Abstract

Online travel promotions and campaigns have intensified in recent years and the use of social media sites (SNS) in promoting tourism destinations is also increasingly common worldwide. However, knowledge of the efficacy of this media approach is still somewhat limited but is fundamental and essential as part of employing the Internet as one of the media for advertising purposes, especially for a country that is highly dependent on the tourism industry. Understanding of the functions, mechanisms and uses of internet advertising targeted at international tourism consumers is important, but currently theoretical models are limited to generic perceptions of advertising media across all media and all buying categories. This paper presents the findings from a study which focuses on the advertising belief factors (i.e. product information, hedonic/pleasure, social role/image and falsity/no sense) that significantly explain tourists’ attitudes towards advertising specifically, internet advertising. The study reported in this paper is a quantitative survey based on a sample of 425 respondents, 255 are international tourists (60%) and 170 are local visitors (40%). The study reveals other factors which have seldom been reported in previous research. AInternet effectiveness is influenced by the capability of internet advertising to bring fun and entertainment (hedonic/pleasure); and to reflect consumers’ social and self image (social role/image). The implications of the study focus on consumers’ perceptual shift in terms of media consumption and on the relevance of social network sites (SNS) in promoting tourism destinations. The limitations of the study are also discussed.

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