ABSTRACT
To show interest in a destination and have information about the destination is of critical importance in terms of its preferability. Despite of this critical importance, the factors affecting the destination brand awareness and destination involvement were mainly examined within the scope of traditional mediums. Being one of the most important natural advertisement and promotion means, the effect of consumer-generated content in social media on these factors has not yet been emphasized and examined sufficiently. Because of the increase in the time spent in social media mediums, it becomes highly possible that the contents generated in these mediums influence the individuals, as well. Therefore, the contents generated by individuals in social media mediums should be examined in more detail. In this chapter, it will be examined how the importance attached to different types of sharing by consumers affects the destination brand awareness and destination involvement levels of tourists. Moreover, it will be investigated whether these effects would differ in accordance with tourists’ perceptions of argument quality and source credibility. Thus, significant clues on social media management and marketing will be provided to destination management and marketing organizations.
