Authors: Achilleas Kanellis, Irini Papadaki

Title: The sociological approach to the digital divide in Greek tourism and social choice theory: The case studies of Rhodes and Volos.

Abstract

A destination image is shaped to a great extent through the synthesis of the information promoted by mass and digital media about the specific destination, regardless of the origin of these messages—be it formal bodies, local businesses and/or individuals. The present study highlights the importance of business accounts in social media, in the framework of destinations’ digital communication strategy, almost in the form of a local franchise, as the posts of every account, regardless of its followers’ number, add to the destination’s image puzzle. The final outcome—being digital and dynamic in nature—surpasses local boundaries and adds to the destination’s marketing strategy. Nevertheless, the noisy selection model, which dominates in destinations with variable digital abilities, could lead to inconsistent digital communication messages, challenging incoming tourists. The digital divide presence in the tourism sector in Greece is examined in this paper through the case studies of Rhodes and Volos. The aim is to designate the inequalities in access and use of digital content and technologies in the country between different geographical areas and tourism destinations. The main methodological tools used for data collection and analysis were transcribing and content analysis: 12 tourism businesses from Rhodes and Volos were studied and 772 posts on Instagram were analyzed, from the end of 2021 High Season tourism period in Greece until the Low Season 2022-2023. The paper’s contribution to tourism management studies is the highlighting of the need to develop integrated digital strategies, focusing not only on the promotion of specific destinations by official, government bodies, but also taking into account the destinations’ tourism stakeholders’ messages and the general digital environment at national level.      

Keywords: Digital divide, tourism, Greece, digital inequalities, social media, digital communication strategy, social choice, noisy choice.