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Fonseca Santos, Nicolle (2025) Scrolling for Opportunities: An Investigation of the Role of Social Media Advertising in Shaping Tourists’ Decision-Making: Exploring the impact of Social Media Platforms Perception and Travel Choice: A case study in Dublin. Masters thesis, Dublin, National College of Ireland.
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Abstract
Social media has changed the way travellers find, evaluate, and interact with destinations, making an enormous difference in tourism (Lama, 2024). This thesis examines the various content types, including influencer marketing, user generated content, and target advertising, that most significantly influence decision-making. Considering Dublin's rich cultural heritage and its increasing attractiveness to tourists it is essential to analyse the effects of social media ads on views of local experiences. While the use of targeted social media advertisements is increasing, it is still understudied in the context of Dublin, Ireland’s most visited city, known for its robust tourism and rich culture. This paper used data from individuals in the 18 to 35 and 55+ age groups. The most recent data from Fálite Ireland’s Summer 2024 Consumer Update were used to create these segments, which account for 60% of the tourist population to Ireland. Also, most of the interviewers are Brazilians, consequently to the high number of Brazilians who visit and reside in Dublin. The most recent evidence from CSO (2023) showed that 17% of the individuals living in Dublin are not Irish, and the largest group of non-Irish inhabitants are Brazilians, numbering 11,188. This study also examined how social media advertising influences visitors' perceptions and choices about local experiences in Dublin, guided by destination Image Theory (Chon, 1990) and Media Dependency Theory (BallRokeach and DeFleur, 1976; Wangqu et al., 2024). This paper analysed the impact of influencer advertising, user-generated content, and targeted advertisements on tourists' perceptions of Dublin, using semi-structured interviews and focus groups as methodologies. This qualitative study also aimed to address this gap by providing data, investigations, and platform perspectives on the directions in which visitors interact with social media content and how these elements influence tourists' decisions. It demonstrated the impact of social media marketing on opinions in advertising of destinations, providing tourism marketers with valuable insights to encourage authentic local experiences. This thesis provides Dublin tourism organisations with valuable information that will assist them in the development of more authentic and engaging social media advertising.
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