Social Media:An Effective Tool for Marketing of Tourism in Himachal Pradesh

As the use of social media is increasing day by day in the Indian Tourism Industry and majority of those active on it are reaping benefits, the need of the hour is to visualize, analyze and channelize the effects of Social Media Marketing to promote Tourism in Himachal Pradesh. The Present Paper is an attempt to map and explore Indian tourists' utilization of Web 1.0 and Web 2.0 information sources. It also highlights the influence of electronic social media on tourists and stakeholders. The study shows tourists' involvement in developing and sharing the virtual content. It critically analyzes technological arbitration through electronic word-of-mouth and engrossment factors related to virtual distribution of travel narratives. Moreover, the paper discusses information strength, hedonic aspects and functional values of tourist information in relation to communication aspects of the social media, in the context of holiday destination choices and online bookings.