Social media technologies in the tourism industry: an analysis with special reference to their role in sustainable tourism development

Abstract

This paper attempts to examine the evolving dynamic of social media driven sustainable development in the tourism industry and how the modern tourism businesses could grow into what might be called sustainable corporate citizenship behavior. The full potential of social media technologies is rarely recognized as tourism firms continue to employ social media as just yet another promotional tool. One of the greatest opportunities offered by the social media platforms is that sustainable development no longer needs to be an isolated business objective but could rather become a goal shared equitably among the various groups of stakeholders interested in the future of tourism. The paper discusses tourists’ use of social media and highlights certain common social media applications in sustainable management of tourism and ecotourism in particular. The use of social media in terms of value co-creation, sharing and cocreation of knowledge with relation to sustainability in tourism, and socialisation among tourists, have been discussed in the paper. Furthermore, the paper highlights on the collaborative and dialectical online conversation on sustainability facilitated by social media to online communities of tourists, which have resulted in the creation of ecological citizenship. Such social conscience created via social media enabled interactions among environmentally conscious global travellers, can have an impact on sustainable corporate citizenship behavior with relation to tourism and hospitality businesses and organisations. This paper therefore, discusses the cognitive uses of social media in sustainable development in tourism that can lead to ecological citizenship among tourists and sustainable corporate citizenship behavior among tourism enterprises.