CC BY
18
UDC 339.13S EDN: DZCLKC DOI: 10.52S1/zenodo.7422S52
Elena R. SHARKO
NRU High School of Economics / HSE University (Moscow, Russia)
PhD in Economics; Department of Marketing in High School of Business, Research Fellow;
e-mail: ersharko@yandex.ru, ORCID: 0000-0002-2818-4329
Oleg V. SHARKO
Lomonosov Moscow State University (Moscow, Russia)
Research Center for Network Economy, Analyst; e-mail: wolexi@mail.ru
THE ROLE OF SOCIAL COMMUNITIES IN TOURISM: CREATION AND SUPPORT OF A TERRITORIAL BRAND
Abstract. This article examines the essence and importance of social media marketing for the promotion of tourist services in an online environment. The purpose of the study is to identify promising ways to boost the target audience by communities in social networks adapted for tourism. A systematic and situational approach, as well as classification, formal and logical analysis and desk research are the main research methods. Based on a literature review on the approaches to understanding the types of social communities and the importance of the correct positioning of advertisements in the formation of loyalty to the territorial branding of customers, the authors present their definition of "community in a social network", give a classification of existing communities, and reveal the features of each type. The practical value of the research lies in the development of ways to use the advantages of each type of social community for the development of tourism in local territories. The authors provide practical tools for identifying and aggregating the target audience in popular social networks in Russia. The main paths of further research are a comparative analysis of the best practices of using social communities in tourism, in order to effectively interact with the target audience and develop recommendations for a content plan of a marketing strategy for promoting a territorial brand and tourist products of a specific local recreation.
Keywords: tourism, target audience, social media marketing, community, targeted advertising, territorial brand
Citation: Sharko, E. R., & Sharko, O. V. (2022). The role of social communities in tourism: Creation and support of a territorial brand. Sovremennye problemy servisa i turizma [Service and Tourism: Current Challenges], 16(3), 39-50. doi: 10.5281/zenodo.7422852.
Article History
Received 9 June 2022 Accepted 20 November 2022
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
© 2022 the Author(s)
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY-SA 4.0). To view a copy of this license, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/
УДК 339.138 EDN: DZCLKC DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.7422852
ШАРКО Елена Романовна
НИУ «Высшая школа экономики» (Москва, РФ)
кандидат экономических наук, научный сотрудник; e-mail: ersharko@yandex.ru ШАРКО Олег Васильевич
Московский государственный университет имени М.В. Ломоносова (Москва, РФ) аналитик; Центр исследований сетевой экономики; e-mail: wolexi@mail.ru
РОЛЬ СОЦИАЛЬНЫХ СООБЩЕСТВ В ТУРИЗМЕ: СОЗДАНИЕ И ПОДДЕРЖКА ТЕРРИТОРИАЛЬНОГО БРЕНДА
В статье рассматривается сущность и значение маркетинга в социальных медиа для продвижения туристских услуг в онлайн-среде. Цель исследования -определить перспективные пути увеличения целевой аудитории при помощи сообществ в социальных сетях, адаптированных для туризма. Основными методами исследования являются системный и ситуационный подход, классификация, формально-логический анализ и кабинетное исследование. На основе обзора литературы о подходах к пониманию видов социальных сообществ и важности правильного позиционирования рекламных объявлений в формировании лояльности к территориальному брендингу клиентов авторы представляют авторское определение «сообщество в социальной сети», приводят классификацию существующих сообществ, раскрывают особенности каждого из типов. Практическая ценность исследования заключается в разработке направлений использования преимуществ каждого из типа социальных сообществ для развития туризма на локальных территориях. Авторами приводятся практические инструменты для работы по выявлению и агрегированию целевой аудитории в популярных в России социальных сетях. Основными направлениями дальнейших исследований являются сравнительный анализ лучших практик использования социальных сообществ в туризме с целью эффективного взаимодействия с целевой аудиторией и разработка рекомендаций по контент-плану маркетинговой стратегии продвижения территориального бренда и туристических продуктов конкретной локальной рекреации.
