City Promotion Through Social Media: Building an Image, Measuring Its Impact
A city can attract millions of views without knowing whether it has gained a single visitor. A striking clip proves that someone stopped scrolling. It does not establish that they understood the place, booked a trip or found the promised experience on arrival. City promotion through social media begins with this gap between a visible response and a useful result.
The research offers a more demanding approach to promotion: match the content to its setting, treat credibility as part of the visitor experience, and measure what happens after attention has been secured. This review draws on ten academic publications and considers their implications for cities, alongside the Tourbanity research project. Its central question is practical: what should a city learn from the engagement it buys or earns?
One city, different reasons to engage
A cross-platform study examined more than 12,000 posts from 16 Indian destination marketing organisations. Interactive posts attracted the strongest engagement on Facebook, while informative posts performed best on Twitter in the sample. Engagement here meant likes, comments and sharing, rather than verified journeys. [1]
The implication is that a city’s identity can remain consistent while the job of each post changes. A question inviting memories of a public square asks for participation. A clear explanation of how to reach that square helps someone make a decision. Repeating the same caption everywhere confuses these tasks. The study does not establish a permanent rule for today’s platforms; it establishes a reason to test each channel against its intended use.
More posts can produce less response
Research on Italian regional destination organisations found positive associations between Facebook engagement and photographs or moderately long posts. Higher posting frequency and morning publication had negative associations in that dataset. [2] These are context-specific findings, not a universal timetable.
For a city, the useful question becomes whether the next post contributes a reason to visit, a piece of practical knowledge or a recognisable experience. A publishing quota can be met while those three functions remain unserved. Campaign evaluation should therefore distinguish the amount published from the response generated by each item and the subsequent actions of its audience.
What the camera makes memorable
A study of 2,538 videos from US state-level destination organisations examined aesthetic, structural and content features through an explicit analytical framework. [3] Another study analysed 1,707 Douyin tourism videos and found that sentiment varied with the elements shown; social and human attractions elicited greater emotional arousal than natural attractions, while activities could convey positive sentiment. [4]
These findings invite a broader editorial brief than a sequence of landmarks. A market exchange, a guided visit or an ordinary cultural activity can communicate how a place is experienced. That is a proposal for city storytelling, not proof that any particular scene will increase arrivals. A film should have a stated purpose before its views are interpreted: recognition, explanation and trip planning require different evidence of success.
Visitors become part of the city’s editorial voice
Zhou and Xue’s Instagram study found that enjoyment and ease of use were strong predictors of attitudes and intentions toward using visitor-generated content for travel planning. [5] Wong and colleagues, studying ethnic tourism in Guangxi, examined how sharing memorable experiences mediates relationships between those experiences and intentions to visit other ethnic destinations. [6] Neither finding can simply be converted into a city-wide visitation forecast.
They nevertheless identify two useful questions for a destination account. Can a visitor understand and use the information without unnecessary effort? Does the material convey an experience worth recounting? An official account can make practical details legible while retaining the specific voice of the visitor. Seeking permission to reuse material and preserving its context should be part of that editorial process.
An influencer sells an expectation that the city must meet
A study of 236 Instagram users linked attitudes toward influencer posts with attitudes toward destinations. [7] Hussain and colleagues found expertise, trustworthiness and familiarity to be influential and necessary conditions within their model of inspiration and revisit intention. [8] The commercial implication is to evaluate the relationship between creator, audience and place, rather than select a creator by follower count alone.
The downside is equally important. A study whose publisher abstract reports 432 respondents connected negative tourism experiences with reduced perceptions of post authenticity and tour value, negative emotions and damaging responses toward both destination and influencer. [9] The result concerns relationships within a survey model; it is not an experimental estimate of the damage caused by one campaign.
Still, the operational lesson is direct. If a campaign presents a quiet promenade, the time and conditions of filming matter. If it promotes a cultural venue, opening hours and booking requirements belong near the invitation. Accurate information is part of the promise being made. A visitor who arrives with a misleading expectation can reassess both the place and the person who recommended it.
From the image of a city to the conditions of a visit
Rahman and Boley’s conceptual framework distinguishes the fit between a destination and a visitor’s self-image from its fit with practical needs. [10] This helps explain why an attractive image is only one component of persuasion. Wanting to be seen in a city and being able to navigate it comfortably are different considerations.
A related perspective appears in INJ Architects’ Tourbanity research project, which connects tourism, urban planning and sustainability, bringing transport, accommodation, energy and waste into the same discussion. [11] It provides a useful conceptual bridge here: a promotional campaign introduces an experience whose delivery depends on urban services.
For instance, a campaign promoting an accessible walking route should be checked against the space actually available on its sidewalks. Attractive paving in a photograph cannot answer whether a wheelchair user can complete the route. This is an operational application of the argument, rather than a finding tested by the social-media studies.
