THE USAGE OF YOUTUBE VIDEOS IN THE PUBLICITY OF ISLAMIC FAITH TOURISM DESTINATIONS

Today, the media, which influence people's choices and decisions, are the most important factors that affect people's tourism decisions. Social media is an environment where all individuals have quick and easy access. Tourism marketers, individual tourism phenomenas or travelers publicize the tourism places by sharing their tour videos on the social media and these videos can affect people's travel behaviors. As a result of analysing the comments about the shared videos for destinations on social media, it was purposed to reveal the behaviors and tendencies of the audiences and the suggestions for the usage of these videos in the fields of publicity and marketing communications. For this purpose, the audiences’ comments, which were made between March 2016 and March 2017, about a tourism phenomenon’s videos on YouTube about Mecca, Medina and Jerusalem, which are important places for Muslims in terms of faith tourism, were analyzed by content analysis. As a result, it has been determined that YouTube videos are a source of information for destinations and they have a positive impact on travel desires. Wieving experiences and the presentation of the destinations are determinative on this result