Exploratory of perceptions about social media fraud in tourism sector

As an essential economic activity for countries, cities, and enterprises, Tourism is heavily influenced by technological developments. In this context, the contribution of technological developments to the tourism sector is often mentioned. With the increasing interaction, shifting from a one-way communication approach to a two-way understanding and making feedback possible, new technologies - especially social media - are seen as the most important acquisition of tourist and business interaction. It is a fact that many new problems arise in addition to these acquisitions. One of these problems is social media fraud. Social media fraud focuses mainly on scamming people through social media tools. One of the areas where such frauds are often seen is the tourism sector. As one of the first studies in this field, this research focuses on social media fraud, which causes many tourists to become victims. In this exploratory study, the aim is to measure perceptions of social media fraud in the tourism sector by using a quantitative research method. This online study focuses on participants' perceptions of social media fraud in the tourism sector. According to the findings of analysis such as frequency, one-way variance analysis (ANOVA), t-test, correlation, factor and regression obtained by statistical package program, social media usage habits affect social media fraud. Furthermore, according to the participants; buying tourism services via social media, making reservations and not being able to communicate securely, preventing fraud incidents to increasing.