María-Magdalena Rodríguez-Fernández

Social Media Communication as a Corporate Positioning Strategy: The Galician Winemaking Sector in Spain

Like gastronomy, wine is one of the cultural and historical elements that comprise a region’s heritage, reflecting its identity. Many destinations use this particular aspect to attract visitors and tourists in search of unique experiences related to the winemaking sector. This research addresses the case of Galicia, one of Spain’s autonomous communities, renowned for the quality of its wine production that has earned it five designations of origin: Rias Baixas, Ribeiro, Ribeira Sacra, Valdeorras and Monterrei. This study aims to analyse the positioning of these Designations of Origin on the social medium Facebook. The research tool employed is of a qualitative nature, based on documentary analysis and consisting of the observation of the respective fanpages. The conclusions reveal the need for the further optimisation of the opportunities social media offer in terms of creating, boosting, improving and strengthening the future positioning of the designations of origin, the object of this study.

Competing Tourist Destinations and Their Positioning on the Social Medium Facebook: Ecuador, Colombia and Peru

Today’s tourist industry is characterised by its increasingly profitable and competitive nature, forcing destinations to seek forms of differentiation in order to attract greater numbers of tourists. However, this is challenging task, and tourism promoters and managers are required to plan and design effective marketing strategies tailored to communicate and highlight the tourist attractions of their destinations. In this sense, adapting to the new scenario created by social media has revolutionized communication. Destinations are now required to make full use of the advantages these communication tools offer. The aim of this research is to analyse the tourist positioning of Ecuador, Colombia and Peru on the social medium Facebook. The conclusions indicate that the countries analysed should improve their optimisation strategies in order to take full advantage of the interactive potential Facebook offers, thereby optimising their future position as tourist destinations.

Virtual Tourist Communities and Online Travel Communities

The implementation of information and communication technologies in the tourist industry has resulted into a change of paradigm, both for companies, when designing their communication strategies and for consumers, when planning their holidays. The Internet has become the major source of information for travellers, as well as a relevant platform to develop tourism businesses. In this regard, the 2.0 web provides mechanisms to contact and encourage consumer’s loyalty for tourism companies, through the use and adaptation of software applications and programs, where social media play a relevant role. Behind this context and due to the intangibility of tourist products and services, the eWOM has an impact on consumer’s behaviour, so companies should be aware of this and adequate their strategies with a view to satisfy an increasingly informed, demanding and experienced tourist. All these changes in the sector have made online travel communities a reference for tourists when planning and managing their travel reservations.

Utilización, conocimiento y valoración de redes sociales digitales científicas en las universidades gallegas

Scientific social networks (SSN) have been an important advance in the dissemination of knowledge in the scientific community. There are more and more researchers who agree on the need to join some SSN on account of the many advantages of visibility and impact they offer. This research paper studies the knowledge and use of SSN in the three Galician universities in 2017. Surveys of 552 professor/researchers from A Coruna, Santiago de Compostela and Vigo universities show that the knowledge and use of SSN have a growing trend, and that its management and usefulness assessment is positive, although their access frequency is still low.

Positioning of Ecuador hotels on Booking.com. The case of Cuenca, Loja, Guayaquil, Quito and Galápagos Islands

The society of the information has generated deep changes in the social and business relationship, in which particularly, the touristic sector has significantly evolved since the Internet and then the web 2.0 started to spread to the daily personal and professional activities. Regarding the tourist sector, the websites that have the aim of letting people know about the recommendations and experiences of clients related to different services such as: restaurant, transportation, and lodging are gaining great importance. One of the leader webpages around the world regarding tourism is Booking.com, in which more than 1.200.000 bookings per day are made in its 1.136.997 lodgings in 225 countries and territories. The main objective of this study is to know about the positioning in Booking.com in the hotels of Cuenca, Loja, Guayaquil, Quito, and Galápagos which are known as the main tourist destinations of Ecuador. To carry out this study, the quantitative method has been used which involves the use of a tool called spyder for collecting data from Booking. com.

Galician Spas in Facebook

In Spain, Galicia is considered one of the best-rated regions in reference to Thermal Tourism. This is because of its medicinal and mineral waters and the quality of its thermal places. In this regard, the ICT have contributed positively to improve the online presence of spas. The research tries to bring together two elements: four Galician spas—one for each region—, and social media—Facebook—, in order to determine how those could improve their online visibility. LikeAlyzer is the online tool used to make the present analysis, since it allows assessing a series of interesting values. Also, it can analyse the effectiveness of websites, detect problems, and provide solutions for covering gaps.

Gastronomy as a Part of the Ecuadorian Identity: Positioning on the Internet and Social Networks

Gastronomy is one of the distinguishing marks of greater strength to build the image of a destination, since it creates new motivations for travellers: culinary tourism. This is raising the interest of tourist managers for stressing the culinary singularities of regions, countries, and specific areas. In Ecuador, the Government has launched a specific action to give value to traditional and innovative dishes. It promotes gastronomy through competitions among local chefs and around four specific dishes: the encebollado; the hornado; the colada morada and the fanesca, since they are the most representative and consumed of Ecuador. This research aims to identify the positioning in social media of Ecuadorian gastronomy and the above-mentioned dishes. In such a way, it has been studied the positioning of these dishes in the main search engine—Google—and analysed the presence on Facebook and YouTube.

Leading Ecuadorian Companies in the Wine Tourism Sector and Their Positioning on the Social Medium Facebook

In recent years wine tourism has contributed to the positive evolution of tourist destinations, providing opportunities for development for local economies through the generation of employment and its multiplying effects on other transversal sectors. Oenology gives tourists the chance to discover more about local culture and enjoy sensorial experiences and sensations whilst indulging in the pleasure of tasting a region’s traditional wines. In this sense, and in the specific case of Ecuador, the presence of prestigious wine-making companies with an excellent national and international reputation contribute to boosting wine tourism. Mention must be made of two of the country’s leading wine producers: ‘Dos Hemisferios’, situated in the province of Guayas, in the region of Playas, and the ‘Chaupi Estancia Winery’, in the province of Pichincha, in Yaruqui. This study aims to identify the positioning of these companies, as representatives of Ecuador’s wine industry, on the social medium Facebook. The conclusions point to the need to take advantage of the opportunities social media offer today as a communication channel, in order to improve the position of wine tourism in Ecuador.

Google and YouTube positioning of historic centers and cities heritage of Colombia, Ecuador and Peru

Today the competition between destinations to attract tourists means that there is rivalry between regions because of their market differentiation. The presence of tourist resources, historical and economic, linked to the development and application of new technologies in the distribution and communication of touristic destinations, are essential to influence in its position and in the desire of tourists to know the tourist attractions of the destinations. In this sense, the main objective of this research is based on analysing the Google and YouTube positioning of four historical centres and two world heritage cities, ordered by UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization), of Colombia, Ecuador and Peru.

National parks of Ecuador and its promotion through Social Networks

The government of Ecuador there has managed a model of development that it values to all his cultures, his idiosyncrasy and his natural environments, beside managing, across the National System of Protected Areas (SNAP), to implement actions in benefit of the conservation of the natural resources since it has happened in the National Parks. Likewise, other relevant progresses that have to be considered in all this studding, it is the development of the Social Networks, as contribution to the promotion of the knowledge of the National Parks, by means of his labor in the communication of the above mentioned resources. The aim principal of this investigation is based in analyzing the promotion in Facebook of four National Parks of Ecuador. The purpose is to determine if really they take advantage of the above mentioned channel as generator of contents, visibility and interactivity and manage therefore, to make profitable the opportunities that nowadays offer the technologies.