Ключевые слова: туризм, целевая аудитория, маркетинг в социальных сетях, сообщество, таргетированная реклама, территориальный брендинг
Для цитирования: Шарко Е.Р., Шарко О.В. Роль социальных сообществ в туризме: создание и поддержка территориального бренда // Современные проблемы сервиса и туризма. 2022. Т.16. №3. С. 39-50. 001: 10.5281ДепоСо.7422852.
Дата поступления в редакцию: 9 июня 2022 г. Дата утверждения в печать: 20 ноября 2022 г.
Introduction
In the modern world, where the COVID-19 pandemic has emerged and continues to affect all spheres of the economy, irreversible market transformations are taking place - the transfer to online markets, the development of e-commerce and virtual technologies. Unlike other segments of the economy, tourism belongs to a type of business where a full-fledged transition to the digital environment is simply not possible. Firstly, this is due to the fact that the moment of "mastering" a tourist product cannot be online: it is always the physical presence of a tourist in a certain place at a specific time to meet a specific need. Secondly, modern tourists are increasingly requesting tours through websites by themselves, and the issue of attracting new customers (not in a physical environment, but in a digital one) has become relevant for the tourism business as a whole.
Digital marketing is diverse and constantly evolving, new tools, methods, strategies are emerging, and now, due to the active development of Internet technologies, social networks are in the spotlight [19]. The problem of communication with the consumer, in the market of tourist services and the quality of the author's tours, is constantly escalating [17]. The owners of tourist agencies or entrepreneurs are thinking about how to work with the target audience and what approaches are advisable to use to form a positive image, promotion and communication with the consumer, because digital promotion is differ then traditional.
The growth of activity on the Internet has led to the fact that users of social networks began not only to communicate via the Internet with each other, but also actively use its capabilities to search for information about the product and exchange opinions about it. Firms, in turn, do not have to independently involve consumers in discussing their products and conduct surveys to determine their opinions, but it is enough just to listen to what
their customers are already talking about on the web pages and respond to the information received in a timely manner [11; 7]. Social networks provide companies with the opportunity to communicate directly with their potential customers, provide customer support and feedback, better understand the target audience and immediately share the most relevant information using "word of mouth" (WoM) - information transfer from user to user [9]. The costs of such methods of promotion are minimal, but the effect of them often exceeds advertising campaigns with multimillion-dollar budgets and is of a long-term nature [18].
In this paper, we will discuss the essence and importance of social media marketing for the promotion of tourist services in an online environment, which, in recent years, up until the COVID-19 pandemic took effect from early 2020 until late 2021, and subsequent political actions, has been gaining great popularity both in foreign destinations among Russian tourists, and is characterized by an increased demand for domestic tourists, especially in the not widespread destinations of our country.
The tourism business has specific advertising targeting: on the one hand, the target audience is located in the nearest radius of the attraction site (attracting the local population to visit existing tourist attractions), on the other hand, the target audience has an extensive radius of the attraction site (attracting tourists from distant regions, other countries to visit existing tourist attractions). An advertising campaign in two cases will have completely different focuses, budget and channels.
In tourism, the onset of the pandemic led to the closure of the doors of 90% of museums1, and almost all areas for tourism (external and internal) were closed, which provoked the need for rapid adaptation to the conduct of activities in the digital environment. Many institutions were able to change
