Social media marketing in tourism

The emergence and development of social media has also impacted the hospitality and tourism industry deeply (Tussyadiah & Fesenmaier 2009; Chan & Denizci Guillet 2011). Until now, social media marketing has been studied in tourism from several points of view, such as hotels, airlines, travel agencies. According to these studies, social media is effectively utilized as a marketing tool in the industry (Chan & Denizci Guillet 2011; Leung, Schuckert & Yeung 2013;

Denizci Guillet, Kucukusta & Liu 2016). However, this has not always been the case. In this chapter, previous research concerning the impacts of social media marketing in tourism and especially in destination marketing will be discussed in greater detail.

Social media has changed the way consumers plan and spend travelling (Gretzel & Yoo 2008;

Hudson & Thal 2013). Travelers increasingly search information on the internet and social media channels. For today’s travelers, social media is an important means of information searching and decision-making, as they share their experiences with social media technologies (Inversini, Cantoni & Buhalis 2009; Xian & Gretzel 2009; Chan & Denizci Guillet 2011;

Munar 2011; Zeng & Gerritsen 2014; Leung et al. 2013.) Within social media, tourists rely on the opinions and experiences of others in their decision-making, as a result of the experimental character of tourism products and services (Litvin, Goldsmith & Pan 2008). Several social

media channels are important advocates in tourism purposes. Some of the channels are “blogs, podcasts, messaging applications, or media-sharing sites such as YouTube, a microblogging site Twitter, social networking sites, like Facebook, Instagram or a review site, such as TripAdvisor” (Munar 2012, 104.)

Now that tourism is increasingly competitive, destinations are compelled to find new ways to enhance their market position. Due to the rise of social media, companies within tourism cannot ignore the role the evolving reputation of social media and its role in travel planning. (Leung et al. 2013.) In this perspective, social media provides a tool for DMOs to reach a global audience with less resources (Hays et al. 2013). Therefore, if well managed, social media demonstrates a source of competitive advantage for destinations (Mariani et al. 2018).

Companies and destinations can get valuable information on competitive advantage and the desires that customers have by communicating with customers in social media channels. This will help marketers in getting new ideas and utilizing them in planning their products and services for customers’ needs (Huang, Yung & Yang 2011.)

Compared to traditional marketing, social media marketing offers new ways of reengineering and applying business models and operations in destination marketing organizations. In addition to service and product development, these include marketing, networking, and knowledge management (Zeng & Gerritsen 2014.) Social media is an effective marketing channel and can be wisely used in combining marketing communications and tourism marketing (Sotiriadis & van Zyl 2013). In overall, the idea of combining the traditional marketing with social media marketing might help in spreading marketing to a greater audience, by also contributing to an enhanced destination management partnership (Cho & Huh 2010; Huang et al. 2011; Tham 2013). Also, with social media, the website popularity can be improved with increasing number of visits to the website (Zeng & Gerritsen 2014). Lalicic &

Gindl (2018) even state that tourists usually visit social media platforms more frequently than destination’s websites. In their study, Leung & Bai (2013) suggested that travelers’

involvement is also likely to have a positive effect on their intention to revisit social media pages.

Research reveals that social media is mainly us ed by tourism organizations in the areas of marketing, management, communication and product distribution (Leung et al. 2013; Leung et al. 2013). According to earlier research relating to supplier’s perspective, DMOs have struggled

with understanding the uniqueness of social media, even though they have accepted it as part of their online marketing strategies. As a result of this, it was previously underfunded or even neglected (Agostino & Sidorova 2016). According to Hays et al. (2013), the majority of DMOs are not using social media as effectively as they could in terms of interacting with and engaging customers. In the study, it was also found that especially DMOs with proper leadership distinguished the opportunities of social media. However, according to Mariani et al. (2015), DMOs are starting to understand the role of social media as a marketing tool, some of them having distinct ways of utilizing social media, while other being more passive. Thus, the divide between regions in the use of digital marketing is decreasing.

Research shows that the aim of destination marketers is to get as much engagement as possible through the social media channels. Different companies can attract their consumers, however, marketing efforts that should lead to engagement may be unauthentic or inconsistent (Kwok &

You 2016.) However, the most important thing for a destination marketer is not actually the number of followers in the social media channel, but rather how much it increases web traffic and generates travel bookings (Pike 2016). Usakli et al. (2017) found in their study, that the higher the engagement or interaction in social media, the higher the number of international tourist arrivals is. This is the goal for every destination marketer in increasing the number of visitors in the destination. In addition to this, the results of the study suggest that DMOs use social media marketing as a marketing channel rather than as a customer service tool. In the figure below, the steps for successful social media marketing in terms of engaging customers by Gretzel, Yuan & Fesemaier (2000) are presented.

Figure 3. A cycle for steps for successful social media marketing (Adapted from Gretzel et al. 2000)

When it comes to marketing strategies in social media marketing, they should be planned to document the long-term, strategic perspective of the organization to show the direction and help in executing the tactics over a time period (Heinze, Fletcher, Rashid & Cruz 2017). As social media in tourism has become at least as important means of doing marketing as in other industries, it is also becoming a more and more important element in marketing strategies. The study by Hays et al. (2013) show that the use of social media is still largely experimental, leading to significantly varying strategies among DMOs. Therefore, destinations should provide a formal, but flexible strategy, which can be modified in ever-changing marketing practices. This would improve the social media efforts in the future (Hays et al. 2013.)

Also, Munar (2012) suggested that the ever-changing forms of social media results in unformal strategies based on trial and error, which are the result of informal knowledge and personal involvement. However, the success may be affected by the need for formalization between the organizational cultures and social media initiatives. Also, the top-management level may not totally understand the strategic value of social media nor the fast transformation pace of web-based communication (Munar 2012.) Nevertheless, DMOs should be able to adapt to the changing marketing environment and use social media more effectively (Lalicic & Gindl 2018). Also, previous research suggests that the adoption levels of social media are likely to vary depending on the country, showing variation of social media combined in their online marketing strategies (Mariani et al. 2015).