The chapter is part of Media Management in Communicating Tourism: Edited Essays (ISBN: 9781648054341). (Originally Published February 2020)
Dr. P.V.Sangeetha
Abstract
Social media has become the order of the day through its interactive, two-way communication to attend individual and social needs of its users. Realizing the power and scope of social media, many private and public institutions have initiated their own social media pages to have more visibility and transparency in governance. Tourism is one such sphere that makes use of social media to connect people across the globe. Being a major source of economic growth and global visibility, tourism in India demands effective communication about various tourist spots and facilities available there. There are many social media pages, websites, blogs, vlogs, etc available to showcase India’s unique and diversified culture to the tourists. However, how the same has been detailed by the social media pages of tourism departments in state and central governments, Union Territories of India calls for analysis. This paper analyses the official Facebook pages of tourism departments of State and Central governments and Union territories of India. Facebook has been powerful and popular social media among users. A qualitative approach has been adopted. The objectives of the study are 1) to identify the presence of tourism departments of Central, State, and Union Territories of India, 2) to assess the nature of posts, and 3) to analyze the status of user engagement. FB pages of all tourism departments under Central, State, and Union territories were analyzed to identify the presence of the same in social media. Detailed content analysis was done on the FB pages of six states which were selected based on their inclusion in the Top Ten ranked states/UTs in a number of domestic and foreign visitors as per the latest statistics of Govt of India. The results reveal that the tourism official Facebook pages are active and have a wide reach. However, it lacks interactivity and effective use. The study recommends more focused and intense content development and maintenance of the official Facebook pages in order to make tourism popular among the users.
Keywords: Social media, tourism, Facebook, government.
Introduction
Social media has become a popular communication medium of the day. It is one of the effective tools of public relations and marketing. Many industries have recognized the importance of social media and have established their presence in the same, in order to connect with their target consumers. Tourism is one such big industry that has explored the possibilities of social media to widen its horizons. Social media has changed tourism marketing in several ways. People love to share ideas, new experiences, making friends around the globe, uploading and sharing travel pictures and videos, exchanging views, search for recommendations, etc. Social media, especially Facebook and Twitter are popular among travelers because of their interactive and user-friendly nature, customized options, open online place where you can give and get information, networking and commenting facilities, etc.
It is a great platform for travel research. People plan and execute their trips online and use social media for more clarity, reviews, and recommendations. It acts as an excellent platform to gather information about destinations, activities, fare, dining, accommodations, etc. Travel photos and videos are popular content on social media. The recommendation feature allows travelers to hear from peer travelers and also provides an opportunity to connect with them in seeking advice before traveling to the destinations. It helps travelers to discover new destinations and unexplored tourism spots easily. Social media also provide a platform for customer services. Directing the customers to the FB or Twitter page helps them to seek immediate help and support via comments or messages from authentic sources when issues or queries arise. People get their doubts cleared in an open and transparent environment which makes them feel free and this, in turn, adds credibility to the source. Sharing information is another aspect. The world now relies on online word of mouth. The most important information comes from online interpersonal influence, online word of mouth, when a tourist making a decision on a final destination (Zivkovic, 2014). Positive reviews are valuable for brand building and most travelers understand that their words are pretty worth for the brands/companies to sustain and develop. As social media is very expressive, consumers are able to influence other consumers with their own opinions and experiences. Since social media is low-cost and bias-free, it represents an advantage for marketing communications (Kotler et al, 2010). It provides a wide platform for the users to engage with the content in the form of a comment, like, or share of a post. The user engagement represents the users’ interest in the post and their intention to support the page, business, or idea.
Tourism in India
Tourism in India is growing fast. It is an important aspect of a country’s economy. The World Travel and Tourism Council calculated that tourism generated Rs.16.91 lakh crore (US$240 billion) or 9.2% of India’s GDP in 2018 and supported 42.673 million jobs, 8.1% of its total employment. The sector is predicted to grow at an annual rate of 6.9% to ₹32.05 lakh crore by 2028. Over 10 million foreign tourists arrived in India in 2017 compared to 8.89 million in 2016, representing a growth of 15.6% (WTTC, 2019).
