This document summarizes research on the use of social media by National Tourism Organizations (NTOs). The research questions examined the extent of social media use by NTOs, which platforms they use, and which platforms are used most frequently. The methodology found social media presence for 80 out of 195 NTOs (41%). Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Flickr emerged as the most popular platforms. The conclusions note the difficulty in finding NTO websites and social media information, and that social media use does not necessarily translate to engagement.

1. Use of Social Media by National
Tourism Organizations (NTOs)
Mridula Dwivedi
GD Goenka World Institute
Gurgaon, India
mridula@gmail.com

2. Motivation for the Work
• Initial motivation from getting a follow from an
NTO on Twitter
• Academic Review Process/Attitude to Social
Media
• Lack of Data about NTOs
• Lack of Academic Literature on Social Media

3. Research Questions
• What is the extent of the use of social media
by the NTOs?
• Which social media platforms are used by the
NTOs?
• Which social media platforms are used more
frequently?

4. Methodology
• Largely Searched for Information on the Net
• How Many Countries in the World?
• We merged UNWTO and the UN list to arrive at 198
countries.
• In the end we refined the list to 195 countries.
• Then we located NTO/Embassy websites for 195
countries.

5. Findings
• 80 out of 195 (41%) NTOs are already using at
least on social media platform.
• As there was no data available, we had
anticipated it to be a more niche activity.

6. Findings- List of Platforms Used
• Be Local • Plurk
• Blogs • Scribd
• Facebook • Tripadvisor (Links to
• Flickr their Country)
• Forums • Tumblr
• Koprol • Twitter
• Myspace • Youtube
• Orkut • WAYN
• Plaxo

7. The Top Platforms
• Facebook- 63
• Twitter- 49
• Youtube- 49
• Flickr- 19
• 16 countries used all 4

8. Chart 1: Use of Social Media Platform by NTOs
80
70
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
Facebook Twitter Youtube Flickr Blogs Myspace Tripadvisor Forum

9. Conclusions
• Finding out correct NTO Websites was a task
in itself.
• Social media information could be buried
somewhere on the website.
• Social media sites could be available to only
some countries.

10. Conclusions
• Using Original Logos
• Not a niche activity anymore?
• Facebook, Twitter, Youtube and Flickr emerged
as the most popular platforms.

11. Conclusions
• Presence may not translate into use.
• Parameters for use- Promotion? Interaction?
Feedback? Business? Others?
• Contests?

12. Thank You
• Questions?
• More Ways to Connect
– http://blogs.gonomad.com/traveltalesfromindia/
– Twitter @mridulad
– https://www.facebook.com/traveltalesfromindia