Requirements of effective responsibility communication in tourism

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Faculty of Social Sciences and Business Studies Business School

REQUIREMENTS OF EFFECTIVE RESPONSIBILITY COMMUNICATION IN TOURISM

Master’s thesis

Tourism Marketing & Management Anniina Merilinna (269444)

April 2021

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Abstract

UNIVERSITY OF EASTERN FINLAND Faculty

Faculty of Social Sciences and Business Studies

Department Business School Author

Anniina Merilinna

Supervisor

Raija Komppula and Katja Pasanen Title

Requirements of effective responsibility communication in tourism

Main subject

Tourism Marketing &

Management

Level

Master’s Thesis

Date

29 April 2021

Number of pages 83 + 11

Abstract

The importance of responsibility and sustainability in tourism business is increasing and the factors of effective responsibility communication have been widely studied. However, research also shows that the responsibility communication of tourism companies has the potential to be more effective. Especially the possibilities of social media and interaction have not been used in responsibility communication. The objective of this study was to improve the understanding of the requirements of effective responsibility communication in tourism SMEs and find out what are the drivers and barriers for responsibility communication in general and in social media.

The study was conducted as an extensive multiple case study. Six case companies from Finland were chosen for the study. The companies represented different fields of tourism. Data was collected by semi- structured interviews and analysed using qualitative content analysis. The interviews were conducted between November 2020 and January 2021 and they were divided into three main themes: 1) responsibility in the company including the communication about it, 2) planning of responsibility communication and 3) interactive social media communication including responsibility communication.

The findings show that company size and target customers are the most important factors affecting the responsibility communication, the requirements for it and the exterior support the companies need for the communication. The findings also show that ecolabels make the companies’ responsibility operations more systematic and help them identify responsibility in their daily operations, which increases the amount of responsibility communication.

Key words

Responsible tourism, sustainable tourism, communication, interactive communication, social media

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Tiivistelmä

ITÄ-SUOMEN YLIOPISTO Tiedekunta

Yhteiskuntatieteiden ja kauppatieteiden tiedekunta

Yksikkö

Kauppatieteiden laitos Tekijä

Anniina Merilinna

Ohjaaja

Raija Komppula ja Katja Pasanen Työn nimi (suomeksi ja englanniksi)

Tehokkaan vastuullisuusviestinnän vaatimukset matkailuyrityksissä Requirements of effective responsibility communication in tourism

Pääaine

Matkailun markkinointi ja johtaminen

Työn laji

Pro Gradu -tutkielma

Aika 29.4.2021

Sivuja 83 + 11

Tiivistelmä

Vastuullisuuden ja kestävyyden merkitys matkailuliiketoiminnassa on kasvussa. Tehokkaan vastuullisuusviestinnän keinoja on tutkittu laajasti, mutta silti matkailuyritysten vastuullisuusviestintä voisi olla vieläkin tehokkaampaa. Erityisesti sosiaalisen median ja interaktiivisen viestinnän mahdollisuuksia ei ole käytetty vastuullisuusviestinnässä. Tämän tutkimuksen tarkoitus oli kasvattaa ymmärrystä tehokkaan vastuullisuusviestinnän vaatimuksista pienissä ja keskisuurissa matkailuyrityksissä ja selvittää vastuullisuusviestintää edistävät ja estävät tekijät yleisellä tasolla sekä sosiaalisessa mediassa.

Tutkimus toteutettiin ekstensiivisenä monitapaustutkimuksena, jossa oli mukana kuusi suomalaista, erityyppistä yritystä. Aineisto kerättiin puolistrukturoiduilla haastatteluilla ja analysoitiin laadullisen sisällönanalyysin keinoin. Haastattelut toteutettiin marraskuun 2020 ja tammikuun 2021 välisenä aikana ja ne jakautuivat kolmeen pääteemaan: 1) vastuullisuus yrityksessä ja siitä viestiminen, 2) vastuullisuusviestinnän suunnittelu ja 3) interaktiivinen sosiaalinen media ja vastuullisuusviestintä.

