Modeling social media engagement efficiency in tourism: A multi-platform analytical approach

Abstract

The purpose of the study is to determine the impact of social media tourism content on viewer engagement. To understand if the structured content is able to get higher levels of impressions, likes, shares, and interactions. It uses the concept of the Content Structural Efficiency (CSE) model in determining how structured tourism content can be improved in social media for Indian State Tourism Boards. This research uses a quantitative approach and real-life data collected from more than 70 social media pages of Indian State Tourism Agencies. The data comprises 7258 posts that result in 3.8 million engagement activities. The statistical techniques have been applied to evaluate the engagement rate on each platform and to determine the efficiency of content structure using the CSE framework. The finding proves that there exists variation in engagement level and content types among all the channels. It can be seen that the contents which are well-structured, designed in an effective manner, and consistent received higher engagement in contrast to content that is unstructured or improperly formatted. This study contributes to the existing research in the field of tourism marketing and social media. The introduction of the Content Structural Efficiency (CSE) model can be considered as a new approach to measuring the efficiency of content across all the various platforms. Besides that, it is possible to conclude that the suggestions made are quite practical regarding the development of content marketing strategies in tourism.