Destination Marketing and Users’ Appraisal: Looking for the reasons why tourists like a destination

A corpus of posts about the Republic of Malta have been investigated to identify the arguments frequently used to support its touristic value; arguments have been later classified and compared with those put forward by the DMO in its official promotion materials.

Abstract

Forum posts written by tourists on travel social media like Trip Advisor report very quick impressions on a trip or give practical indications to prospective tourists. They are usually only a few words long and sketch the author's global impression about a destination or focus on the aspects of the destination considered the most valuable. In this paper, forum posts are looked at as short argumentative texts, conceived to help prospective tourists make decisions while organizing their trip. A corpus of posts about the Republic of Malta have been investigated to identify the arguments frequently used to support its touristic value; arguments have been later classified and compared with those put forward by the DMO in its official promotion materials.