Exploring the Effectiveness of Social Media on Tourism Destination
Marketing: An Empirical Study in a Developing Country
RASHED HOSSAIN1, AL- AMIN2, LISA MANI3,*, MD MOMINUL ISLAM4,
TAHMINA AKTER POLI5, MD NOOR UDDIN MILON5
1Department of Accounting & Information Systems, University of Dhaka,
Dhaka-1000, Dhaka,
BANGLADESH
2Department of Marketing, University of Dhaka,
Dhaka-1000, Dhaka,
BANGLADESH
3Department of Finance and Banking, Shahjalal University of Science and Technology,
Sylhet- 3114, Sylhet,
BANGLADESH
4Department of Management Information Systems, Begum Rokeya University, Rangpur,
Rangpur-5404, Rangpur,
BANGLADESH
5Government of People's Republic of Bangladesh,
National Board of Revenue, Dhaka-1000, Dhaka,
BANGLADESH
*Corresponding Author
Abstract: - More than 3.049 billion monthly active social media (Facebook) users are engaging in sharing
content, views, surfing, and bridging their friends and family. Web 3.0 is a buzzword now That is going to
ensure the decentralization of information, blockchain technology, data security, data privacy, and individual
control over private data. The world's scenery has been changed through the invention of the internet and social
media has changed the landscape in the same way in this century. Social media has revolutionized the way
companies convey their assortment of products and services to prospective customers. It has become a catalyst
for changing the decisions of social media users. It has enabled every little firm to become a large conglomerate
to pinpoint their niche customer segment and reach them effectively with various techniques. It has been
observed that influencers in social media have a noteworthy and robust correlation (i.e., 73%) and contribute
the most to travelers’ travel decision-making, indicating the least reliability (28% correlation). The study shows
that the R square value is 0.88 and the adjusted R square value is 0.88, indicating that travelers’ decision-
making is 88% shaped by social media influencers. Therefore, the boom of social media has also facilitated the
way people communicate with each other, especially when they seek recommendations for purchasing
something or availing of a service. It provides a platform for both consumers and businesses to have two-way
communication where both parties can interact effectively on a real-time basis without incurring much expense.
Social media has also brought a lot of tourist destinations closer to tourists that are situated in a remote part of
the country or in a place that is quite untouched by tourist groups. It allows destination organizations like sites,
parks, hotels, and amusement centers to conveniently publish multimedia content involving blog posts, images,
videos, and interactive games and attract visitors to these destinations. Social media marketing also provides
real-time information on customer profiles, behaviors, and perceptions to the marketing manager. It also
influences tourist groups in making travel decisions like choosing a destination, a time of travel, or a package
that they might want to avail of. In this research paper, we have identified four social media stimuli and shown
their correlation with tourists’ decision-making. In this paper, it has been identified that more than 80% of the
time, social media has a positive influence on travelers' decisions about their tour itinerary. Social media has
WSEAS TRANSACTIONS on BUSINESS and ECONOMICS
DOI: 10.37394/23207.2024.21.114
Rashed Hossain, Al- Amin, Lisa Mani,
Md Mominul Islam, Tahmina Akter Poli,
Md Noor Uddin Milon
E-ISSN: 2224-2899
1392
Volume 21, 2024
opened the horizon of decentralized communications among people all over the world. People can easily find
their content as they are looking to meet their demands.
Key-Words: - Tourism Destination Marketing, Social Media, Effectiveness, Social Media User, Developing
Country, SPSS, Empirical Study.
Received: September 4, 2023. Revised: April 5, 2024. Accepted: May 14, 2024. Published: May 31, 2024.
1 Introduction
It can’t be denied that social media has
revolutionized the way we experience the world
around us. It provides significant marketing
opportunities for a few industries, and among them,
the tourism industry is one, [1]. This is because
‘Traveling’ is one of the most talked-about topics on
social media, as people share their memorable
moments with their loved ones around them. The
research will look at the different roles that social
media marketing plays in the growth of tourism in
Bangladesh, [2]. Touring is a big part of
Bangladesh's income. Since 2014, the sector has
made a direct input of 296.6 billion BDT, which is
2% of the GDP. But that number is projected to rise
to 5% by 2022. Bangladesh's tourism industry also
creates about 15,00,00 jobs or 3% of all jobs in the
country. On the other hand, Bangladesh does not do
well on the world tourism index. The World
Economic Forum has published a report about travel
and tourism competitiveness, and Bangladesh has
been ranked 125th among 141 countries around the
world. Most people who come to Bangladesh from
other countries are there to travel. As technology
improves and media becomes more global, tourists
can share information in new ways through blogs,
websites, and social media sites, [3].
Social media has been becoming a powerful tool
for promotional activities for organizations to target
the market and serve profitably is one of the aims of
the study. It has studied previous evidence of
several researchers on how social media had a
positive impact on promotional marketing to operate
their business activities profitably and target their
customers with wonderful experiences. Although
social media augments low engagement connections
and superficial friendships among people it has low
emotional and psychological impact on people.
