Social Media Puts Emerging Markets At Forefront Of Tourism

During the past few years, we have seen a massive shift in user behaviour within the tourism industry, primarily driven by increased usage of smartphones and social media apps.

- Briana Garcia

The percentage of savvy travelers booking their own trips, researching local food joints and nearby hotels have sky-rocketed, with more than 55 percent of travelers across regions like Australia, Europe, and East Asia, preferring to research and book overseas holidays themselves via the Internet.

The challenge tourism now faces is how best to reach and capture new search demand for travel, particularly in an environment where people are concerned about privacy. Recent Facebook data indicates that in the past few months, Facebook’s presence in established markets has declined, with four in 10 Americans taking a break from the platform from September last year, after major privacy breaches occurred. Concurrently, Hootesuite and We Are Social’s quarterly findings in 2019 found that in regions like Europe and the Americas, there has been little to no growth in audience reach on social media, adding to concerns that advanced economies have reached their upper growth bounds in the internet and social media usage.

By contrast, India and the Philippines have experienced the largest audience growth (+3-4 percent) indicating more and more people are opening social media accounts in emerging markets.