Tutkimuksen tulosten mukaan tärkeimmät tekijät, jotka vaikuttavat vastuullisuusviestintään, sen vaatimuksiin ja siihen vaadittavaan ulkopuoliseen tukeen ovat yrityksen koko ja kohderyhmä. Tulokset osoittavat myös, että ympäristömerkit ja -sertifikaatit tekevät yrityksen toiminnasta systemaattisempaa ja auttavat tunnistamaan vastuullisuuden yrityksen toiminnasta, mikä lisää vastuullisuusviestintää.

Avainsanat

Vastuullinen matkailu, kestävä matkailu, viestintä, interaktiivinen viestintä, sosiaalinen media

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1 INTRODUCTION

1.1 Background of the study

Tourism demand is higher than ever, and tourists are aware of the impact of their choices (CREST, 2019). Various studies show that tourists would like to buy responsible and sustainable tourism products (Miller, Rathouse, Scarles, Holmes & Tribe, 2010) and are willing to pay for them (Tang & Lam, 2017; WTTC, 2019). Sustainable tourists stay longer in the destination and tend to spend more per day than other tourists (Dolnicar, 2004), which makes them an interesting segment for tourism companies. Many tourism companies are integrating the idea of corporate social responsibility (CSR) into their business, taking into consideration the environment, local communities, and the employees (Font, Walmsley, Cogotti, Mccombes

& Häusler, 2012; Connell, 2000). Regarding responsibility in travel and tourism business, especially sustainability is an emerging topic and sustainability engagement has increased in the industry (Tölkes, 2018; Wehrli, Priskin, Schaffner, Schwarz & Stettler, 2014).

Companies engaging in responsibility actions should communicate about them strategically to maximize the relational effect and financial results (Go & Bortree, 2017), but many companies fail in the communication (Lewis, 2003). Even though the factors of effective responsibility communication are known there is need for more effective communication (e.g. Du, Bhattacharya & Sen, 2010; Garay & Font, 2012; Villarino & Font, 2015). Besides the economic impact, communicating about responsibility topics effectively can affect positively the travel behaviour of tourists and engage them to make more responsible choices when travelling (e.g.

Du et al., 2010; Moscardo & Hughes, 2018). Increased consumption of responsible tourism products enhances the economy and well-being of local communities and improves labour conditions in the long-term (International Conference on Responsible Tourism in Destinations, 2002).

Consumers’ interest in responsible tourism can be explained among others with self-congruity theory, which argues that consumers compare their perception of the brand to their self-image to see if they can identify themselves with the brand. Self-congruity has an impact on the brand choice and purchase decision of the consumer (Sirgy, 1982) and its existence in tourism has been confirmed by several studies (e.g. Chon, 1992; Beerli, Meneses & Gil, 2007; Boksberger, Dolnicar, Laesser & Randle, 2011). For example, millennials value environmental issues (Jang, Woo & Bon, 2011) and feel the need to improve the world (Veiga et al, 2017) and are interested

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in green practices (Tang & Lam, 2017) and sustainable tourism offer (Cavagnaro, Staffieri &

Postma, 2018).

Channels and factors of effective marketing communication are changing constantly. Social media has changed the way people live and communicate and the way in which businesses operate and manage their relations (Tench & Jones, 2015). Social media is a powerful and one of the most used channels in tourism for information search, travel planning and decision making (e.g. Creevey, Kidney & Mehta, 2019; Simms, 2012). The main difference between traditional and social media is the possibility for interaction (Song & Yoo, 2016), which has become an important factor for purchase decision (Heinrichs, Lim & Lim, 2011).

Using interactive online channels to communicate about responsibility has positive impacts on the company (Eberle, Berens & Li, 2013). However, several studies show that companies do not utilize the benefits of interactive social media in responsibility communication and should engage more with stakeholders (Cho, Furey & Mohr, 2017; Etter, 2013; Kim, Kim & Hoon Sung, 2014; Zeler & Capriotti, 2019). One-way communication strategy (giving information without receiving feedback) is often used and the possibilities of two-way communication in terms of interaction and engagement are not utilized (Manetti & Bellucci, 2016; Testarmata, Fortuna & Ciaburri, 2018; Zizka, 2017). Communication should be more strategic and consider the consumer responses (Font & McCabe, 2017; Villarino & Font, 2015), which increases the two-way communication.

