Advantages and Drawbacks of Social Network Sites Utilization in Travel and Tourism

The article explores how social network sites (SNSs) are used in travel and tourism. Another objective is to find out and summarize whether or not SNSs are beneficial for the travel and tourism industry. This study was based on literature review that was employed to determine the most popular SNSs in travel and tourism. Then, selected widely used SNSs were compared and evaluated. The advent of Web 2.0 brought about significant changes in tourism. There are currently a lot of platforms that can be utilized in travel and tourism for various purposes. Some of these platforms focus on providing solely travel related content. However, the most popular SNSs used in tourism are still Facebook and Twitter, which do not specialize in tourism. The findings suggest that the tourism related SNSs provide their users predominantly with travel information and/or facilitate contacts. Advantages include an easy access to various content twenty four hours seven days a week regardless the time zone. Among their drawbacks belong a lack of lower control over content and difficulties with sorting the valuable from the worthless among loads of various platforms and messages.