (social interactions and sharing of experiences as well as
knowledge) with peer ecotourists as one of the principal factors that bring satisfaction
and enhances the quality of their ecotourism experiences (Lu & Stepchenkova, 2012;
Sarkar et al., 2017). Social media platforms can facilitate satisfying online socialisation
experiences to ecotourists beyond the socialisation experiences they enjoy with fellow
ecotourists in actual eco-tours (Sarkar et al., 2014, 2017). Such satisfying online
socialisation experiences can involve sharing and exchange of ecotourism experiences
at ecotourism sites, knowledge on ecology and environment and other social interac-
tions. However, given this potential of social media in facilitating socialisation and
sharing of knowledge in ecotourism, empirical research making an inquiry of this
potential is rare (Ali & Frew, 2010; Sarkar et al., 2014).
Social media had been expected to be enable ecotourists an effective means for
knowledge dissemination and trip research primarily through social networking sites
 INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF TOURISM SCIENCES 5

(Charters, 2009). The many – to-many dialogue possible through User-generated

content (UGC) in social media sites, can enable effective socialisation among ecotour-
ists (Lu & Stepchenkova, 2012). The development of wireless technologies like
Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access (WiMAX) and mobile technologies
has enabled the internet to reach destinations of low digital access (Buhalis & Law,
2008; Buhalis & Pistidda, 2008). Moreover, the exponential growth of 2G technology-
enabled mobile internet in rural areas in countries like India have resulted in more than
50% of the Active Internet Users (AIU) in rural areas through mobile internet, com-
munity service centers (CSC) with 61 million users by 2014. Ecotourists visiting
ecotourism sites in remote areas of the world can be benefitted by these developments
in internet accessibility.
There is very little empirical work on the role of social media in enabling socialising
satisfaction online and knowledge sharing in the context of sustainable tourism and
ecotourism (Pulverenti & Jung 2011). However, Sarkar et al. (2014), Sarkar et al. (2017),
and Cheng et al. (2016), focused on the factors and the ability of social media in
bringing satisfying socialisation experiences online as well as motivating ecotourists to
visit ecotourism sites and engaging them in dialogue about sustainability and pro-
environmental behaviour online. Sarkar et al. (2014), discussed the effect of two factors
of social exchange – cooperation and reputation-on satisfying socialisation experiences
of ecotourists which in turn, led to their intention to share knowledge with each other.
Sarkar et al. (2017) looked into the concept of Value in Online communities (VOC) in
the context of ecotourists that is reflective of the social exchange factors of cooperation,
reputation, altruism, and trust. VOC had a significant impact on satisfaction in socia-
lisation which in turn, affects ecotourists’ intention to share knowledge in social media.
Both these studies confirmed ecotourists (and soft ecotourists in particular) find it
important to derive satisfaction from socialising with peer ecotourists and share/
exchange with them knowledge related to ecotourism and ecological aspects in social
media communities. The social exchange attributes of cooperation, reputation, altruism,
and trust that mirror VOC in online communities of ecotourists’ in social media, are
embedded in their actions online (Sarkar et al. (2017). Cheng et al. (2016) observed in
the context of ecotourism in China that Chinese social media sites enabled ecotourists
to co-create by interacting and sharing information between themselves and seek eco-
tour information, on one hand. On the other hand, such social media sites enabled
ecotourism management companies to disseminate critical ecotourism information to
ecotourists, encourage pro-environmental behaviour among them and enhance their
experiences as well as motivate them to visit such ecotourism sites. Based on
a framework, this study posited the ways in which dyadic and many-to-many commu-
nication initiated by social media sites can result in effective ecotourism promotion in
China (Cheng et al., 2016).
Therefore, the above studies clearly highlighted the socialising abilities of social
media in making ecotourists derive satisfaction in online socialisation as much as
they derive from their offline socialisation in actual eco-tour experiences.
Furthermore, the ability of social media to initiate knowledge-oriented co-creative
practices among ecotourists that involves a process of exchange of interactions mutually
beneficial to them, was also clearly revealed by these studies. Such co-creative practices
6 S. K. SARKAR AND B. GEORGE

possible through social media enhances its significance in ecotourism and ecotourists’
behaviour in particular, to a considerable extent.

