Express marketing of tourism destinations using Instagram in social media networking

"A picture is worth a thousand words". Considering the massive and growing popularity of digital media, the varied use of picture-based social media tools or applications such as Instagram, Pinterest, Snapbucket, Twitter, Tumblr and others picture-based social media in promoting and marketing tourism destinations has been seen as the current trends in the tourism industry. These social media applications help to raise awareness of any potential place of interests and allow public sharing of photos and comments that could potentially be the "make it" or "break it" factor when it comes to promoting and express marketing of tourist destinations. As one of the top most used picture-based social media applications in the world, Instagram is seen as a trendy tool in digital tourism where snapshots and comments can be shared all across one's social media channels within seconds and anybody could be 'the tourism expert' in expressing their likes or dislikes towards a place of interests. Following this current social media phenomenon, most tourism promotional activities use Instagram pro actively in engaging and attracting their potential clientele as this form of online express marketing also helps them save a great deal of media promotional budget. This research provides valuable information regarding express marketing of tourism destinations via the integration of social media network and addresses the strategic role and impact of Instagram in maximizing the destination popularity whilst strengthening the tourism operators' brands and successfully reducing the marketing campaign cost.