The Death of Twitter in Destination Marketing

Twitter continues to decline in relevancy in destination marketing. The platform has been reduced to a press release distribution platform because of its ineffectiveness at audience reach and engagement, politicization and competitors offering better storytelling capabilities.

Twitter has been the must-have platform among tourism agencies for the last decade. Nearly every tourism agency, especially in the U.S., has a Twitter account, but their investment in the platform is on a downward slope.

Tourism agency Twitter accounts tweet infrequently. For example, Visit Montana, which has over 70,000 followers, last retweeted on September 1 last year about a weather warning.

Twitter has fallen from third to fifth place in importance for Destination Toronto in the last five years, according to vice president of marketing Paula Port. This year more energy will be spent on TikTok and Instagram to further the tourism agency’s storytelling strategy, she said.