University of Jordan

School of Graduate Studies

Department of Architectural Engineering

0902700 – Research Methods in Architecture

Dr. Firas Sharaf

Tourism and Media: Literature Review

16 August 2022

By Students:
Amal Al-Hourani
Batool Al-Tal
Rouqaiya Atoum
Sara Malkawi
 1. Introduction
Tourism is the process where people from one place to another go for enjoyment and spend the time. It
plays great role for the development of a country, and positively and negatively correlated with the
economic growth of the global economy. In real sense the tourism industry is link with every sector of
the economy in the world which positively and negatively affects the GDP of the country. Through
tourism industry many employments were generated, which play great role in poverty reduction and
socioeconomic improvement of the world. Tourism improves the trade of the country and boosts the
industrial sector of the world. There are so many factors which attract the visitors to their country which
push the tourism industry in the world. Among these factors natural beautification and historical places
play great role in tourism industry development. Similarly, security and peace also play great role in this
sector development.
This report examines the role of media as a new marketing strategy to encourage tourism. S ocial media,
specifically, is increasingly becoming more important today, this effect is also significantly affecting the
tourism market. Based on many conducted research, it is clear that the tourism preferences of young
generation are affected by comments on social media and social media has positive and a negative
effect on the tourism market. Social media users who share their experiences have been largely
influenced by comments when they make tourism preferences.
Social media is one part of other media platforms that are categorized and defined in the following
section.

2. Different Types of Media

1. Media include Communication channels through which news, entertainment, education, data or
promotional messages are disseminated.
2. Media include every broadcasting medium such as newspapers, magazines, TV, radio, billboards,
direct mail, telephone, fax, and internet.
3. The growing popularity of the internet and social sites such as Face book and Twitter, social media is
now an important channel that allows messages to be spread to the public.

3. Relationship Between Media and Tourism

Both media and tourism belong to the Service industry. Both works together hand in glove. Media
contribute to 80% of tourism revenue and tourism contributes to 25% of media's revenue. The role of
tourism in media industry such as journalism is ever growing.
Impact of Media in Promoting Tourism Industry Over the years media have contributed towards shaping
tourism into a responsible industry by promoting the following good practices:
1. It protects the environment and minimizes the negative social impact of tourism.
2. It generates greater economic benefits for local people and enhances the well-being of host
communities.
3. It makes positive contributions to the conservation of natural and cultural heritage and
promotes the world’s diversity.
4. It provides more enjoyable experiences for tourists through more meaningful connections with
local people.
5. It helps to understand the local cultural, social and environmental issues.
 4. Influence of Technology to Tourism Marketing
Tourism marketing has now started to utilize technology to approach to its target market with the
changing technology. Tourism sector has not only been doing the marketing on internet but also has
started to transfer it to various applications. The most important novelty formed by the information
technologies in the tourism sector is the possibility of a direct communication of the vendors and
purchasers via a channel focused on information and data. Therefore, the importance of customer
focused service sectors, with emphasize on information and service increases in the new economy.
Novelty based on technology has become the main source and a strategic key of the sustainable
competition advantage in tourism sector due to the important role of the information in identification,
promotion, distribution, bringing together, arrangement and provision of touristic products to customer.
New technologies bring about a change in the activities, operation manners, communication methods of
the tourism establishments and the ways of customers to seek for information and purchase of services
and touristic products due to the constant change in the social life.

5. What is Social Media

Social media is a wide term defining writings on blogs and forums, photographs, audio records, videos,
links, profile pages on social networking sites and all different content forming many other social
networks. Another definition describes social media as user-created online content .Social media has
been defined as the group of applications based on internet, allowing the creation and change of the
content developed by the user and based on the technological and ideological foundations of
internet .National and international tourism sector should be able to apply the developments in the field
of media to its own marketing activities in order to sustain the benefit, success and profitability. At this
point it is important to ensure the efficient use of internet for tourism activities. Tourism sector, which
requires large and fixed investments, can only realize the return of these large investments with steady
sales in the desired amount for the tourists in the targeted socio-economic level.

