Web 2.0 in Tourism and Hospitality Industries

Dear Colleagues,

Social media has gained massive popularity by enabling users to create and distribute content, share information and knowledge, create profiles and promote their skills and capabilities, and connect and collaborate with other users. Tourism, being a dynamic industry and one of the largest industries in the electronic marketplace, exploits the intangible and digital nature of the distribution of tourism products, constantly adapting its services and products to satisfy customers’ ever-changing needs and desires. Thus, tourism and hospitality companies integrate social media into their web strategies in order to improve customers’ information searching, enhance customers’ experiences, and build useful communication and cooperation links. Social networking sites, wikis, blogging, microblogging, and podcasting are generating tremendous interest online, are fundamentally changing tourists’ information search behavior, and are affecting subsequent decision-making. However, for the hospitality and tourism industries, social media can do more than be a source of information, communication, and entertainment. It may have a significant positive impact on sustainable tourism development.

The aim of this Special Issue is to provide a forum to discuss and identify new trends and developments and to disseminate the latest research findings on social media applications in tourism and hospitality with an emphasis on sustainability.

In this framework, topics of interest for this Special Issue include, but are not limited to, the following:

• The role of social media in sustainable tourism;
• Social media marketing for sustainable tourism development;
• How social media is changing the profile, role, and behavior of tourism companies;
• How social media is changing the behavior of tourists;
• Social media influencers in the hospitality and tourism industries;
• Social media and smart tourism;
• Explaining the phenomenon of social media and generating insights for practitioners;
• The impact of social media on tourism demand and supply;
• Uses of social media in tourism marketing and branding;
• Web 3.0 in hospitality and tourism industries.

Prof. Dr. Vasiliki Vrana
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the Special Issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-anonymized peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Sustainability is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.