1 UNESCO Report: Museums around the world in the face of COVID-19 (2020). URL: https://ifap.ru/pr/ 2021/n210419a.pdf.
their strategies by switching to providing online resources and e-learning, but, at the same time, the income of tourist attractions decreased sharply, and cultural professionals faced layoffs [4]. Other sources also highlight the difficulties that arose during the transformation to new conditions, namely the unwillingness of the management of travel agencies to put the entertainment role of content on a par with educational, the difficulties of adapting long-term strategies to unforeseen situations, as well as the transition to new business models and pricing in the face of the loss of the usual source of income, in the form of ticket sales and tourist products of all types [1]. Nevertheless, over the past few years, even before the start of the pandemic, museums have shifted the focus of their strategies, from focusing on the completeness and diversity of collections, towards a new consumer value, involving interaction with visitors, breadth of impressions and the gradual introduction of digital technologies [8]. The same path should be chosen by other attractions, to survive in the Russian market. Starting with the modernisation of websites and the development of social networks, museums actively introduced digital technologies into their structures in order to improve the visitor experience and offer an alternative space where different stakeholders could interact with each other [16]. The digital space created by cultural institutions complemented the usual physical format, so that both components represented a single whole, providing access to knowledge and content. This experience needs to be scaled to all tourist areas.
The structure of the paper is as follows. First, we provide a brief overview of the literature on social media marketing as objects of tourism marketing, as well as structure the features for the Russian market. Secondly, we describe the formation and support of loyalty to the territorial brand through participation
in social network communities. Third, we discuss the main trends, digital solutions and recommendations for tourism companies on audience targeting. The final section provides conclusions and suggestions for future research.
Social media marketing as objects of tourism marketing: structure and the features for the Russian market
In the digital era, all spheres of life, all consumers have moved to the online environment: the development and popularisation of social networks has presented new challenges and opportunities for product and services promotion. Social Media Marketing (SMM) is communication with the audience of social networks and forums on behalf of a brand / trademark / company [10].
Today, most progressive companies create their own corporate web pages and communities in many popular social networks. Thus, SMM allows any market participant to "declare himself" using the target audience of both one social network and to be represented at the same time in all existing ones. Table 1 shows the characteristics of the most popular social networks in Russia.
Also, it should be noted almost today video hosting2 sites - YouTube and TikToc -are equated with social networks, but here the object of marketers is not communities, but subscribers of channels, while the main task of the video hosting channel is to "switch and subscribe" to their own channel3.
Most of the managing tourism agencies aimed to realise all the available digital potential during the lockdown period and after it, but opinions about the main drivers were divided. Some managers had the opinion that the focus should be shifted to innovative technologies [8], but the prevailing views were about social networks playing a key role [13; 3]. The predominance of the second theory is due to the fact that social media is a
2Video hosting is a web service that allows you to view videos in a browser, creating your own collection in an online library. At the same time, most of these services do not provide videos, thus following the principle of "User-generated content" (User-generated content).
3https://ru.wix.com/blog/2015/03/g,eMorp%.
communication channel accessible to a mass audience, in addition, during the period of isolation, building relationships with the audience depended more on creating a dialogue than offering unusual and difficult to perceive opportunities. Also, social networks have become a good opportunity to test new digital initiatives, allowing the agencies to minimise costs in case of failure. For these reasons, we will first consider the process of adapting content in social networks that corresponds to the actual consumer value of a Russian tourist.
The choice of social networks for publishing content depended on a particular tourist product or recreation, the preferences of its audience and location, since different platforms are popular in each region. One of the important aspects of maintaining pages in
social media is the selection of a suitable tone of voice or style of communication with the audience, which will allow museums not only to adhere to their educational function, but also to provide fascinating content that meets the interests of both traditional and modern audiences [1; 15] Users of social networks, as a rule, prefer more interactive and entertaining content, which contradicts the type of messages that are used to broadcast attractions, and indicates the need to adapt media platforms to user requests. Since interaction in social networks is perceived completely differently, in comparison with personal communication, the audience in the new realities prefers the presentation of information in a less formal and professional language, and also considers it appropriate to use playful or humorous techniques [3].
