Abstract:
The exploratory study sought to present a review of scholarly literature and synthesise academic
insights encompassing the span of 2010 to 2020, to shed light on the contemporary state of
knowledge pertaining the intersection of destination branding and social media. The convergence
between destination branding and social media has emerged as a pivotal component within the
tourism industry, garnering heightened attention from practitioners and researchers. The
methodology implemented was quantitative, using a Systematic Quantitative Literature Review
to investigate how researchers study destination branding and social media within tourism
literature. Data collection, drawing from a diverse array of scholarly articles sourced from
prominent literature databases such as Emerald, Web of Science, Scopus, and Web of Science,
was used. Data analysis included descriptive statistics, followed by a Cluster analysis to describe
current research. Two types of articles emerged, clearly indicating the disparities between Global
North and Global South in terms of the social media and branding dimensions studied, as well as
the methodologies employed. Findings show polarisation of the research attention with majority
focus on destination case studies from the Global North perspective. This study highlights
important existing research gaps and presents a roadmap for future research endeavors.
