Digital communication tools and tourism engagement: instant CRM strategies through instant messaging apps

With the advent of the internet, tourism has undergone a profound transformation that has made it essential for operators in the sector to rethink their methods of communicating the tourist offer. With the intensification of the use of social media before, during and after the travel experience, the engagement of the tourist is amplified. In particular, today we are wit- nessing a metamorphosis of social media, from a simple tool for sharing experiences in the peer group, to real digital engagement platforms used by public and private organizations to communicate in real time with their customers (Marino and Lo Presti, 2019a, 2019b, 2018). These trends for some years now have been changing the way people relate to customers, also imposing a change in the ways and methods of interacting with and engaging tourists (Taheri et al., 2019; Buhalis and Law, 2008), something which up until a few years ago was imple- mented through the more traditional direct marketing channels such as emails, newsletters, telephone contact, and so on.