Sometimes it is addictive and a waste of valuable
time surfing social media unnecessarily. Nowadays
social media like Facebook has been utilizing
artificial intelligence of people's preference for what
they are searching on Facebook and they are getting
their content according to their preferences and
previous surfing.
It is now open discussion that social media
participation can generate a return of investment
through extensive engagement and interaction
through social media like Facebook. The key
objective of the paper is to find out and determine
key drivers for heightened social media
participation, engagement, and interactions to get a
return on investment.
Although human decision-making is a complex
task, some factors contribute to making a quick
decision for traveling to certain destinations. People
are investing their time by surfing multiplecontent
from the sharing, explanation, and visiting of
different places by their friends and family on
Facebook or social media. When someone goes to a
new place and provides a review of the same, it is
quite easy to decide to travel to this place. Positive
reviews are a powerful tool to generate a new flow
of travelers to a new destination. Travel agencies are
promoting their content about new places to visit but
people are searching and trying to find out the
positive reviews from the general public. People
nowadays are not interested in believing the
advertisements unless they observe the individual or
personal review. There are so many social media
tools that influence consumer interest through short
videos, reviews of the traveler, promotional clips,
food reviews, place reviews and so forth, [4]. This
paper will assess how various social media tools
influence consumer interest, reliability, and
satisfaction regarding a travel destination.
Social media has also made it easier for online
travelers to share consumer-generated content
(CGC). Internet users can now work together, talk to
each other, and share their blogs, videos, photos,
reviews, and other original content about a tourist
location, such as hotels, restaurants, vehicles,
service centers, and so on. Social media makes it
easier and cheaper for destinations to get in touch
with tourists than more traditional methods of
communication. Access to information, planning
and booking trips, and sharing travel memories have
all changed a lot in this industry.
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DOI: 10.37394/23207.2024.21.114
Rashed Hossain, Al- Amin, Lisa Mani,
Md Mominul Islam, Tahmina Akter Poli,
Md Noor Uddin Milon
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1.1 Background of the Problem
Tourism plays a key role in a country’s economy.
Tourism destinations like hotels, resorts, amusement
parks, and historical places all try to grab the
tourist’s attention by using various forms of
communication. However, it is not easy to
communicate about a destination to a geographically
dispersed population globally who typically have
different and unique tastes for tourism. Hence,
tourism destinations fail to connect with the
appropriate groups of audiences who would be
interested in their services, [5]. This is even truer for
destinations that are located in remote areas of the
world yet have a distinct appeal to the people. These
small destination firms can’t afford to use traditional
communication tools and thus fail to address the
tourist groups. Tourists these days are also
becoming more independent when it comes to
choosing a destination for travel and managing a
travel plan by themselves. Especially young tourists
these days don’t go out to a physical travel agent’s
office at all but rather seek travel agents’
information on social platforms and even plan tours
by themselves using social media. Even the use of
online directories and Yellow Pages has fallen
significantly owing to the versatility of social media
platforms. Nowadays, tourists are more dependent
on social media to learn about a destination’s
service quality and seek recommendations from
others on the platform. They also judge a travel
destination based on their social media presence,
[6].
1.2 Statement of the Problem
Tourist spots aren't using social media for
marketing, and they don't understand how important
it is to connect with people on social media. The
business press and academic literature don't tell
marketing managers how to use marketing strategy
in an integrated way. Because of this, a lot of
managers don't fully understand the role that social
media plays in their companies' marketing efforts,
[7]. Consumer-to-consumer talks on social media
are having a bigger effect on the market, but there
aren't yet clear ways to shape those conversations.
This is also making it more difficult for independent
travelers to seek travel information that can be
easily made available on social media by tourist
destinations. Also, there are not many studies on
how consumers perceive information found on
social media about destination places, what
information they seek from social media, and how
tourist information found on social media influences
their decision-making, [8].
1.3 Purpose of the Study
There are four main research goals for this study:
1. The study will explore why and how destination
organizations use social media promotional
tools and techniques to target the market and
serve profitably.
2. Determine the key drivers for heightened social
media participation, engagement, and
interactions.
3. Determine factors that contribute to decision-
making by a traveler when choosing a travel
destination on social media.
4. Assess how various social media tools influence
consumer interest, reliability, and satisfaction
regarding a travel destination.
2 Literature Review
2.1 Social Media Marketing
People are talking a lot about social media and Web
2.0 these days. They are also technology ideas that
have changed the way businesses talk to each other,
how businesses talk to customers, and how
customers talk to each other in Figure 1. Social
media has revolutionized the way people get
information and how much power they have in
negotiations in Figure 1, [9].
Fig. 1: Key steps for successful social media
marketing, [10]
Social media is one of two "megatrends" that can
have a big effect on how users can post their
content, like photos, videos, and comments, and
share it with peer groups [11]. It helps the
businessman design the production services for the
target audience for their ultimate satisfaction.
Market research can be conducted through the
audiences of social media to meet customer needs in
Figure 1. Hotels and other travel businesses can
learn more about what their customers like and don't
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Md Mominul Islam, Tahmina Akter Poli,
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like about them and their rivals by reading the
comments on sites like Virtual Tourist, [12].
