The impact of social media marketing on tourism destination branding in Algeria

Abstract

The main purpose of this graduation thesis titled by “The impact of social media marketing on tourism destination branding in Algeria” is to help the travel agencies in Algeria to understand the social media marketing standing & its impact on the tourism industry and destination branding as a major necessary tool in order to reach the clients in a short time & communicate better with them, by understanding the opponents of social media marketing and its efficiency on the tourism industry and destination branding we shall achieve our aims. Our graduation thesis is composed of three chapters & each one of them deals with different aspect, chapter 1 is introductory and defines social media marketing and it is subdivided into three parts. Part 1 describes social media in general and part 2 explains social media platforms. Part 3 deals with the definitions of social media marketing. Chapter 2 examines tourism destination branding & it is consists of five parts starting by brand & branding than heading to brand equity, brand identity, Customer-based brand equity & finally destination branding. Chapter 3 is subdivided into three parts. Part 1 is about the presentation of our research, part 2 shows the survey results & analysis & the third part is a conclusion of the chapter. We used a qualitative research method in order to realize this study & conducted a survey and post it online in order to understand through the answers how much the Algerian people know about the social media marketing and its impact on the tourism destination branding. We concluded that using a specific social media platform can be more efficient. But we also can say that the use of a certain combination between the various tools can be more efficient & it might increase the odds of attracting much more tourists. Based on our survey’s results, we have recommended some solutions & suggestions to our travel agencies under the aim of helping them to develop and re-consider their shared content online. Keywords: Social media platforms, travel agencies, social media marketing, tourism destination branding