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Inbound tourism influenced by social media: An Indian case study

In 2014, the Union Government of India has set a target to achieve 1% share in global tourism arrivals in India, as expressed by the then Union Minister State for Tourism. In this regard, the role played by Social Media to influence the foreign tourist was significant. To analyze the causality between India, as a tourist destination and its presence on social media platform, a research study has been done which was fully funded by Ministry of Tourism, Government of India. The main objective was to study all the foreign tourists visiting India duly influenced by the social media. Due to the nature of the study, the technique of the focus - group interview has applied and then structured questionnaire has prepared to achieve the six objectives of the study. With a total sample size of 2,351 inbound tourists, collected in four phases during peak inbound tourist seasons from 2015 to 2016. The sample had consisted of the respondents from 93 nationalities and influenced by social media to visit India. The major outcomes were that majority of the inbound tourists came to know about India as a tourist destination through social media and then they explored more information specifically tourists attractions, to plan their trips to India. The majority of the tourists got influenced by Tripadvisor and Facebook platforms and reasonably satisfied with the information generated by the other social media sources. The results and conclusions have accepted by Ministry of Tourism, Government of India and utilized appropriately to gain the competitive advantage.