The Ministry of Tourism designs policies for the development and promotion of tourism. Incredible India campaign focused on promoting tourism in India. The Travel and Tourism Competitiveness Report 2019 ranked India 34th out of 140 countries overall. India improved its ranking by 6 places over the 2017 report which was the greatest improvement among the top 25% of countries ranked. The report ranks the price competitiveness of India’s tourism sector 13th out of 140 countries. It mentions that India has quite good air transport infrastructure (ranked 33rd), particularly given the country’s stage of development, and reasonable ground and port infrastructure (ranked 28th). The country also scores high on natural resources (ranked 14th), and cultural resources, and business travel (ranked 8th).
According to the latest report by the government of India, the following is the share of States/Union Territories in India in a number of domestic and foreign tourists’ visits. Table 1 and 2 represents the same.
Table 1: Share of Top 10 States/UTs of India in Number of Domestic Tourist Visits in 2017
Rank | State/UT | Number | Percentage share |
1 | Tamil Nadu | 345061140 | 20.9 |
2 | Uttar Pradesh | 233977619 | 14.2 |
3 | Karnataka | 179980191 | 10.9 |
4 | Andhra Pradesh | 165433898 | 10.0 |
5 | Maharashtra | 119191539 | 7.2 |
6 | Telengana | 85266596 | 5.2 |
7 | West Bengal | 79687645 | 4.8 |
8 | Madhya Pradesh | 79687645 | 4.7 |
9 | Gujarat | 48343121 | 2.9 |
10 | Rajasthan | 45916573 | 2.8 |
Table 2: Share of Top 10 States/UTs of India in Number of Foreign Tourist Visits in 2017
Rank | State/UT | Number | Percentage share |
1 | Maharashtra | 5078514 | 18.2 |
2 | Tamil Nadu | 4860455 | 18.1 |
3 | Uttar Pradesh | 3556204 | 13.2 |
4 | Delhi | 2740502 | 10.2 |
5 | Rajasthan | 1609963 | 6 |
6 | West Bengal | 1574915 | 5.9 |
7 | Punjab | 1108635 | 4.1 |
8 | Kerala | 1091870 | 4.1 |
9 | Bihar | 1082705 | 4 |
10 | Goa | 842220 | 3.1 |
(Source: India tourism statistics at a glance -2018)
Facebook is a social networking site that began in February of 2004 as a school-based social network by Mark Zuckerberg along with Edward Saverin, both students at Harvard University. Facebook helps the people and businesses to reach the people world around and maintain the relationship easily and quickly through a single login. It helps people to upload and share content like photos, videos, etc. It is user friendly and open to everyone. It also provides the option for the interested people to form groups, pages, etc through which they can keep their activities going. Facebook has emerged as an efficient tool for digital marketing. Facebook provides a customizable set of privacy controls, so users can protect their information from getting to third-party individuals (Daniel, 2019). As stated earlier, Facebook is an effective PR and marketing tool. With its large user base, it helps the account holder to connect with thousands of people online who are interested in the business, idea, etc. It helps to build and maintain relationships with people of the target demographic. Hence, many countries have explored this possibility to connect with their citizens and communicate transparently. In India, almost all the private and public organizations have their own official Facebook pages through which they reach the citizens.
Review of Literature
Though social media has emerged as an effective tool of tourism, there is no much literature available on the same. Leung D et al (2012) reviewed the existing literature on social media and tourism which published in academic journals from 2007 to 2011. The review found that consumer-centric studies generally focused on the use and impact of social media in the research phase of the travelers’ destination/travel planning process. Supplier-related studies have concentrated closely on promotion, management, and research functions, but few discussed product distributions.
Online research with 4,600 respondents was conducted in October, 2012 across the US, Europe, and Asia Pacific, among the travelers who are social media users, who had traveled for leisure purposes in the last 12 months or intended to do so in the next 12 months. The study revealed that social media has a big influence on travel decisions as 44% of respondents strongly agreed that internet reviews posted by travel bloggers helped them about the initial decision of vacation destinations, followed by 37% online travel forums, 27% Facebook, 24% YouTube/Vimeo, 22% Pinterest.
