Recent events in Egypt and other countries in North Africa have emphasised the growing importance of the social media. With the breadth of electronic dissemination growing ever wider, social networks like Facebook and Twitter, individual blogs and sites like tripadvisor are also playing an increasingly important role influencing destination choice. These new media provide both an opportunity and a challenge for tourism destinations.

‘Word of mouth’ has always played an important role in communicating awareness of tourism destinations. The social media provide an outlet for individuals to share memorable vacation experiences. Equally, dissatisfied holidaymakers and visitors now have on opportunity to communicate with a wider audience beyond their family and friends.

Against this backcloth, it has become increasingly difficult for tourist boards and DMOs to control the ‘image’ which they may wish to portray of their destinations to key markets and segments within those markets. Hence, the priority must be to ensure that visitors have a positive experience of the destination. While there will continue to be a role for effective tourism destination marketing, the success of tourism destinations in an increasingly competitive market place is likely to be determined by other considerations.

In order to develop and maintain a tourism sector capable of delivering sustainable economic benefits over the longer term, an integrated approach focussing on access, infrastructure, tourism product development, human resources, and organisation/ institutional arrangements will be required. In particular, there is a need for ever closer co-ordination between product development/ delivery and marketing. What a destination claims has to be closely matched to what is offered and provided.