The Role of Social Networking Services in Tourists' Choice of Sights: A Case Study of Joufen in Taiwan

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to examine the ways in which the media influences tourists' choice of sights. By doing so, it aims to go beyond previous studies, which tended merely to regard the role of the media as that of reproducing images. With the spread of social media and smartphones, however, individual tourists have used media so actively that they have changed the media's roles in tourism. This exploratory study examines the role of social media, especially SNS, in this respect through interviews with Japanese tourists who have been to Joufen. The study shows (1) that tourists “actively conform” to significant others' choices when deciding where to visit through their use of SNS, and (2) that photos posted to SNS tend to generate the unintended consequence of the reproduction of images of tourist sites.