Guruja R found that social media influence travel planning. Over 69% of the worldwide population uses social media for tourism needs. Zinvkovic et al (2014) made a study on the impact of social media on tourism. The study stated that social media, especially Facebook has a great influence over the travel choices of consumers globally.
Stankov U, et al (2010) found in their study on ‘the extent of use of Facebook user-generated content by the national tourism organizations in Europe’ that about half of the national tourism organizations do not have an official presence in Facebook. Among those who are available on Facebook, most of them fail to use the advantages of user-generated content. However, the study reinstates that Facebook community has all the scope to continue to grow and Facebook will become one of the effective marketing strategies.
Park JH et al (2016) investigated the utilization of Facebook by local Korean governments for the purposes of tourism development. The results indicated that most local Korean governments actively manage Facebook to communicate with the public and offer a wide range of information to promote tourism. Parsons (2011) conducted a content analysis on the official Facebook pages of 70 global brands and found that companies have recognized the need to be present and active in the social media to reach their customers. Companies use variety of strategies in Facebook pages to reach and retain the potential customers.
Mariani et al (2018) did a study on the use of Facebook by the national tourism organizations and found that user engagement in Facebook is positively affected by posting visual content, and posting during the weekends, and negatively affected by evening posting. Post frequency displays no statistically significant effect on social engagement. The study also shows that most of the NTOs (except for Italy, Spain, Turkey and the UK) deploy Facebook with a top-down approach, and spontaneous user-generated content (UGC) is allowed to a very little extent.
Gupta A at al (2018) investigated the kind of content, media, and posting day that would engage consumers more on official Facebook pages of tourism departments of India. Applying the uses and gratification framework, they reviewed the official State Tourism Facebook pages and made a comparative analysis among the top three states on the basis of the number of fans was done. The data collected from 15th Jan – 15th March 2015 and 15th Jan -15th Mar 2016 was reviewed. Consumer engagement was measured by the number of likes, comments, and shares on the post. The results showed that a large number of fans does not necessarily result in a higher engagement index. Single pictures had a higher engagement index as compared to multiple pictures and videos. No relationship was found between the day of posting and the engagement index.
The present study analyses the official presence and status of tourism departments of Central, State and Union territories of India with reference to Facebook.
Objectives of the study
The objectives of the study are as follows,
- To identify the official presence of tourism departments of Central and State governments, Union Territories in social media with reference to Facebook
- To find the nature of posts that are being uploaded in the official FB pages of the Govt Tourism departments
- To assess the user engagement in the official FB pages of the Govt Tourism departments
Research Methods
A qualitative approach has been adopted for the study. Content analysis of the official FB pages of all tourism departments in Central, State, and Union territories have been done to identify their presence in the social media. After which, a detailed analysis of the nature of posts and user engagement was made on the FB pages of the tourism depts of six states which were selected through purposive sampling. The selection was based on their inclusion in the Top Ten ranked states/UTs in a number of domestic and foreign visitors as per the latest statistics of Govt of India, 2018. Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, West Bengal, and Rajasthan were included in top ten lists of domestic and foreign tourist visitors. Taking into consideration, the contextual relevance of the present conference, Kerala was also added for the study. Kerala was ranked 8th in the list of foreign visitors. The data was collected manually during the period 1-6 Oct 2019. All posts during the period of 1-30 Sep 2019 were analyzed. The Facebook pages were identified from the link provided in the official websites of tourism departments on Central, State and Union Territories of India.
Results and Analysis
This section presents the results and analysis of data collected from the Facebook pages of the tourism departments of Ministry of India, Incredible India, State governments and Union territories. The following table indicate the presence and status of various tourism departments on Facebook.