Table 1 - Characteristics of popular social networks in Russia4
Title Distribution focus Gender distribution (Male / Female) Average age of the audience, years Audience targeting Presence of communities / clubs / groups
VK.com (VKontakte) Only the Russian Federation 50/50 30 Convenient customisation to the minimum niche in the segment, direct advertising Yes, an extremely large quantity
Telegram International 50/50 25
Ok.ru (Odnoklassniki) Only the Russian Federation 25/75 38 Emotional advertising, ease and speed of reposts distribution Yes, the number of communities is above average
Face- no offi-book cial ac- International 60/40 34 Expensive advertising, high-quality and paying audience
Insta- present gram time International 25/75 27 Linking to mobile networks, expensive advertising Only as a site subscription
Twitter International 75/25 35 Expensive advertising, direct advertising, hashtags5
Many authors point out that, in the new existing reality, social networks have gone beyond informational and notification functions and should be used to create a dialogue with the audience, and should also be aimed at finding new points of interaction, for example, by
providing 3D exhibitions in online format or organizing meetings with experts [2]. The most popular methods of audience engagement in social networks are considered below [14]:
- live content or conducting live broadcasts. In this format, online training is mainly
4 Source: developed by the authors based on https://zhazhda.biz/base/celevaya-auditoriya-socialnyh-setej
5Hashtag - ("hash" - grid + "tag" - label) is a reserved label in the form of a # grid, which is used as the main way to search in social networks by thematic keywords. The hashtag structures information and helps users navigate the ocean of content quickly.
conducted or virtual events are organized. The main goal of live content is to create and strengthen a community through live contact, as well as to simplify real-time interaction;
- regular thematic headings. The time of publication of content of a certain orientation is set in advance, so subscribers always know what to expect on a particular day and choose the topics they are interested in. The main formats of such publications are live broadcasts, pre-recorded videos, posts on social networks and blogs;
- collaborations with creative people or other organizations. Also, through social networks, it became possible to negotiate a partnership with radio stations or TV channels, which allowed the agencies to increase the reach of the audience;
- fundraising by providing exclusive content. Since tourist attractions were previously limited in monetizing their activities in the usual ways, digital context turned out to be the main means of earning. One of the popular ways to monetize content in social networks has become the provision of exclusive access to personalized content in exchange for a donation;
- more informal environment creation. The change in the tone of voice and the informal atmosphere of social networks allowed attracting a new audience, which was previously repelled by the too formal atmosphere of such tourist products as museums, art galleries, theatres, exhibitions and houses of famous celebrities. In addition, live content broadcast on social media looks more natural and simple, which contributes to the successful creation of a dialogue between the audience and cultural attractions, as well as an increase in subscribers;
- expanding the information availability. The transfer of activities online has expanded the reach of the audience, in terms of geography, material and physical capabilities, that is, any interested user can take part in broadcasts, online classes and other events.
In order to track the success of ongoing campaigns in social networks, it is necessary to take into account the engagement of the audience. Social media engagement is how the audience reacts to the content provided by the organization and is a two-way interaction between content creators and users [12]. The most common metrics for measuring this indicator are the number of "like" marks, comments and reposts. Reactions, the number of page visits, views, clicks, mentions, tags, viewing time, saving, downloading and other parameters available depending on the specific platform, are also used for advanced analysis. Usually, interaction with content begins with clicks and "likes", then comes the phase of commenting, subscribing and distributing the material, which flows into loyalty and support from the audience [5]. After the pandemic period showed the possibility of situations where virtual space becomes the only one available for tourist attractions, the indicator of audience engagement in social networks has become one of the indicators of the effectiveness of survival strategies chosen by tourism companies and the transition to a new digital era.