Looked at more than 250 pieces from 2000 to
2014 that were written about modeling and
predicting tourism demand. Their research showed
that there isn't a single model that always does better
than other models. Instead, using more than one
method can improve the accuracy of forecasts.
Looked at 278 e-tourism studies that were done over
the 25 years from 1998 to 2013.
Destination marketing implies the places and
locations or tourist spots to visit through extensive
promotion. To put it another way, destination
marketing is advertising a place as a tourist
attraction. In product marketing, customers get
goods through distribution channels, [13]. In
destination marketing, on the other hand, customers
travel to the destinations, which changes the ways
that the products are promoted in some ways. In the
last few years, tourists have been able to find out
about the places they want to see, [14].
To stay competitive is the main reason why
location marketing is done. Destinations are where
most tourism activities happen. They are also an
important part of any model of the tourism system
and have become the basic unit of study in tourism,
[15]. But destination marketing and management is
a complicated subject that needs a thorough, all-
encompassing, and organized method to fully grasp.
On the demand side, travelers can choose from
many places to visit. A few years ago, the focus
shifted from marketing to management, [16]. These
groups are still generally called destination
marketing organizations (DMOs). So, a destination
marketing organization is the group in charge of
advertising a clear goal.
2.2 Destination Marketing using Social
Media as a Tool
Destination marketing is all about creating value
regarding the destinations of a country. Different
promotional tools are applied to increase awareness
among tourists and attract the destinations of a state
in Figure 2.
Consumers today are leaving traditional forms
of advertising like radio, magazines, and so on after
adopting digital media, [17]. Different kinds of
social media give people a lot of options for
searching for information, which can affect their
choice to buy. Costs have gone down because most
social networking sites are free, so there is no cost
to make a page or share information. On Facebook,
it says that it is "free and always will be", [18].
Online platforms are now very popular for social
interaction, customer engagement, and the
development of products and services by
researching the needs and wants of the target
audiences, and building long-lasting customer
relationships for sustainability in the competition in
Figure 2.
Fig. 2: The Role of Destination Marketing
Organizations in Destination Marketing, [19]
2.3 Social Media Applications from the
Consumers’ Perspective
A new study from Google found that 84% of leisure
tourists used the Internet to help them plan their
trips. Looked at how likely it was for online
travelers to find social media material while
searching the web and found that social media
produced effective results, [20]. Because websites
with traveler-generated content are becoming more
and more popular, some scholars say that social
media is the most important part of the research step
of planning a trip. Finding trip information was the
main reason why travelers used user-generated
content (UGC) and social media in Figure 3, [21].
Social media is increasingly influencing destination
awareness and selection. However, little research
has examined how social media affects alternative
evaluations and buying decisions. Social media
UGC was mostly used for vacation planning
information searches, [22].
Several academic studies have verified social
media's influence on travel decisions. Social media
affects hotel consumer choices, [23]. Russian and
other former Soviet Union Internet users organize
their holidays. Valence, framing, and ratings in
online reviews affect hotel guests' booking decisions
in Figure 3.
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Fig. 3: Process model of Travel decision-making
All users can create or improve the material,
[24]. Today's passengers may consume, produce,
and share travel information online. Expected social,
hedonic, and functional benefits influence tourists'
intentions to use social media for vacation planning,
[25]. A traveler's personality influences whether
they create travel-related UGC. The decision-
making process of travelers was discussed, who has
shown four phases through which a traveler takes a
travel-related decision and influencing factors that
shape their decision-making process in Figure 3,
[26]. The decision-making process primarily
involves pre-tour planning and framing activities,
on-tour activities, and decision-making consisting of
situational actions.
2.4 Research Hypothesis
The hypotheses of this research Depend on the
previous literature on how social media influences
tourism destination marketing, [27]. It is about
exploring whether social media has an in-depth
influence on tourism destination marketing or not
based on the interests of tourists, although they post
images, videos, and moments on these digital
platforms.
The Hypothesis hence will be:
H1: Social networking sites positively influence
decision-making for tourists.
H2: Social networking sites don’t influence
decision-making for tourists.
If the alternative hypothesis (H1) is correct, then
tourist spots that are active on social media can
greatly increase their chances of being viewed. One
way to be present is to have an active page on social
media sites, post regular content on those sites, and
include all of your contact information and user
reviews on that page, which could interest tourists,
[28].
If the null hypothesis (H0), on the other hand, is
true, it means that social networking sites don't have
a big effect on where people choose to visit.
Because of this, being involved in social media
wouldn't make enough money, and it would also
show that traditional media are still the main reasons
why tourists choose where to travel, [29].
3 Methodology and Procedures
The goal of the research technique is to make sure
that theoretical analysis is done in a planned way.
This is where the researcher can compare, assess,
and look at the different theoretical parts of the
study as well as the terms and ideas that go with
them, [30]. Giving reasons for the methods used
helps the researcher present the study goals in a
step-by-step way, [31]. Because the steps are done
in a certain order, the researcher can carefully
understand and explain the research's goals.