Table 3 Presence and Status of FB pages of Tourism dept of State/UT/Govt of India
State/UT/ Govt of India | FB Pages | Total likes | Total followers | Rating | Total Check in | Total tabs | Profile picture | Wall picture | Other social media links provided | |
1 | Govt of India | Incredible India https://www.facebook.com/incredibleindia/ | 2,048,651 | 2,053,928 | 10,910 | 12 | Logo of Incredible India | Poster on event | Instagram Twitter Youtube | |
2 | Govt of India | Tourism ministry of India, https://www.facebook.com/ministryoftourismgoi | 53,202 | 54,196 | – | – | 7 | Pic of Indian flag | Video on the land of Gandhi | Website |
3 | Andhra Pradesh | https://www.aptourism.gov.in/ | 552,608 | 552,552 | – | 1,796 | 8 | Logo of Andra tourism | Pic of landscape | Messenger Website |
4 | Arunachal Pradesh | http://www.arunachalpradesh.gov.in/666-2/ | 22,424 | 22,812 | 4.8/81 | – | 8 | Scenery | scenery | Messenger Website |
5 | Assam | No FB page | ||||||||
6 | Bihar | http://www.bihartourism.gov.in/home.html | 6,714 | 6,839 | – | – | 8 | Logo of Dept of Tourism | Logo of Dept of Tourism | Messenger Website |
7 | Chhattisgarh | http://visitcg.in/ | 168,570 | 168,006 | 4.6/584 | 1661 | 16 | Logo of Chattisgarh tourism board | Poster | Insta Youtube Twitter |
8 | Goa | No FB page | ||||||||
9 | Gujarat | https://www.gujarattourism.com/ | 1,343,268 | 1,343,751 | 4.6/4563 | 6,456 | 13 | Logo of dept of Gujarat Tourism | Video on event | Twitter Iconosquare Pinterest Livestream Youtube |
10 | Haryana | http://haryanatourism.gov.in/ | 3,366 | 3,448 | 4.4/51 | 518 | 9 | Logo of Dept of Haryana Tourism | Photo with tagline of Haryana tourism | Youtube |
11 | Himachal Pradesh | https://himachaltourism.gov.in/ | 8,709 | 8,866 | – | 175 | 8 | Logo of Dept of Tourism, Himachal pradesh | Video on various tourist places of HP | Website |
12 | Jammu and Kashmir | https://www.facebook.com/JKTourismOfficial/ | 356,490 | 380,997 | 4.8/657 | 4,309 | 13 | Logo of Dept of Tourism, J&K | Photo of scenery | Twitter Youtube Instagram Website |
13 | Jharkhand | Page not available | ||||||||
14 | Karnataka | Govt. of Karnataka | 163,059 | 163,710 | – | 142 | 7 | Logo of Dept of Tourism, Karnataka | Photo of event | Messenger Website |
15 | Kerala | https://www.facebook.com/keralatourismofficial | 3,479,846 | 3,498,368 | 20,386 | 7 | Logo of Dept of Tourism, Kerala | Photo of fishermen | Website | |
16 | Madhya Pradesh | http://www.mptourism.com/ | 1,210,026 | 1,213,818 | 4.1/17536 | 45,470 | 14 | Logo of Dept of Tourism, MP | Calendar quoting dates of importance with the background of scenery | Youtube Pinteret Twitter Instagram Messenger Website |
17 | Maharashtra | https://www.facebook.com/MaharashtraTourismOfficial/ | 128,005 | 128,302 | – | 799 | 13 | Logo of Maharashtra tourism | Video of tourist places | Website |
18 | Manipur | http://www.manipurtourism.gov.in/ | 22,073 | 22,936 | 3.7/5 | 316 | 8 | Logo of Dept of Tourism, Manipur | Photo of flower | Website |
19 | Meghalaya | No FB page | ||||||||
20 | Mizoram | 2,196 | 2,240 | 4.2/5 | – | 8 | Logo of Dept of Tourism, Mizoram | Info on event | Website | |
21 | Nagaland | No FB page | ||||||||
22 | Odisha | https://odishatourism.gov.in/content/tourism/en.html#footerSection | 238,294 | 239,524 | – | – | 7 | Logo of Dept of Tourism, Odisha | Photo of Scenery | Website |
23 | Punjab | http://punjabtourism.gov.in/#/home | 1,698 | 1,753 | – | – | 8 | Logo of Dept of Tourism, Punjab | Collage of tourist places | Website |
24 | Rajasthan | http://www.tourism.rajasthan.gov.in/ https://www.facebook.com/rajasthantourism | 588,349 | 590,309 | – | 56,919 | 9 | Logo of Dept of Tourism, Rajasthan | Poster of event | Youtube Website |
25 | Sikkim | No FB Page | ||||||||
26 | Tamil Nadu | https://www.facebook.com/tnttdc/?ref=sgm | 108,625 | 109,154 | 4.4/33 | 2,376 | 7 | Logo of Dept of Tourism, TN | Collage of tourist places with logo of TN tourism | Website |