6. Variety Of Social Media Tools

1) Social Networking: Social networking sites such as Facebook, Google Plus, Cafe Mom and
Gather, that allows users to connect and share with people who have similar interests and
backgrounds.
2) Micro-Blogging: Such as Twitter, Tumblr, Posterous, etc. that allow the users to submit short
written entries, which can include links to product and service sites, as well as links to other
social media sites.
3) Blog: A web log which is a web page that serves as a publicly accessible personal journal for any
tourists.
4) Multimedia or Video Sharing: It enables sharing of multimedia content, for example Flickr
(photographs) and YouTube (videos) are used by millions of people exchanging information and
interests.
5) Collaboration Tools: Such as Wikipedia, WikiTravel, WikiBooks; etc., which are Apps or software
based social platforms where users can work together (synchronously or asynchronously) to
create, modify, and manage content.
6) Rating/Review Sites: Such as Amazon ratings, Angie’s List, which are kind of platforms allow
reviews to be posted about people, businesses, products, or services.
 7) Photo Sharing Sites: Such as Flickr, Instagram, Pinterest; etc. which enable users to upload,
transform edit, publish and share pictures and videos.
8) Personal Broadcasting Tools: Blog Talk radio, Ustream, Livestream, tumbler are platforms that
offers a way of participatory journalism and synonyms to personal publishing.
9) Platforms like Virtual Worlds: Such as Second Life, World of Warcraft, and Farmville, which are
3D computer based online community environment in which users are represented on screen as
themselves or as made-up characters and interact in real time with other users using texts, or
2D or 3D models, knows as Avatars.
10) Location based Services: Such as Check-ins, Facebook Places, Foursquare, and Yelp etc. which
are Apps on gadgets and mobiles that uses geographical position (GPS) and link it with
information, entertainment, or social media service that is available nearby location. E.g. gas
prices and services or restaurants near your location.
11) Widgets: Such as Profile badges, Like buttons etc. which are sets of small helpful software
program or Apps, which gives extra power an control to the user when embedded directly into a
web page.
12) Group Buying Sites: Such as Groupon, Living Social, Wowcer, Crowd savings etc. which are latest
trend in money saving, with the power to pull in big discounts.
13) Social Bookmarking and News Aggregation: Such as Digg, Delicious, StumbleUpon and so on,
which allow users to save and organize links to any number of online resources and websites.
14) Email Marketing: Sending emails to exiting or potential tourists is one of the most effective
Internet marketing.
15) Search Engine: Like Google, bing, yahoo etc. which are used by tourist to find the company or
destination information and search engine optimization can bring a particular site at top search
position.

7. Social Media and Tourism

Social media is an important tool for the analysis of tourists’ attitudes, and this is confirmed by the
increased purchases and recommendations to other users. Building successful service-based brand in
tourism means that each offer should be a unique value proposition based on the customer experience.
Tourists need to know by means of reliable sources how their experience is going to be like in order to
reduce uncertainty and create some expectations of what they are going to find at a destination. Due to
the uncertainty of tourist services, a traveler should obtain the necessary information in order to make
the right decision concerning the travel. Modern tourists have more trust in other travelers’ opinions
using social media rather than official marketing advice. As social media becomes increasingly
expressive, consumers are able to increasingly in influence other consumers with their own opinions and
experiences.
Since social media is low-cost and bias-free, it represents an advantage for marketing communications.
The term social media is generally understood as Internet-based applications that contain consumer-
generated content and facilitate a higher level of social interaction among travelers. From customer’s
viewpoint, the value of using social media lies in its richness on personal experiences and
trustworthiness as electronic word-of-mouth. The impact of user generated content by social media on
a traveler’s decision making is well recognized in various market research reports. A number of prior
studies have also examined the effect of social media on travelers’ information search behavior
suggested that travel reviews on social media sites help add fun to the planning process and increase
confidence for travelers’ decision by reducing risk.
 8. Role of Social media in Encouraging Tourism
the presence of many applications in social media has contributed to changing the conventional
methods in marketing and tourism. The effects of social media sites on tourists include the following:
1. Providing the needed information to tourists about the touristic sites.
2. Benefitting from guiding the client as a positive consumer to the service.
3. Providing the tourist with safe channels to buy and book different trips.
4. Helping in disseminating specific information about the trips and the changes that might occur.
It is clear that tourism companies and agents have benefitted from social media in providing specific
information about trips, prices, and the offered services in an attractive and developed manner. In
addition, these companies perceive the customers as an essential factor in encouraging tourism, and
they benefit from them by providing sufficient information about the tourism sites through social media.
The communication taking place between the travelers might improve the nature of the provided
tourism trips. Social media sites are used to encourage tourism.

9. Specifications of Social Media Networks

1. Information Efficiency:
a. Efficiencies related to computing culture.
b. Efficiencies related to computer use.
c. Efficiencies related to information culture.
d. Efficiencies related to dealing with global web programmers and services

2. Information Accuracy:
Accurate information creates trust in the tourists to adopt what is present on the social media about the
touristic sites, then adopting the purchase decision

3. Ease of Use:
Social media networks are characterized by ease of use because they provide the techniques, language,
and influences to provide the needed information about multiple issues.

10. Stages of Touristic Encouragement

A. Attention: a stage of this model to find the relevant way to attract the customer's attention to
make the purchase decision.
B. Interest: is defined as the process of social interaction by taking the environmental values and
merging them with the society’s culture in building and shaping personality.
C. Desire: successful marketer is the one who creates the full desire in the customer when buying
the service.
D. Acting: purchase decision.
 11. Media and Public Advertising
Tourism is one of the most profitable industries in terms of economic growth (financial growth), private
business growth, and human resource development in any country. Both travel and tourism have always
relied on the power of word of mouth through friends and family members, who are considered among
the most powerful tools when planning or organizing a travel trip, beside travel and tourism agency
advertisements and others. However, the emergence of more sophisticated digital web technologies
later changed the Travel plan from start to end of the trip.

Social media has an important role in tourism supply and demand, in decision-making for travelers, and
in tourism management in general. It has received wide attention in the field of tourism and hospitality
research. It also allows those in charge of tourist destinations to interact directly with visitors via various
online platforms and monitor visitors' reactions and evaluation of the services provided.

