Abstract

Social media has taken a staggering role in the tourism industry growth in Bangladesh. This also turned
into a major marketing and strategic decision making tool for tourism enterprises. The rapid growth of
Internet has facilitated expansion of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) which has
contributed to increase social media users. To investigate the reasons behind tourism industry growth,
a survey conducted on 1,060 respondents that includes different professionals. The research reveals
that social media has fueled recent growth of tourism industry in Bangladesh. In this study, 97.26
percent respondents think that social media has significant impact on the tourism industry growth in
Bangladesh. Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, and Social Blogs are the leading sources to find
travel information. As a result, the industry has found more flow of tourists than before. Thus,
authorities, travel agencies, advertising firms, and tourism enterprises can use social media as a
competitive weapon to promote sites, explore tourist spots and improve facilities to expand the
industry.Wikipedia defines social media as the means of interactions among people in which they
create, share, exchange and comment contents among themselves in virtual communities and
network.It includes social networking sites, blogs, microblogs, consumer review sites, content
community sites, wikis, internet forums and location based social media. Social media has emerged as
the new way in which people connect socially, by integrating information and communication
technology (such as mobile and web-based technologies), social interaction, and the construction of
words, pictures, videos and audio. It is actually more than a new way to communicate, but refers to an
entire online environment built on people’s contributions and interactions. Social media has seen
exponential growth during the past several years. By December 2012, around 56% of people use social
media, almost everybody (totally 98%) aged 18-24 year olds already use social media. The leading social
media currently being Facebook has now over 1.2 billion members. The tourism system mainly relies on
information and communication technologies for promotional activities, sales and when developing
management relationships with customers. When a tourist is making the final decision on destination
choice, the most important information comes from online interpersonal influence - online word of
mouth (eWOM). Authors dealing with tourism market segmentation recognize the growing number of
tourists who use modern digital media.
Introduction
Social media, as one of most powerful online networking tools, has been integrated into a part of social
and economic life in the real world.The social media environment has changed a lot in the last decade.
The intensification of social networks has exaggerated changes globally. From the media to major
corporate and individual users, everyone uses social media for some reason. Most deliberations go on
blogs and social media. Significant companies are employing social networks in which discussions can
affect a brand’s status that is why brands must stay awake on social media. Thus, social media is good
and evil; however, it affects both. Social media have become a preferred method to reach and interact
with the masses that reach the exponential level. Individuals, companies, and celebrities have used
their influence in increasing social networks as an advertising tool. An effective social media platform
can serve as a robust outreach tool to disseminate information to those who need to consume it.
Building a large follower base to engage and amplify a message is something one must do better. It is
imperative, as it provides valuable information and insight into the services offered to users. The
growing role of social media in tourism has been increasingly an emerging research topic. Social media
plays a significant role in many aspects of tourism, especially in information search and decision-making
behaviours, tourism promotion and in focusing on best practices for interacting with consumers.
Leveraging off social media to market tourism products has proven to be an excellent strategy.

