Abstract

There is growing evidence that the connectivity power of social media and spontaneous volunteerism of individuals have opened up new opportunities for business and governments to engage, promote and deliver their services. . In this changing context, the aim of this research is to take a closer look at government use of Facebook (FB) as a platform for citizen engagement, contribution and promotion of tourism experiences. Can FB be used for crowdsourcing travel information and experiences for government tourism institutions? This case study research presents both quantitative and qualitative analysis of the FB page of Tourism Australia and provides an in-depth understanding of citizen participation and contribution in the FB page. Qualitative interview was carried out with the government agency and they provided further statistical behavioural analysis of user participation on the site. Findings show that the page has successfully served as a platform for its audience to share their Australian experience, It is achieving its objective by crowdsourcing travel experiences, by getting both Australians and tourists from all over the world to suggest locations, upload photographs, answer questions and give advice. Although there is no obvious structure to this, and nothing is "official", it is clearly a valuable resource and is achieving the department's aim.

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