The Impacts of Viral Marketing on Destination Image

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People always have a prejudice and expectation of the destinations that they are travelling to, possibly due to the influence of friends' perception, online research and social media. Trip advisor and WebPages like blogs, Facebook, Twitter and YouTube are usually their common sources of information. Reynolds (1965) stated that stereotypical thinking plays a part in forming destination image as well (Govers, Go and Kumar, 2007). As information from different sources slowly builds up, destination image also developes in one's mind (Leisen, 2001).

In the last decade, elevation of the technology has brought about much benefit to people all over the world. Exchange of information and communication across borders is much easier as a result of globalization. Competition between different companies intensifies as they introduce more and more new marketing strategies to catch the public's attention. Subsequently, a new marketing trend was observed over the past decade. It is viral marketing, especially the electric word-of-mouth (eWOM). As part of their research, Sharma et al. (2011-2012) suggested that the most common and conventional way to spread information was through word-of-mouth. However, as technology advances, eWOM became more significant in daily communication and marketing. In 1999, a term named 'e-fluential' was created by Burson-Marsteller to describe the effect of internet on people's behavior and thinking today (Burson Marsteller, 2005 cited in Sharma and Morales-Arroyo et al., 2012). Electric word-of-mouth is one of the techniques used to create e-fluential effect on people. Operations and individuals that spotted the great power of social media began marketing through this channel due to its convenience. Moreover, the t...

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Stepchenkova, S. and Morrison, A. (2008) Russia's destination image among American pleasure travelers: Revisiting Echtner and Ritchie. Tourism Management, 29 (3), 557. Available at: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science [Accessed on 10th November 2013]

Tasci, A. and Gartner, W. (2007) Destination image and its functional relationships. Journal of travel research, 45 (4), 413-425. Available at: http://jtr.sagepub.com/ [Accessed on 27 September 2013]

Wilson, R.F. 2012. The Six Simple Principles of Viral Marketing. [online] Available at: http://webmarketingtoday.com/articles/viral-principles/ [Accessed on 17 October 2013]

Yeoh, E., Othman, K. and Ahmad, H. (2013) Understanding medical tourists: Word-of-mouth and viral marketing as potent marketing tools. Tourism Management, 34, 199. Available at: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science [Accessed on 14 November 2013]

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