Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in
Book cover

Information and Communication Technologies in Tourism 2020 pp 65–78Cite as

Influencer Marketing for Tourism Destinations: Lessons from a Mature Destination

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.

Keywords

  • Influencer
  • Influencer marketing
  • Social media influencer
  • Destination marketing
  • Tourism marketing
  • Social media marketing

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution.

Chapter
USD   29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD   129.00
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD   169.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Learn about institutional subscriptions

References

  1. Bakshy E, Hofman J, Mason W, Watts D (2011) Everyone’s an influencer: quantifying influence on Twitter. In: Proceedings of 4th ACM international conference on web search data Mining, SE-WSDM 2011, pp 65–74

    Google Scholar 

  2. Carter D (2016) Hustle and brand: the sociotechnical shaping of influence. Soc Med Soc 2(3):1–12

    Google Scholar 

  3. De Veirman M, Cauberghe V, Hudders L (2017) Marketing through Instagram influencers: The impact of number of followers and product divergence on brand attitude. Int J Advert 36(5):798–828

    CrossRef  Google Scholar 

  4. Glover P (2009) Celebrity endorsement in tourism advertising: effects on destination image. J Hosp Tour Manag 16(1):16–23

    CrossRef  Google Scholar 

  5. Gretzel U (2018) Influencer marketing in travel and tourism. In: Sigala M, Gretzel U (eds) Advances in social media for travel, tourism and hospitality: new perspectives, practice and cases. Routledge, New York, pp 147–156

    Google Scholar 

  6. Xu X, Pratt S (2018) Social media influencers as endorsers to promote travel destinations: an application of self-congruence theory to the Chinese Generation Y. J Travel Tour Mark 35(7):958–972

    CrossRef  Google Scholar 

  7. Bokunewicz JF, Shulman J (2017) Influencer identification in Twitter networks of destination marketing organizations. J Hosp Tour Technol 8(2):205–219

    Google Scholar 

  8. Bergkvist L, Zhou KQ (2016) Celebrity endorsements: a literature review and research agenda. Int J Advert 35(4):642–663

    CrossRef  Google Scholar 

  9. Choi S (2015) The two-step flow of communication in Twitter-based public forums. Soc Sci Comput Rev 33(6):696–711

    CrossRef  Google Scholar 

  10. Ivars-Baidal JA, Rodríguez I, Vera JF (2013) The evolution of mass tourism destinations: new approaches beyond deterministic models in Benidorm (Spain). Tour Manag 34:184–195

    CrossRef  Google Scholar 

  11. Abidin C (2018) Internet celebrity: understanding fame online. Emerald Publishing Limited, Bingley

    CrossRef  Google Scholar 

  12. Freberg K, Graham K, McGaughey K, Freberg LA (2011) Who are the social media influencers? A study of public perceptions of personality. Public Relat Rev 37(1):90–92

    CrossRef  Google Scholar 

  13. Ge J, Gretzel U (2018) Emoji rhetoric: a social media influencer perspective. J Mark Manag 34(15–16):1272–1295

    CrossRef  Google Scholar 

  14. Uzunoǧlu E, Misci Kip S (2014) Brand communication through digital influencers: Leveraging blogger engagement. Int J Inf Manage 34(5):592–602

    CrossRef  Google Scholar 

  15. Jerslev A (2016) In the time of the microcelebrity: celebrification and the YouTuber Zoella. Int J Commun 10:5233–5251

    Google Scholar 

  16. Djafarova E, Rushworth C (2017) Exploring the credibility of online celebrities’ Instagram profiles in influencing the purchase decisions of young female users. Comput Human Behav 68:1–7

    CrossRef  Google Scholar 

  17. Khamis S, Ang L, Welling R (2017) Self-branding, ‘micro-celebrity’ and the rise of Social Media Influencers. Celebr Stud 8(2):191–208

    CrossRef  Google Scholar 

  18. Li SCHH, Robinson P, Oriade A (2017) Destination marketing: the use of technology since the millennium. J Destin Mark Manag 6(2):95–102

    Google Scholar 

  19. Gretzel U (2019) The role of social media in creating and addressing overtourism. In: Dodds R, Butler R (eds) Overtourism: issues, realities and solutions. de Gruyter, Boston, pp 62–75

