The Internet has revolutionized global business in the 21st century. It has improved the speed of connecting to the customers international, cost effective in terms of the economies of scale and provided promising avenues to venture and promote in novel business opportunities to many customers globally (Boulianne 2017, p. 5). One area of the Internet that has been on the forefront in national and global business promotion is the social media platforms (De Pelsmacker, Geuens and Van den Bergh, 2007). Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Youtube, Linkedn and many other platforms host billions of users globally with different interests on the platforms (Oh and Syn 2015, p. 2046, Mariani, Felice and Mura, 2016, p. 322). For the tourism industry, social media is an invaluable marketing tool that enables reaching undifferentiated customers (Xiang, Du, Ma and Fan 2017, p. 53, Zeng and Gerritsen, 2014, p. 27). Even though studies have been conducted on the issue how social media platforms influence tourism destination image and selection, there is a missing concentration on impact of Instagram on the destination image and selection. This study aims to add to the existing literature and policy improvement on tourism. It is hypothesised that effective utilisation of Instagram creates a positive perception about a tourist destination, leading to the selection.
In the study, tourism destination will be described as a natural entity with unique conditions and properties that are distinct from others (Dahl 2018, p. 55). Social media will encompass the conceptualisation by Dahl stating that it is an internet-based service allowing users to construct personal or group profile within a bounded system, articulating a list of other users able to share connections, and creating and sharing content (2018, p. 88). Social media such as Instagram are characterised by the democratic information dispensation, where the users are transformed from mere readers of content to publishers, and a one-to-many model (Dahl 2018, p. 88; Ferrucci, Sarti, Splendiani, and Rodríguez, 2017, p.235).
The proposal is organised into sections as titled as research objectives and questions, literature review, methodology, and ethical considerations.
Research Objectives
1. To determine the effect of social platforms on the tourism destination image
2. To determine how Instagram affects the selection of the tourism destinations
3. To propose policy measures for effective utlisation of Instagram and other social media platforms to promote tourism.
Research Questions
1. Does Instagram influence tourism destination image and selection in the Generation Y era?
2. How is Instagram used by tourism-based companies for improving their images for the potential customers and what is the impact on the destination choice?
3. How effective has the social media platforms been used in the tourism industry in terms of strategy, what can be done to improve the effectiveness?
Literature Review
The Destination Image
Tourism has contributed immensely to the promotion of national and global economic development (Las Casas and Silverio, 2014, p. 128). The significance of the tourism industries has intensified the competition between the destinations that are concerned with developing (Cohen, Prayag and Moital, 2014, p. 875). Consequently, tourism marketing has diverted to social media to maintain the economic status. According to Wang and Xu (2015, p. 242), choosing a buying destination tourist is influenced by imagery. Carlson, Rosenberger III and Rahman 2015, p. 1065) posit that social media plays a vital role on the demand and supply of tourism. The social media platforms allow the tourist destinations a direct interaction with the customers who interested with such locations. Similarly, location managers attain the chance to monitor and react to the opinions of the visitors who have evaluated the services. An attractive destination image reflects the affective feelings of the visitors that the selection of the places would satisfy the needs (Llodra-Riera, Martínez-Ruiz, Jiménez-Zarco and Izquierdo-Yusta 2015, p. 463). A study by Las Casas and Silverio (2015, p.128) identifying the link between tourism marketing and the strategic image management for looking for destination concluded that countries aspiring to prosper in tourism invest more in positive image. Social media was found to improve the negative image of Sao Paulo (Casas and Silverio 2015, p.128). Kim, Lee, Shin, and Yang (2017, p. 689) corroborated the role of social media in improving the quality of information about a tourism destination, narrowing on the content and non-content cues of such information. Using the Sina Weibo users, Kim et al. (2017, p. 680) established that the positive cue content creation was associated with the cognitive and affective images, hence the conative reaction for the tourist destinations.
Tourism industry considers the destinations as unique locations where facilities and services are designed to satisfy needs of the customers. The products or the destinations are regarded as goods and purchased long before travels. However, Kuric (2016, p. 367) found no moderating effect of the social direct influence of the image of a country on the intentions of visiting. Destinations in countries with negative images are difficult to promote for tourism.