3.1 Research Design
There are two research methods: the intuitive
method and the deductive method. The deductive
approach is to develop a study hypothesis based on
existing theories and then plan to test that
hypothesis, [32]. After following the linked steps,
the research study will show whether the hypothesis
is correct. The main idea behind the inductive
method is to give the researcher a certain reason by
looking at different real-life examples, [33]. The
person doing the study will use the logical method
in this case. When the researcher is done using the
correct theory and books, he can switch to the
inductive method. However, this study can't be done
because there isn't enough literature on the topic,
[34]. So, the researcher will have to make a guess
and then test it. The researcher can make the best
use of the logical method because it doesn't require
any assumptions and gives a clear picture of the
factors that lead to the best results. Both qualitative
and quantitative studies are used in the study, [35].
Both first-hand as well as second-hand sources will
be used to gather research data. For qualitative
research, a lot of research will be done by reading a
lot of different online sources and talking to focus
groups in depth. As part of the quantitative part, a 5-
point Likert scale will be made and sent to all
participants through an online poll, [36].
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3.2 Sample and Population Selection
Population is the total number set which contains all
the participants of the specific group that are
chosen. Tourists are the population in this study.
The target population for a survey is the entire set of
units for which the survey data are to be used to
make decisions, [37]. The target population
specifies the materials for which the results of the
survey are meant to generalize a concrete form. It
should be clearly defined according to research
aims. Therefore, for this study, the target population
was defined as tourists who are targeting tourist
destinations and tourism products and services, [38].
A person who visits a country for short terms (e.g.,
tourists) is therefore not a resident of that country.
The definition, however, does not clarify the time
length to become a resident. Nevertheless, in this
study, the researchers precisely considered persons
who have lived in Bangladesh at least for the past
two years. The rest were not considered as part of
this study for reasons such as their minimal
Bangladeshi tourism experience and spot-related
services that they experienced.
A sample is a subset of the population where
individual’s participants or respondents are taken
from the target population, [39]. There are three
types of sampling techniques such as probability
sampling from where each sample has the same
probability that is chosen, purposive sampling
means selecting the sample that makes the sample
representative depends on opinion or purpose and
lastly no rule sampling which does not maintain any
rule, any sampling representative and where there is
no selection bias as the population is homogeneous.
We have taken the sampling method where 150
people take part in the actual part of the data
collection and analysis. Respondents will be chosen
using the convenience sample method, and they will
be given a structured questionnaire. Nobody of a
certain age or gender will be the focus of the event.
What is expected from interviewees is that they
know about and use social networking sites. So, we
can say that "social network users" are the people
this study is aimed at [39].
3.3 Data Collection
Information will be gathered through both online
and offline methods. University students and
corporations will be required to allocate a small
amount of time to complete an online questionnaire
for data collection purposes, [40]. Individuals who
do not use social networks will be excluded from
the analysis. The ready questionnaire link was
distributed by email, Facebook, Instagram, and
WhatsApp to gather data online and responses.
Online collection of data or responses is the most
common method of data collection because it is easy
to reach people, they can fill out the questionnaire at
their convenience, and participants value
anonymity. Data collection begins on December 25,
2022, and ends on December 31, 2023. Tourism
participants' perceptions of destination marketing
can differ greatly from internet sources; hence,
secondary data will not be used in this study. This is
because visitors' perspectives change. This research
will employ primary, first-hand data because visitor
perceptions change. I will use independent variables
to evaluate the measures in my research, [41].
Tourist decision-making is the dependent variable.
Survey Monkey will produce the questionnaire. The
21-question survey will be in English only. The
researcher designed the questions because there is
little research on this area, [42]. One of the most
commonly used survey assessment methods is the
Likert scale. A brief introduction will describe the
study's purpose and participant expectations. Each
scale item will require agreed-upon ratings. This
question will employ a five-point Likert scale with
categories of “strongly disagree," "disagree," “do
not agree nor disagree," "agree,” and “strongly
agree." First, the dependence of social media on
tourism destinations will be analyzed. Then, user
reliability, interest, and satisfaction with utilizing
social media for tourism will be analyzed to
determine how social media information influences
their travel plans, [43]. Age and profession are
collected in the questionnaire's final section. To
better understand respondents' behavior, they were
asked how often they travel, how many social media
friends they have, and how much they spend on
travel, [44].
3.4 Data Analysis
Statistical and numerical methods are needed to
analyze quantitative data, [45]. Statistics like mean,
median, and mode will be used to assess the depth.
The correlation model and regression analysis
model will analyze Destination's social media
marketing's impact on travelers. Researchers utilize
SPSS to analyze numerical data and create charts
and tables, [46].
3.5 Reliability and Validity Testing
By gathering data from suitable sources, the
researcher will ensure research reliability. Students
and corporations that tour frequently and are active
on social media will provide the most accurate
information, [47]. Additionally, these respondents
are well-educated and comprehend social media.
Also, the researcher will employ a questionnaire,
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which is most reliable for collecting valid data. The
researcher's data will be more reliable using original
data. This makes sense because secondary data may
not accurately represent tourist perception.
