e-ISSN: 2458-7583 JOURNAL OF TOURISM THEORY AND RESEARCH Volume: 5 – Issue:1 (January 2019) • Inbound tourism influenced by social media: An Indian case study • Tourism in the organizational structures of metropolitan municipalities • A general overview of tourism clusters • A critical view on the paradox of slow city - sustainable tourism • What does the hotel’s logo say? And what do consumers perceive? • Targeted soft power in Turkish new foreign policy and its impact on origins of in-bound tourists Journal of Tourism Theory and Research Online, http://dergipark.gov.tr/jttr Volume: 5(1), 2019 Editors/Editörler Dr. Mahmut DEMİR Isparta University of Applied Sciences, Turkey Dr. Şirvan Şen DEMİR Süleyman Demirel University, Turkey Contact / İletişim Address/Adres: Isparta Uygulamalı Bilimler Üniversitesi, Turizm Fakültesi, Eğirdir- ISPARTA - TÜRKİYE Tel: +90 (246) 3133447 Fax: +90 (246) 3133452 E-mail: [email protected] web: http://dergipark.gov.tr/jttr Unless otherwise indicated, all materials on Dergide yayınlanan makalelerin tüm yayın these pages are copyrighted by the JTTR. hakları JTTR’e aittir. Yayınlanan makaleler All rights reserved. No part of these pages, yayın kurulunun yazılı izni olmadan her- either text or image may be used for any hangi bir amaçla kısmen veya tamamen purpose. 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Journal of Tourism Theory and Research Online, http://dergipark.gov.tr/jttr Volume: 5(1), 2019 EDITORIAL ADVISORY BOARD / YAYIN DANIŞMA KURULU Ali Şükrü ÇETINKAYA, Selçuk University, TURKEY Cihan COBANOGLU, University of South Florida Sarasota-Manatee, USA Dogan GURSOY, Washington State University, USA Celina MANITA, University of Porto, PORTUGAL Ewa OZIEWICZ, University of Gdańsk, POLAND Kevin NIELD, Sheffield Hallam University, UK Marianna SIGALA, University of South Australia, AUSTRALIA Muzaffer UYSAL, Virginia Polytechnic Institute & State University, USA Nesrin TÜRELİ ŞALVARCI, Süleyman Demirel University, TURKEY Oktay EMİR, Anadolu University, TURKEY Ljudmil GEORGIEV, New Bulgarian University, BULGARIA Ozan BAHAR, Muğla S. Koçman University, TURKEY Juan José Padial BENTICUAGA, University of Málaga, SPAIN Yina Donald ORGA, The Federal Polytechnic, NIGERIA Yusuf AYMANKUY, Balıkesir University, TURKEY Zerrin Toprak KARAMAN, Dokuz Eylül University, TURKEY Journal of Tourism Theory and Research Online, http://dergipark.gov.tr/jttr Volume: 5(1), 2019 Focus and Scope: Journal of Tourism Odak ve Kapsam: Turizm Teori ve Araş- Theory and Research is a peer-re- tırmaları Dergisi orijinal araştırma maka- viewed online journal which publishes lelerini yayınlayan hakemli online bir der- original research papers. JTTR welco- gidir. 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Makalenin yayımlanması için en az the work. iki hakemin olumlu görüş bildirmesi şart- tır. • Indexes & Databases: İndeks ve Veri tabanları: • • OAJI- Open Academic Journals Index • OAJI- Open Academic Journals Index • ESJI - Eurasian Scientific Journal Index• ESJI - Eurasian Scientific Journal Index • ISI - International Scientific Indexing • ISI - International Scientific Indexing DRJI - Directory of Research Journals DRJI - Directory of Research Journals Indexing Indexing SIS - Scientific Indexing Services SIS - Scientific Indexing Services JournalSeek JournalSeek SOBIAD SOBIAD • Journal of Tourism Theory and Research Online, http://dergipark.gov.tr/jttr Volume: 5(1), 2019 Table of Contents / İçindekiler Cover-Contents / Kapak-İçindekiler i-v Inbound tourism influenced by social media: An Indian case study Parikshat S Manhas, Jeet Dogra 1-16 Tourism in the organizational structures of metropolitan municipalities Serkan Polat 17-26 A general overview of tourism clusters Tarık Yalçınkaya, Tülay Güzel 27-39 A critical view on the paradox of slow city - sustainable tourism Yeşim Coşar 40-50 What does the hotel logo say? And what do consumers perceive? Şirvan Şen Demir, Erge