Implications for Utilizing YouTube based Community Interactions for Destination Marketing
This research addresses destination marketing strategies for hotels by analyzing YouTube interactions, but it is incremental as it applies existing typology to a new platform.
The paper investigates how YouTube's virtual communities can be leveraged for destination marketing in the hospitality industry, analyzing user comments through content analysis and reporting results under five clusters of virtual communities.
In recent time, YouTube has evolved into a powerful medium for social interaction. Utilizing YouTube for enhancing marketing endeavors is a strategy practiced by marketing professionals across several industries. This paper rationalizes on the different ways and means of leveraging YouTube-based platforms for effective destination marketing by the hospitality industry (hotels). More specifically, the typology of virtual communities is adapted to evaluate the YouTube platform for effective destination marketing. Comments made by YouTube users have been subjected to a content analysis and the results are reported here under the five broad clusters of virtual communities. Implications for utilizing YouTube-based community interactions for destination marketing are also highlighted as part of the outcome of this research.