ABSTRACT
Social media are perceived as highly significant for tourists' destination choice due to their widespread accessibility and popularity. This chapter presents a review of the relevant literature on the role of popular culture in destination marketing. It discusses the interrelatedness of social media and destination image, and then presents an analysis of the influence of Game of Thrones on national destination management organization (DMO's) Instagram activities. It is the content of social media and its creators that both have a significant role in the destination image formation process. Tourists become creators and consequently advocates of the destination's image independently of tourism officials, for whom social media are perceived as a trustworthy and independent information medium. The chapter aims to assist those responsible for tourism destination marketing in understanding the benefits of popular culture tourism for destination image. With the new technologies and Web 2.0 tourists became co-creators of destination image by sharing, liking, and posting their experiences on social media.
