Today, the success of a tourist destination is difficult to achieve without frequent and quality use of social networks and a constant online presence. This paper deals with the connection between social networks and the choice of tourist destinations, cultural and artistic events among the citizens of the Republic of Croatia. It also looks at the impact and role of public relations in tourism and the impact of social networks on branding tourist destinations. The tourist destination that serves as an example in this paper is Rijeka, which became the European Capital of Culture for 2020. For the theoretical part of the paper and as a secondary source of data, literature from the field of digital marketing, tourist destination branding, tourist destination marketing, cultural marketing, brand management and public relations was used. In addition to books of relevant content, domestic scientific and professional articles as well as relevant internet sources were referred to in the paper. For the purposes of the paper research was conducted using the method of semi-structured in-depth interview with the employees of the Tourist Board of Rijeka and the company Rijeka 2020. d.o.o. The second part of the research is focused on analysing the respondents’ opinions about and attitudes towards the impact that the social networks have on the choice of cultural and artistic events, especially in Rijeka in 2020. The research showed that the strategic management of social media is extremely important for branding and enhancing the visibility of the destination. It must be a part of integrated marketing communication along with the public relations which can also greatly influence the visitor awareness of a particular tourist destination and have a direct impact on its visitor numbers.