Especially young travellers value social media channels as sources for travel related information (Draper, 2016). Various research emphasizes the importance of social media marketing for the millennial generation in travel and tourism context (e.g. Bilgihan, Okumus & Cobanogu, 2013;

Leask, Fyall & Barron, 2014; Balakrishnan, Dahnil & Yi, 2014; Reisenwitz & Fowler, 2019).

Young travellers also use social media to express their personality (Mkono & Tribe, 2017) and are likely to create content about experiences that are congruent with their lifestyle (Luna- Cortéz, López-Bonilla & López-Bonilla, 2019).

Majority of the social media communication of small tourism businesses in Finland is in Finnish. According to a survey conducted by the University of Eastern Finland at the Matka2018 travel fair in Helsinki, Finnish tourists are relatively interested in responsible tourism and they pay attention on responsibility issues when searching for travel information online. (Pasanen, 2018.) Therefore, communication in Finnish is important but social media communication has the potential to reach foreign markets as well.

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Previous study shows that there are differences between nationalities in their interest towards responsible tourism (e.g. Kang & Moscardo, 2006; Baysan, 2001). For example, German tourists are more interested in responsible and sustainable travel than many other European nationalities (Baysan, 2011; Drift, 2020) and when choosing a travel destination, Germans do a comprehensive research, online channels being one of the most important research channels (Badur, 2016). Especially young German travellers value responsibility when travelling in Finland (Pasanen & Pesonen, 2016). This is important information for Finnish companies and their communication languages, as Germany is one of the four main markets of Visit Finland (Business Finland, 2020). According to a tour operator survey by Visit Finland (2018b), 74 percent of the German tour operator respondents stated that their customers are asking for more sustainable products and 78 percent are aiming to increase their sustainable product offer.

However, 44 percent of the respondents did not know if they consider Finland as a sustainable destination. This indicates that there is need for more effective responsibility communication.

According to a survey conducted by Visit Finland (2018a) to tourism businesses in Finland, the participating businesses communicate about responsibility topics mainly on their website and on spot. Some small businesses do not communicate about responsibility at all even though they do engage in responsibility actions. The importance of effective responsibility communication is however noticed among businesses (Visit Finland, 2018a). More effective responsibility communication and taking advantage of interactive communication channels might be one of the solutions to the problem of reaching potential market segments that are willing to pay for responsible tourism offer, but positive relationships and better financial outcome can be obtained only if social media is used for creating two-way interactive dialogue (Zizka, 2017).

1.2 Objectives, research questions and approach

Corporate responsibility communication is a widely researched topic, but mostly in other context than tourism. Sustainability communication, however, has been researched more also in tourism and hospitality context. Effective sustainability communication is important, but the topic still lacks research on the theoretical aspects, influence, and outcomes. Most of the studies concentrate only on the environmental dimension of sustainability, leaving other dimensions under-researched. (Tölkes, 2018.) Despite the increased usage of social media by consumers, it

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still lacks research in the field of tourism and hospitality (Ying, Ze & Law, 2018), sustainability communication in social media not being an exception (Tölkes, 2018).

This study continued the research about effective responsibility communication, taking the perspective of small and medium sized tourism businesses. Besides the responsibility communication in general, this study concentrated also on social media and interactive communication. The positioning of the study is presented in Figure 1.

Figure 1. Positioning of the study

Social media is an important channel and widely used by consumers in travel and tourism (e.g.

Creevey et al., 2019; Simms, 2012), but companies should interact and engage more with consumers to make the responsibility communication in social media more effective (Cho et al., 2017; Etter, 2013; Kim et al., 2014; Zeler & Capriotti, 2019). They should use more customer-centric content and messages (Villarino & Font, 2015) and concentrate on content that is congruent with the identity of their customers (Moscardo & Benckendorff, 2010). The research gap of this study lies in the reasons for the lack of use of effective responsibility communication, even though the factors of effective communication are known, and in the reasons why consumer needs and the companies’ actions in responsibility communication do not meet. The research gap is presented in Figure 2.