Also, social media / such as websites and applications that enable users to share content or participate
in social networks, provide travelers with a gateway to the opinions and recommendations of millions of
people, including friends in their social networks. Usually, travelers have a strong desire to share
information about their experience

The tourism industry must use advertising as the main tool for its professional gain. The successful
promotion of tourism in each country must also be based on cultural values and a professional
understanding of advertising and its values. Professional advertising can be considered as a win-win tool
for economic development inside and outside the country concerned. Inappropriate and insufficient
advertising can be a waste of money and energy.

Each stage of tourism advertising, whether in print, television and radio stations, has a specific impact
on the tourism industry. Planning can also have a role in improving tourism development and measuring
the impact of this industry in each country in general through its capabilities and the public interest.
Accordingly, it is possible to strategically plan how to market in order to develop the required tourism

We have to be aware that tourism as an industry in today's modern language is a mean of global
communication between countries and travelers from all countries, and it can be introduced to various
cultures and societies abroad, as well as there are ancient and historical sites and languages. Thus,
public advertising has become a necessary tool in this growing global industry.

Hence, the advertisement must have an impact, presenting the area/destination to be visited as “the
place of the visit,” highlighting the benefits of visiting it, if any, in addition to positive images of the
area/destination. Also, advertising must influence the behavior of travelers. For example: buying
souvenirs created by sellers of the sites visited; Therefore, it is necessary for tourism professionals to
use an ideal method of advertising to achieve the desired socio-economic development goals of tourism.
Therefore, it can be said that among the most important tasks entrusted to the media in the field of
spreading tourism awareness in the community are the following:

 First: Intensifying awareness programs through brochures on internal tourism awareness.

 Second: Directing informational programs for internal tourist attractions.
 Third: Stimulating measures to preserve the physical features of ecotourism.
  Fourth: Taking care of historical sites, monuments, and wildlife.
 Fifth: Allocating press and radio spaces for national tourism education and spreading tourism
awareness.
12. Tourism Training for Media People
If recreation and tourism are usually the primary goals of establishing and developing national parks,
and other types of protected areas, the picturesque natural areas have become major attractions, and
form the basis for what is known as ecotourism. Therefore, the tourism media goes beyond just covering
the activities of tourism festivals. Hence, we realize the importance and feasibility of tourism training by
providing:

1. A suitable place for training.

2. Qualified trainers who have the ability to transmit information.
3. Training tools suitable for different tourism specializations.
4. A device that sets specific training programs.

Hence, working in the tourism sector requires that the individual be on a professional and behavioral
level with a command of one or more foreign languages. Whereas human forces have a decisive role in
influencing the growth and development of tourism activity.

The roles expected of all the print, audio, and visual media are very large, and here the need for a
comprehensive national media plan appears urgent. To raise the level of tourism awareness and spread
tourism information in the community.

13. The Problems Faced by The Protected Tourism Media

The problems experienced by the local tourism media can be summarized in:

1. Weakness of the technical media that are compatible with the world's audio-visual and readable
technologies.
2. The absence of tourist programs presenting the monuments and landscapes of the areas in
which tourism is to be achieved.
3. Lack of interest in tourism advertising and promotion, or the presence of a tourist guide that
communicates with tourists.
4. The distortion of the civilized image of the country on the social, religious and political level by
some countries, like the Arabs.
5. Wars and disasters spread through the media may be an obstacle to achieving publicity.
6. Disregard for exhibitions, merchandise, and advertisements, which play a major role in
encouraging tourism. through its global spread.
7. The lack of deliberate and targeted training plans to organize tourist trips and rationalize the
tourist guide. To perform his role in the best way.
8. Not knowing the appropriate time for broadcasting tourist advertisements.
9. Choosing an inappropriate and insufficient media feature.
10. Not studying the nature of the crowd and knowing its trends before starting the advertising
campaign, as it may not be effective.
 14. Characteristics of Tourism Advertisement on Media

 Your message must be consistent with the customs, traditions, history, and values of the society
you are addressing
 That it depends on the facts and honest data that express the services that will be provided by
the tourism program without exaggeration.
 It expresses what they include (tourist incentives) and the elements of tourist attractions.

15. The Effects Of The Local Tourism Media On The Tourism Sector
The effects of local tourism advertising on the tourism sector can be summarized as follows:

1. Liberating the tourism sector from the restrictions imposed on it, which will reflect positively on
its efficiency.

Create incentives to reform the structures of tourism institutions and facilitate these institutions to
provide comprehensive services by presenting the problems of these institutions through the media.

2. Creation of opportunities to launch into foreign markets and to consolidate the presence for
tourism marketing abroad.

New job opportunities and reducing unemployment by smoothing out the country's external image
using the media.

3. Tourism advertising also allows for the creation of adaptation to the requirements of
competition on the level of competencies.

Increasing the efficiency and effectiveness of the local tourism markets and raising the level of
services therein.

4. Increasing the credibility of countries in front of foreign investors and creating the appropriate
climate to attract investments.

This credibility is linked to the state’s confidence in its tourism and its various services and facilities
and high human competencies, otherwise the media may turn against them.