Social media marketing in tourism education

Abstract

Information and communication technology has increasingly gained importance in marketing of the tourism and travel industry. Social media have literally become an integral part of the society and as such have gained increasing interest beyond industries such as tourism. In higher education, we have seen a trend towards a rather slow adaptation of new technologies for instance in online instruction; however, the opportunities for creating and sharing knowledge in an education context should not be neglected. Social network sites are the fastest growing and most popular of the Internet-based technologies; recent statistics show that many Facebook users are students and that a great deal of communication between students happens online. This article investigates a higher educational institution in Austria, which actively links with their students on a social network site for marketing purposes, presents its development and provides the results of an online user survey. Results indicate that among social network sites, Facebook is the most popular site students use; however, they spend more time observing than actually posting content.