Co-creation in Tourism Marketing Before and After the Advent of Social Media

Tourism service providers have historically utilized Self-Generated Content (SGC) throughout history to promote their products through traditional media. However, with the advent of social media in the past decade, marketers have shifted their preferences to user-generated content (UGC) over SGC, which positively impacts organizational performance. Prior to the emergence of social media, marketers created innovative marketing strategies through marketing mix elements. This approach known as “co-creation” has garnered attention from both marketers and academia. Social media is an excellent platform for attracting stakeholders to participate in co-creation. While there is growing interest in using social media in tourism marketing and its benefits, there is limited understanding of the development and issues of social media marketing (SMM) through co-creation. This study aims to fill this research gap by comparing co-creation scenarios before and after the implementation of SMM in tourism, using a narrative literature review and exploratory research design. The paper discusses the key dimensions of tourism marketing through co-creation, including the types of stakeholders and the impact of social media on business performance. The study suggests that marketers should strengthen co-creation processes in social media marketing to benefit tourism service providers. The study’s main finding indicates that co-created social media marketing positively impacts the performance of tourism businesses, but this relationship can be hindered by various crises at any given time. To address this, a framework was developed with co-creation as the guiding principle, which serves as a conceptual foundation for future research and is relevant for designing, marketing, and engaging in smart tourism marketing.