Role the Power of Social Media Storytelling and Measuring Its Dimensions in the Development of Tourism Destinations

Abstract

AbstractThe present study aimed to identify the dimensions of social media storytelling power and investigate the role of social media storytelling power and evaluate its dimensions in tourism destinations. This study has a hybrid approach. The statistical population in the qualitative section consists of all the stories of tourist destinations in Ramsar and Qeshm on social media, of which 62 and 108 stories were selected for these two destinations by judgmental sampling, respectively. In addition, the research strategy is narrative analysis. The method of data collection was online written stories. The dimensions of identified social media storytelling power were provided in a network of themes and conceptual models of these two destinations. Then, the research strategy was performed as a survey in the quantitative section. The statistical population included all tourists who had read the tourism stories of these two destinations on social media. The sampling method is available non-probability sampling, and the sample size was estimated to be 450 for each destination according to Morgan's Table. The data collection method was an e-questionnaire that was sent to tourists. The results of structural equation modeling by Smart PLS software showed that the dimensions of literary knowledge, attractiveness and dynamism, cognitive, emotional, trust and credibility, tourism, ethics for Ramsar destination. And the dimensions of attractiveness and attention, literary, cognitive, emotional, comparative knowledge, Economic, moral, trust and credibility, and tourism for Qeshm destination affect the development of these destinations. IntroductionToday, the tourism industry is considered one of the driving forces in the global economy and has developed significantly in the world. Accordingly, tourism destinations seek to attract more and more tourists. However, increasing changes in the tourism sector due to current technological advances, changing needs of tourists, and their interest in sharing their travel experiences in the form of storytelling on online social media force tourism destinations to draw a new framework based on a systemic approach in tourism destination management and marketing strategy. Therefore, the present study aimed to identify the dimensions of the power of storytelling on social media and then evaluate these dimensions in the development of tourism destinations in the tourist cities of Ramsar and Qeshm Island.MethodologyThe present research has been conducted with a hybrid approach (qualitative-quantitative). The qualitative research strategy is narrative analysis. The statistical population in the qualitative section includes all the stories of Ramsar and Qeshm tourist destinations in online social media (sites and blogs), in which 62 and 108 stories were selected for these two destinations by judgmental sampling method, respectively. Then, in the quantitative section, the research strategy was performed as a survey. The statistical population consisted of all tourists who had read the tourism stories of these two destinations on social media. The sampling method as a non-probability available sampling was used, and according to Morgan's Table, the sample size was 450 people for each destination. The data collection method was an e-questionnaire. The data analysis method was structural equation modeling and path analysis technique by Smart PLS software.Discussion and conclusionThe present study investigated social media storytelling power and its dimensions in developing tourism destinations in Ramsar and Qeshm Island with a hybrid approach. In the qualitative part, the dimensions of storytelling power - tourism in Ramsar city in online social media include literary knowledge, attractiveness and dynamism, cognitive, emotional, trust and credibility, tourism and ethics; In addition, the dimensions of tourism storytelling power in Qeshm Island in online social media were the dimensions of attractiveness, literary, cognitive, emotional, comparative, economic, moral, trust and credibility.Furthermore, the dimensions of tourism storytelling power on Qeshm Island on online social media were attractiveness, literary, cognitive, emotional, comparative, economic, moral, trust, and credibility dimensions. In the quantitative section, the results indicated that the dimensions included literary knowledge, attractiveness and dynamism, cognitive, emotional, trust and credibility, tourism, morality, and the dimensions of tourism storytelling power in Qeshm Island in online social media consisted of attractiveness and attention, literary, cognitive, emotional, comparative, economic, moral, trust and credibility knowledges, which have been effective on the development of Ramsar and Qeshm tourism destinations.ConclusionComparing these results in terms of similarity of some dimensions in these two destinations, it should be stated that the path coefficient of the literary knowledge aspect in the story of Ramsar and Qeshm destinations are equal to 0.406 and 0.122, respectively, indicating the greater impact of this aspect of the story on the development of Ramsar tourist destination. Considering attractiveness and dynamism, the path coefficient in the Ramsar story is 0.235, and attractiveness and attention dimension in Qeshm story is 0.237, suggesting that the effectiveness of this dimension of the story on Qeshm tourism destination development has been more than that of Ramsar. Cognitively, the story of Ramsar and Qeshm destinations are equal to 0.372 and 0.322, respectively, representing the greater impact of this dimension of the story on the development of the Ramsar tourism destination. Emotionally, the path coefficient in the Ramsar story is 0.432, and that of the Qeshm destination is 0.174, showing the greater impact of this dimension of the story on the development of the Ramsar tourism destination. Regarding trust and credibility, the path coefficient in the Ramsar story is 0.315, and that of Qeshm is 0.308, which shows the higher impact of this dimension of the story on the development of the Ramsar tourist destination. Considering the tourism dimension, it is worth noting that although the number of tourism dimensions in the script of Qeshm destination tourism stories was more than that if Ramsar, comparing the similar aspects of tourism in these two destinations indicates that the path coefficient in Ramsar and Qeshm destinations are 0.497 and 0.360, respectively, indicating the greater impact of this dimension of the story on the development of Ramsar tourist destination. Regarding the ethical dimension, the path coefficient in Ramsar and Qeshm destinations are 0.295 and 0.308, respectively, showing the greater impact of this dimension of the story on the development of Qeshm tourism destination.

Keywords

• development of tourism destinations
• democratize
• social media
• technologies of power
• storytelling