A Comparison of Social Media Adoption and Use in Different Countries: The Case of the United States and Switzerland

The purpose of this study was to identify differences in the adoption and management of cutting edge social media tools in two major travel markets: the United States and Switzerland. While U.S. destination marketing organizations (DMOs) in recent years have begun to introduce various social media tools to their websites, Swiss DMOs appear to have been more cautious as they implemented comparatively less social media tools. It was found that Swiss DMOs are governed by a different organizational framework which does support but at times inhibits the use of such tools. It appears that DMOs at different stages of development need to strategically organize their web marketing efforts so as to maximize as well as make more efficient use of social media adoption.