Social Media
Social media has grown to become a significant social phenomenon and an international business trend (Gillespie and Riddle 2015, p. 91) Marketing strategies for tourism aligned with social media are able to help destinations to maintain their competitiveness. Oklobdžija and Popesku (2017, p. 76) as well as Tiago and Veríssimo (2014, p. 705) argue that digital marketing, especially social media for customer engagement has been a game-changer in the global arena. Jugenheimer, Sheehan, and Kelly (2015, p. 56) posit that marketing management strategies have overutilsed the mainstream media, and it is time to divert attention to new strategies and opportunities presented by the social media.
The emergence of a group of internet users have drawn the attention of researchers and stakeholders in media marketing. One such group is known as Generation Y (Lissitsa and Kol, 2016, p. 304). Generation Y are often referred to those who are finishing education and moving into the adult life of work (Bolton et al., 2013, p. 246). They are also delineated as the web generation, millennials, nexters, and a group of frequent media user who are either schooling or recently completed their studies to move into adult life as well as “digital natives” (San, Omar and Thurasamy 2015, p. 298; Bolton et al., 2013, p. 246; Bennett, Maton and Kervin, 2008, p. 776). In a study to understand the use of social networks in the millennial generation, Akkucuk and Turan (2015, p.3), defined the group as people born in early 2000. The researchers found that the Generation Y members aged between 12 and 17 frequented Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter. The research was conducted in Yalova district, Turkey. The group are believed to be frequent social media platforms, dictating and influencing the online choices of a significant number of unsuspecting social media users (Nadeem, Andreini, Salo and Laukkanen, 2015, p. 432, San, Omar and Thurasamy 2015, p. 298). In the proposed study, Instagram will be the basic platform for assessing the impact of social media on destination image and selection. The choice is justified by its inclusion as one of the social networking sites used extensively by the Generation Y and X (Ting, de Run and Liew 2016, p. 43, Akkucuk and Turan 2015, p.7).
According to Social Networks and Traveler Reviews of 2012, 75 percent of travelers use social media to obtain shopping-related deals while 50% of tourists on Facebook said that their destination was influenced by seeing photos of friends using Facebook (Kiráľová and Pavlíčeka 2015, p. 376). At the same time, significant numbers of travelers on already decided plans change their hotels (33%) and destinations (7%) after reading what was being said about their destinations on social media platforms (Kiráľová and Pavlíčeka 2015, p. 376). Social media allow destinations establish a contact with visitors at relatively low prices and higher efficiency. The effectiveness of social media is seen with the increased awareness of brands, engagement with the brands, and the friendly likes on the social websites. Moreover, social media has been found to help the destinations achieve international publicity, strengthen its image, increase the awareness of goods and service it offers as well as increasing the traffic in the social media platforms.
McCann and Barlow (2015, p. 274) underscored the importance of social media for small and medium-sized enterprises and pointed to the need for measurement of its return and the strategic planning for the effective use. Go and You (2015, p. 178) conducted a study to explore organisations use the diverse social media platforms to manage their consumer relationship. The usage patterns in 317 firms were analysed and pointed that different organisations use the various social media differently. They found that that visualization and interactive collaboration achieved greater outcomes. Researchers have also explored the effective strategies used in various organizations such novelty, the involvement of celebrity, consonance, unexpectedness, and uniqueness (Hassan, Nadzim, and Shiratuddin, 2015, p.265, and Guesalaga, 2016, p. 72). Cheng and Edwards (2015, p. 1080) conducted a visual analysis of Sina Weibo microblog service to explore the impact of visual images on the travel regions. The researchers gathered the most frequently reposted tourist visa news and used in a case study. The analysis of the visual news impacted on travel choices of the consumers and the changes in policies for traveling (Hao, Wu, Morrison, and Wang, 2016, p. 203).
The proposed study will use Instagram to assess its impact on destination image and selection amongst participants in Glasgow. The study will aim at building on the literature gap that has eluded the use Instagram as a social media platform to assess the impacts destination image and selection. There are gaps in the literature on assessing the impact of social media on destination image selection. Most of the literature is concentrated on the general impact of social media on the destination image, assessing Facebook and Tourism promotion, and the promotion of a country with negative image. The current study will be grounded on the theoretical framework to assess the impact of social media (Instagram) on the destination image and election. The study will use the theory of reasoned action and personal descriptive and injunctive norms. The theory is based on the premise that the intention of the social media users to interact with social media are influenced by the attitude towards the behaviour, subjective and personal descriptive norms (Tang, Weaver and Lawton, 2017, p. 56). Consequently, the study will have a theoretical and practical implications for scholars and policymakers in the tourism industry.