Concept of Social Media

In the era of information technology boom, travelers heavily rely on the internet for accessing
information, to plan and book their trip, and to share their travel experiences (Buhalis & Law, 2008;
Senecal & Nantel, 2004; Xiang & Gretzel, 2010). A significant development in the evolution of the
internet, as suggested by Boyd & Ellison (2008) is the increasing popularity of social media platforms
enabling internet users to collaborate, communicate and publish original content such as blogs, videos,
wikis, reviews, or photos. Different terms have been used to define social media in literature and been
used by authors including social media, user-generated content (UGC), consumer generated media
(CGM), online social networks (OSN), social networking sites (SNS), Web 2.0 and Travel 2.0 (Lange-Faria
& Elliot, 2012).
From the recent researches, Kaplan & Haenlein (2010) have been influential in shaping the
terms consumer generated media and social media. According to Kaplan & Haenlein (2010), “social
media is a set of internet-based applications that utilize Web 2.0 as its ideological and technological
platform for evolution and that which enable users to create and exchange user-generated content”.
More simply, social media refers to internet applications such as Facebook and Twitter that allow their
users to create, share and consume Consumer-Generated content (Lange-Faria & Elliot, 2012)
Typology of Social Media
Many researchers have attempted to identify and categorize social media, since its very advent
(Constantinides, 2009; Fischer & Reuber, 2011; Fotis, Rossides & Buhalis, 2010; Kaplan & Haenlein,
2010; W. Kim, Jeong & Lee, 2010; Mangold & Faulds, 2009; Safko, 2012; Xiang & Gretzel, 2010),
indicating different opinions over social media taxonomy. For example, six types of social media have
been identified by Kaplan & Haenlein (2010): blogs, social networking sites (e.g. Facebook), virtual
social worlds (e.g. Second Life), collaborative projects (e.g. Wikipedia), content communities (e.g.
YouTube), and virtual game worlds (e.g. World of Warcraft), as identified by Alizadeh & Isa (2014). But
this typology overlooks some types of social media such as microblogging (e.g. Twitter). Another
typology identified by Fotis, Rossides & Buhalis (2010) includes four domains: expressing, networking,
sharing, and gaming. 1 summarizes the categories of social media with their definitions and example for
each category based on the works of Fulkerson (2010), Safko (2012) and the categorization of social
media by Overdrive Interactive (2013).
Tourism and Social Media
Many literatures have been found integrating the concepts of tourism and technological
progresses together. The information technology is creating challenges, as destination images are no
longer solely controlled by tourism providers (Hays, Page & Buhalis, 2013). These alternative platforms
have so widespread influence that now-a-days they may even undermine the authority of traditional
destination marketing organizations (DMOs) or conventional advertisements (Gretzel, 2006; Gretzel,
Yuan, & Fesenmaier, 2000; Rand, 2006). Nowadays, the success or failure of tourism organizations is
highly determined by the way social media has enabled customers as active participants in supply and
circulation of the information (Tussyadiah & Zach, 2013) and in a process, destination marketers need
to recognize the reasons and modes of participation in social media by travelers.
From the demand side, Chung & Buhalis (2008) have identified the functional,
sociopsychological and hedonic benefits, as important factors for the travelers. More reasons for using
social media among travelers are: influence of shared experiences on social media on travelers’
decision making process (Fotis, Rossides & Buhalis, 2012) and the scope of travelers to be story-tellers
on a ‘24/7’ basis engaging them to the online community (Gretzel, Fesenmaier, & O’Leary, 2006). A
similar approach has been attempted by Enter & Michopoulou (2013) found that, Facebook is preferred
by travelers as the leading social networking site for its attributes of information search, trust and
sharing of travel experience.
As suggested Gretzel, Fesenmaier & O’Leary (2006), travelers use social media in all phases of
their trip. According to Fotis, Rossides & Buhalis (2012), “travelers use social media at three stages of
trip (i.e. before, during and after the travel)” and argued that social media is mainly used in after the -
trip phase to share experience with other travelers or friends. Moreover, social media is found to be
usually used for information search about the destination before the trip and during the trip, to stay
connected with friends (Fotis, Rossides & Buhalis, 2012).
NTOs mainly use social media from the supplier side, in order to provide and coordinate their
information for consumers, focusing on building their brand through direct interaction with the
consumer and immediate response to consumer feedbacks (Lange-Faria & Elliot, 2012). A criticism of
NTOs as identified by Lange-Faria & Elliot (2012) is that the welleducated and tech-savvy travelers
might find the positive points of a destination as overly biased. Literature shows that, different NTOs
employ different strategies over the globe. Study conducted by Alizadeh & Isa (2014) reveals that
VisitBritain heavily relies on its official Facebook page to manage Love UK, and perceives Twitter as a
noise. Conversely, for the German National Tourist Board each message posted to Facebook is
replicated on Twitter to maintain integration among multiple social media platforms (Alizadeh & Isa,
2014). Five dimensions have been identified by Alizadeh & Isa (2015), in their study in terms of NTOs
using Facebook as a social media platform. These are:
The Impact Of Social Media On Tourism Industry Growth In Bangladesh
Bangladesh is a country of natural beauty and there are six seasons that has made the country unique
from many part of the South Asian region. At present, the economy of Bangladesh highly depends on
the Ready-made Garments products. 60% of the foreign currency derives from the export of various
garments products. Bangladesh needs more diversification for its sustainable economic growth.
According to the Bangladesh Tourism Board, some of major industries are © Karim Licensed under
Creative Common Page 464 shipbuilding, pharmaceuticals, light engineering, leather products,
handicrafts, ceramics, cement, fertilizer, food processing, electronics and agriculture. In addition,
tourism is very potential and promising industry in Bangladesh. The country has the opportunity to
attract more local and foreign tourist and earn foreign currency. Social media can play a vital role to
explore and incubate the tourism industry in Bangladesh. In the era of internet, social media can use as
a marketing weapon to promote tourist attraction, and provide information about transport and hotel.
In the vision 2021, the government focuses on digital Bangladesh that is consistent with the use of
social media platform inpromoting tourism industry. All the stakeholders can use social media to gather
information and promote businesses to potential travellers. In many instances, social media users are
the prime categories of tourists. It is not too late to reinforce the industry to attract national and
international tourists and turn them to visit popular tourist spots in Bangladesh by using the social
media platform. According to the World Travel and Tourism Council (2015), the total contribution of
Travel & Tourism to GDP was BDT627.9bn (4.1% of GDP) in 2014 . It is forecasted to rise by 5.9% to BDT
314.1bn in 2015.It is forecast to rise by 6.5% pa to BDT1252.8bn (4.4% of GDP)by 2025.The total
contribution of Travel and Tourism to employment was 1,984,000 jobsin 2014 (3.6% of total
employment). This is forecast to rise by 2.1%pa to support 2,492,000 jobs (3.6% of total employment)
by 2025. This research reveals the strategic importance of social media in the development of tourism
industry in Bangladesh. In the age of information technology, social media has broaden the opportunity
for marketing in many business including tourism and hospitality management. In Bangladesh, social
media also playing vital role to attract tourists to travel more destination. Social media can explore this
market for international tourist if utilize properly. The following table represents popular tourist
attractions in Bangladesh.
In a question regarding the impact of social media on tourism industry growth in Bangladesh, 97.26%
respondents said thatsocial media has significant impact on tourism industry growth in Bangladesh.
Only 2.74% respondents think this impact is less on tourism industry. People said that their travel
decision are influences by the comments, posts, and reviews of other people on the social media. The
following chart shows the percentage of respondents who have mentioned that there is a significant
impact of social media on the tourism industry growth in Bangladesh.

