The Capacity of Social Networks in Virtual Tourism Marketing

The tourism industry has very high capacities for growth and development. One of the most effective factors in the development of tourism is advertising and information-giving through the virtual space. Accordingly, social networks play a decisive role in creating culture, educating, information-giving and creating social participation in the development of the tourism industry. Since Iran, as a developing country, has sufficient capacity for the development of virtual tourism, we seek to investigate the issue in this article. The main purpose of the article is to investigate the capacity of social networks in virtual tourism marketing. In terms of the goal, this research is developmental-applied, and in terms of the implementation method, it is a mixed exploratory (quantitative-qualitative) research. The measurement tools are questionnaire and specialized interview. The statistical population of this research consists of communication professors who are knowledgeable and active in the field of virtual space tourism, activists in the field of virtual space tourism, individuals involved in the advertising of virtual space tourism, managers of tourism agencies active in one of the social networks, and experts in information technology (IT) and marketing. The sampling method in this research is purposeful. According to the results, the use of video and photo content in social networks plays a significant role in the success of virtual tourism marketing. Social networks can attract the attention of the audience by depicting the places and capacities of Iran's tourism through photos and documentary films and prioritizing and highlighting them for the success of virtual tourism. In addition, the results of this research show that there is a significant role between the price of tourism services and the use of celebrities in the success of virtual tourism marketing.