Social Media Shaping Tourism
Travel, Tourism, and Digital Souvenirs: How Does Instagram Shape Tourist Souvenir Behavior and Photography at Tikal?
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session William Lenz
Souvenirs are an essential part of memorializing travel experiences. The proper souvenir can freeze a moment in time, capture the traveler’s original surprise, and serve as a genii’s carpet to transport the traveler back instantly into the mood, tone, and taste of the travel experience. Although we still collect physical souvenirs in our travels, photographs we post on Social Media have taken over the primary role of souvenirs memorializing our experiences. This paper will explore the implications of digital travel photographs as mediating souvenirs. We collected 638 photographs posted on Instagram of Tikal, Guatemala, on February 25, 2016, sorting the data into three categories--People, Places, Things—to pose the research question, what photos of Tikal are posted on Instagram and what does that data tell us? What is the purpose of posting travel photos on Social Media? Do digital travel photographs authenticate travel experiences? Does the very nature of digital travel photography destabilize the notion of authenticity? Is a travel photograph still a souvenir? How does Instagram shape tourist souvenir behavior and photography at Tikal?
Analysis of Instagram Use to Communicate Global Tourism Opportunities to African-Americans
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Candace Parrish, Carice Coleman
In recent years, communication practices regarding global tourism have significantly changed. The opportunity for digital tourism communication has promoted faster and broader means of message dissemination across many sectors. Even more, the use of social media has allowed for increased and more effective communication of global tourism and travel opportunities to diverse populations. This research paper will focus on the state of communication practices by travel/tourism organizations on instagram that target the African- American population specifically. Extent tourism research presents a void of literature related to how social mediated operations are practiced by tourism/travel organizations primarily communicating on social media. Thus, this study being the first of its kind, will explore how the top tourism/travel organizations communicate, visualize, perform and organize travel opportunities geared toward African-Americans on Instagram through the method of qualitative content analysis. Study outcomes will provide a new perspective of how social media is being used to promote tourism to specific and diverse audiences who have historically lower rates of global travel.
