ABSTRACT
This research work investigates the
impact of social networking sites on the hospitality and tourism industries. A
social networking site is a type of social media that provides a platform for
people to connect with each other. Social networking is so versatile that it
can be used for both leisure and business purposes. In the hospitality and
tourism industry, social networking sites are one of the essential tools that
play an important and beneficial role. Content on social networking sites could
affect the marketing in both positive and negative ways. The topic that will be
discussed in this research work are consumer behavior, connection with
consumers, effectiveness in terms of time and cost, creating brand awareness
and building the image of the company, promoting company, targeting consumers,
and finally, the disadvantages.
There are various platforms provided
by the social media networks such as Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube and Twitter to
the marketing of products and services for the hospitality industry. Social
network offers media technologies that can facilitate online functionality and
monitoring perspectives wherein the data gathered can be used to develop their
services for customer satisfaction. The hospitality industry can market
themselves in social media and networking. Hospitality industry can use social
media to engage customers and clients in dialogue and recognize their needs.
Through these networking sites, hospitality industry can interact with
consumers before, during, and after the vacation experience. Social media is
relatively new and the advantages are abundance such as it is affordable, it is
viral and has the potential to spread brand awareness quickly and far and it is
said to be able to develop link baits, attention and massive amounts of
traffic. However, it may not be appropriate for all hotel chains. The purpose
of this study is to evaluate the impact of social media in the hospitality
industry.
CHAPTER ONE
1.0 INTRODUCTION
The rise in popularity of
social networking sites has led social networking to become a global
phenomenon. After many countries gained Internet access, the increase in the
use of Internet started influencing the economy and social life at the
beginning of 20th century (Milano, Baggio & Piattelli, 2011). Later on, in
the era of Web 2.0, as social networking advanced, an increasing number of
users on the Internet began to participate in social networking websites and
this has resulted in the system of social networking to change (Milano, Baggio
& Piattelli, 2011; Seth, 2012).According to Clark and Robert (2010), social
networking sites are now mainly used for “job networking, targeted marketing,
and entertainment”. (p.507).
Social networking is a type of
social media; social networking sites allow Internet users to connect with
people and create information. Social networking sites are originally used for
entertainment purposes however an increase in the use of Internet and
information communication technologies has shifted the way people communicate
with each other, mainly in the hospitality and tourism industries (Assenov
& Khurana, 2012; Clark & Roberts, 2010). For instance, social
networking sites like Facebook allow registered users to interact globally and
freely with people who share the Author: Same interest by uploading photos,
sharing posts, chatting, commenting on the posts and also getting replies, such
features allow companies to get quick feedback from consumers whereas consumers
are able to receive responses immediately. These software and technology
features which are available on social networking sites are also part of the
Web 2.0 system (Seth, 2012). “Web 2.0 has also given popularity to user
generated content (UGC) where information is gathered from different online
sources all of which collaborate to form the final source” (Seth, 2012, p. 9).
UGC has replaced traditional marketing in terms of media advertising. The
advertisements are often sponsored posts promoted by people on social
networking sites and these online advertisements appear to be more trustworthy
than advertisements from mass media like televisions, radio, newspaper and
magazines (Li & Darban, 2012). Manap and Adzharudin pointed out that
consumers were more likely to be convinced to buy a product that is recommended
by people who had experienced it (experience good) rather than a search good,
the researchers also stated that it is possible to frequently utilize this
strategy in the tourism industry. (2013)
The change in consumer behavior is
majorly affected by the social networking sites which provide platforms for
consumers to connect with the company and other consumers (Bilgihan, Peng &
Kandampully, 2014).The explosive growth of the population of Internet user son
social networking sites has had a huge impact on hospitality and tourism
industry whereby consumers are changing the rule of marketing. In order for a
company to be successful in business, it is necessary for marketers to make
decisions based on consumer needs, changes in society and also the development
of technology. By doing, it not only satisfies consumers but also strengthens
the relationship with customers to ensure they make a comeback. In addition,
social networking sites also help to record the information of consumers so
that it is easy to be obtained whenever needed (Assenov & Khurana, 2012).