27 | Telangana | https://www.telanganatourism.gov.in/ | 71,481 | 72,335 | – | 1,313 | 9 | Logo of Dept of Tourism, Telangana | Poster of Telangana tourism | Youtube Website |
28 | Tripura | http://www.tripuratourism.gov.in/ | 21,919 | 22,321 | – | 1 | 7 | Logo of Dept of Tourism,Tripuira | Poster of Tripura tourism | Website |
29 | Uttar Pradesh | http://www.uptourism.gov.in/ https://www.facebook.com/UttarPradeshTourism | 367,626 | 368,306 | 4.6 /357 | 8,210 | 9 | Logo of Dept of Tourism,UP | Poster of UP tourism | Website |
30 | Uttarakhand | https://uttarakhandtourism.gov.in/ | 494,753 | 474,966 | – | 445 | 13 | Logo of Dept of Tourism,U K | Poster of UK tourism | Youtube Instagram Pinterest Twitter UK Tourism app |
31 | West Bengal | https://www.wbtourismgov.in/ | 1,218,722 | 1,218,411 | 4.4/878 | 2,708 | 10 | Logo of Dept of Tourism, WB | Event poster | Twitter Youtube |
S.no | Union Territories | FB Pages | Total likes | Total followers | Rating | Total Check in | Total tabs | Profile picture | Wall picture | |
1 | Andaman and Nicobar Islands | No FB Page | ||||||||
2 | Chandigarh | No FB Page | ||||||||
3 | Dadar and Nagar Haveli | No FB Page | ||||||||
4 | Daman and Diu | No FB Page | ||||||||
5 | Delhi | http://www.delhitourism.gov.in/delhitourism/index.jsp | 29,074 | 29,461 | 4.1/106 | 992 | 8 | Logo of Delhi tourism | Poster of Delhi tourism | |
6 | Lakshadweep | No FB Page | ||||||||
7 | Puducherry | No FB Page |
As table 3 indicated, as many as 38 tourism related websites were reviewed for the purpose of the study. Among them, 26 have provided Facebook links (68%). The Ministry of tourism in India has two official Facebook pages including a page for its ‘Incredible India campaign’. The Facebook page of Incredible India started in Nov 2011, and managed by the Ministry of Tourism. The mission is stated on the page as taking India to the World, Bringing the World to India. Another thing to be noted is, there is no link provided in the official portal of the tourism dept of the government of Andrapradesh. However, there is a FB page existing in the name ‘Andhrapradesh tourism’ which aims at making Andhra Pradesh travel and tourism more popular and attractive. The FB page is linked with the website http://www.goandhrapradesh.com/#section-map which is maintained by the govt of Andra Pradesh. The tourism departments of Assam, Goa, Meghalaya, Nagaland and Sikkim have not provided FB links on their official websites. The same goes with the Union Territories except for Delhi. The data were analyzed in the following format,
Reach: Reach can be assessed from the number of Likes, Fans and Check ins received for the FB pages. Getting a ‘Like’ below a post on Facebook is an indicator that the user liked the post. The advantage of this is, people who all can see the post can see who all like the post too. A Facebook fan is a user who likes a particular Facebook page. In this way, FB can reach its users very easily and quickly whenever the page updates its status, post content and event invitations. Facebook Check-Ins helps to identify the location of the users primarily. However, it also serves as a personal referral from one friend to another. By checking in, a Facebook user is endorsing an idea, business, etc. Once a user check-in in on any FB page, the notification of the same will go to all his friends. That means the reach of that page is much higher. In the current analysis, Kerala scores a high reach in terms of likes (no= 3479846) and fans (n=3498368). The FB page of Punjab has the least number of likes (n=1698) and fans (n=1753). From the data displayed, it is evident that more than 95% of the people who have liked the page has become a fan of the page too. With regards to total Check-In, Rajasthan has the highest number (n=56919). The least check-in is on the FB page of Karnataka (n=142).