Tür 51-64 Targeted soft power in Turkish new foreign policy and its impact on origins of in-bound tourists Onur Şen 65-74 Journal of Tourism Theory and Research Online, http://dergipark.gov.tr/jttr Volume: 5(1), 2019 Inbound tourism influenced by social media: An Indian case study Parikshat Singh Manhas1, Jeet Dogra 2 Abstract In 2014, the Union Government of India has set a target to achieve 1% share in global tourism arrivals in India, as expressed by the then Union Minister State for Tourism. In this regard, the role played by Social Media to influence the foreign tourist was significant. To analyze the causality between India, as a tourist destination and its presence on social media platform, a research study has been done which was fully funded by Ministry of Tourism, Government of India. The main objective was to study all the foreign tourists visiting India duly influenced by the social media. Due to the nature of the study, the technique of the focus - group interview has applied and then structured questionnaire has prepared to achieve the six objectives of the study. With a total sample size of 2,351 inbound tourists, collected in four phases during peak inbound tourist seasons from 2015 to 2016. The sample had consisted of the respondents from 93 nationalities and influenced by social media to visit India. The major outcomes were that majority of the inbound tourists came to know about India as a tourist destination through social media and then they explored more information specifically tourists attractions, to plan their trips to India. The majority of the tourists got influenced by Tripadvisor and Facebook platforms and reasonably satisfied with the information generated by the other social media sources. The results and conclusions have accepted by Ministry of Tourism, Government of India and utilized appropriately to gain the competitive advantage. Keywords: Social Media Inbound tourists, Indian inbound tourism, Social media influence the inbound tourist, Social media and Inbound tourism, Social Media channels Received date : 17.07.2018 Accepted date : 28.12.2018 To cite this article: Manhas, P.S., Dogra, J. (2019). Inbound tourism influenced by social media: An Indian case study. Journal of Tourism Theory and Research, 5(1), 1-16. DOI: https://dx.doi.org/10.24288/jttr.466938 1Prof. Dr., Director, School of Hospitality and Tourism Management (SHTM), University of Jammu, (J&K), India – 180006 2Asst. Prof. Dr., Indian Institute of Tourism and Travel Management (IITTM), (An Autonomous Body under Ministry of Tourism, Govt. of India), Govindpuri, Gwalior (M.P.), India – 474011 E-Mail: [email protected] Copyright © 2015 by JTTR ISSN: 2548-7583 2 Manhas & Dogra (2019) 1. Introduction According to Blackshaw (2006), ‘‘social media’’ can be generally understood as Internet-based 1.1. Tourism and social media applications that carry consumer-generated content Tourism is an information-intense industry which encompasses ‘‘media impressions created by (Sheldon, 1997; Werthner & Klein, 1999); therefore, it consumers, typically informed by relevant experience, is critical to understand changes in technologies and and archived or shared online for easy access by other consumer behavior that impact the distribution and impressionable consumers’’. Social media includes a accessibility of travel-related information. With the variety of applications in the technical sense which enormous amount of information potentially available allow consumers to ‘‘post’’, ‘‘tag’’, ‘‘digg’’, or to travelers, the Internet constitutes an important ‘‘blog’’, and so forth, on the Internet. The contents platform for information exchange between the generated by these social media include a variety of consumer and industry suppliers (e.g., hotels, new and emerging sources of online information that transportation sectors, attractions), intermediaries are created, initiated, circulated and used