We highlight the 3 main reasons why it is necessary to promote tourist services in the online environment and social networks:
1) the popularity of the channel and wide audience coverage. The number of Internet users in Russia is constantly increasing (from Q1, 2020 - Q2, 2021, an increase of 5.1% is observed) and amounts to 124 million people with a population of 145.9 million people, then it can be argued that Russia has all the favorable conditions and potential for the successful development of the e-commerce market6. Another important trend can be considered a total increase in the average daily amount of time that users spend on the Internet - 7 hours 17 minutes in 2020 against 6 hours 29 minutes in 20197 (the transition to online, remote working significantly affected these figures). In 2020 alone, there were 40%
6 https://wearesocial.com/blog/2021/01/digital-2021-the-latest-insights-into-the-state-of-digital
7 https://datareportal.com/reports/digital-2020-russian-federation
more active users on the Internet, their number is almost 60 million people8. Therefore, the probability that among all users, you can find thousands, and maybe millions of representatives of the target audience is very high;
2) favourable atmosphere. In social networks, potential customers are at ease and feel quite comfortable. The purpose of their activity is to get new information, entertainment and communication, therefore, what content will be offered by tourism agents in the community should fully meet the needs of community members and will be perceived positively by them;
3) no direct advertising effect. People are skeptical about advertising and do not like it, so being in the community from the inside (being a member of the community or being its founder), it is important to keep the informative connotation of posts, and not purely marketing. Posts of tourism companies in communities, which, in fact, are promotional materials, are mainly perceived by participants as entertainment and do not cause negativity, and if you also "pack" content from private users (sharing experiences, photos, impressions of the trip and the attractions seen, recommendations for organization, etc.), then advertising obsession is not perceived by the rest of the community.
Formation and support of territorial brand loyalty through social network communities' participation
Increasing brand loyalty in social networks is a great opportunity to have a beneficial effect on the success of the tourism business [20]. It is necessary to use it both for well-known companies and those who are just starting their way to the top: popular tourism companies need to maintain the love and affection of customers, and little-known companies have yet to gain the trust of the audience.
Communities in social networks aggregate different groups of the population - community members are a collection of a large number of personal "web pages" that provide
almost exhaustive information about a potential consumer:
1) age and gender (from the personal profile of a community member's account);
2) solvency (assessment of photos that the user places on the page, according to which, it is possible to make an assessment of his financial capabilities, positioning, employment, etc.);
3) geographical location (assessment of community coverage by the place of residence of its participants);
4) hobbies and interests (in addition to a specific community, each participant is in a number of others that can also provide the necessary information to attract him to a potential target audience).
Everyone thinks they know their customers very well. But the problem is that the developers of advertising campaigns put themselves in their place, and do not try to understand them. In order to better understand your target audience, you need to be in the same environment with them, in the same information space, understand how they live and how they talk about different topics and problems, what is really important to them and is in the first place when choosing a particular product, how often they are ready to buy certain services and why. After studying the target audience, you can launch targeted advertising that hits the target visitors. Such a common environment for studying the target audience can be considered communities in social networks.
Social networks communities are an association of users of a certain social network by area of interest, in order to share relevant content, personal experiences and advice [6]. Communities are not only a "club of interests", they are a potential target audience for companies and entrepreneurs. It is important to note that, depending on the type of communities, working with the target audience will have differences and specifics. The classification of communities in social networks is presented in Table 2.
8 Infoline 2020. https://infoline.spb.ru/news/index.php?news=205690
Table 2 - Classification of social networks communities9
Type Methods of interaction Relevant content Method of participation (subscription) Social network category
Thematic group discussion platforms for communication on a specific topic (possible categorization into subtopics) General issues, solutions, tips, personal experience and demonstration, sharing of thematic content Open / Secret • News • Sport • Music • Radio and television • Entertainments • Bloggers • Games and e-sports • Science and technology • Fashion and beauty
Public page (public) personal content and discussion in the form of comments to the post Diverse thematic content, personal experience and advice Open / Closed / Paid
Brand / company discussion platforms for communication, feedback forms, surveys News content related to an activity / brand / product. Advertising, reviews, user reviews Open
Event event announcement, feedback forms, surveys, payment instruments Urgent event content (time-limited), supplementary information Open / Closed • Charity • Brands • The shops
Let's reveal the essence of the way users participate in social network communities. Open method of participation - each user can enter the community at any time or stop participating. A closed method of participation -the user sends a request to participate in the community, but becomes a member only after the acceptance of the community administrator. Secret method of participation - information about the existence of the community is hidden from everyone. In order to become a member of the community, it is necessary that a member of the community sends an invitation (reference link). Paid method of participation - in order to become a member of the community, you need to make a payment (monthly payments, annual subscription, one-time paid access, etc.), after which the community content will be available to the user until the next payment becomes due.
