Abstract
Nature-based tourism represents a growing sector within the tourism industry, and these interests could help improve the conditions of economically disadvantaged rural communities. The new digital landscape, including Internet and social media usage, represents a critical strategic opportunity to inform, educate and reach these tourism segments. The present research examines the impact of social media advertising on nature-based tourism within rural communities. In this research, we utilize the COBRA (Consumers’ Online Brand-Related Activities) model (Muntinga et al., 2011) of consumer behavior to assess the impact social media advertising plays in generating Pre-Consumption, Consumption, Creation, Contribution, and Engagement in rural business. The results are significant, finding that incorporating digital strategies within rural firms is beneficial. According to our research, the careful placement of a social media advertisement can statistically increase engagement components by more than 50%. In theory, this can increase tourism and economic activity in these rural, economically disadvantaged areas.
Highlights
Rural areas have unique challenges that make economic survival difficult
Our results indicate that placing an ad creates a statistically significant impact on the reach of the site
Utilizing an OLS regression model, we find that for each paid advertisement, pre-consumption increases by about 3,522 units, which is statistically significant (t = 15.438, p < 0.01), and the placement of an advertisement seems to explain more than 66% of the variation in PreConsumption, providing support for Hypothesis 1
Summary
Rural areas have unique challenges that make economic survival difficult. Geographically, 97% of the U.S land area is classified as rural, and 60 million people (19.7% of the U.S population) live in these rural areas (U.S Census Bureau, 2016). In Maine, for example, during 2019, small businesses contributed more than $12.9 Billion to the Maine economy and created two out of three jobs (Maine Office of Tourism, 2019). Major challenges include sub-optimal access to broadband Internet, accessing needed capital, finding and retaining qualified workers, geographic isolation, and less expertise and knowledge of digital systems, including web and social media (Lane Report, 2019; NCSL, 2020). These obstacles may prevent small businesses in rural areas from reaching and attracting tourists. The Maine Office of Tourism reported that tourists spent about $4.8 billion, which supported approximately 90,600 jobs and created an almost $9 billion economic impact in Maine. In Maine, rural businesses provide approximately 116,000 jobs, equating to one in six jobs, contributing $2.8 Billion to the state budget through tax dollars
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