Il turista digitale: formatore di tendenza e vero promoter turistico

Web 2.0 and social networking have radically changed the way users interact, search and share information. Born at the beginning of the last century, the analysis of social networks is a field of research that has always been used to explain phenomena related to different domain of study, such as sociology, psychology and economics. Once online social networks, blogs and forums appeared and especially Web 2.0 phenomenon exploded, studies about online communities have intensified, aiming, on one hand, to use data from these closed facilities for analyzing some patterns and social behavior, and assessing, on the other hand, the relevance and impact of online campaigns, given the increasing use of Web as a channel for marketing and communications. Marketing and especially the way users generate and exchange opinions and experiences about brands, products and services, by online word of mouth, i.e. eWOM, that strongly influence tourism industry, tour operator and tourist destinations, are therefore, relevant aspects of great interest. So, users-tourists actively participate in forming a judgment about a service, a place, an airline, influence and note in a precise way the strengths and weaknesses of the entire tourism industry, placing before, during and after their trip, their experiences, such as in the site www.tripadvisor.com. Technology at the service of tourist overturns the decision-making monopoly of big operators who are forced to accept the new trends and user-tourist preferences formed in the pluralist and now prolific tissue of great Network.