Social Networks and the Engagement of the Resident Community in the Promotion of Tourism The case of Maceira Digital

Resumo

Objectives | The Maceira - Embaixadores d'Aldeia project, promoted by the Associação de Promoção Social, Recreativa, Desportiva e Humanitária de Maceira (APSRDHM), Fornos de Algodres-Guarda, is a project that aims to combat the exodus and depopulation of the interior, promoting active ageing, intergenerationalism and the collective participation of the village population, preserving its cultural, heritage and tourist identity, while at the same time developing solid strategies to promote tourism and repopulation. One of the project's activities is Maceira Digital, which aims to use social media to boost the project as a whole.

Social media is currently an indispensable tool in modern society, as it connects people across geographical distances. Although they are usually associated with busy urban areas and highly populated regions, their importance in low-density territories cannot be underestimated (Cunha et al., 2022). These digital platforms have proven to be especially important in these territories, offering countless opportunities for individuals and communities, bringing a range of social, economic and cultural benefits (Onitsuka, 2019).

Low-density territories, which include rural areas (such as the village of Maceira), small towns and remote regions, often face unique challenges due to their dispersed populations and limited access to various resources, particularly communication resources.

Social media platforms, which include social networks, have emerged as a tool for standardizing access to and availability of content, allowing residents of low-density areas to overcome geographical barriers and access a world of possibilities, as well as enabling the territory to be revitalized through new forms of integration, valuing material and immaterial resources and local products as components of the collective socio-cultural heritage (Marques, 2010). As part of the project, the Maceira Digital activity consisted of: (i) creating profiles of the Association on the social networks Facebook, Instagram and Youtube, (ii) creating and publishing content generated by the Association's users on the social networks created, and (iii) measuring the interaction generated by the content created and published. The aim of the study presented here is to evaluate the implementation of the Maceira Digital activity.

Methodology | Data on the presence, use and engagement of users on the project's Facebook, Instagram and Youtube social networks was collected between January 1, 2022 and May 15, 2023, June 1, 2022 and May 15, 2023, and July 1, 2022 and May 15, 2023 respectively.

The content published on the different social media platforms was assured and had the local village community as participants.

Carrying out training actions to improve the resident community's communication techniques when interacting on social networks.

Main Results and Contributions | The most important results of the Maceira Digital activity are: (i) 37 training sessions on Facebook and Instagram, which resulted in the training of 14 people from the village; (ii) the creation of a YouTube channel, which in the period under review had 29 people from the community participating in the videos published; (iii) the creation of the video "Nós Somos Aldeia", which portrays the experiences, traditions and customs of the village, transporting the video viewers to a not too distant past and summarizing what the Maceira - Embaixadores d'Aldeia project was all about.

Regarding measuring the interaction generated by the content created and published on the social networks Facebook and Instagram, the indicators page reach, visits and followers showed an increasing and positive performance over the period under analysis. In the case of Facebook, the page's organic reach on May 15, 2023 was more than 273000 users who had viewed some of the page's content by that date. The indicator for the number of followers of the page on that date was 1470 followers.

The largest number of users who have visited the Facebook page are national and local (Fornos de Algodres – 14,9%), although there are also a significant number of international users, such as France (9,7%).

As far as the Youtube social network is concerned, the interaction generated by some of the videos created by APSRDHM and subsequently published has reached very significant numbers of views, particularly the video "Sabem a diferença entre cebolo e cebola? * Embaixadores de Aldeia", which has more than 11000 views.

The video " Nós Somos a Aldeia! * Embaixadores d'Aldeia ", which was presented and uploaded to the YouTube channel on the closing day of the Maceira - Embaixadores d'Aldeia project.

Limitations | The main limitation of this study is the fact that it was carried out in a single location, which means that the results cannot be generalized. However, they are relevant to larger studies.

Conclusions | There was a great deal of community engagement in the digital initiatives, which also helped to strengthen cultural identity, as the digital promotion of the project highlighted the village's rich cultural heritage, preserving and making known its history and traditions across borders. This increased the community's pride and satisfaction;

The publication and consequent presence of the project's content on different digital communication channels gave the project greater visibility and contributed to its success;

The village participants who have been directly or indirectly involved in the project have come to value their community and its contribution to the project even more;

Implementing digital strategies to promote the project has ensured its success and that it will be sustained over time, keeping the village digitally relevant and attracting new visitors over time.

References

Cunha, M., Correia, R. F., & Carvalho, A. (2022). The Role of Digital Communication in the Tourism Promotion of Low Density Territories: The Case of Macedo de Cavaleiros and Vila Nova de Foz Côa | O Papel da Comunicação Digital na Promoção Turística de Territórios de Baixa Densidade: O Caso de Macedo de . 17th Iberian Conference on Information Systems and Technologies (CISTI).

Marques, A. P. S. (2010). Da construção do espaço à construção do território. Fluxos & Riscos, 1(1), 75–88.

Onitsuka, K. (2019). How Social Media Can Foster Social Innovation in Disadvantaged Rural Communities. In Sustainability (Vol. 11, Issue 9). https://doi.org/10.3390/su11092697