Network Analysis of Destination Management Organization Smart Tourism Ecosystem (STE) for E-Branding and Marketing of Tourism Destinations

Abstract

In the current decade, there is a drastic increase in the active social network users which simultaneously raised the interest of destination management organizations (DMOs) to increase their e-visibility on social network sites (SNS), specifically to promote their tourism destinations. The main aim of DMOs is to reach the target market and create a brand image of the destination to increase the tourist footfalls. The purpose of this chapter will be to analyze the utilization of Instagram as a network of smart tourism ecosystem by state tourism boards in India. The network analysis will be done between state tourism boards by using UCINET 6 which is a software package developed for social network analysis. This chapter will give an insight into the Instagram account used by states tourism boards for the promotion of their respective tourist destinations. The findings of the study will help to improve the utilization of SNS for online content creations, managing the social media campaigns, marketing, branding and promotions of tourism destinations.