Statistical tools will also ensure validation by
reducing errors, [48].
4 Result and Discussion
4.1 Demographic Characteristics
Demographic characteristics involve information
regarding respondents’ age, income, gender, and
profession that can guide the researcher in deciding
which group of respondents is the most
representative segment for the survey. The result
shows that 78% of people who participated in the
survey responded as students. 22% of professional
respondents in this data collection in Figure 4. The
number of teenagers is the main target of social
media. They share their views, travel experiences,
food reviews, and overall new place reviews,
disperse valuable information, engage in some
related tour-related Facebook groups, and share
their tour pictures on social media groups for a
better understanding of the new locations to visit.
Fig. 4: Demographic Variables of the Respondents
The figure shows that students and professionals
mostly use social media for seeking travel-related
information, and the number is higher for students
as they are the heaviest users of various social
media sites in Figure 4.
Fig. 5: Demographic Variables of the Respondents
90% of the respondents who participated in the
survey are between the ages of 18–and 28, who are
Generation Y people who mostly spend their time
on social media like Facebook in Figure 5. Thus,
destination sites should develop contents that attract
these people. It can also be deduced that senior
citizens, mostly over 40, still rely on traditional
travel agencies to fulfill their travel needs. So, it can
be said that students aged 18–28 are the most
represented group in this survey in Figure 5. People
nowadays don't trust personal tour blogs used to
post review videos and photos for a better
understanding of places, the food that they take, the
experiences they gather, and the cost they incur in
Figure 5.
4.2 Findings of the Study
The current study tries to dig out the factors of the
decision for traveling through extensive research on
social media like Facebook, Instagram and
YouTube for choosing the right place at the right
time, at the right way, and at the right cost. Travel
experiences are priceless. It includes the positive
interference of the family members, the peer group,
and the partners. If it is not memorable, It becomes a
bad experience. The respondents to the survey were
asked different closed-ended structured questions
regarding social media factors that influence their
travel decision-making. The factors involved
include whether they consider social media as a
perception regarding traveling or not. Further, their
perceptions regarding the reliability, interest, and
satisfaction of travel destinations' social media posts
were analyzed to check how those things influenced
their decision-making when choosing a travel plan.
All of the respondents replied that they use social
media, and thus the respondent’s understanding of
the survey questions is ensured, and their opinions
can be quite dependable for the research work.
The Close Ended Survey Question was did you
use social media? The respondent’s answer was
100% positive in Table 1.
Table 1. What sort of benefits do you get the most
from using Social Media?
Social Media Provides Information
24%
Social Media presence gives a sense of
reliability
36%
Social Media posts trigger interest in me
21%
I feel satisfied with sharing experiences on
Social Media
19%
Then the respondents were asked what sort of
benefits they get from using social media to analyze
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their perception of the various elements of social
media posts that we have planned to highlight
throughout the research in Table 1. People who
participated in the survey feel it as reliable, with
36% and 24% feeling it was beneficial. The
decision-making becomes easy after analysing the
social media posts, reviews, peer group discussions
and video in Table 1.
Table 2. Frequency of Perception
PER
1
PER
2
PER
3
S.Agree
3
19
3
Agree
14
25
19
Neutral
13
1
16
Disagree
17
4
10
S.Disagree
3
1
2
Different social media websites provide tour-
related information for tourists to make decisions in
Table 2. In this research, respondents were asked
three questions regarding their perception and
expectations that social media websites are
providing them with travel-related information for
the benefit of tourists.
Respondents were asked whether tourist
destinations maintain a sufficient social media
presence or not. There was a mixed opinion
regarding this, as 28% agreed they do, whereas 40%
of respondents believe that they don’t maintain
sufficient social media presence in Table 2.
However, respondents agreed in large numbers that
they seek tour-related information on social media
before planning any trip. Finally, 38% of
respondents felt that destinations provide action-
based services on their social media websites in
Table 2. So, it was found that people think some
destinations provide sufficient information and
necessary action buttons on their social media
pages, whereas some destinations don’t maintain
enough social media presence at all. People are now
more prone to social media.
Table 3. Mean, Mode, and SD of Perception
Perception
SoI1
SoI2
SoI3
Mean
2.94
4.14
3.22
Mode
2
4
4
SD
0.80
0.74
0.87
The researcher calculated the average, middle
value, and standard deviation in Table 3. The
average perception was between 2.94 and 4.14,
suggesting that a significant number of individuals
use social media to find travel information in Table
3. The standard deviation of 80 suggests that
respondents perceived the questions similarly, as it
was lower than the mean in Table 3.
Table 4. Frequency of Reliability
REL1
REL2
REL3
S.Agree
3
1
10
Agree
15
18
27
Neutral
21
20
9
Disagree
10
9
3
S.Disagree
1
2
1
The respondents were asked about their
perception of a tourist destination's reliability after
viewing its social media presence and whether they
depend on information from social media in Table
4. 36% of participants trust tour organizations and
agencies on social media, while 54% believe that a
tour destination's legitimacy is improved by its
social media presence in Table 4. Only 30% of
respondents indicated complete reliance on
information sourced from social media in Table 4.
