Utilizing Social Media to Encourage Domestic Tourism in Oman

Ali Al-Badi,Salima Al-Sawaei,Ali Tarhini

doi:10.5539/ijbm.v12n4p84

Abstract

Nowadays people use social media in order to create, share or exchange information, pictures or videos in virtual communities and networks. Furthermore, followers can ‘like’, ‘share’ and ‘comment’ on other people’s content or posts. Obviously, social media sites have an influence on the decision-making process, especially in the tourism sector, which has economic benefits for the country; people utilize social media channels in tourism promotional activities in order to encourage and promote domestic tourism. Hence, this Study aims to investigate how to use social media technology in order to encourage and improve domestic tourism in Oman. Data were collected using a self-administrated questionnaire from individuals who are currently using social media sites and have an interest in domestic tourism in Oman. There are three main findings: 1) there are a large number of people who use social media technology to obtain information about different attractive places they wish to visit in Oman, 2) the majority of the respondents claim that negative experiences posted on social media about a particular destination influence their travel decisions, and 3) many of the respondents indicate that the Ministry of Tourism in Oman should utilize more social media tools such as Instagram, Twitter, etc. in order to encourage domestic tourism. This research has implications not only to the Ministry of Tourism to promote domestic tourism in Oman, but also to Omani people and tourists from other countries who visit or like to visit Oman.

Highlights

Nowadays millions of people around the world rely on social media for working, socializing, learning and entertainment (Al-Badi et al, 2013; Alenezi et al, 2015)
People in Oman are contributing to its promotion inside Oman by, for example, posting videos and photos about their towns or places they have visited in Oman using Facebook or Instagram
After collecting the data through the questionnaire, it was analyzed to find out the extent to which social media is used by people wishing to travel locally in Oman and, which social media might be used to encourage domestic tourism in Oman

Summary

Introduction

Nowadays millions of people around the world rely on social media for working, socializing, learning and entertainment (Al-Badi et al, 2013; Alenezi et al, 2015). Several countries across the world are using social media to manage and promote their tourist destinations and services (Al-Zedjali et al, 2014). In this sector, the tourist or visitor will be highly interested and involved in the decision-making process, which will result in much searching for information from a variety of different sources (Treer, 2010; Alalwan et al, 2016). Social media can provide richer information about tourism in order to help tourists in making an informed decision. It is important to study how social media can help the tourism sector in Oman, this being the purpose of our research

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Conclusion