Five results, and the decisions they support
| Research finding | Decision for a city | What still needs measurement |
|---|---|---|
| Content performance differs by platform. [1] | Give each channel a defined communication task. | Whether engagement leads to planning or visits. |
| Higher posting frequency can accompany lower engagement. [2] | Test frequency against the value of each post. | The appropriate cadence for this audience. |
| Video content and emotional expression deserve separate analysis. [3–4] | Test experiences as well as landmark imagery. | Which content changes understanding of the city. |
| Credibility matters to inspiration and destination attitudes. [7–8] | Assess creator expertise and audience fit. | Incremental visits attributable to the collaboration. |
| A disappointing visit can undermine promotional credibility. [9] | Check the promise against conditions on site. | The size and causes of the expectation gap. |
A measurement plan that reaches the street
As an editorial synthesis of this evidence, we propose four connected layers of evaluation. First, record attention through reach, viewing and engagement. Second, record planning actions such as visits to route information or booking pages. Third, use visitor surveys and available booking data to examine realised visits, recognising that neither automatically establishes campaign causation. Fourth, ask whether the experience matched the promise: access, waiting, information accuracy and satisfaction.
Where feasible, compare campaign periods with a baseline and an appropriate comparison group. Account for seasonality, events and other advertising. Keep sample definitions and measurement windows consistent. Resident experience and pressure on services can be added as urban management indicators, but the reviewed engagement studies do not themselves establish those impacts.
The strongest result of city promotion is a traceable connection between the image communicated, the decision it helps someone make and the experience delivered on arrival. That connection gives a marketing team something more useful than a popularity ranking: evidence about what the city should communicate, explain and improve.
Research scope: a narrative synthesis of selected destination-marketing studies, including platform analyses, surveys and a conceptual framework. National and regional findings are interpreted for cities with attention to differences in scale. The proposed evaluation approach is an editorial application, not a new field study or a validated composite index.
References
- Chandrasekaran, S., ShabbirHusain, R. V., & Annamalai, B. (2023). Social media and Tourism: a cross-platform study of Indian DMOs. Current Issues in Tourism, 26(16), 2727–2744. DOI: 10.1080/13683500.2022.2142098.
- Mariani, M. M., Di Felice, M., & Mura, M. (2016). Facebook as a destination marketing tool: Evidence from Italian regional Destination Management Organizations. Tourism Management, 54, 321–343. DOI: 10.1016/j.tourman.2015.12.008.
- Yang, Y., Ma, S., & Kirilenko, A. (2025). What destination videos can better engage viewers? Video analytics of destination marketing organizations’ social media posts. Journal of Travel & Tourism Marketing, 42(9), 1204–1219. DOI: 10.1080/10548408.2025.2573426.
- Liu, J., Zhao, J., Wei, W., & Yang, T. (2026; online 2025). Captivating the crowd: unraveling sentiments in tourism short videos for effective destination marketing on social media. Current Issues in Tourism, 29(10), 1908–1935. DOI: 10.1080/13683500.2025.2462167.
- Zhou, L., & Xue, F. (2022). Effects of Instagram User-Generated Content on Travel Inspiration and Planning: An Extended Model of Technology Acceptance. Journal of Promotion Management, 28(3), 239–260. DOI: 10.1080/10496491.2021.1989537.
- Wong, J. W. C., Lai, I. K. W., & Tao, Z. (2020). Sharing memorable tourism experiences on mobile social media and how it influences further travel decisions. Current Issues in Tourism, 23(14), 1773–1787. DOI: 10.1080/13683500.2019.1649372.
- Hernández-Méndez, J., & Baute-Díaz, N. (2024). Influencer marketing in the promotion of tourist destinations: mega, macro and micro-influencers. Current Issues in Tourism, 27(8), 1332–1342. DOI: 10.1080/13683500.2023.2214354.
- Hussain, K., Wong, P. P. W., Stephenson, M. L., & Chong, K. L. (2025, online). The impact of social media influencers on viewers’ inspiration towards tourism destinations and revisit intention: a combined PLS-SEM and NCA approach. Current Issues in Tourism. DOI: 10.1080/13683500.2025.2571436.
- Liu, J., Li, T. (Tina), Zhou, Z., Zhou, Y., & Li, X. (2025, online). Investigating the negative impact of influencer marketing on tourist behaviour: a value co-destruction perspective. Current Issues in Tourism. DOI: 10.1080/13683500.2025.2575376.
- Rahman, S., & Boley, B. B. (2025, online). Social media and destination image: conceptualizing social media’s role in forming destination image and shaping tourists’ behavioral responses. Current Issues in Tourism. DOI: 10.1080/13683500.2025.2596262.
- INJ Architects. Tourbanity. Research project connecting tourism, urban planning and sustainability; concept attributed to architect Ibrahim Joharji. Published 2023; updated 2025.
