Redes sociales como medio de promoción turística en los países iberoamericanos

Through social networks it is possible to create a virtual community around a brand allowing users who wish to inform themselves and interact with the publications made by the brand itself. In this context, these social networks stand out as a channel to obtain and disseminate information on travel experiences, being of great influence on the part of tourists when making a purchase decision. In this way, it is interesting to know how tourist destinations use these social networks to carry out their marketing strategies. Thus, the objective of this study is to analyze the activity and effectiveness of official social networks for tourism promotion in Ibero-American countries. To do this, we consider the variables of “presence”, “engagement” and “type of publications” that are measured through a series of performance indicators using the online analysis tool Fanpage Karma®. The results specify that each social network can be used for a particular goal. Facebook stands out as the most complete social network for the promotion of tourist destination with a greater number of followers. Instagram becomes the main social network for general greater interaction with users while Twitter evolves into a news and communication channel. Also highlight the importance of the visual nature of publications for the tourism sector, being those that most often generate interactions of the social networks studied are useful according to the objective to be achieved.