Mohammed Al-Sharif Mesaadia University.

- Sowk Ahras-

Faculty of Social and Human Sciences

Department of Human Sciences

International conference on

Digital communication as a mechanism for tourism promotion in Algeria

Axe 7: influencers and tourism promotion

Title: The Role of Influencers in Tourism Promotion: A Comprehensive Analysis

PARTICIPATION FORM

Full name : KARA Ibtissem

Option : Marketing

Grade : associate professor A

University : ahmed zabana relizane

Phone : 0699590535

e-mail : [email protected]

Axe 7: influencers and tourism promotion

Title: The Role of Influencers in Tourism Promotion: A Comprehensive Analysis

Full name : TAIB Saida

Option : Managment

Grade : associate professor A

University : ahmed zabana relizane

Phone : 0664858239

e-mail : [email protected]

Axe 7: influencers and tourism promotion

Title: The Role of Influencers in Tourism Promotion: A Comprehensive Analysis

Abstract:

Tourism has evolved as a critical industry in the global economy. With the emergence of
social media and digital platforms, influencer marketing has become a transformative tool in
the tourism industry. This study looks into the multidimensional function of influencers in
tourism promotion, focusing on their impact, strategies, and obstacles. We conducted a
detailed examination of influencer marketing in this study, employing a content analysis
method. The key goals of this research were to examine the effects of influencers on tourist
promotion, identify effective techniques used by influencers, and highlight the obstacles faced
in this dynamic landscape.

According to the findings of this study, influencers play an important role in affecting tourists'
opinions and decisions. Their capacity to create real, visually appealing content appeals to
today's technologically aware travelers, influencing location selection and itinerary planning.

Key words : influencer, marketing, tourism,decisions, promotion.

Introduction :

1/ Influencer marketing history :

1/1:The beginnings of influencer marketing:

Influencer marketing began much earlier than you might think. For centuries, people
have been trying to recreate the lives of those they admire, including royalty,
celebrities and even local figureheads.
The oft-cited first instance of ‘influencer marketing’ happened in 1760, when
Wedgwood described their pottery as ‘Queen’s Ware’ 1 , having made a tea set for
Queen Charlotte. The move gave the royal stamp of approval and the brand still enjoys
a luxurious reputation today.
People often associate the use of ‘brand characters’ to influencer marketing, such
as Homepride Fred , starting in the 1960s, Uncle Ben 2 in the 1940s and the use of Santa
Claus in Coca Cola’s advertising from the 1930s. These fictional figures’ role in
encouraging people to buy, is considered to be pioneering in the history of influencer
marketing.
While these may seem far removed from influencer marketing as we know it today, it
wasn’t long before we began to see famous, real-life figures promoting brands. In
1905, American brand Murad Cigarettes used actor and comedian Roscoe Arbuckle
in their print ads , marking the first celebrity product endorsement.
This coincided with the ‘rise of the celebrity’ during the ensuing decades, with iconic
figures such as Marilyn Monroe and Coco Chanel becoming aspirational figures that
people looked to be like with their purchasing decisions. In Chanel’s case, the fact
the ‘little black dress’ remains a wardrobe staple for many today shows just how far-
reaching her influence was.

1/2:The rise of celebrity sponsorship:

While 1905 may have seen the first celebrity endorsement, it would continue to rise
exponentially during the next few decades. By the 1980s, it was commonplace to see
sports stars, supermodels, singers and actors promoting products if the deal was right
and the paycheck sizeable. 3

One of the most famous examples was the collaboration between Michael Jordan and
Nike in 1985. Jordan had made the Air Jordan sneakers famous by wearing them on the
court the year before. Signing Jordan as a brand ambassador and making the sneakers
available to the public turned out to be a great move, with $70 million worth of the
product sold in the first year. To date, the Air Jordan brand alone has made the
company over a billion dollars .

1
Wedgwood History & Heritage - The Story - Wedgwood®, consulte le: 18/10/2023 a 11:45.
2
Ben’s Original™ UK | Microwavable Rice | Steamed Rice (bensoriginal.com), consulte le: 18/10/2023 a 11:45
3
https://olsenmetrix.com/views/the-history-of-influencer-marketing/, consulte le: 18/10/2023 a 11:45
In this era, we also saw other big-name celebrity-brand partnerships, including
Michael Jackson and Pepsi, Mike Tyson and Nintendo and even Miss Piggy and
Polaroid. A trend that has continued until this day, and with notable deals such as the
partnership between George Foreman and Foreman Grills, Justin Timberlake with
McDonald’s, and Gary Lineker for Walkers crisps being some of the most memorable.

With this rise of celebrity sponsorship and alliance with brands, influencer marketing’s
power on consumerism became apparent, with millions in sales generated for
businesses.

