Journal of Business Paradigms Vol 4 No 2, 2019 THE IMPLEMENTATION OF FACEBOOK IN DESTINATION MARKETING: THE CASE OF DUBROVNIK-NERETVA COUNTY Lorena Bašan1 Faculty of Tourism and Hospitality Management, Croatia Matea Ban Faculty of Tourism and Hospitality Management, Croatia Review Manuscript Received October 20th 2019 Manuscript Accepted December 25th 2019 ABSTRACT Since the emergence and rapid development of the Internet and its implementation in companies within the tourism and hospitality industry, Internet marketing has become a vital marketing tool. Social media, in particular, are one of the most important media in Internet communication and an integral part of a large number of business entities, including those related to tourism. Many tourist destinations that understand the importance of social media as a source of information in the phase of tourist-destination selection and recognise the opportunities social media provide are using social networks to communicate and interact with tourists. Thus, the purpose of this paper is to determine the implementation level of Facebook as the most often used networking site in destination marketing. The paper is based on empirical research conducted in Dubrovnik-Neretva County using content analysis. Results obtained by this study allow decision makers in destination marketing to implement Facebook in a more efficient way, by exploiting the underutilized advantages of social media to gain a competitive advantage in the contemporary tourist market and achieve better business results in the future. 1 Address correspondence to Lorena Bašan Associate Professor, Faculty of Tourism and Hospitality Management, Department of Marketing, Opatija, Croatia, E-mail: [email protected] 46 The Implementation Of Facebook In Destination Marketing Bašan L., Ban M. Keywords: destination marketing, social media, Facebook, Dubrovnik-Neretva County JEL classification: M31 INTRODUCTION The Internet, as one of the most important ICT solutions, has completely changed the entire process of travel and has a great role in increasing the competitiveness and quality of the tourism sector. The World Tourism Organization has stated that the keys to success on the Internet are the quick identification of consumer needs, direct communication, comprehensive presentation, customization and information updating (Sahin & Sengün 2015, 774). Buhalis (1998) found that information technologies, especially the Internet, can be used as an effective business tool in the tourism industry (Avcikurt, Giritlioglu and Sahin, 2011:2818). The Internet’s influence on travel is seen from the research results of Online Travel Trends in Europe in 2015 (eRevMax). The results indicate that in Europe multichannel marketing is the norm, 90% of travellers own a smartphone, 50% of bookings come from online, 20% of online bookings come from mobiles but 50% of hotels do not use mobile channels, 51% of hotels manage channels manually, 21% of gross hotel bookings come from OTAs, 60% of the OTA market is controlled by Booking.com, 45% of online bookers use metasearch to compare prices but 46% of hoteliers are unaware of metasearch integrations and 43% of travellers read reviews before making booking arrangements (eRevMax 2015). In this context, Internet marketing has become an important marketing tool for gaining and retaining competitiveness in the fast-changing contemporary market, especially with regard to the tourism market. Brodie et al. show that the adoption of e-marketing is positively associated with performance, which supports Day and Bens (2005) that firms adopting e-marketing are likely to have competitive advantage (Brodie at al. 2007). Leung at al. (2015, 1570) found that more than 53% of the articles reviewed used hotel/lodging and destination/DMO as study settings but that social media deserves special attention. Social networks are becoming an efficient tool for IT-based businesses by providing a number of services for the tourism market (Di Pietro et al. 2012, 60). Since there is a lack of publications dealing with the implementation of Facebook in 47 Journal of Business Paradigms Vol 4 No 2, 2019 the specific field of use by tourist boards, it seemed important to conduct research on the implementation of Facebook in the destination marketing activities of tourist boards. The subject of study is the tourist boards of Dubrovnik-Neretva County. For the purpose of determining the implementation of Facebook by Tourist Boards empirical research was conducted with the following objectives: 1. to identify the presence, main features and effectiveness of tourist boards’ Facebook pages; 2. find out the current strategic use of tourist boards’ Facebook pages in destination marketing activities. The paper consists of five chapters. The introduction explains the purpose, objectives and structure of the paper. Literature review, the second chapter, gives an overview of previous research on Internet marketing and social media, with focus on Facebook implementation. The third part, Methodology, describes the design of the study and the content analysis method used. The section that follows is dedicated to presenting findings and discussing results and the last part of the paper presents conclusions. LITERATURE OVERVIEW Given the rapid development of the Internet and its implementation in companies within the tourism and hospitality industry, Internet marketing has become a vital marketing tool. In the literature we can find different definitions for Internet marketing by different authors. Chaffey et al. (2009:9) define Internet marketing as the application of the Internet and related digital technologies in conjunction with traditional communications to achieve marketing objectives. Internet marketing includes the use of a company’s website and other online promotional techniques (search engine marketing, interactive advertising, e-mail marketing and partnerships with other websites), which are used to support the objectives of acquiring new customers and providing services for existing customers that help to develop customer relationships. Successful Internet marketing implies the need for integrating online techniques with traditional media (print, TV and direct mail) as part of multichannel marketing communication. 48 The Implementation Of Facebook In Destination Marketing Bašan L., Ban M. In the literature, the term “e-marketing” is very often used alongside the term “Internet marketing”. E-marketing or electronic marketing, however, has a broader scope in comparison with Internet marketing. McDonald and Wilson (1999) and Chaffey and Smith (2008) considered that e-marketing refers to digital media (web, e-mail, wireless media) but also includes the management of digital customer data and electronic customer relationship management systems - e-CRM systems (Chaffey et al. 2009:9). Hannam (2004) highlights that both marketing and promotion are clearly essential for successful tourism and hospitality development but are often overlooked or simplistic in nature (Williams 2006:482). Laws and Hsu (2005:493) emphasize to hospitality practitioners that the Internet offers a means for them to sell their products to global customers without any geographical or time constrains (Avcikurt, Giritlioglu and Sahin, 2011:2818). Poel and Leunis (1999) find that the Internet is highly accepted as an information source and reservation device. A research study related to Colorado hoteliers showed that the Internet service had a significant financial impact on their operations (Yeh et al. 2005:35). Brodie et al. show that the adoption of e-marketing is positively associated with performance, which supports Day and Bens’ finding (2005) that firms adopting e-marketing are likely to have competitive advantage (Brodie et al. 2005). Internet marketing can be classified into the following types (Stokes, R. 2013, 16- 17): Search engine optimization (SEO), search advertising, affiliate marketing, video marketing, e-mail marketing and social media marketing. Social media are one of the most important media of Internet communication and an integral part of a large number of business entities today, including those related to tourism. Social networking is defined as developing a social network and relationships based on similar interests and views (Curran et al. 2011, 27). In that sense, a social network is a sociological structure depicting the interrelationships between individuals (Ružić et al. 2009, 366). Online social networks consist of unseen social links which are nevertheless visible because they allow us to see who our friends are, who our friends’ friends are, who their friends are and so on and on, within the frame of a highly accessible and simple interface (Ružić et al. 2009, 367). Once a user creates his or her profile on an online social network, the profile becomes a part of the social network’s sociogram. 49 Journal of Business Paradigms Vol 4 No 2, 2019 Beyond the range of possibilities provided by social media, there are three advantages that make it an attractive alternative or complement to traditional marketing channels: its free, personal and social nature (Coursaris et al. 2013, 2). Using social media, organizations can forge relationships with existing as well as new customers and form communities that interactively collaborate to identify problems and develop solutions for them. These interactions change the traditional roles of both seller and customer in exchanging relationships (Tsimonis and Dimitriadis 2013, 329). Therefore, a social