The Role of Social Networks in the Development of Electronic Tourism Marketing in Iran

This study investigate the role of social media in Iran is developing a tourism marketing. This way with the help of a questionnaire survey on 250 travel offices marketing experts specializing in domestic and overseas leisure tourism in the city of Tehran, they were carried out. According to this study, the role of social media, particularly media images and video clips to function in the development of electronic tourism industry should be more considered. The photos and videos introducing tourists to the tourism potential in the virtual space is a factor that has a direct impact on the choice of tourist destinations by international tourists. With the increasing use of social networks, content communities, blogs, e-tourism marketing capabilities increase, but overall we can say that social media still have not been able to find its place in the development of e-tourism marketing and this difference is due to the characteristics of different marketing communication and social media with the mass media.