Methodology
The proposed study will compile the literature review on the use of Instagram and other social media platforms in the tourism industry for the destination image and selection. The research approach will be both qualitative and quantitative. The qualitative approach will be applicable for data collection since the study questions require the perception of the participants. On the other hand, the quantitative method will come in will be appropriate in the sampling of the themes in the literature reviewed and the statistical representation of data. Similarly, the quantitative method will aid in the analysis and statistical interpretation of the results
Sample
The proposed study will use a study sample of between 5-10 companies, articles 30-50 peer-reviewed articles will be reviewed for thematic content, and human participants will compose 100 Instagram users within the age bracket of between 16 and 30 years. Majority of the Generation Y fall within the age bracket. The research sample will be chosen by convenience sampling and randomly, provided the criteria for participation. Exclusion and inclusion criteria will be used to ensure that only a group able to participate in the study are sampled.
Data Collection
Primary research will be conducted in the form of survey because the conceptual framework of the study can be exploited effectively using the qualitative research approach. According to Sutton and Austin (2015, p.226), a qualitative research helps the investigator to access the perceptions of the human subjects to enable the development of an understanding of the concepts in the study. It is proposed that a questionnaire will be the most appropriate data collection approach since the research will rely on qualitative data. A qualitative interviewer will be the “research instrument”. The qualitative interviewer will explain to the participants the purpose of the study, provide letters of consent, and assure them that in case one feels not to continue with the study, he/she will be free.
A hypothetical scenario will be used to minimize the chances of the interviewee suspicion of a pre-formed opinion on the topic under study. Normally, the validity of a qualitative research is jeopardised by the influence of the interviewer in the process of data collection (Silverman 2016, p. 419). The will be four qualitative interviewers who will book appointment with the participants. The interviews will be through focus groups, telephone, E-mails, and one-on-one interviews. The qualitative interviewer will used tapes to record the participants and allow them to write responses. The tape recordings will be transcribed verbatim and unique codes used to hide the identities of the interviewee.
Data Analysis
The three study questions that will be analysed in relations to the data collected. Firstly, each question would be evaluated in relation to the data collected and the reviewed literature. The process will involve the thematic analysis. Secondly, the overreaching themes will be sampled as well as the patterns, commonalities, similarities. Thirdly, the data collected will be entered Excel and SPSS for easy manipulation. Additionally, the information will be presented statistically using frequency distribution tables, standard deviation, T-tests, and regression analysis. The findings will be outlined and discussed before inference for theoretical and practical implications.
Ethical Consideration
The importance of research ethics cannot be overstated. Professional associations have come up with codes and policies to guide the behaviour of investigators (Thomas 2017, p. 23). Being honest, objective, showing respect for intellectual property, social responsibility, and non-segregation are some of the major issues addressed in research ethics (Bryman 2015, p.221). The proposed study raises ethical concerns on the involvement of human subjects in a study and the use of the qualitative method for data collection. Since the study will involve the inversion into private Instagram handles of the participants, the ethical issue of privacy and confidentiality arise. At the same time, the security of the personal accounts will be of great ethical concerns. The ethical issues will be addressed in various ways. Hypothetical questions and case scenarios will be formulated and given to the qualitative interviewer to ensure that there is no data fabrication and falsification (Corbin, Strauss and Strauss, 2014, p. 234; Denzin and Giardina 2016, p. 455).
Permission will be obtained from the school department and professional agencies in Scotland before data collection to ensure that the research meet the procedural standards of conducting studies. The researchers and their assistants will fill the collection consent forms and supply the participants with their respective copies. The purpose of the study will be explained to the participants and given surety that there would be no physical injury or emotional harm intended. Additionally, the participants will be assured of the confidentiality of their views and that their privacy details, especially in their pictures available on their Instagram accounts, will not be compromised. The responses of the participants will be transcribed and the texts accorded unique codes. The researcher will be under the strict rule to review only images that satisfy the general standards of obscenity. Moreover, the study sample will involve companies that can benefit from the proceeds of the study for justice in the outcomes of the study.
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