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The return on tourism organizations’ social media investments: preliminary evidence from Belgium, France, and Switzerland

Author

Listed:
  • Thomas Wozniak

    (Lucerne School of Business)

  • Brigitte Stangl

    (University of Surrey)

  • Roland Schegg

    (University of Applied Sciences and Arts Western Switzerland (HES-SO) Valais)

  • Andreas Liebrich

    (Lucerne School of Business)

Abstract

Literature suggests dozens of ways of how to quantify the success of social media. However, there is no consent about the measurement of the return of investment (ROI). Only very limited empirical work is looking at the topic especially in tourism. This study is one of the first attempts to look at the ROI of tourism organizations. In doing so, various input (i.e. budget, manpower, amount of platforms used) and outcome (i.e. posts, website success and social media KPIs such as number of posts, interaction, and page performance index) variables are analysed. Responses of 150 tourism organizations to an online questionnaire and social media data collected via the monitoring tool Fanpage Karma provide insights for Facebook, Twitter, Google+, YouTube, Instagram, and Pinterest. Our data indicates that despite an ever increasing importance of online services for the customer journey, the monetary and manpower resources allocated to online marketing and social media is modest for most tourism organizations of the three surveyed countries. The achieved outcomes of the tourism organizations are weak especially when it comes to engagement figures. Revealed relationships such as between marketing budget and success measures for YouTube videos are presented and a discussion is provided.

Suggested Citation

  • Thomas Wozniak & Brigitte Stangl & Roland Schegg & Andreas Liebrich, 0. "The return on tourism organizations’ social media investments: preliminary evidence from Belgium, France, and Switzerland," Information Technology & Tourism, Springer, vol. 0, pages 1-26.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:infott:v::y::i::d:10.1007_s40558-017-0077-4
    DOI: 10.1007/s40558-017-0077-4
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    2. Marcello Mariani, 2020. "Web 2.0 and Destination Marketing: Current Trends and Future Directions," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(9), pages 1-17, May.
    3. Sánchez Jiménez, Miguel & Matos, Nelson & Correia, Marisol, 2019. "Evolution Of The Presence And Engagement Of Official Social Networks In Promoting Tourism In Spain," Journal of Tourism, Sustainability and Well-being, Cinturs - Research Centre for Tourism, Sustainability and Well-being, University of Algarve, vol. 7(3), pages 210-225.
    4. Csaba Sidor & Branislav Kršák & Ľubomír Štrba & Michal Cehlár & Samer Khouri & Michal Stričík & Jaroslav Dugas & Ján Gajdoš & Barbora Bolechová, 2019. "Can Location-Based Social Media and Online Reservation Services Tell More about Local Accommodation Industries than Open Governmental Data?," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(21), pages 1-21, October.
    5. Roland Schegg & Brigitte Stangl, 2018. "Special section on recommendations and analytics in tourism," Information Technology & Tourism, Springer, vol. 18(1), pages 1-4, April.
    6. Patricia P. Iglesias-Sánchez & Pilar López-Delgado & Marisol B. Correia & Carmen Jambrino-Maldonado, 2020. "How do external openness and R&D activity influence open innovation management and the potential contribution of social media in the tourism and hospitality industry?," Information Technology & Tourism, Springer, vol. 22(2), pages 297-323, June.
    7. María Bonilla-Quijada & Juan Tugores-Ques & Josep Lluís Olmo Arriaga, 2021. "Promotion of urban tourism: insights into user engagement on social media," Information Technology & Tourism, Springer, vol. 23(4), pages 611-632, December.

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