The role of social media in the selection of tourist destination

Povezanost između društvenih medija i turizma veća je nego ikada što potvrđuje činjenica da turisti preko društvenih medija istražuju, prikupljaju informacije, donose odluke i dijele svoja iskustva s drugima. U radu se metodom ankete istraživala uloga društvenih medija u odabiru turističke destinacije s posebnim naglaskom na mlade - milenijalce i generaciju Z. Cilj rada bio je utvrditi i analizirati ulogu Facebooka, Instagrama, YouTubea i TripAdvisora kad je riječ o odabiru turističke destinacije među milenijalcima i generacijom Z, odnosno kakva je njihova uloga prije, za vrijeme i nakon putovanja. Poseban je naglasak stavljen na Facebook kao društveni mediji s najviše aktivnih korisnika; Instagram koji je osobito popularan među mladima jer je usmjeren na vizualan sadržaj; YouTube kao najpoznatiju platformu za dijeljenje videozapisa te TripAdvisor jednu od najposjećenijih platformi za planiranje putovanja i rezervaciju smještaja. Rezultati istraživanja pokazali su da mladi svakodnevno koriste društvene medije stoga ne čudi da za njima posežu i kad biraju turističku destinaciju, odnosno da za njih društveni mediji imaju značajnu ulogu u odabiru turističke destinacije. Jednako tako, potvrđeno je da su društveni mediji najčešći izvor informiranja kod odabira zbog jednostavnog korištenja, dostupnosti brojnih informacija i iskustva drugih. S druge strane, Instagram nije najvažniji društveni medij među mladima kada je riječ o odabiru turističke destinacije već svim medijima više manje pridaju podjednaku važnost, a objave influencera ne smatraju relevantnima kad odabiru turističku destinaciju.The link between social media and tourism is closer than ever, which is underlined by the fact that tourists are using social media to explore, collect information, make decisions and share their experiences with others. This paper applies the polling methodology to look into the role of social media in the selection of tourist destinations, with a special focus on young people – the Millennials and Generation Z. The paper's objective was to establish and analyze the role of Facebook, Instagram, YouTube and TripAdvisor in the tourist destination selection process among Millennials and Generation Z or, respectively, what their role is prior to, during and after the trip. Particular emphasis is placed on Facebook as the social networking website with the largest number of active users; on Instagram, being particularly popular among young people as is geared towards visual content; on YouTube as the best-known video-sharing platform, and on TripAdvisor, one of the most-visited sites for travel planning and accommodation booking. The research results indicate that young people are using social media on a daily basis, therefore it is not surprising that they will readily resort to them when choosing their tourist destination, or that social media play a significant role for them in the selection of their tourist destination. It has been confirmed as well that, in the selection process, social media serve as the most frequently used source of information, due to ease of use and availability of a large amount of information and experiences supplied by others. On the other hand, Instagram is not the most important social networking website among young people when it comes to choosing the tourist destination; they rather attach more or less equal importance to all media, while they do not consider opinions posted by influencers to be relevant for selection of their tourist destination