IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v15y2023i8p6374-d1118416.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Social Media and Influencer Marketing for Promoting Sustainable Tourism Destinations: The Instagram Case

Author

Listed:
  • Eleni Kilipiri

    (Department of Organization Management, Marketing and Tourism, International Hellenic University, 57400 Sindos, Greece)

  • Eugenia Papaioannou

    (Department of Organization Management, Marketing and Tourism, International Hellenic University, 57400 Sindos, Greece)

  • Iordanis Kotzaivazoglou

    (Department of Business Administration, International Hellenic University, 62124 Serres, Greece)

Abstract

Instagram is a critical tool for the selection of tourism destinations. Instagram travel influencers seem to play a significant role in this process, often using geo-location data to make their posts even more impactful. However, there is no evidence of them performing such a role in sustainable destinations, although these destinations are increasing and to a large extent are the future in tourism. This paper aspires to shed light in this area focusing on sustainable destinations. Specifically, the purpose of this paper is to examine (a) the role of Instagram travel influencers in shaping users’ opinions of a sustainable destination and (b) the importance of geo-location data used by influencers to the users’ selection of such a destination. Thirty sustainable tourism destinations, as posted between 2017 and 2019, were selected for examination by using 10 Instagram travel macro-influencers’ power derived from their followers’ interactions on posts. The study used a mixed method approach combining cross-sectional and quantitative data analysis. Panel data and a multiple hierarchical analysis using SPSS Statistics were implemented to test the hypotheses. Finally, a regression model was used to try to identify the relationship between geo-location data and the selection of sustainable tourism destinations. The findings show that Instagram travel influencers, as social media communicators, are positively related to the selection of a sustainable destination. However, the use of geo-location data by Instagram travel influencers does not enhance travelers’ intention for such a choice.

