The Influence of Social Media on Consumer Behavior within the Tourism Industry

Abstract: With the rise of social media platforms and the phenomenon of social mediainfluencers, consumer behavior has drastically changed within the tourismindustry.A case study was conducted by the authors to determine the ways consumerbehavior within the tourism industry has been affected by social media. Theempirical data in this study were gathered by semi-structured interviews,which is a qualitative research approach. A deductive approach was used forthis thesis and it is written from a tourism influencer / destinations’self-marketing perspective. The authors interviewed five travel influencers andtwo destinations about their perception of their job, their influence and theirexperiences.With the gathered data, the authors made a conclusion regarding several wayssocial media is influencing consumer behavior in the tourism industry.