Social Media As An Important Tool For Tourism

Social media is an important tool for the analysis of tourists’ attitudes and this is con rmed by the
increased purchases and recommendations to other users. Building successful service-based brand in
tourism means that each should be a unique value proposition based on the customer experience.
Tourists need to know by means of reliable sources how their experience is going to be like in order to
reduce uncertainty and create some expectations of what they are going to a destination Due to the
uncertainty of tourist services, a traveller should obtain the necessary information in order to make the
right decision concerning the travel. Modern tourists have more trust in other travellers’ opinions using
social media rather than social marketing advices. Leveraging off social media to market tourism
products has proven to be an excellent strategy. Many countries regard social media as an important
tool to promote their tourism industries.The use of Internet and other information communication
technologies leads to a new era of tourism economy. Social media, as one of most powerful online
networking tools, has been integrated into a part of social and economic life in the real world.
Wikipedia defines social media as the means of interactions among people in which they create share,
exchange and comment contents among themselves in virtual communities and network. It includes
social networking sites, blogs, microblogs, consumer review sites, content community sites, wikis,
internet forums and location based social media. Social media has emerged as the new way in which
people connect socially, by integrating information and communication technology (such as mobile and
web-based technologies), social interaction, and the construction of words, pictures, videos and audio.
It is actually more than a new way to communicate, but refers to an entire online environment built on
people’s contributions and interactions. The importance of social media is growing in the realm of the
tourism industry. More and more researchers are undertaking studies in the areas of the impact of
social media on the tourism industry. The social media proved to be a major communication vehicle
that spread across the region like wildfire. Tourism industry is one of the sectors that have beneficiated
the most from the internet and as a result social media has become an integral part of any central or
state tourism promotion and planning. The internet-related travel community is sociologically
organized and offers social benefits such as engaging with visitors, exchanging ideas, building
relationships with other travelers, exchanging information, and engaging with users in community trust
. Internet users grow from non-social information collection to social activity as their participation in
online communities increases

