The TikTok effect on destination development: Famous overnight, now what?

ABSTR A C T Contemporary tourists increasingly rely on social media platforms to inform their consumption choices. Increasingly more travellers rely on social media to make their travel choices; however, scant research explored the impacts of sudden destination popularity through social media. The current study reveals how TikTok made two off-the-beaten-track destinations in Hainan (China) famous overnight. Using participant observation and interviews, this paper explores how a destination suddenly had to cope not only with overtourism but also with all the issues it generates. The findings revealed that the local community struggles to seize the opportunities offered by tourism while forced to manage the tourist's flow. We propose a management framework for desti-nations in protected areas that suddenly became 'hot' on social media and Web 2.0. Finally, we discuss the implications for tourism policies and management and highlight the importance of links between user-generated content and the promotion as crucial for future tourism planning in protected areas.Management implications: The study results highlight how (off-the-beaten track) destination was impacted by unintentional promotion through TikTok. The findings revealed management gaps related to accessibility and amenities that resulted in negative environmental impacts when suddenly tourism numbers increased in a short time. These findings provide important implications for tourism policies, management, and marketing of des-tinations when their popularity depends on being 'hot' on social media and Web 2.0. The authors propose a Rapid Response Plan framework for handling future cases of sudden destination popularity.

Automated summary

This study uses the example of TikTok to reveal how social media can suddenly popularize remote destinations, leading to overtourism and related issues. The findings highlight management gaps, especially in terms of accessibility and amenities when there is a sudden increase in tourist numbers. The study provides important implications for tourism policies, management, and marketing, as well as sudden popularity of destinations. The authors propose a framework for a Rapid Response Plan to handle future cases of sudden destination popularity.