TRAVEL INFLUENCERS AS A NEW STRATEGIC PARTNERS IN TOURISM

Influencer marketing has become an inevitable part of every communication strategies of important market stakeholders and thus entities in the tourism industry. As influencers have the power to influence others especially in a process of making purchase, this concept of promotion is continuously growing especially in a tourism industry. Travel influencers create higher level of authenticity and, most importantly, convey the feelings and experience of staying in a destination. The paper critically analyzes the communication campaigns of the Istria Tourist Board and Turkish Airlines as successful examples from business practice. The County of Istria, which is a leader in Croatia in the implementation of sustainable and competitive tourism policies, is a great example of creating and implementing travel influencers within their communication campaigns. Travel influencers can help tourist destinations, but also individual businesses to improve their position and reputation on the market, and thus achieve better business results. The results of the research and the findings so far indicate the opportunities of influencer marketing and social media in general in terms of promotion. Therefore, when defining new marketing plans and strategies, it is important to take in consideration characteristics of new generations of tourists for which social media is a dominant channel of communication. In that way, special importance should be given to this specific way of promotion and communication - travel influencers.