Interactivity: ApplicationTabs are the separate pages inside the FB pages. It indicates interactivity, navigation, multiple social media access options, etc, provided in the FB pages. Among 26 FB pages analyzed, Chattisgarh provides the greater number of tabs (n=16). The least number of Tabs is 7. Most FB pages have provided their other social media links as separate tabs.
Navigation to other social media: As stated, most of the FB pages have given access to other social media like Twitter, Youtube, etc as separate tabs. The FB page of Madhypradesh tourism has given more tabs in terms of social media navigation (n=6). It has accounts in YouTube, Pinterst, Twitter, Instagram, Messenger and has also given the details of its official website. This will help Madhy Pradesh tourism to reach and connect with its different and dynamic users through various mediums. As many as 11 tourism pages have given the only website as the additional information provided. As many as 9 FB tourism departments are present on YouTube followed by Twitter (n=6).
Portrayal: The portrayal of the tourism departments in FB was analyzed based on the profile picture of the FB pages and their wall pages. As many as 23 tourism departments have used the logo of their respective Tourism department as the profile picture. This will help the users to identify the official and authentic FB pages. However, wallpapers are designed in such a way that it would communicate about the famous tourist spots of the respective area or the highlights of each tourism department. As many as 15 wallpapers represent the famous tourist places of the respective states/UT. As many as 4 FB pages have uploaded videos as their wallpaper. Again, the content depicts the information about the tourist places of their state. Others have given the posters of the current events, the logo of the tourism department, collage of tourist places as their wall paper (n=7).
Nature of Posts
This section describes the nature of posts in the FB pages of the selected States. The states were selected based on their inclusion in the list of top ten tourism states and Union territories of India as per the latest statistics published by the govt of India. Those states which are included in both domestic and foreign tourists have been analyzed. This includes Tamil Nadu. Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal, and Rajasthan. Along with it, Kerala, which holds 8th position in foreign tourism has also been analyzed.
Table 4: Nature of Posts
Sl No | State/UT/ Govt of India | Total number of posts | Post Break down | Types of posts | ||||
Text | Photo | Video | Info on Tourist Places | Info on Events | General Info | |||
1 | Tamil Nadu | 27 | 27 | 43 | 3 | 9 | 11 | 7 |
2 | Maharashtra | 56 | 56 | 82 | 16 | 7 | 41 | 8 |
3 | Uttar Pradesh | 83 | 83 | 85 | 5 | 54 | 29 | 0 |
4 | West Bengal | 54 | 54 | 49 | 5 | 9 | 43 | 2 |
5 | Rajasthan | 70 | 70 | 62 | 20 | 29 | 32 | 9 |
6 | Kerala | 54 | 86 | 8 | 8 | 8 | 34 | 12 |
Total | 116 | 190 | 38 |
As Table 4 indicates, Maharashtra has the highest number of posts (n=83). The average number of posts per day by the FB page of Maharashtra is 2.7. It shows that the FB page of Maharashtra is very active. The least no of posts is by Tamil Nadu (n=27). All posts are accompanied by text which describes what is it about. Most of the posts included photographs. Kerala has the highest number of photos (n=86). An average number of photos per post is 1.59 in Kerala tourism FB. Tamil Nadu has the least no of photos (n=43). The number of videos is less in all the selected FB accounts. Rajasthan has uploaded a greater number of videos (n=20) when compared to other FB accounts, out of it many are live videos of an event on Music Summit. Only 3vidoes were uploaded by Tamil Nadu which is the least in the group.
