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Influencer Marketing for Tourism Destinations: Lessons from a Mature Destination

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Information and Communication Technologies in Tourism 2020

Abstract

Influencer marketing has impacted all industries, including travel and tourism. Many Destination Management Organizations (DMOs) are leveraging the influence of online personalities for diverse purposes, including attracting visitors to their destinations. This paper sheds light on the use of social media influencers by DMOs, reveals the inner dynamics of influencer marketing for tourism destinations, and discusses the impacts of this practice. Relying on interviews with destination representatives, social media content analysis and data from internal reports, this research expands the scarce knowledge on influencer marketing in the travel and tourism domain hitherto, and provides valuable insights for destination managers.

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Acknowledgement

Work supported by the Spanish National R&D&I Plan, funded by the Ministry of Economy, Industry and Competitiveness [Grant CSO2017-82592-R].

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Tourism Research Institute, University of Alicante Alicante, Alicante, Spain

    Francisco Femenia-Serra

  2. Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, USA

    Ulrike Gretzel

Authors
  1. Francisco Femenia-Serra
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  2. Ulrike Gretzel
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Francisco Femenia-Serra .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Information Systems Engineering, TU Wien, Vienna, Austria

    Julia Neidhardt

  2. Chair of Connected Mobility, TU Munich, Garching, Germany

    Wolfgang Wörndl

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Femenia-Serra, F., Gretzel, U. (2020). Influencer Marketing for Tourism Destinations: Lessons from a Mature Destination. In: Neidhardt, J., Wörndl, W. (eds) Information and Communication Technologies in Tourism 2020. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-36737-4_6

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