This comprehensive Handbook offers an overview of current research on the use of social media within the tourism industry, investigating a range of social media practices and proposing strategies to address key challenges faced by tourist destinations and operators.

Tourists frequently rely on social networks to provide information about a product or destination as a decision support tool to make adequate decisions in the process of planning a trip. In this digital environment, tourists share their travel experiences, impressions, emotions, special moments, and opinions about an assortment of tourist services like hotels, restaurants, airlines, and car rental services, all of which contribute to the online reputation of a tourist destination. The Handbook of Research on Social Media Applications for the Tourism and Hospitality Sector is a fundamental reference source that provides vital theoretical frameworks and the latest innovative empirical research findings of online social media in the tourism industry. While highlighting topics such as e-business, mobile marketing, and smart tourism, this publication explores user-generated content and the methods of mobile strategies. This book is ideally designed for tour developers, travel agents, restaurateurs, hotel management, tour directors, entrepreneurs, social media analysts, managers, industry professionals, academicians, researchers, and students.

This comprehensive Handbook offers an overview of current research on the use of social media within the tourism industry, investigating a range of social media practices and proposing strategies to address key challenges faced by tourist destinations and operators. International contributors analyse both conceptual and practical social media topics, addressing cutting-edge social media issues in destination management and marketing. Drawing on empirical case studies and examples, chapters explore dark tourism, gastro-tourism, travel blogs, electronic word-of-mouth, sentiment analysis and a variety of quantitative and qualitative methodologies. The Handbook also defines central social media concepts and explores the impact they have on the success of tourist destinations, setting the stage for a better understanding of the relationship between social media and tourism. Through an examination of current trends in social media, as well as future trajectories, it provides critical insights for the successful development and implementation of social media marketing strategies. This Handbook will be a critical read for scholars and students of geography and business management, with a specific interest in tourism and hospitality management. Its practical considerations will also be beneficial for planners, policy makers, managers and marketers in the tourism industry.

This thought-provoking Handbook considers the impact and challenges that social tourism has on people’s lives, integrating case studies from around the world. Showcasing the latest research on the topic and its role in tackling the challenges of tourism development, chapters explore the opportunities presented by social tourism and illustrate the social imperative of tourism as a force for good.

Tourism has often been described as being about ‘selling dreams’, tourist experiences being conceptualized as purely a marketing confection, a socially constructed need. However, the reality is that travel for leisure, business, meetings, sports or visiting loved ones has grown to be a very real sector of the global economy, requiring sophisticated business and marketing practices. The Routledge Handbook of Tourism Marketing explores and critically evaluates the current debates and controversies inherent to the theoretical, methodological and practical processes of marketing within this complex and multi-sector industry. It brings together leading specialists from range of disciplinary backgrounds and geographical regions to provide reflection and empirical research on this complex relationship. The Handbook is divided in to nine inter-related sections: Part 1 deals with shifts in the context of marketing practice and our understanding of what constitutes value for tourists; Part 2 explores macromarketing and tourism; Part 3 deals with strategic issues; Part 4 addresses recent advances in research; Part 5 focuses on developments in tourist consumer behaviour; Part 6 looks at micromarketing; Part 7 moves on to destination marketing and branding issues; Part 8 looks at the influence of technological change on tourism marketing; and Part 9 explores future directions. This timely book offers the reader a comprehensive synthesis of this sub-discipline, conveying the latest thinking and research. It will provide an invaluable resource for all those with an interest in tourism and marketing, encouraging dialogue across disciplinary boundaries and areas of study. This is essential reading for Tourism students, researchers and academics as well as those of Marketing, Business, Events Management and Hospitality Management.

"This book is aimed at researchers who want to improve their understanding of the strategic role of new digital technologies in the field of cultural tourism, offering innovative research results within the scope of the interdisciplinary cross between Digital Communications, Internet of Things, and Cultural Tourism"--

This handbook provides an authoritative and truly comprehensive overview both of the diverse applications of information and communication technologies (ICTs) within the travel and tourism industry and of e-tourism as a field of scientific inquiry that has grown and matured beyond recognition. Leading experts from around the world describe cutting-edge ideas and developments, present key concepts and theories, and discuss the full range of research methods. The coverage accordingly encompasses everything from big data and analytics to psychology, user behavior, online marketing, supply chain and operations management, smart business networks, policy and regulatory issues – and much, much more. The goal is to provide an outstanding reference that summarizes and synthesizes current knowledge and establishes the theoretical and methodological foundations for further study of the role of ICTs in travel and tourism. The handbook will meet the needs of researchers and students in various disciplines as well as industry professionals. As with all volumes in Springer’s Major Reference Works program, readers will benefit from access to a continually updated online version.