1/3:The digital age:

The advent of the internet in the 1990s gave influencers a new platform to market
brands. Blogs, social media, online advertising have all become vessels for celebrities
to promote products at just the click of a button.

Users were now able to review products they loved with dedicated blogs, videos and
posts that could be shared with vast audiences worldwide. Brands quickly cottoned on
to the impact this could have, putting in place paid partnerships to get products
recognised.

The creation of the image-based social media channel, Instagram in 2010, changed the
game again. Instagram became associated with the age of influencers and with many
posts explicitly dedicated to promoting brands and products, either as a ‘paid’ deal or
at the user’s discretion. Video websites like YouTube also have played a huge part,
with video reviews and ‘product hauls’ being a popular format on the channel.

The digital age was crucial to influencer marketing’s evolution for two reasons:
Firstly, it made it easier than ever for celebrities to share brands, requiring less effort
and reaching bigger audiences, with profitable campaigns generating publicity and
traffic.

Secondly, it redefined who an influencer was. With bloggers and social media icons
racking up followers and influence, brands no longer needed to work solely with film
stars and music artists. Instead, they could work with real people who had a better
connection with their followers and gave a better feel of authenticity. As a result,
brands could use influencers to create more targeted strategies without spending
millions on celebrity deals.

1/4:Influencers become 'recognised':

Into the 2010s, the term ‘influencer’ gained more traction. It was officially added into
the Oxford Dictionary in 2019 4 , marking its prevalence in everyday life.

The increased use of social media during this period helped grow influencer
marketing’s popularity, coinciding with the advent of reality TV and vlogging.
Consequently, there became a whole new host of small-time celebrities and icons that
brands could work with to get their products in front of the general public and
encourage them to purchase.

However, with the rise of influencer marketing came increased restrictions. Critics
were concerned with the sponsored nature of social media posts. It became unclear
whether the influencer was recommending a product because they had tried it and
genuinely liked it or because they were contractually obliged to. It was felt that people
were being encouraged, even manipulated to spend their hard-earned money on
products so that they can be like their idols – only to find the product wasn’t quite as
good or useful as stated.

In 2018, the Advertising Standards Agency published guidelines that stated influencers
must clarify when their posts have been sponsored as part of either a paid deal or
gifted products. If influencers fail to do so, they risk breaking the law and may be
ordered to remove posts for breaches of standards.
Due to the regulatory changes, you will now see most influencer posts with tags such
as #ad, #gifted or #paid. This shows the enhanced scrutiny behind celebrity
endorsements and understanding that this is often a paid transaction, bringing into
question the authenticity of such posts. It also means it is more vital than ever than
brands and influencers comply with the guidelines to avoid hefty consequences and
unfavourable audience sentiment.

1/5:Influencer marketing today

4
https://www.oxfordlearnersdictionaries.com/us/definition/english/influencer#:~:text=%2F%CB
%88%C9%AAnflu%C9%99ns%C9%99(r)%2F,recommending%20it%20on%20social%20media
Today, influencer content saturates the media channels more than ever and forms the
biggest chunk of marketing spend by major brands. The definition of an influencer
continues to be stretched, the term now applying to anybody with a small or large
following, celebrity or not.

A survey in 2019 found that a massive 96% of UK consumers 5 do not trust influencers.
Unfortunately, building trust is an integral part of winning over customers and gaining
a good brand reputation, so it is questionable how much influence these ‘influencers’
actually hold.
Data suggests the industry could be worth $15 billion by 2022 , suggesting there is still
value and money to be made through influencer marketing. However, the newfound
controversy and consumer mistrust mean that brands have to be careful to get results
and avoid alienating their customers.

Businesses must therefore be selective about how they choose an individual to

represent their brand making sure that they align with both brand values and customer
base. Similarly, the actual content itself created in collaboration with influencers must
be carefully thought-out, with the aim of providing real value to audiences, complying
to standards and sharing a ‘genuine’ view of your product or service.

Rather than signing up the latest popular Love Island star: instead, take the time to
look for small-time bloggers with higher levels of trust and integrity, or experienced
industry figures whose opinions and recommendations are already highly valued and
known for authenticity. And at all points, you must ask who your customers genuinely
will listen to and why.

