Tourism promotion of destinations through Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs). Analysis of a Peruvian case.

Abstract

Nowadays, the presence of ICT in all areas of society is a reality that companies use to find the specific target market. The tourism sector is no exception; social media branding is a common strategy used by travel agencies or operators to promote the offer of a specific destination. The present research takes as an object of study the Historic Center of Callao (Peru), in which social networks are managed only to increase the number of visitors and turnover, but they are not concerned with developing a competitive institutional presentation of the heritage site to ensure a differentiated, unique and irreplaceable customer experience. The results show that companies continue to use traditional media to promote the cultural elements of the destination. During the interview with the managers and the observation made to the cultural circuit, it was identified that the exposition of the historical resources in the web page uses an overloaded and impersonal textual communication language. Consequently, the offer is not able to arouse attention, interest, desire and surprise action on customer perceptions, therefore it is suggested to invest more budget in technological equipment, design storytelling and story-doing branding strategies supported by augmented virtual reality to recreate the history of the destination with a dynamic, interactive and lively communication in social networks; so that more people are interested in visiting the place.