The Benefits Of Social Media In Promoting Tourism

Social media has fundamentally changed the way that many companies communicate with and market
to their target demographics. For the travel and hospitality sector, in particular, the rise of the Internet
and the increased popularity of social channels has altered travel marketing. From the way that
travelers research potential destinations to the activities that they participate in once they arrive, the
new ways that consumers use social media to make purchasing decisions has influenced tourism
marketing from start to finish.The most profound effect that social media has had on the tourism
industry to date is the democratization of online reviews. Today’s travelers go online to research their
future travel destinations and accommodations. When booking travel, 89% of millennials plan travel
activities based on content posted by their peers online. People have always loved sharing photos and
videos taken of their travels. What social media has done is to facilitate and expand people’s ability to
share travel experiences with a wider audience than ever before. Over 97% of millennials share photos
and videos of their travels online, building an influential web of peer-to-peer content that serves to
inspire potential guests. Customer service and satisfaction have also been transformed as a result of
social media. The vast majority of brands have that is being used to become aware of and, when
necessary, to provide help to unsatisfied or confused customers. Social media has also had a major
impact on the travel agency model. The availability of information and ease of self-service booking have
forced travel agencies to adapt from a brick-and-mortar model to a more digital one. Travel agencies
are not obsolete -- they are still responsible for 55% of all airline bookings, 77% of cruise bookings, and
73% of package bookings. But many agencies have shifted their focus from in-person to online
experiences as they adapt to new technology and market trends. Hotel, restaurants, and other tourist
commercial destinations pay bloggers and social media personalities to try and post something good
about their establishment or cause. This technique has been known to transfer the interest in the
subject place from the said social media personality to his or her followers. Hotel, restaurants, and
other tourist commercial destinations pay bloggers and social media personalities to try and post
something good about their establishment or cause. This technique has been known to transfer the
interest in the subject place from the said social media personality to his or her followers.

Social Media in the Development of Tourism Destination Image

The World Tourism Organization defines a tourist destination, from a merely geographical perspective,
as follows: “a place where demand travel to consume the tourist product” . Although tourist
destinations have been widely explored in different studies, it is recognized that, as a multiactivity
grouping, they compete based on a spatial cooperation strategy to offer integrated tourist products
that are assessed and judged by potential tourists; this is significantly broader than the previous
definition . Others, such as Murphy, et al. , consider tourist destination to be products but offer an
unparalleled experience to tourists. Gunn and Vat uses the term “experience” when attempting to
understand what a tourist destination is. This is the result of a process where tourists use multiple
tourist services during their visit. Therefore, a tourist destination should not be based simply on a
geographical definition or on an agglomeration of services or products. Tourist destinations contain
the six As: attractions, accessibility, amenities, available packages, activities, and ancillary services .
From a tourism stakeholder approach, a destination is defined as an open system of multiple
interdependent stakeholders, among whom different interactions occur and whose decisions and
actions have different levels of influence and impact on others. Destination image has acquired a
special key role in diverse research fields such as anthropology, sociology, geography, and marketing
due to the impact that it has on human behavior .

Social Media Platforms Used by Bangladesh Parjatan Corporation (BPC):

