Model for Estimating the Potential of Social Networking Sites Usage in Tourism Industry in Bosnia and Herzegovina

Social networking has taken contemporary business experiences to a new level that cannot be compared with anything that happened so far. Tourism industry and travel booking activities have significantly benefited from such development. Potential travellers can communicate with tourist agencies and operators through social networking sites as well as with tourists who already have visited desired destination or used services from certain operator. This means that tourists can get information directly from actors in tourist activities in order to make their travel decision. Social networking has become large resources from which tourists can make decisions. In this paper it will be given model for estimating the potential of social networking usage by consumers in Bosnia and Herzegovina. According to the given model, estimated potential of social networking usage by consumers is 43.281.660 €, which represents 12.19% of annual touristic expenditure of B&H citizens. Knowledge about mentioned potential is important data for marketers who plan to exploit social networking channel in their marketing efforts.