To describe the types of posts in all FB accounts of the selected tourism departments in India, the majority of the posts are of information on any event (n=190). Since September was the month of festivals and occasions in India, all tourism FB pages have explored it in their accounts right from wallpapers to the posts. West Bengal has the highest number of posts on events (n=43). Durga Pooja has been widely and beautifully covered with photos and videos on their FB page. The second type of post is information on tourists’ places. Uttar Pradesh has widely portrayed its tourist places of interest along with beautiful posters of the places (n=54). The posters of Lucknow, Ayodhya, Varanasi, Banaras, Agra, Kanpur, etc have been repeatedly given in such a way that will motivate the users to visit those places at least once. Posts on places also include travel packages, tariffs, and descriptions of the places. Tamil Nadu, Rajasthan, and West Bengal have put up posts of tour packages with beautiful pictures and details of the places. Other general posts included posts on food, wishes for special days, etc.
Users Engagement
Users engagement is an important aspect of social media. Social media became popular because of the huge response from its users in the form of like, share, comment, etc. Hence analyzing those interactions helps us to understand how much popular is the tourism FB pages are among the public and to what extent do they support those pages. User engagement rate is calculated by taking into consideration the number of likes and no of followers of the FB pages. Below given Table indicate the overall user engagement rate of the selected FB pages.
Table 5: User engagement rate
Sl No | State/UT/ Govt of India | Total Likes | Total Followers | User engagement rate | |
1 | Tamil Nadu | 108625 | 109154 | 99.5% | |
2 | Maharashtra | 128005 | 128302 | 99.7% | |
3 | Uttar Pradesh | 367626 | 368306 | 99.8% | |
4 | West Bengal | 1218722 | 1218411 | 100% | |
5 | Rajasthan | 588349 | 590309 | 99.6% | |
6 | Kerala | 3479846 | 3498368 | 99.4% |
As per Table 5, all FB pages show a high user engagement rate. It is a good sign that the tourism departments of Govt of India are able to cater to the needs of the public and also to keep them interested in the tourism area. User engagement is calculated from the total number of ‘Likes’ and the total number of followers. West Bengal has the highest user engagement rate (100%) followed by Uttar Pradesh (99.8%). Kerala has the highest number of likes (n=34799846) and followers (n=3498368). Tamilnadu has the least number of likes (n=108625) and followers (n=109154)
Table 6 below specify the user engagement in the month of September 2019. In 30 days, Uttar Pradesh has posted 83 times. However, Kerala has the highest user engagement rate. The average user engagement per post on the FB page of Kerala tourism is 992.
Table 6 User engagement in the month of September 2019
State/UT/ Govt of India | Total number of posts | Users engagement | Total | Average User engagement/post | ||
Likes | comments | Shares | ||||
Tamil Nadu | 27 | 2637 | 54 | 418 | 3109 | 115 |
Maharashtra | 56 | 1676 | 24 | 98 | 1798 | 32 |
Uttar Pradesh | 83 | 10817 | 206 | 724 | 11747 | 142 |
West Bengal | 54 | 7590 | 86 | 761 | 8437 | 156 |
Rajasthan | 70 | 16075 | 360 | 1084 | 17519 | 250 |
Kerala | 54 | 48897 | 750 | 3894 | 53541 | 992 |
Figure 1: User engagement in FB pages of tourism departments
Figure 1 indicates that majority of the interaction happened in the form of ‘Likes’ followed by ‘share’ and ‘comments’. Kerala has the greater number of likes in the month of September 2019 (n=48897). As stated earlier, Kerala also received the highest number of comments (n=750) and shares (n=3894) which indicates high user interactivity (average user engagement =992) in the Kerala tourism FB page.
Findings
The findings of the study are as follows,
- The majority of the tourism departments under the Government of India has their official FB pages (68%)
- The tourism department of Union Territories have not explored the possibilities of FB except the Tourism Dept of Delhi
- The FB page of Kerala Tourism has the highest reach when compared to other states.