Table 5. Mean, Mode, and SD of Frequency of
Reliability
Freque
ncy of
REL1
REL2
REL3
Reliabi
lity
Mean
3.18
3.14
3.84
Mode
3
3
4
SD
0.8964783
71
0.8808
62286
0.8889
34239
It was found by calculating the mean, median,
and mode of reliability that the mean reliability
frequency was above Table 5, indicating a positive
response from the participants of the target group.
Respondents mostly agreed on the questions, as the
mode was also between 3 and 4. The standard
deviation of the frequencies was around .88, which
was quite low compared with the mean value and
indicates that the respondents perceived the
questions similarly and marked them the same in
Table 5. People feel reliable in making decisions by
taking information from social media.
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Fig. 6: Frequency of Interest
It has been identified that 64% of respondents
agreed that social media posts are strong enough to
trigger travel interest in them in Figure 6. In the
category of travel-related posts, 86% of respondents
said that consumer-generated information (CGI)
posts seem to be more effective in triggering travel
interest in them. 40% of the respondents said that
tour ads that they see on social media are sometimes
irrelevant to them; however, 30% of respondents
stayed neutral about the question in Figure 6.
In the next part, respondents were asked how
happy they are with sharing travel information on
social media sites and whether they think the travel
information they find on these sites is accurate and
useful. About 64% of people who answered said
they like to share their trip stories on social media
sites. However, only 36% of those who answered
positively said that the information on these sites
was clear. Almost one-third of those who answered
thought that Destinations wasn't being honest when
they shared information on social media sites.
Table 6. Frequency of Decision-Making
DM1
DM2
DM3
S.Agree
12
14
8
Agree
16
20
26
Neutral
9
8
13
Disagree
10
8
3
S.Disagree
3
0
0
Finally, it was evaluated whether respondents
planned for a trip only using the information found
on social media or not and whether customer
reviews found on social media pages influenced
them to make travel decisions or not in Table 6.
Table 7. Frequency of Decision-Making Mean
Mode and Standard Deviation
The decision-making sections' mean, mode, and
standard deviation were looked at, and the average
mean was about 3.7 in Table 7. It means that tourists
who are planning to visit a new destination are more
prone to decide if the score indicates a high score.
The decision-making score is relatively high as the
result is satisfactory. The value of a standard
deviation here indicates the greater variability of
making a tourist destination decision. It also implied
that respondents felt favorably about how social
media affected their travel plans for their desired
destination. The standard deviation (averaging 65)
shows that most of the people who answered the
survey had a similar understanding of the questions
and gave similar answers and at the same time it
points out that data are widely spread out for a better
understanding of the tourist for decision making
about their tourist destination in Table 7.
4.3 Correlation Analysis
The statistical method used to figure out how strong
the link is between two continuous factors that can
be measured numerically is called correlation
analysis which is presented in Figure 7.
Fig 7: Correlation Matrix
Satisfaction influencers (73% correlation)
contribute the most to travelers’ travel decision-
making, and reliability factors have the least (28%)
correlation with travelers’ travel decision-making in
Figure 7. There is a strong correlation between
decision making and reliability has been shown in
the current study in Figure 7. Satisfied influencers
have a positive impact on social media users for
Decision
Making
DM1
DM2
DM3
Mean
3.48
3.8
3.78
Mode
4
4
4
SD
0.68
0.78
0.56
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decision-making about their tourist destinations. The
perception, reliability, interest of the respondents,
satisfaction level, and decision making all are highly
correlated in the current study found in correlation
analysis.
4.4 Regression Analysis
It tries to show how much of the traveler’s decision-
making gets explained by social media influencers.
Multiple regression in this study implies a strong
and positive linear relationship between IV and DV.
The value of multiple R .94 indicates a strong and
positive correlation between the two variables in
Figure 8. Adjusted R square value suggests the
majority of the participants have positive aspects of
making decisions based on social media data and
inferences they gather through surfing the internet.
The standard error of the estimate in this study has
found the model is more precise and accurate as it
results.
Fig. 8: Regression Analysis
In this research work, a simple linear regression
model is used. The study shows that the R square
value is 0.88 and the adjusted R square value is.88,
indicating that travelers' decision-making is 88%
explained by social media influencers in Figure 8.
The following equation best describes a traveler’s
tendency to make travel decisions based on social
media influencers.
Travel Decision Making = -1.23+ (1.37*Social
Media)
The independent variable travel decision-
making is largely dependent on social media
regarding travel. There is a clear influence
represented in the linear regression model on travel
decision-making. The coefficient 1.37 represents the
actual effect of destination decision-making based
on social media uses. The value -1.37 indicates that
if the unit value of social media increases, the travel
decision-making increases by 1.37. The assumption
calculated in the regression model is validated in the
study. So it is crystal clear that social media has a
positive and strong correlation and impact on travel
decision-making of destination marketing.
4.5 Discussion
This study examined how social media influencers
may help tourists promote their destinations on
Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, and more.