An important point and insight that can be obtained from the target audience for the tourism business is direct feedback from customers. This can be done with the help of organized surveys or questionnaires on the public page or in the forum of a thematic group. It is also necessary to study the thematic groups,
forums and response sites in which the community are members, to identify what the participants are dissatisfied with when buying products or services from competitors, in order to take into account these errors for the offer of tourist products.
Main trends digital solutions and recommendations for tourism companies on audience targeting
Today, there are many software products and services for evaluating target audiences in social networks. Table 3 presents the characteristics of the top 7 online services for assessing the target audience in social network communities.
So, tourism from the point of view of SMM is the most attractive area of business:
1) travelling is planned by almost 100% of the audience (with different frequency, but each user);
2) a tourist attraction can be positioned as an independent public and as an event (which makes the advertising content more effective and adaptive);
3) possible and recommended categories of social networks (some cases for the Russian market):
9 Source: developed by the authors based on https://www.activetraffic.ru/wiki/gruppy-v-sotsialnykh-setyakh
Table 3 - Top 7 online services for assessing the target audience in social network communities10
Title Website Price, rubles per month Social media coverage Ranking by usability in an online format
Segmento Target https://segmento-target.ru 399,00 BK, OK.ru, Instagram 1
Pepper.Ninja https://pepper.ninja 490,00 BK, OK.ru, Instagram, Facebook 2
Serebro target https://u,epe6po^ 1225,00 BK 3
Target Hunter https://targethunter.ru 540,00 BK 4
Vk.barkov.net https://vk.barkov.net 399,00 BK, OK.ru 5
Deserter https://deserter.io 200,00 BK 6
OKTarget http://oktarget.ru 990,00 BK, OK.ru 7
- news (about various tours, routes, seasons, changes in regulations or the introduction/cancellation of anti-covid-19 measures, etc.) - cancellation/resumption of festivals ("Pryanik's Day", "Nashestvie", "Apricot"), flight directions, airport operation, arrival/departure board;
- sports (sports events as a tourist product, sports tourism as such, attractions related to famous athletes, etc.) - Formula 1, Winter/Summer Olympic Games, Hockey League, MMA battles;
- music (attractions related to / with famous musicians), radio and television (guided tours of radio stations and other attractions associated with famous celebrities in the field of radio and cinema) - tours to "So-yuzmultfilm" Studio, Nikita Mikhalkov's summer residence, "BlackStar" music studio;
- entertainment (any trip can lead to the entertainment of a tourist by one way or another) - tours of the author's film festival, participation in installations of historical battles, themed costume balls and cultural events;
- bloggers (travel bloggers are as popular as possible today, any information about a tourist attraction can be conveyed to the audience with the help of blogs about tourism) -Anton Ptushkin - for the first time his name was heard in the travel show "Heads and Tails. Reboot". Anton hosted the program for two seasons, after which he opened a personal YouTube channel. Now Anton's channel has more than 5.3 million subscribers and more
than 483 million views; Elnar Mansurov (Blog Mishka.travel ) — a guide for an independent traveler, in which inexperienced conquerors of the world will find a lot of useful information, for example, how to apply for a visa or how to properly look for housing. But the main thing is that there is a lot of information on Elnar's website about travel safety rules, especially when you go on a trip alone;
- science and technology (scientific tourism, attractions related to famous scientists, industrial tourism, attractions related to famous technological inventions, etc.) - observatories, museums of high technologies and robotics, a tour to Skolkovo;
- fashion and beauty (health and medical tourism, shop tours, fashion tourism -fashion houses, designers, fashion shows, etc.) - Vyacheslav Zaitsev is a real master of Russian fashion. Zaitsev has been designing clothes for a long time, so today he is a real pro and an expert in the field of cut, color and their combinations. The fashion designer has all kinds of medals and regalia related to the field of art and culture. The designer in each collection expresses the Russian theme in one way or another; Valentin Yudashkin is one of the main Russian fashion designers today, along with Zaitsev. Yudashkin's creations are distinguished by exquisite decor, beautiful decoration. His dresses are real works of art. Many of them are kept in costume museums around the world. The designer is accepted into the haute couture syndicate in Paris. In