Suggested Citation

  • Eleni Kilipiri & Eugenia Papaioannou & Iordanis Kotzaivazoglou, 2023. "Social Media and Influencer Marketing for Promoting Sustainable Tourism Destinations: The Instagram Case," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(8), pages 1-18, April.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:15:y:2023:i:8:p:6374-:d:1118416
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/15/8/6374/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/15/8/6374/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Cecilia Pasquinelli & Mariapina Trunfio & Nicola Bellini & Simona Rossi, 2021. "Sustainability in Overtouristified Cities? A Social Media Insight into Italian Branding Responses to Covid-19 Crisis," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(4), pages 1-14, February.
    2. Casaló, Luis V. & Flavián, Carlos & Ibáñez-Sánchez, Sergio, 2020. "Influencers on Instagram: Antecedents and consequences of opinion leadership," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 117(C), pages 510-519.
    3. Nguyet Luong Tran & Wawrzyniec Rudolf, 2022. "Social Media and Destination Branding in Tourism: A Systematic Review of the Literature," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(20), pages 1-18, October.
    4. Campbell, Colin & Farrell, Justine Rapp, 2020. "More than meets the eye: The functional components underlying influencer marketing," Business Horizons, Elsevier, vol. 63(4), pages 469-479.
    5. Muaz Azinuddin & Muhammad Burhanuddeen Mohammad Nasir & Mohd Hafiz Hanafiah & Nur Shahirah Mior Shariffuddin & Mohd Khairul Amri Kamarudin, 2022. "Interlinkage of Perceived Ecotourism Design Affordance, Perceived Value of Destination Experiences, Destination Reputation, and Loyalty," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(18), pages 1-18, September.
    6. Shuai Zhang & Kyungsik Kim & Brain H. Yim & Boram Hyun & Weiqi Chai, 2022. "Destination Personality and Behavioral Intention in Hainan’s Golf Tourism during COVID-19 Pandemic: Mediating Role of Destination Image and Self-Congruity," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(11), pages 1-17, May.
    7. Ergemen, Yunus Emre & Velasco, Carlos, 2017. "Estimation of fractionally integrated panels with fixed effects and cross-section dependence," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 196(2), pages 248-258.
    8. Farzana Sharmin & Mohammad Tipu Sultan & Daniel Badulescu & Alina Badulescu & Afrodita Borma & Benqian Li, 2021. "Sustainable Destination Marketing Ecosystem through Smartphone-Based Social Media: The Consumers’ Acceptance Perspective," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(4), pages 1-24, February.
    9. Pahrudin Pahrudin & Li-Wei Liu & Shao-Yu Li, 2022. "What Is the Role of Tourism Management and Marketing toward Sustainable Tourism? A Bibliometric Analysis Approach," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(7), pages 1-18, April.
    10. Aileen H. Chen & Ryan Y. Wu, 2022. "Mediating Effect of Brand Image and Satisfaction on Loyalty through Experiential Marketing: A Case Study of a Sugar Heritage Destination," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(12), pages 1-22, June.
    11. Ki, Chung-Wha (Chloe) & Cuevas, Leslie M. & Chong, Sze Man & Lim, Heejin, 2020. "Influencer marketing: Social media influencers as human brands attaching to followers and yielding positive marketing results by fulfilling needs," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 55(C).
    12. Kyriaki Glyptou & Nikos Kalogeras & Dimitrios Skuras & Ioannis Spilanis, 2022. "Clustering Sustainable Destinations: Empirical Evidence from Selected Mediterranean Countries," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(9), pages 1-21, May.
    13. João Romão & Bart Neuts & Peter Nijkamp & Eveline van Leeuwen, 2015. "Culture, Product Differentiation and Market Segmentation: A Structural Analysis of the Motivation and Satisfaction of Tourists in Amsterdam," Tourism Economics, , vol. 21(3), pages 455-474, June.
    14. Muhammad Muddassar Khan & Muhammad Siddique & Muhammad Yasir & Muhammad Imran Qureshi & Nohman Khan & Muhammad Zulqarnain Safdar, 2022. "The Significance of Digital Marketing in Shaping Ecotourism Behaviour through Destination Image," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(12), pages 1-18, June.
    15. Mohammad Tipu Sultan & Farzana Sharmin & Alina Badulescu & Darie Gavrilut & Ke Xue, 2021. "Social Media-Based Content towards Image Formation: A New Approach to the Selection of Sustainable Destinations," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(8), pages 1-22, April.
    16. Malgorzata Bartosik-Purgat & Barbara Jankowska, 2019. "The Degree of Internationalization and the Use of Social Media in Marketing Communication: The Case of SMEs in Poland," International Journal of E-Services and Mobile Applications (IJESMA), IGI Global, vol. 11(3), pages 1-18, July.
    17. Kuo-Yan Wang, 2022. "Sustainable Tourism Development Based upon Visitors’ Brand Trust: A Case of “100 Religious Attractions”," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(4), pages 1-30, February.
    18. Estela Marine-Roig, 2019. "Destination Image Analytics Through Traveller-Generated Content," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(12), pages 1-23, June.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Neringa Vilkaite-Vaitone, 2024. "From Likes to Sustainability: How Social Media Influencers Are Changing the Way We Consume," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 16(4), pages 1-14, February.
    2. Vasiliki Vrana, 2023. "Sustainable Tourism Development and Innovation: Recent Advances and Challenges," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(9), pages 1-5, April.