Being considerate in this way will achieve better results in both brand reputation and
sales. The days of piggybacking off the latest celeb are long gone. Integrity is where
it’s at.
2/ Social media influencers:

« someone who affects or changes the way that other people behave »6

5
Grey And YouGov Find 96% Of People In The UK Do Not Trust What Influencers Say | The Drum ; consulte on
18/10/2023 at 12:04.
6
https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/influencer
«An influencer is someone who is able to persuade a lot of other people, for example their
followers on social media, to do, buy, or use the same things that they do. They are often paid
or given free products in exchange for doing this».7

Social media influencers are a subset of digital content creators defined by their significant
online following, distinctive brand persona, and patterned relationships with commercial
sponsors.8

Social media influencers are digital content providers that have a large online following, a
distinct brand character, and a pattern of interactions with commercial sponsors. They
promote branded goods and services to their followers' communities by providing
information, guidance, and inspiration. Their persuasive communication is widely perceived
as "authentic" or "organic" in comparison to standard sponsored advertising. Despite the
overall expansion of influencer marketing, communities and practices differ greatly between
platforms and industries. Most influencers build their following on a single social networking
site, such as Instagram, YouTube, Twitch, or Weibo.

Influencers have achieved entrepreneurial success in a wide variety of subgenres and niches.
Forbes' 2017 list of "Top Influencers" cataloged decision-makers in a variety of areas, with
female content creators dominating fashion, beauty, and parenting and male creators topping
technology.

Influencer marketing methods are reminiscent of word-of-mouth promotion and labor of

devotion, with the premise that males consume their favorite companies loyally while women
actively promote their favorite brands to other women. Today's influencers are frequently
portrayed as people "just like us," balancing their promotional messages with sentiments of
authenticity and ordinariness.

The intersection of authenticity and brand promotion raises serious concerns about the ethics
of influencer marketing. Influencers provide a common refrain to reconcile these seemingly
contradictory imperatives: they only advocate items or services that they truly adore.
However, this imprecision makes the influencer marketing industry difficult to police,
especially given regulatory restrictions in many Western countries requiring product
sponsorship disclosure.9
7
https://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/influencer
8
Duffy, Brooke Erin. 2020. Social media influencers. In The international encyclopedia of gender, media, and
communication, 1–4. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
9
Duffy, Brooke Erin, op-cité.
3/ Tourism marketing on social media:

3/1: Social media for travel information searches:

Social media can generally be regarded as Internet-based applications that carry consumer-
generated content encompassing media impressions created by consumers, typically informed
by relevant experience, and archived or shared online for easy access by other impressionable
consumers.

Social media provide an environment that facilitates users’ interaction and their search for
services. Hence, the number of people who perceive that they are benefiting from social
media is increasing dramatically. We, therefore, studied the role of search engines in
travelers’ of the Internet and adapted the online travel information search behavior from
Xiang and Gretzel (2010)’s study. The key components of social media usage for travel
information search are categorized as followings:10

(1) the online traveler who is engaged in personal and trip-related needs;

(2) the online tourism domain that is providing informational entities among individual
consumers through means of social media rather than the hypertextual nature of the Internet
search;

(3) the search engine that determines the representation of the tourism domain which are
related to the design of interface features, search result rankings, metadata, and paid links that
influences the travelers’ perception and decision making.

Traditionally, tourists have consulted travel magazines, newspapers, and books to retrieve the
information they need. Over the last 15 years, however, these traditional media sources have
been replaced by Internet websites that provide travel information and allow users to share
their experiences. During the pre-travel phase, travelers typically perform extensive travel
information searches and make online bookings, and during the post-travel phase, they share
their experiences of their travel activities, services, and products, Here we need to define
information search that can explain information on various products and services sought by a
traveler during a trip, vs. ‘information posting,’ which is defined as a simple rating,
comments, photos, or videos of a product or service during the trip found in social media.
Web 2.0 allows the tourism industry to change the ways in which they traditionally conduct
10
Xiang, Z., & Gretzel, U. (2010). Role of social media in online travel information search. Tourism
Management, 31(2), 179–188, p 181.
their internal and external business operations, with travelers as more proactive information
providers who relay their travel experiences (e.g., travelers as co-creators; travelers as co-
distributors) beyond just information processing .Many travel-related firms have started to
integrate the growing number of social media available through smart devices, which provide
an increasing diversity of travel-related services, such as looking up destination for tourist
activities through travel information searches. Therefore, it is critical to understand changes in
technologies and travelers’ behaviors that impact the creation, distribution, and accessibility
of travel information.11

Today, social media has evolved into a multitude of different social network services (e.g.,
Instagram.com, Foursquare.com) that allow people from various locations to form
relationships or share their travel-related experiences by posting photos and videos. This
information can be very useful to potential travelers and can be searched at their convenience.
Tourism related social media applications on smart-devices can serve as tools for finding
more travel information, with search engines providing direct access to information. If a
traveler wants to read about someone else’s experiences in and around a certain destination,
the traveler will attempt to search for information and interact with other social media users.
Therefore, travelers can find real-time information among network members, and the
providers of that information receive gratitude from users all over the world.12

11
Namho Chung, Chulmo Koo, (2015), The use of social media in travel information search, telematic
&informatics, volume 32,215-229, p 219.
12
I-bid.