To explore how social media influences things like
reliability, satisfaction, interest, and perception
affect traveler decisions, I identified four. I record
and analyze the respondents' information, as
outlined in the preceding chapter. Our research
shows that visitors are most affected by how easy it
is to share travel information on social media and
how clear it is, [49]. Respondents also agreed that
rating travel pages and giving travel feedback
increases their attachment to destination
organizations, indicating that ‘customer interaction’
on social media influences travelers the most when
choosing a destination. The social media's best
feature is a two-way connection with clients, [50].
They also said that corporations can acquire
customers' trust by letting them share information
on social media and letting them vouch for the
brand. However, consumer interest can't be
quantified, so corporations can only estimate client
sentiment by analyzing their social media posts,
[51].
To start the research, I'll employ four social
media influencers, who identified four behavioral
elements that social media can affect . We've tried to
show how consumers see, feel, and think about
social media and how it affects their decisions. The
data supported Evans and Mathur's argument but
argued that social media's reliability is the most
powerful factor in attracting customers, [52]. He
says customers appreciate a company's goods when
they know they will be delivered consistently and
when they exceed their promise. According to his
theory, travelers are more likely to choose a
destination with reputable and dependable
information. My research only showed a 28%
association between social media reliability and
tourist decision-making, suggesting that
Bangladeshi tourists are not encouraged to base
their travel decisions on social media dependability,
[53]. Thus, reliability has an impact on travel
experiences found in the study discussed above to a
new destination. Marketing of related data such as
reliability is further boosted when people see other
travelers vouching for a particular travel destination
and providing real-time pictures, videos, reviews,
positive experiences, blog posts, and updates about
the destination. Tourists may also take into account
transparent and credible travel information, so those
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factors have a minimal impact on their decisions,
[54]. Since Bangladesh is a collectivist nation and
internet travel groups are cheaper than going alone,
Bangladeshis have started using them to establish
new friends. promotional activities through social
media about destinations should have the reliability
to visit that place with security. People who plan to
go to a new destination always think about the
reliability and security issues for their safety
observing the previous reviews and experiences of
other people or visitors gathered earlier.
In our research, we have seen that their
consumer’s perceptions of information found on
social media have a moderate influence on their
decision-making. Consumers hardly predict the
service quality of tourist products (accommodation,
commutation, entertainment, etc.) because they are
not tangible, and thus their perception of the
products encourages them to make travel decisions.
This is why consumers feel more encouraged to
travel when tourist companies demonstrate the
utilities of a comfortable stay, smooth commutation,
and an unparalleled entertainment experience in a
visually attractive manner. Moreover, when
destination organizations provide call-to-action
buttons like booking and calling, their consumer’s
perception of the authenticity of a destination
enhances, [55].
This finding goes hand in hand with the theory
of finding out that CTA buttons are 75% more
responsible for converting visitors to customers.
However, the aesthetics, position, and function of
the CTA button must be appropriate enough to
trigger consumer interest.
One of the most important aspects of social
media posts is their relevance to the consumer’s
interest profile. 45% of consumers were quite
unsure of whether the tour ads they saw on social
media were relevant to them or not. Irrelevant social
media ads not only fail to convince customers of the
proposition but also drag away their interest from
another offering from the same provider. Thus, a
destination organization must understand the
demographic profile of the target audience before
letting the ad show up in their news feed because,
with too many competitors offering similar services,
it is always a hit-or-miss situation for destination
organizations, [56].
It has been crystal clear that around eighty
percent of travelers’ decision-making is influenced
by social media. Moreover, social media helps
tourists integrate with other services like ride-
sharing, hotel sharing, and mapping on their
smartphones, thus enhancing the convenience of
making a tour plan all by themselves. However,
Bangladeshi travelers negated the question of
whether social media provides sufficient
information for planning a complete trip or not,
which indicates that destination organizations must
go through the tourists’s decision-making process,
as explained to understand which social media
influencer is effective at which stage and arrange
their services accordingly, [57].
5 Recommendations and Conclusion
5.1 Recommendation
Researchers have seen that social media stimuli
have a significant impact on consumers' travel
decision-making, [58]. Destination organizations
can utilize the findings of this research to influence
their social media strategies in the following ways:
● The first job for destination organizations would
be to set up their social media pages on various
social media sites (Facebook, Youtube,
Instagram, etc.) and include sufficient travel
details and call-to-action buttons like inquiring,
checking route maps on Google Maps, seeing
attractions and activities of the destination, and
such, [59].
● When customers see a destination’s footprint on
multiple social media sites, they are likely to
have a strong perception of those destinations.
● Several things on social media have been shown
to make tourists more likely to visit a place: the
ability for users to share trip information on
these sites; and the perceived reliability of
information on these sites, [60].
● Destinations should encourage tourists to share
more travel information on social media and can
initiate a contest where tourists who share their
travel experiences in most places will get
special loyalty points. Destination organizations
should also get themselves enlisted with various
governmental and non-governmental tourism
development societies and promote their
affiliation with those organizations, [61].