This analysis provides an idea of the types of social media being used by Bangladesh Parjatan
Corporation (BPC). Data analyses show that, Bangladesh Parjatan Corporation employs only two social
media application, including a social networking site, Facebook and a micro-blogging, Twitter (Image 1
& 2, respectively). This is been suggested by Alizadeh & Isa (2014), as they concluded that, Asian
countries have less use of social media application.
Activities Performed by Bangladesh Parjatan Corporation Using the Social Media Platforms:
This analysis provides an idea of the activities that Bangladesh Parjatan Corporation (BPC) does
using its social media. Analyses of data show that, using Facebook and Twitter, BPC performs the
activities including: i) providing information to create awareness among the domestic and foreign
tourists of the destinations, ii) influencing tourists' decisions for selecting the destinations, iii)
promotion of the tourist destinations, iv) communicating images and messages from destinations to
prospective visitors, v) promotion of the NTO's communication materials and vi) integrating and
promoting the private sector partners of the NTO.
Figure 1 indicates that, according to the respondents, there are differences in the activities
performed by the two social media platforms, Facebook and Twitter. Analyses show that, 98% of the
respondents think that, the Facebook page of BPC provides information to the domestic and foreign
tourists and contribute to creating awareness of the destinations among them, whereas, the verified
Twitter page of BPC rarely does this job, as indicated by only 2% of the respondents.
Majority of the respondents (92%), also find that Facebook contributes strongly to influence
tourists' decisions for selecting Bangladesh as a destination, while, 8% respondents find that, the
Twitter page also does so. In terms of promotion of the tourist destinations, 84% of BPC’s employees
find Facebook as an active platform, but, 16% also think that, the Twitter page of BPC also promotes
Bangladesh as a destination.
According to Figure 1, it is also evident that, Facebook is found to be an active platform for
communicating images and messages from destinations to prospective visitors by 95% of BPC’s
employees, while, only 5% think that Twitter does so. All the respondents (100%) think that, BPC can
promote its various communication materials, such as, advertising, public relations activities and
printed materials through Facebook, but, it cannot do such kind of activities using Twitter. Also, very
interestingly, none of the respondents think that, BPC is integrating and promoting its private sector
partners, through its social media, Facebook and Twitter.
Social Media Strategies Implemented by Bangladesh Parjatan Corporation (BPC):
This section discusses about the strategies implemented by BPC in terms of their social media.
To analyze their strategies, emphasize is given on aspects suggested by Alizadeh & Isa (2014), such as -
the language of communication, distribution of date BPC joined the social media, type of presence on
social media, number of fan base and community involvement of BPC in social media are assessed.
According to Alizadeh & Isa (2014), “most NTOs use English as the only language to
communicate with their users on Facebook pages and use native languages for Twitter in comparison
to Facebook”. Data analyses show that, for Bangladesh Parjatan Corporation, English is used in both
Facebook and Twitter as a language to communication. Additionally, the Facebook page is found to be
using Bengali, the mother tongue of Bangladesh for a certain posts. Though the use of Bengali language
is done to ensure the audience involvement, the number of audience involved is quite low. As
suggested by Alizadeh & Isa (2014), most NTOs prefer Facebook as the preferred social media for
promoting their destinations to international travelers. Review of literature shows that Jamaica is the
first NTO to join Facebook on November, 2007, whereas, Czech Republic is the latest that joined
Facebook on November, 2013 (Alizadeh & Isa, 2014). According to analyses of data, BPC started its
Facebook page much later in the year 2013 and joined Twitter on June, 2016.
However, according to Kaplan and Haenlein (2010), a successful social media presence depends
on being active and engaging to customers, rather than, being present in numerous social media sites.
As suggested by Alizadeh & Isa (2014), the number of fans involved in a Facebook page or average
number of fans or synonymous to number of ― “likes” (Facebook, 2013) determines its effectiveness.
Data shows that, BPC has only 31,991 likes and 32,240 followers on its Facebook page. Though the
number has increased from the previous years, still, it is quite a small number in terms of community
involvement. So, it can be said that, BPC has a manageable number of fan base and community
involvement, as it is argued by Eyl (2013) & Socialbakers (2013) that, involving fan base becomes more
difficult with growing number of fans. BPC on the other hand, has made only 1 tweet through its page
and as a result, has only 862 followers and 141 likes, which indicates to a very weak fan base and
community involvement.
The Strategic Use of Facebook by BPC:
This section discusses about the strategic use of Facebook by BPC focusing on five dimensions:
identifiability, attitude towards user participation, customization, information availability and
innovativeness of NTOs for using Facebook (Alizadeh & Isa, 2015).

Analyses denote that, the Facebook page of BPC is easily identifiable. Figure 2 shows that, all
the respondents find that, BPC has a good presence on Facebook and the profile picture on BPC’s
Facebook page makes it identifiable, as the page uses the logo of BPC.
According to Facebook (2011), “timeline is the heart of a Facebook page where people can
update their status and upload various kinds of contents such as photos and videos”. In Facebook,
users can turn on or off the ability of other people to post on one’s page. As argued by Alizadeh & Isa
(2014), Facebook pages should encourage people to dialogue. But, data shows that, BPC only lets its
users to give likes on the posts and page reviews, instead of letting them post on the wall (Figure 3). So
it can be said that, the Facebook page of BPC lacks of an interactive attitude toward its users.
 According to Alizadeh & Isa (2015), “global pages on Facebook can redirect their users to the
best version of their page, customized according to the country the users are in; thereby providing their
users with localized content (e.g. localized cover photos, profile photos, about section and news feed)”.
From data analyses, it is evident that, BPC operates through a single Facebook page where it uses
English as the main language, and use Bengali as the local language for some posts, such as – cover
photos, profile pictures and section of news feed. So, it can be conferred that, BPC’s Facebook page
practices level of customization in terms of providing content in different languages.

