Number of social media users is rising everyday, also there is growth in presence and representation of social media and networks in our everyday lives. It means that the use of social networks is becoming commonplace for most people. Given the above, we can say that social media has a big impact on our entire lives. Also, internet technology usage in tourism is increasing in order to meet the needs of youngerbut also older generations who travel. This does not only mean the independence from physical purchases and travel reservations, but also the process of collecting data on the tourist destination, and ultimately the selection of the tourist destination. Social networks and advertising through them have an increasing and significant impact on potential consumers. In order to choose a successful communication strategy on social networks, tourism companies must be well acquainted with the attitudes of their target groups and adapt their promotional activities to them. In addition, huge importance is given to user-generated content on social media platforms, so based on them, tourists (do not) decide on a particular tourist destination. In general it is believed that the older generations are not as much influenced by technology as the younger generations. The aim of this paper is to investigate the exact impact of selected social media platforms, more precisely TripAdvisor and Instagram, on generation groups X and Y in the Republic of Croatia. It also seeks to gain insight into the potential of using social networks to attract tourists to the destination. Selected social platforms are becoming more popular and more tourists are using them when looking for inspiration in the process of choosing a tourist destination, searching for information about the destination and making a decision to travel to a certain destination. The research was conducted in the form of a survey questionnaire on 188 respondents divided into two age groups. The obtained research results can be useful for directing the development of the tourist offer in order to meet the tourist needs, image growth and promotional activities of the tourist destination.