Moreover, tourists feel more reliable towards a
destination when their friends and families
vouch for the place, and that’s why new
destinations should undertake incentive
programs to increase positive word-of-mouth
among friends and families. In these ways,
destination organizations can increase the sense
of trust and credibility among tourists, [62].
● Destination organizations should exhibit the
ratings and reviews from prospective customers
of popular sites like TripAdvisor at their
destination premises so that customers visiting
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the establishment instantly get a positive vibe
from those tokens of reference, [63]. It is thus
highly recommended that the destination
website regularly check up on customers’
conversations and comments made on social
media about their destination site.
● In our research, it was found that when
destination organizations fail to pinpoint their
customer base, customers feel irritated to see
irrelevant ads on their page and are likely to
unfollow the destination, [64].
● Destination organizations should also provide
enough information to guide tourists making a
complete trip by including the available
accommodation options that are nearby,
available transportation facilities that the
customers can use, available guide options,
food, and other leisure options so that tourists
don’t need to go elsewhere to find a link to
those services. This is why a destination
organization can hold potential tourists for a
long time on its social media page, [65]. If
possible, destination organizations should also
form affiliations with the mentioned service
providers to help tourists plan a complete trip.
5.2 Conclusion
It is concluded that the goal of the study was to find
out how important different social media influencers
are in helping tourists decide where to travel. Since
social media has become a very influential
marketing tool for small and medium enterprises
and an easy way to pinpoint niche targets, every
company, from goods to services to businesses, uses
social media to harness customer relationships, [66].
It is stipulated that social media has a crucial impact
on increasing awareness about a destination,
augmenting the image of the destination where
tourists can visit, amplifying the number of tourist
engagement, addressing the current level of
problems and solutions of the destination, and
contacting marketing campaigns to foster word of
mouth. Destination organizations that mostly
promote tourist spots in Bangladesh have
downplayed the role of social media in getting
people interested in traveling to those places, [67].
Previously, destination organizations have always
relied on conventional travel agencies and media to
reach out to clients and thus have always stayed
away from directly interacting with the target
audiences. They have very little idea about which
social media influencer has the most influence in
shaping tourists' travel decision-making, which has
led me to work on this research paper. There were
very few research studies done previously to
understand the relationship between social media
and tourism in general, but little concentration was
put on assessing specific elements of social media
and their direct connection to tourists’ decision-
making, [68].
The first objective of the research was to
identify various underlying aspects of social media
posts, chiefly messages, photos, videos, etc., that
have the power to transform something intangible
like a travel experience into tangible digital content.
Thus, we came up with four influencers that were
chosen as the independent variables for our research
work. The dependent variable was the tourist’s
decision-making, as we were to assess how those
influencers affect a tourist’s decision-making. After
carefully studying various research works and
papers, we came to the understanding that those four
elements somewhat positively or negatively affected
tourists’ decision-making in some ways. However,
an exact correlation was to be drawn, [69]. Hence,
we have followed the Single Linear Regression
Analysis method to analyze the relationship between
the independent variables and dependent variables
in a survey that consisted of 15 questions presented
in 5 sections. The Likert Scaling Technique was
applied to help respondents give their opinions
conveniently and for convenient analysis work.
Social media has revolutionized the picture of
tourism destination marketing by connecting people
through social media in multiple ways i.e.
addressing the challenges of a new destination,
finding out an effortless solution for the challenge,
empowering the connectivity of social media,
enhancing the credibility by posting videos, images,
block, and real time experience, exploring new
trends and technology for effective destination
marketing.
6 Limitations and Future Scope of the
Study
The researcher may have to deal with some different
problems and restrictions while doing this study. It's
hard to get accurate numbers on customer
information about how tourists see things because
it's seen as personal information, [70]. The
respondents are making it hard to get information
from them. Also, it can be hard for the researcher to
come up with a hypothesis and try it to see if it
should be accepted. The researcher may also have
trouble using different statistical tools and meeting
his own needs. Most of the time social media
platforms magnify negative publicity about tourist
destinations which creates a security crisis for the
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tourists. Required data is stiff to collect because of
privacy issues from the actual tourists of different
destinations. Sometimes it is difficult to measure the
effectiveness of social media like Facebook because
of target market engagement, involvement, sharing
of actual data, and other indicators. However, these
limitations certainly generate some scoops for future
research. For instance, social media marketing
campaigns in tourist destinations can segment and
target actual and potential customer groups for
targeting innovative marketing campaigns, content
personalization strategies to serve new target
markets, and reaching a large target customer for
future sustainability in the competitive market. It's a
great opportunity to target the new customer from
Snapchat, TikTok, and other social media platforms
by analyzing demographic information, customer
attitude and perception, destination marketing
aspects, and utilizing a user-generated matrix for
destination marketing, [71]. There is another scope
of extending the guideline and applying best ethical
practices of maintaining customer privacy issues,
extending data protection scope, user transparency,
complying with ethical code of conduct, and
administering ethical corporate social responsibility
in destination marketing research.
Acknowledgement:
Not applicable for conducting this study in the
ethical statement and conflict of interest statements.
No external funding has not received to complete
this study. Authors are equally contributing to this
research paper.
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