As suggested by Chung & Buhalis (2008), the main reasons that users join Facebook are to
search for information they need. So, it is important for NTOs to provide essential information in their
pages. By essential information, Alizadeh & Isa (2015) identified that NTOs should provide their mission
statement, community rules and description of their destinations through the Facebook pages.
Analyses of data indicate that, the Facebook page of BPC lacks in the availability of information
dimension to its users, as it only contains detail information regarding its missions (Figure 4). The page
does not state any details regarding its community involvement and the community rules. Figure 4 also
shows that, according to all the respondents (100%), there is no description of the destinations in the
Facebook page. Many other NTOs, such as Dominica’s page has a description: “Dominica - The Nature
Island is filled with lush green rainforests, cascading waterfalls, friendly Indigenous people, largest
Boiling lake, natural spas and exciting rhythms” (Alizadeh & Isa, 2015).
 Figure 5 shows that, all the respondents (100%) think that, the Facebook page of BPC uses
photos, videos and events app. The page contains photos and videos of the several initiatives taken by
BPC.
It also contains its various events lists and links, including, Newsletter Inauguration Day, Victory
Day Observation, Chakay Chorey Dhakaye Boishakhi Khabar, World Tourism Day, 2013 (Seminar),
World Tourism Day, 2013 (Rally) and World Tourism Day, 2013 (Photo Exhibitions). Interestingly, the
page does not include any updated events of BPC. A study conducted by Alizadeh & Isa (2014) reveals
that many destinations are unable to creatively engage their customers, in terms of using unique
Facebook features, such as interactive maps, games and contests, in pages (Alizadeh & Isa, 2015).
According to data analyses, all the respondents (100%) think that, BPC neither incorporates feeds for
any of its other social media applications, (e.g. Twitter feed) nor it uses any kind of interactive apps in
Facebook (e.g. interactive games or edutainment materials) to attract new users and maintain the
current users. So, it can be concluded that, BPC still needs to incorporate innovative features to its
Facebook page, in order to make its page more attractive to the current and potential users.
Recommendations

This research reveals that social media is a competitive marketing weapon and a strategic decision
making tool for many tourism enterprises. The strategic importance of social media is not only from
marketing perspective but also from the connectivity among travellers to get access in travel
information. The following recommendation can be drawn from the study: Developing ICT industry:
Tourism is highly dependent on the information and communication technology. Travellers need
information about sites before they select their preferred destination. If ICT industry develop, it
facilitates social media to explore. Thus, social media encourage people to share their travel pictures,
reviews and comments on the social media that attract other travellers to visit the place. Improving
Supporting Industry: To improve tourism industry government should improve other industries related
to tourism business. Research reveals that transportation, safety at the location, hotel and resort
facilities, restaurant and dining systems are the major concern among tourists. These sectors need to
be improved to attract national and international tourists. Use of Social Media as a Marketing Tool:
Businesses involved in tourism industry should focus on social media such as Facebook, Twitter,
Instagram, YouTube, LinkedIn and other search engines to promote tourist attractions, discover new
sites, and provide travel.People use social media platform to search travel destination, share pictures,
comments, reviews, and experience on social media that allow tourism enterprises to take necessary
initiatives to improve their services. Discover and Improve the Potential Tourist Spots: Bangladesh is full
of natural beauty and there are lots of archeological and historical sites that can attract many national
and international tourists. Government and private tourism business enterprises should focus on
developing new tourist spots and improving existing sites to attract more travellers.
Conclusion
In conclusion, the use of social media has increased significantly over last two decades. The
development of ICT industry has contributed to the growth of social media. Now, all the industry
including tourism are using social media as a competitive marketing weapon. Facebook, Twitter,
Instagram, YouTube, LinkedIn are the leading social media where the users find travel information.
People like to share their travel experience on social media that induce other people to travel. Thus,
firms engage in tourism industry can focus on social media to attract more travellers. Government can
use social media to collect information about anonymous travellers and improve the industry for future
competitiveness. Bangladesh has potentiality to become one of the destination countries for many
national and international tourists in South Asia if the government take appropriate initiatives to
improve this industry. As a result, the contribution of tourism industry will increase significantly to the
economy of Bangladesh. One must be familiar with different social media applications to avoid the
negative usage of social media.
The role of social media in tourism has been increasingly noted and researched as an emerging topic.
Social media plays an increasingly important role in many aspects of tourism, especially in information
search and decision-making behaviours and tourism promotion focusing on best practices for
interacting with consumers via social media channels.Social media application users must utilize filter
folder against spammers to reduce unnecessary messages. The establishment should conduct meeting
with their employees regarding rules on the use social media and how it may affect the company’s
reputation. The establishment should implement strict rules that will protect the company can be
considered and by keeping them informed and posted with all the guidelines using social media in
regards with the company’s privacy. Tourism industries may continuously use social media as their
promotional tool but they should be ready for an immediate action to the problems that may arise.
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