- A greater number of application tabs are provided by the FB page of Chhattisgarh tourism (n=16)
- Madhya Pradesh tourism has more social media presence as they have given the tabs of 6 social media including the official website of Madhya Pradesh tourism.
- Many tourism departments have given only the website link as the additional link to connect/contact them (n=11)
- Many tourism FB pages have used the Logo of their Tourism department as their profile picture (n=23).
- All posts are accompanied by text. Photo is the most used medium in the posts on all FB pages. Rajasthan has a greater number of videos (n=20)
- Information on upcoming or current events is the most uploaded post. (n=190)
- High user engagement is shown in all the FB pages of tourism.
- User engagement is high in the form of ‘Likes’.
- Kerala has received the highest likes, comments, and shares.
Conclusion
Social media and tourism are certainly a perfect match. Digital mobility would help the tourism industry to have appropriate insight into the world of tourists. However, social media like Facebook should concentrate to adapt to tourist needs and be consistent in providing the right and updated content to them. Engaging travelers to share their experiences and views through FB pages will certainly help tourism to reach heights. Creating engaging content on a regular basis, conducting social listening, and providing quick responses will also help the FB pages to be popular and demanded one among the tourists.
References
Daniel N (2019), What Is Facebook? Learn why so many people can’t stay away from Facebook, Accessed from https://www.lifewire.com/what-is-facebook-3486391
Gururaja R, Impact of Social Media on Tourism and Hospitality, MSRUAS, Accessed from http://www.msruas.ac.in/pdf_files/Publications/MCJournals/March2015/4_Rashmi%20Gururaj.pdf
Gupta, A., Bakshi, S. i Dogra, N. (2018). Engaging consumers in the digital era: An analysis of official tourism Facebook pages in India. Turizam, 66 (1), 63-77. Preuzeto s https://hrcak.srce.hr/197384
India 2019: ANNUAL RESEARCH: KEY HIGHLIGHTS, World travel and tourism council, accessed from https://www.wttc.org/-/media/files/reports/economic-impact-research/countries-2019/india2019.pdf
JH Park, C Lee, C Yoo, Y Nam (2016) An analysis of the utilization of Facebook by local Korean governments for tourism development and the network of smart tourism ecosystem, International Journal of Information, Elsevier, Vol36, Issue 6.
Kotler,P., et al., “Marketing 3.0.”, John Wiley&Sons,inc, New Jersey, , 2010, p.8,9.
Lang V R , Social media and digital tourism: a match made in heaven, Accessed from https://uhurunetwork.com/social-media-and-tourism-marketing/
Text100 Digital Index: Travel & Tourism study 2012, Accessed from www.text100.com
Leung D, et al (2013) Social media in tourism and hospitality: A literature review, Journal of travel and tourism marketing, Volume 30, Issue 1-2, Accessed from https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/10548408.2013.750919
Mariani MM et al (2018), The determinants of Facebook social engagement for national tourism organizations’ Facebook pages: A quantitative approach, Journal of destination management and marketing, Elsevier, Vol 8, page 312-325
Parsons, Amy L.(2011) ,Social media from a corporate perspective: A content analysis of official Facebook pages, Allied Academies International Conference. Academy of Marketing Studies. Proceedings; Arden Vol. 16, Iss. 2, (2011): 11-15.
Stankov U, et al (2010) The extent of use of basic Facebook user-generated content by the national tourism organizations in Europe, European Journal of Tourism Research: Volume 3, Issue 2, Accessed from https://books.google.co.in/books?hl=en&lr=&id=U4QpDwAAQBAJ&oi=fnd&pg=PA105&dq=facebook+and+tourism&ots=PbJgvXZWl6&sig=xkizTLCTyo0inKKmG8RNBSVtIpo&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q=facebook%20and%20tourism&f=false
Zivkovic R et al (2014), Impact of social media on tourism, Sinteza. Accessed from https://www.researchgate.net/publication/266382179_The_Impact_of_Social_Media_on_Tourism