    CrossRef  Google Scholar 

  20. Xiang Z, Gretzel U (2010) Role of social media in online travel information search. Tour Manag 31(2):179–188

    CrossRef  Google Scholar 

  21. Munar AM, Jacobsen JKS (2014) Motivations for sharing tourism experiences through social media. Tour Manag 43:46–54

    CrossRef  Google Scholar 

  22. Munar AM (2011) Tourist-created content: rethinking destination branding. Int J Cult Tour Hosp Res 5(3):291–305

    CrossRef  Google Scholar 

  23. Litvin SW, Goldsmith RE, Pan B (2008) Electronic word-of-mouth in hospitality and tourism management. Tour Manag 29(3):458–468

    CrossRef  Google Scholar 

  24. Hays S, Page SJ, Buhalis D (2013) Social media as a destination marketing tool: its use by national tourism organisations. Curr Issues Tour 16(3):211–239

    CrossRef  Google Scholar 

  25. Gunn CA (1972) Vacationscape: designing tourist regions. Bureau of Business Research, University of Texas at Austin, Austin

    Google Scholar 

  26. Lim Y, Chung Y, Weaver PA (2012) The impact of social media on destination branding: Consumer-generated videos versus destination marketer-generated videos. J Vacat Mark 18(3):197–206

    CrossRef  Google Scholar 

  27. Pike S, Page SJ (2014) Destination marketing organizations and destination marketing: anarrative analysis of the literature. Tour Manag 41:202–227

    CrossRef  Google Scholar 

  28. Llodrà-Riera I, Martínez-Ruiz MP, Jiménez-Zarco AI, Izquierdo-Yusta A (2015) A multidimensional analysis of the information sources construct and its relevance for destination image formation. Tour Manag 48:319–328

    CrossRef  Google Scholar 

  29. Yin RK (2014) Case study research. design and methods, 5th edn. SAGE Publications, Thousand Oaks

    Google Scholar 

  30. Femenia-Serra F, Ivars-Baidal JA (2019) Do smart tourism destinations really work? The case of Benidorm. Asia Pacific J Tour Res (Forthcoming)

    Google Scholar 

  31. Decrop A (1999) Triangulation in qualitative tourism research. Tour Manag 20(1):157–161

    CrossRef  Google Scholar 

  32. Braun V, Clarke V (2006) Using thematic analysis in psychology. Qual Res Psychol 3(2):77–101

    CrossRef  Google Scholar 

  33. Dimitrova N, Zhang H-J, Shahraray B, Sezan I, Huang T, Zakhor A (2002) Applications of video-content analysis and retrieval. IEEE Multimed 9(3):42–55

    CrossRef  Google Scholar 

  34. Li Y, Lee S-H, Yeh C-H, Kuo C-C (2006) Techniques for movie content analysis and skimming: tutorial and overview on video abstraction techniques. IEEE Sign Process Mag 23(2):79–89

    CrossRef  Google Scholar 

  35. Echtner CM, Ritchie JRB (1993) The measurement of destination image: an empirical assessment. J Travel Res 31(4):3–13

    CrossRef  Google Scholar 

  36. Stepchenkova S, Zhan F (2013) Visual destination images of Peru: comparative content analysis of DMO and user-generated photography. Tour Manag 36:590–601

    CrossRef  Google Scholar 

  37. Visit Benidorm (2018) France: final reports and activities summary

    Google Scholar 

  38. Audrezet A, de Kerviler G, Guidry Moulard J (2018) Authenticity under threat: when social media influencers need to go beyond self-presentation. J Bus Res (Forthcoming)

    Google Scholar 

  39. Wozniak T, Stangl B, Schegg R, Liebrich A (2017) The return on tourism organizations’ social media investments: Preliminary evidence from Belgium, France, and Switzerland. Inf Technol Tour 17(1):75–100

    CrossRef  Google Scholar 

Download references

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
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Ulrike Gretzel
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Francisco Femenia-Serra .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

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

    Dr. Julia Neidhardt

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

    Dr. Wolfgang Wörndl

Rights and permissions

Reprints and Permissions

Copyright information

© 2020 Springer Nature Switzerland AG

About this paper

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this paper

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

Download citation

search

Navigation