Social media and ecological citizenship of ecotourists

Ecological citizenship refers to a collective effort by environmentally conscious individuals
in bringing necessary actions and practices for environmental stewardship, by means of
environmentally conscious dialogue between them (Roka & Moisander, 2009). Online
communities in social media have influenced environmentally conscious global travellers
to collectively establish ecological citizenship by means of collaborative and dialectical
online conversation (Rokka & Mosander, 2009). Conversations among members of social
media communities of environmentally conscious global travellers have been found to
involve issues like ecological sustainability, tourism consumption and environmentally
compatible practices This has led to enhanced awareness on the imperativeness of the
sustainable well-being of local communities and ecosystems (Rokka & Moisander, 2009).
These conversations via social media in builds the foundation for ecological citizenship.
Social media enabled ecological citizenship can have a major influence on ecotourists as
consumers of ecologically responsible tourism has become an area of significant discourse.
Eco tourists engage in ecological citizenship through their ‘altruistic motives’ by collectively
enunciating ecological sensibilities and awareness in social media that leads to responsible
and ethical behaviour (Rokka & Moisander, 2009). Dialogue between ecotourists online in
social media in the form of audio-visual, textual and pictorial content transforms Eco
tourists as green consumers into activists and experts in the discourse of sustainable
development. Ecological citizenship via social media can in turn, enable sustainable
corporate citizenship behaviour as tourism corporations will have to harness from the
collective wisdom of members of social media communities of ecotourists to develop and
manage products and operations related to ecologically conscious tourism.

Conclusion (from the perspective of sustainable corporate citizenship

behaviour)
The roots of the transformative power of social media lies in its ability to facilitate
socialization. Socialisation in online communities and social media is expressed in terms
of the process of knowledge sharing interactions (Ahuja & Galvin, 2003). Social interactions
act as a unifying factor between social media community members, who are the socialising
agents. In the absence of social interactions, community members in social media sites do
not become socialising agents and, as a result, a community can cease to exist (Ahuja &
Galvin, 2003; Wang, Yu, & Wei, 2012). Online community members would not have been
there but for their socialisation activities (Wang & Fesenmaier, 2004). Given this, the ethical
and programmatic dimensions of sustainable tourism should be integrated seamlessly into
the socialization process, for the best benefits. A lack of understanding of this dynamic is
evident in the continued over-reliance upon more traditional forms of advertisements by
the sustainable tourism operators on various social media sites. The stale promotion of
something is antithetical to the very idea of social media and the key precepts of sustainable
tourism should rather be communicated by means of what we would call multidimensional
 INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF TOURISM SCIENCES 7

tourist engagement. Socializing is one of the important topics, as members showed

voluntary behaviour in assisting peers by sharing their experiences and providing advice.
Social media has played a pivotal role in participatory behaviour development in the
contemporary society. This process of socialisation leads to a ‘collective knowledge’ and
a ‘sense of belonging’ among online community members (Sreenivasan et al., 2012).
Tourists could finally see their role more as partners in experience than passive consumers
of perishable resources. In this process, more and more travellers see the potential to
experience tourism without the guilt feelings that accompany tourism consumption.
Contemporary forms of the ‘do-it-yourself’ tourism began with the backpackers, much
before social media technologies became prevalent. However, these technologies not only
made such opportunities more widely available but also helped to curb the undesirable
aspects of them. It is demonstrated beyond doubt that social control over unethical
tourism practices is multi-fold more effective than traditional policing.
Social networks provide opportunities to harness resources for development –
resources that would have otherwise remained dispersed and uncoordinated. The
limitations of institutional factors that imped sustainable development are being elimi-
nated and finally we have the golden opportunity for development for everyone by
means of cooperation and coordination. Tourism firms should embrace and institutio-
nalize the opportunities for innovative sustainability practices opened up by the social
media technologies – rather than using social media as just another promotional tool.
For sustained benefits, social media use should integrate backward with corporate
sustainable development even as it continues to integrate forward with the external
customers and to the various other stakeholder groups. Tourism businesses could lead
this effort and there lies the prospect for them to become sustainable corporate citizens.

Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes on contributors
Sudipta Kiran Sarkar completed his PhD in 2015 from the prestigious SHTM, The Hong Kong
Polytechnic University. He joined Woosong University, South Korea in December, 2016 as an
Assistant Professor in Hospitality Management, and is currently the Program Coordinator for
Masters of Arts in Culinary Entrepreneurship program (MACE). Email: sudipta@sis.ac.kr
Babu George holds a Ph.D. degree in Management Studies (2006) and a Doctor of Business
Administration degree with a focus on Marketing and Tourism (2016). He is a graduate of
Harvard University’s Institute for Educational Management (IEM-2018 batch). Before joining
Fort Hays State University in 2015 as Associate Professor and Coordinator of International
Programs, Dr. George has worked for University of Nevada Las Vegas, Swiss Management
Center University, University of Liverpool, Alaska Pacific University, and the University of
Southern Mississippi. Email: bpgeorge@fhsu.edu

ORCID
Babu George http://orcid.org/0000-0002-2791-828X
8 S. K. SARKAR AND B. GEORGE

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