Utilizing Social Media to Encourage Domestic Tourism in Oman

Abstract

Nowadays people use social media in order to create, share or exchange information, pictures or videos in virtual communities and networks. Furthermore, followers can "like", "share" and "comment" on other people"s content or posts. Obviously, social media sites have an influence on the decision-making process, especially in the tourism sector, which has economic benefits for the country; people utilize social media channels in tourism promotional activities in order to encourage and promote domestic tourism. Hence, this Study aims to investigate how to use social media technology in order to encourage and improve domestic tourism in Oman. Data were collected using a self-administrated questionnaire from individuals who are currently using social media sites and have an interest in domestic tourism in Oman. There are three main findings: 1) there are a large number of people who use social media technology to obtain information about different attractive places they wish to visit in Oman, 2) the majority of the respondents claim that negative experiences posted on social media about a particular destination influence their travel decisions, and 3) many of the respondents indicate that the Ministry of Tourism in Oman should utilize more social media tools such as Instagram, Twitter, etc. in order to encourage domestic tourism. This research has implications not only to the Ministry of Tourism to promote domestic tourism in Oman, but also to Omani people and tourists from other countries who visit or like to visit Oman.

Role of Social Media in Influencing The Visit of Domestic Tourist

“…Where in this case domestic tourists have expectations of tourism objects in Lawang Sewu Semarang that will be visited so that one of the reasons these tourists visit Lawang Sewu attractions. These results also support the research of Al-Badi et al (2017) which states that most domestic tourists use social media to get interesting tourist information and want to visit.…”

The effect of promotional mix on hotel performance during the political crisis in the Middle East

“…Promotion is one of the most important elements in the process of marketing communication and the direct communication factor with consumers (Waterschoot and Van den Bulte, 1992). The success and effectiveness of promotion depend on intensive search, identifying the target public and analyzing their needs, defining the enterprise’s goals and selecting the appropriate promotional tools (Kola and Akinyele, 2010; Bilgihan et al , 2011; Al-Badi et al , 2017). Promotional mix is a set of components which interact and reintegrate with each other to achieve the desirable promotional objectives (Kotler et al , 2013).…”

Investigating Online Social Media Network Acceptance in the Tourism and Hospitality Industry in Oman

“…It is noteworthy that these areas were not particularly emphasised in the previous studies of the Omani setting (e.g. Al-Badi et al, 2017).…”

“…In Oman, Al-Badi et al (2017) investigated the SMNs from the tourism aspect. Specifically, the study analyzes how social media is used in Oman to stimulate local tourism.…”