The Presence and Activity on Facebook of the Informative Travel Organizations in Romania

Abstract

In the context of a general increase in tourism activity and in the number of trips, and given that the consumption preferences of tourists are changing rapidly, the need for information becomes urgent and there is a concomitant development of public and private organizations involved in providing the necessary information to tourists who reach for the first time a tourist destination. This category includes tourist information centers (TICs), tourism promotion associations and tourism clubs.
Being intensively based on information, the activity of informative tourism organizations suffers multiple changes, often radical, proving to be a favorable environment for the implementation of new information technologies due to their role in terms of providing and sharing information. In this sense, Facebook has special implications, being considered one of the fastest and most effective tools of Social Media, especially regarding the distribution of information and the promotion of products and services.
The major objective of this research aims to highlight the stage of development of informative tourism organizations in Romania through the filter of Facebook visibility and communication. In this regard, we analysed the current state of presence and communication on Facebook of 109 tourism entities from 25 different counties of Romania: 43 tourist information centers, 44 entities with the name of association (tourism promotion association, ecotourism associations etc.), 18 travel clubs and 4 tourist information point/offices.