Evaluation of Social Media Marketing Literature in the Tourism Industry Using PRISMA

Abstract

Social media is an effective communication and information-sharing tool for tourism enterprises and organisations. Tourism marketing shall tap the growing popularity of social media and internet users, embracing a technological shift by optimising the potential of social media. This research study evaluates the academic journal articles related to social media in the tourism industry published on EBSCOhost, ScienceDirect and Google Scholar academic databases from 2005 to 2022. The article adopts a content analysis approach to review the articles and to evaluate the present state of knowledge of social media marketing in academic literature. Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) is used for reporting and screening the review papers. The articles were coded and categorised under six major themes: Marketing, Destination experience/image, Tourism recovery, Smart tourism, Communication and Promotion. The research analysis has identified two major areas: (a) Travellers’/tourists’ Perspective which has a focus on their behavioural attitude and (b) Tourism Agencies’ Perspective which has a functional approach. Based on the review of the literature to give direction for further research, an improvised version of the definition for the term ‘social media’ with the inclusion of more specific terms in it has been proposed with theoretical and practical implications.