10 Source: developed by the authors based on https://dub.cnews.ru/blogs/entry/iiriport_15_servisov_ko-torye_najdut_vashu_tselevuyu_auditoriyu_v_sotssetyah_dlya_uspeshnoj_targetirovannoj_reklamy_b3ac
addition to clothing, the designer also designs accessories, underwear and other things. If desired, you can even buy the best tableware items; Andrey Sharov is a modern Russian designer, in addition to creating clothes, he also deals with theatrical costumes, so he likes to bring something from performances, theatre and high art to his collections.,
- culture and art (the most common and popular tourist attractions) - all museums of all types, galleries, exhibitions, estates, houses-museums of famous artists;
- brands (in the context of tourism activities, a brand can act as part of industrial tourism, fashion tourism, as well as from the position of the brand of cities) - Russian Helicopters JSC (http://www.russianhelicopters. aero/ru), headquarters in Moscow, production sites in Moscow, Moscow region, Ulan-Ude, Kazan and other regions; GC "Kalashni-kov" (http://kalashnikovgroup.ru), a subsidiary of Rostec. Headquarters and main production in Izhevsk (Udmurtia), divisions in Rybinsk, Mytishchi, Nizhnevartovsk. The largest Russian manufacturer of combat automatic and sniper weapons, guided artillery shells, as well as many types of precision weapons (95% of small arms production in Russia, 80% of the market); The United Confectioners Holding is the largest confectionery enterprise in Eastern Europe, uniting 19 Russian factories, including the largest Moscow enterprises "Kras-niy Oktyabr'", "Babaevskiy Confectionery Concern", "ROT FRONT",
- shops (travel companies are shops selling tourist vouchers and provision of other tourist services) - tours to the famous TSUM, GUM, monobrand stores of clothing, shoes, jewelry.
Thus, analyzing the tourist infrastructure of each recreation, it is always possible to identify and use several different thematic attractions in order to increase the tourist's interest in the counter-marketing territorial brand.
Conclusions and future research
Our study confirms the role and importance of social media marketing for the promotion of tourist services in the online
environment, as prospects for the successful development and functioning of domestic tourism. In order to provide experiences that lead to customer satisfaction, tourism companies (in this case, local travel agencies) must form a multi-sided pool of attractions on the local territory, as well as develop an effective content plan for a marketing strategy for promotion in social communities.
It is necessary to take into account many components, including the characteristics of each community, thematic biases and forms of communication within the community, the emotional aspects of subscribers' perception, the goals of the target audience's recreation and their expectations, in order to maximize the satisfaction of the consumer value of the tourist product.
The main trends affecting the future development of domestic tourism and the development of territorial brands are the following:
- promoting interaction with the target audience through the active formation of content relevant to a particular community;
- searching for effective combinations of attractions of one local territory when developing regular tours with new elements of various new interactions;
- formatting the tourist infrastructure of the territorial brand in accordance with the tourist objective (for example, for festivals, a whole city is built for the duration of its holding, costume shows are organized for a better perception of the historical and cultural features of some attractions, etc.).
The analysis of the Russian market shows that there is a huge potential for the development of local territorial brands in the domestic market: the presence of attractions of various directions, a long history of the development and formation of industrial tourism, the presence of a great potential for improving the infrastructure of attractions in all regions of the country, for every taste and preferences of even a capricious and spoiled tourist abroad.
Currently, the market is experiencing another collapse caused by the reorientation of the Russian economy to domestic consump-
tion, but the support and development of domestic tourism can play a decisive role in the rapid development of tourism in Russia in the near future. Being in a difficult economic situation, and in the face of new challenges of economic factors, like all tourism companies
in other countries, Russian local travel agencies can reduce the backlog if they pause to analyze the best international examples as a guideline and try to master new directions and niches in the digital environment.
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