Social Media and Tourism Essay

Social media refers to websites and applications that enable users to access information and offers a platform for sharing information and ideas over the internet. Social media also serves as a source of entertainment to many people across the world (Stangl & Pesonen, 2018). Through social media, the world has been reduced to a small market, and people can quickly transact online businesses from the comfort of their homes. According to Minazzi (2016), social media is one of the megatrends that have made a significant impact on the tourism and hospitality sector. As such, the role of social media in the in the tourism and hospitality sector has been widely discussed in research (Munar, Gyimothy, & Cai, 2017). This paper reviews the social media activities of the industry in terms of the most popular platforms, strategies and content.

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Facebook and Twitter are the most popular social media platforms used in the tourism and hospitality industry (Sigala & Gretzel, 2018). For example, over the past one week, significant hotels in the city of Miami have used Facebook to advertise for their services, facilities as well as discounts. Case in point being the Savoy Hotel of Miami which primarily used Facebook and Twitter to post their ads (Smith, Waterton, & Watson, 2018). These two platforms are widely used because they have very many users and hence they have the potential to a wide range of potential customers. According to Mintel (2016), Instagram and YouTube have also been used although at a relatively lower rate compared to Facebook.

Other platforms like Pinterest, LinkedIn and Google Plus, are still growing regarding their adoption in the industry. Their slow rate of growth can be attributed to the reduced number of users they have when compared to Facebook and Twitter. The trend of Hotels and tourism companies preferring Facebook and Twitter is likely to continue in the coming years unless the other platforms make use of strategies that will aid in attracting more users to generate traffic in their systems (Prebensen, 2018). Traffic is the most powerful tool that these companies are utilizing on social media since the more the traffic, the more viewers the ads receive which helps the companies increase revenue and consequently profits.

The tourism and hospitality industry has developed diverse strategies to ensure full benefits from their social media activities. According to Taskiran, Yilmaz, & IGI Global (2015), social media is a growing field of research for any industry. It provides a communication channel between the companies in the industry and the consumers of their services. This has made it attract more attention from tourism scholars and others stakeholders in the hospitality industry. Okumus, Fong, Ye, Koo, & Law (2017) state that hotels can carry out opinion polls over social media to receive feedback regarding their services. For example, the Hotel of South Beach in Miami, recently carried out an opinion poll regarding to their new gym (Barth & Universitet, 2018). This is an example of a simple research carried out by hotels in the industry.

Advertising is the most popular activity carried out using social media by hotels and companies in the tourism and hospitality industry. This has come about amid growing competition in the industry. Today, if one logs in to Facebook or Twitter, they are likely to come across an advert from different hotels or a tourism firm. The adverts come in many forms such as text post, pictures, and even videos. Incidentally, the Grand Hyatt Hotel in Melbourne has primarily used LinkedIn to advertise for its services and facilities within the past one week (Chugh & IGI Global, 2018). Competition has pushed the companies to improve their services in an attempt to attract more customers. Since there is no alternative cheaper and effective way to reach the consumers, the tourism and hospitality industry has resulted in making maximum use of social media. Furthermore, social media offers an open market for the tourism and hospitality industry. This enables hotels to sell their brands efficiently hence contributing to brand valuation (Schegg & Stangl, 2017).

According to data from the Grand Hyatt hotel in Melbourne, pictures were the most popular content on social media. This can be attributed to the fact that images are more appealing to the customers as compared to the other material. They familiarize the consumer with what to expect from individual hotels regarding facilities and services (Prebensen, 2018). In the case of tourism firms, pictures of the destination places that are covered by these firms attract more customers than any other content, and this is the reason images continue to be the leading content on social media.

Conclusion

Analysis showed that videos were the second most popular content in social media in the past week. According to Chugh & IGI Global (2018), videos are expected to be more popular than pictures, but this was not the case. Many people on social media are busy following and communicating with their friends, and hence a good number of them are likely to ignore videos while taking a good look at the pictures posted by the hotels and tourism firms. Finally, text posts were seen to be the least popular in the industry. This is probably because of their inability to appeal to the social media users.

References

Barth, U., & Universitet, S. (2018). Social media in the tourism industry: an empirical analysis of the use of social media for the planning of dive vacations by German tourists. Odense: Odense: Syddansk Universitet.

Chugh, R., & IGI Global. (2018). Harnessing social media as a knowledge management tool. Pennsylvania: Hershey, Pennsylvania (701 E. Chocolate Avenue, Hershey, PA 17033, USA): IGI Global.

Ltd., M. G. (2016). Social Media in Tourism. London: London: Mintel International Group.

Minazzi, R. (2016). Social media marketing in tourism and hospitality. Springer: Springer press.

Munar, A. M., Gyimothy, S., & Cai, L. A. (2017). Tourism social media : transformations in identity, community and culture. Bingley: Bingley, U.K. : Emerald.

Okumus, F., Fong, L. H., Ye, H., Koo, C., & Law, R. (2017). Social media in hospitality and tourism. [Place of publication not identified]: Emerald Publishing: Emerald Group Publishing Limited, 2017.

Prebensen, N. K. (2018). Creating experience value in tourism. Boston: Boston: CAB International.

Schegg, R., & Stangl, B. (2017). Information and Communication Technologies in Tourism 2017: Proceedings of the International Conference in Rome, Italy, January 24-26, 2017. Springer: Cham: Springer Verlag.

Sigala, M., & Gretzel, U. (2018). Advances in social media for travel, tourism, and hospitality: new perspectives, practice, and cases. New York: Abingdon, Oxon; New York, NY: Routledge.

Smith, L., Waterton, E., & Watson, S. (2018). The cultural moment in tourism. New York: Abingdon, Oxon; New York: Routledge.

Stangl, B., & Pesonen, J. (2018). Information and Communication Technologies in Tourism 2018: Proceedings of the International Conference in Jonkoping, Sweden, January 24-26, 2018. Springer: Cham Springer International Publishing.

Taskiran, N. O., Yilmaz, R., & IGI Global. (2015). Handbook of research on effective advertising strategies in the social media age. Pennsylvania: Hershey, Pennsylvania (701 E. Chocolate Avenue, Hershey, Pa., 17033, USA) : IGI Global.