How tourist destinations’ activity-offer affects demand: The role of social media and distance

Abstract

Tourism demand has been a topic of interest among the scientific community for decades. Among the different approaches discussed in the literature, scholars have attempted to explain this demand using both traditional economic models, based on factors such as prices at the destination or tourist income, and also non-economic models focusing on social media, attractions or activities at the destination, or tourist movement patterns, for instance. However, to date, these non-economic perspectives have been analysed individually. In contrast, the objective of this study is to understand tourism demand from the triple perspective of destination activity-offer, combined with social media and tourist movement patterns. To fulfil this aim, information was gathered from 23 cities or municipalities of tourist interest in Andalusia (Spain), and econometric models were then developed to determine the tourism demand for different activities’ areas of influence, using primary and auxiliary regressions. The results show that both the number of activities on offer at the destination and the volume of social media comments about those activities are capable of explaining tourist demand for the different areas of influence at the destination and also affecting tourist movement patterns. Important implications can be drawn from these results to help in the management of tourism demand.