In addition, social networking sites also provide social communication services
which could create brand awareness and build a good image for the brand (Bilgihan,
Peng & Kandampully, 2014).
1.1 BACKGROUND OF THE RESEARCH
The emergence of Web 2.0, allows one
with unlimited amount of things the individual can do on the internet these
days. The individual is not just restricted to emails or passively absorbing
the static information that is available on the web pages when browsing. It
used to be one-way but now the web is the platform where people can share
information, hold a decent dialogue, build both social and business
connections.
Social media has recently been
adopted by a small group of organizations’ integrated marketing plans. There by
infusing a mix of advertisement, public relations, their sales promotion to
produce a customer focused message. With the evolution of platforms such as
LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter and YouTube, we have the opportunity for
exceptional access to the guest (Lanz, Fischhof, & Lee, 2010). Since social
media is so available to anyone with an internet connection, it should be a
platform that can be recommended to the hospitality industry to increase their
brand awareness and facilitate direct feedback from their customers.
A business that understands the
advantage of social media is well aware that social media is essential in
developing new business in the current competitive and online driven
marketplace.
Marketing is an important aspect for
any company involved in business. As such, it is a competitive world out there,
and social media marketing is the ‘new kid in town’ and it can reach out to the
people accessing these social media platform regularly. Communication is
essential for any corporation and business, therefore either they change the
way information is conveyed or be prepared to lose some of the audience. It is
imperative for marketing managers to continuously find a solution to appeal,
keep new and current consumers (Schneider, 2009). Social network is the ideal
platform for communication that applies perfectly with marketing in the virtual
world. Social networks are groups of individuals who prefer to communicate with
one another through a preferred site based on the profile created for
themselves (Laudon and Traver, 2007).
1.2STATEMENT OF RESEARCH
PROBLEM
The hospitality industry tends to be
very customer-centric and also one that prides itself by reaching out to its
guests and providing a personalized experience. In traditional marketing, our
lives are saturated by print media, radio and television. The downside of
traditional marketing is the high cost and it is a one-way communication.
Social media encourages customer engagement, and it being on Web 2.0, promotes
two-way traffic. It allows for a faster response and a low cost investment than
is typically achieved with traditional marketing.
1.3 OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY
The objective of this study is to
evaluate the impact of social media networks in the hospitality industry.
Social media is relatively young and the objective for corporations to invest
and participate in social media platform is to offer an alternative mode of
communication and also it helps to cultivate long term relationships with their
guests; Such as promotional campaigns and new information can be pushed through
social media channels.
1.4 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY
Currently the hype surrounding social
media strategies for marketing is on the increase, but hotel industry is still
trying to cope and see the advantage from the latest trends on the internet.
Social media such as Facebook and Twitter is growing daily. Challenges faced by
hotels is the ‘how to’ engage the consumers and to lead them towards becoming a
guest or share their experience for the hotel within their virtual network. For
the past decades, the Internet has gradually changed to a stage where the
search engines takes control of website traffic .Therefore, businesses that
jumped onto the social media wagon earlier see the pay off , as they have
established their relationships and viral networks (Walsh, 2010).
The research conducted in this
manuscript will attempt to give an insight to the hospitality industry on the
effects of social media, furthermore to establish if social media is effective
and recommended, and if so, provide an insight and proposition for adopting
social media as a platform for marketing purpose.
1.5RESEARCH QUESTION
For the course of this research work
the researcher framed out some research question which shall guide the
researcher to carry out this research work successfully, the research question
will be administered to the respondents and samples of the research question
are.
1.Have you ever been able to use the
social media network in reaching out to target customer?
2.Can the social media be a source
of advertisement off you industry to the people?
3.The number of guest turned in how
many are from the source of the social media?
4.Do you have an official web
address/website where commence can be carried out?
5.Apart from the social media, which
other means do your industry use in reaching out to people as a promotional
scheme
6 RESEARCH HYPOTHESIS
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