Toward Web 5.0 in Italian Regional Destination Marketing

This paper explores an under-researched topic in destination management: the exploitation of Web opportunities for market destinations and co-creating destination value through engaging diverse stakeholders in social communication and knowledge sharing. Leveraging the body of destination management literature focused on Web 2.0, we introduce the debate on the Web`s evolution from 2.0 to 5.0, identifying best practices in digital marketing and the use of innovative Web tools in four Italian regional destinations. Our Web evolution analysis shows that all four DMOs have largely adopted Web 2.0 tools fostering strong forms of stakeholder engagement in destination marketing and implementing Web 3.0 and Web 4.0 tools to support innovative forms of destination marketing. Of the Web 2.0 applications, social media marketing via Facebook seems to play the biggest role in engaging potential tourists, but performances differ among destinations, depending on the extent of community participation in content generation and the speed of reaction to content. The lessons learned from the case study analysis allow us to formulate some primary implications to reshape destination management theory and practice.