Journal of Engineering and Applied Sciences 14 (Special Issue 9): 10544-10548, 2019 ISSN: 1816-949X © Medwell Journals, 2019 Social Network Sites in Travel and Tourism: Benefits and Limitations Jaroslav Kacetl and Blanka Klimova Faculty of Informatics and management, University of Hradec Kralove, Rokitanskeho 62, 500 03 Hradec Kralove, Czech Republic Abstract: The purpose of this study is to explore the most frequently used Social Network Sites (SNSs) in travel and tourism as well as to discuss and summarize their benefits and limitations for the travel and tourism industry. It is particularly useful for the author’s students of Management of Travel and Tourism at the Faculty of Informatics and Management, University of Hradec Kralove who will need the knowledge of SNSs as a prerequisite for being successful in their future profession. First, this study uses the method of literature review which is applied to determine the most popular SNSs in travel and tourism. Then, thus selected SNSs are compared and evaluated. There is a number of SNSs used for the travel and tourism purposes. However, the most popular SNSs are still Facebook and Twitter. As the findings show, the SNSs used for the travel and tourism purposes provide their users with travel information and/or facilitate contacts. Among the benefits belong an easy access to various content. Limitations include lower control over this content. Key words: Social network sites, travel and tourism, benefits, limitations, various, knowledge INTRODUCTION Social Network Sites (SNSs) are becoming an inseparable part of people’s everyday activities, both for business and private purposes. There are now many definitions of SNSs. One of the most cited is provided by Boyd and Ellison (2007) who define social network sites as follows: SNSs are web-based services that allow individuals to construct a public or semi-public profile within a bounded system; articulate a list of other users with whom they share a connection and view and traverse their list of connections and those by other within the system. They also put the main emphasis on their social aspect since these social network sites enable users to articulate and make visible their social networks (Poulova and Klimova, 2015). SNSs are now on their rise. The most popular social network site is undoubtedly Facebook, followed by Twitter. Since, SNSs penetrate in all human activities, they also play a considerable role in travel and tourism business which is closely connected with the new information and communication technologies. In fact, Werthner and Ricci (2004) claim that travel and tourism industry is at the head of the Internet use and online transactions. In travel and tourism industry SNSs are part of other social media platforms such as blogs, forums, wikis, video and photo sharing, virtual communities, chat rooms and podcasts (UMOSM., 2008). For example, Lange and Elliot (2012) state that travellers use SNSs in order to plan their trips and holidays. SNSs are important in their information search about the place, its attractiveness or accommodation possibilities. All this information is influenced by age, gender, culture and other demographic and sociographic features. In addition, travel and tourism industry is based on the use of word-of-mouth recommendations and SNSs such as Facebook or Twitter enable their users to share their travel experiences. As Nielsen (2013) presents, 84% of consumers trust these recommendations. Furthermore, Bennett (2012) states that 64% of non-US travellers use social networks while travelling, 85% of leisure travellers use their smartphone abroad and 30% of them have already used mobile applications to find hotel deals. In addition, 52% of Facebook users have been inspired in their holiday planning by their friend’s photos or 76% of travellers have posted their holiday photos to a social network site. Overall, SNSs enable travellers to have more control over their travel decision making process (Cox et al., 2007). Therefore, the purpose of this study is to explore those social network sites that are most frequently used in travel and tourism and discuss and summarize their benefits and limitations for the travel and tourism industry (SD., 2016). MATERIALS AND METHODS Firstly, a method of literature search of available sources exploring the issue of social network sites in the field of travel and tourism was applied. A search was conducted in the world’s acknowledged databases such as Web of Science, Scopus, Springer and ScienceDirect. Furthermore, other sources cited in the analysed studies were also examined. Secondly, on the basis of evaluation Corresponding Author: Jaroslav Kacetl, Faculty of Informatics and management, University of Hradec Kralove, Rokitanskeho 62, 500 03 Hradec Kralove,Czech Republic 10544