Waswa Wanjala D.

New Media and Domestic Tourism Promotion in Kenya Waswa Wanjala D.

Over the last few years, the use of online social networks has increased exponentially and some of these communities are among the most visited sites on the internet. With this boom in popularity has also come a rise in the need for marketing within these spaces and very little academic literature exists on how to best utilize this new arena in promotion activities. This book explores the use of new media in the promotion of domestic tourism. Despite evidence of slow rates of adoption among domestic tourists and tourist site managers, the future of tourism seems heavily dependent on this innovation. This is because all these players find this innovation to have a Relative Advantage. This exploration is conducted based on Everett Rogers' Diffusion of Innovations theory (1995). New media's high complexity, lack of its control in terms of user generated content, among other reasons, have hampered its adoption. These findings should help shed some light on this new and exciting Public Relations innovation and should be especially useful to professionals in Communication and Marketing fields or anyone considering utilizing online communities for for promotional purposes.