Impact of Social Networking Sites on Tourism and Hospitality Industry

This study provides a conceptual framework on “how social networking sites influence the traveler’s decision making in tourism industry”. Digital marketing through social media is today mainly about capturing and sustaining awareness and attention through involvement from online users (Tafesse & Wien, 2018). With the advent of information and communication technologies (ICT) and internet the role of social media has been increasing in every service sector and tourism is one of them. Social media is beneficial for both consumers’ as well as suppliers. Social media applications helps the tourism establishments for disseminate the information faster with lesser cost. Social networking site is a type of social media platform where people connect with each other and a powerful tool for marketers to advertise their products and services where users’ communicate and share information. The findings showed that from various social networking platforms (Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and You Tube) were the most widely used social networking platforms that influenced the travel buying behavior of the travelers. This study is descriptive in nature and data was collected from different research papers, articles published in national and international research journals