Tourism Branding, Identity, Reputation Co-creation, and Word-of-Mouth in the Age of Social Media

Abstract

Developments in the information and communication technologies (ICTs) have changed the operational and strategic practices of organizations on a global level and altered the competitiveness of enterprises and regions around the world (Buhalis and Law, 2008). E-tourism, defined as the application of ICTs on the tourism industry has dramatically affected the strategic and operational management of tourism organizations and destinations (Buhalis, 2003). The Internet has enabled companies to expand their customer base to cover the global population cost effectively. Tourism-related industries, such as airlines and hotel chains, are able to access international customers and develop the tools to manage properties around the world at the touch of a button (Egger and Buhalis, 2008). Small companies can also for the first time develop their "virtual size" and offer their services to global markets (O'Connor, 1999; Spencer, Buhalis, and Moital, 2012). Tourism enterprises are recognizing the importance of technologies in their field, and they acknowledge that the management of their holistic online presence is a prerequisite for success (Inversini, Brülhart, and Cantoni, 2011). In addition, since 2005, social media and Web 2.0 have provided a group of Internet-based applications that allow the creation and exchange of user-generated content (UGC—Kaplan and Haenlein, 2010).KeywordsSearch EngineSocial MediumCorporate ReputationTourism ExperienceTourism ManagementThese keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.