    3. Monika Pettersen-Sobczyk, 2023. "Social Media Influencer Marketing in the Promotion of Tourist Destinations," European Research Studies Journal, European Research Studies Journal, vol. 0(4), pages 585-594.
    4. Leonardo Ventimiglia & Linda Soma & Francesca Cellina, 2024. "The Long Road to Low-Carbon Holidays: Exploring Holiday-Making Behaviour of People Living in a Middle-Sized Swiss City," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 16(14), pages 1-25, July.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Ganesh Dash & Chetan Sharma & Shamneesh Sharma, 2023. "Sustainable Marketing and the Role of Social Media: An Experimental Study Using Natural Language Processing (NLP)," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(6), pages 1-16, March.
    2. Ching-Fu Chen & Hsiao-Han Lu, 2024. "Transforming a social media influencer’s influential power to followers’ word of mouth and purchase intention: the role of brand attachment, brand credibility, and parasocial relationship," Journal of Brand Management, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 31(4), pages 415-429, July.
    3. Hsieh, Jung-Kuei, 2023. "The impact of influencers' multi-SNS use on followers’ behavioral intentions: An integration of cue consistency theory and social identity theory," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 74(C).
    4. Zhou, Qi & Li, Bin & Li, Huajun & Lei, Yueqiu, 2024. "Mere copycat? The effects of human versus human-like virtual influencers on brand endorsement effectiveness: A moderated serial-mediation model," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 76(C).
    5. Barta, Sergio & Belanche, Daniel & Fernández, Ana & Flavián, Marta, 2023. "Influencer marketing on TikTok: The effectiveness of humor and followers’ hedonic experience," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 70(C).
    6. Li, Wenting & Zhao, Fang & Lee, Ji Min & Park, Jiwoon & Septianto, Felix & Seo, Yuri, 2024. "How micro- (vs. mega-) influencers generate word of mouth in the digital economy age: The moderating role of mindset," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 171(C).
    7. Wang, Nan & Xie, Wenxuan & Tiberius, Victor & Qiu, Yong, 2023. "Accelerating new product diffusion: How lead users serve as opinion leaders in social networks," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 72(C).
    8. Bu, Yi & Parkinson, Joy & Thaichon, Park, 2022. "Influencer marketing: Homophily, customer value co-creation behaviour and purchase intention," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 66(C).
    9. Sardar, Sainaz & Tata, Sai Vijay & Sarkar, Subhro, 2024. "Examining the influence of source factors and content characteristics of influencers' post on consumer engagement and purchase intention: A moderated analysis," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 79(C).
    10. Alboqami, Hassan, 2023. "Trust me, I'm an influencer! - Causal recipes for customer trust in artificial intelligence influencers in the retail industry," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 72(C).
    11. Rosengren, Sara & Campbell, Colin & Rapp Farrell, Justine, 2024. "Tricks of the trade: Understanding and utilizing influencer tactics to improve retailer performance," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 79(C).
    12. Cheung, Man Lai & Leung, Wilson K.S. & Aw, Eugene Cheng-Xi & Koay, Kian Yeik, 2022. "“I follow what you post!†: The role of social media influencers’ content characteristics in consumers' online brand-related activities (COBRAs)," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 66(C).
    13. T.A. Syed & Fahad Mehmood & T. Qaiser, 2023. "Brand-SMI Collaboration in Influencer Marketing Campaigns: A Transaction Cost Economics Perspective," Post-Print hal-04317823, HAL.
    14. Ulun Akturan & Deniz Kuter, 2024. "City brand coolness in the eye of the beholder: an extended conceptualization of city brand coolness and its dimensions," Place Branding and Public Diplomacy, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 20(3), pages 293-305, September.
    15. (Chloe) Ki, Chung-Wha & Park, Sangsoo & Kim, Youn-Kyung, 2022. "Investigating the mechanism through which consumers are “inspired by” social media influencers and “inspired to” adopt influencers’ exemplars as social defaults," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 144(C), pages 264-277.
    16. Robert Zniva & Wolfgang J. Weitzl & Christina Lindmoser, 2023. "Be constantly different! How to manage influencer authenticity," Electronic Commerce Research, Springer, vol. 23(3), pages 1485-1514, September.
    17. Shuai Zhang & Kyungsik Kim & Brain H. Yim & Boram Hyun & Weiqi Chai, 2022. "Destination Personality and Behavioral Intention in Hainan’s Golf Tourism during COVID-19 Pandemic: Mediating Role of Destination Image and Self-Congruity," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(11), pages 1-17, May.
    18. Sánchez-Amboage, Eva & Castellanos-García, Pablo & Crespo-Pereira, Verónica, 2024. "Traveler segmentation through Instagram Fashion Influencers. Mirror Tourist as a new segment consumer group," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 78(C).
    19. Zhang, Xiaojing & Zhang, Yulin, 2024. "Content marketing in the social media platform: Examining the effect of content creation modes on the payoff of participants," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 77(C).
    20. Belanche, Daniel & Casaló, Luis V. & Flavián, Marta, 2024. "Human versus virtual influences, a comparative study," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 173(C).

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:15:y:2023:i:8:p:6374-:d:1118416. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.