Interactive responsibility communication

Responsibility communication in social media Responsibility communication

Tourism marketing Marketing

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Figure 2. Research gap

Consumer perspective dominates in previous research examining social media within tourism (Ying et al., 2018). As stated before, businesses fail in the effective responsibility communication, which makes it important to study social media communication also from the company perspective. That is why this study took the approach of small tourism companies.

The objective of this study was to improve the understanding of the requirements of effective responsibility communication in tourism SMEs. The research objective was answered by (1) identifying the drivers and barriers for responsibility communication in tourism SMEs in general and more specific (2) in social media and lastly, by (3) identifying the reasons why so few tourism companies use the benefits of interactive social media and two-way communication in their responsibility communication. If the requirements and barriers can be found, best practises for businesses can be identified, which was the managerial objective of this study. The study also investigated if and how the companies’ motives for engaging in responsibility actions affect the communication and (4) if the motives act as a driver for responsibility communication. The motives businesses have for acting responsibly are not always altruistic (Arvidsson, 2010). According to Font, Garay & Jones (2016) the company’s motivations to engage in sustainability actions affect how they communicate about it. Consumers engage better with responsibility communication if they can identify extrinsic motivations, such as gaining business benefit, and intrinsic motivations, such as believing that responsible behaviour is the right thing to do. (Ellen, Web & Mohr, 2006).

To develop a more in-depth understanding of the research phenomenon, a multiple case study was conducted. This study was an instrumental and extensive study using a qualitative

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approach. Instrumental case study is used when the aim of the study is to gain understanding of the phenomenon also outside the selected cases (Stake, 1995). Extensive case study is used to explain the phenomenon or to build theory (Eriksson & Koistinen, 2005). The aim of this study was to explain the phenomenon by comparing the different cases and find similarities and differences.

1.3 Key concepts

Responsible tourism

Responsible tourism considers the economic, environmental, and social impacts of tourism and aims to minimize the negative impacts of those. Responsible tourism also generates wellbeing as well as economic benefits for the host communities and improves working conditions in the tourism industry. It generates more enjoyable experiences for tourists and takes into consideration accessibility and relationship between tourists and hosts. (International Conference on Responsible Tourism in Destinations, 2002.) Besides the economic, social, and environmental aspects, more recent definitions also add respecting local culture and cultural heritage (Veijola, Ilola & Edelheim, 2013) as well as ethicality (Pasanen, 2020) into the definition.

Responsibility communication

The aim of responsibility communication is to inform stakeholders about the company’s responsibility actions, encourage consumers to act more responsibly and emphasize their personal responsibility (Moscardo & Hughes, 2018) as well as support the company’s reputation and brand identity connected to responsibility (Golob et al., 2013). Responsibility communication is a tool to influence stakeholder’s perception of the company (Golob et al., 2013). Responsibility communication is part of responsibility marketing, which considers the needs and expectations of all stakeholders as well as ethical, environmental, and social aspects of the business (Belz & Peattie, 2012).

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Interactive communication

Interactive communication is communication that flows back and forth from the source to the recipient (McMillan, 2002) exchanging the roles of the two (Vlasic & Kesic, 2017). In marketing context, interactive communication enables customers and companies to communicate directly, without limitations (Blattberg & Deighton, 1991).

Two-way communication

Two-way communication is communication that flows between the business and the public.

The level of dialogue and interaction can vary (Morsing & Schulz, 2006).

1.4 Structure of the thesis

This thesis is structured into six chapters. The thesis starts with guiding the reader into the study with an introduction to the background of the topic and by justifying the importance of the research. Research objective and research questions designed to help to reach the objective are presented and key concepts explained. Next chapters provide theoretical background to the research. Chapter two presents a literature review on the information search process in tourism, concentration especially in online search. Possible target groups for responsible tourism products are outlined to justify the importance of online search. Chapter three presents theoretical viewpoints on responsible tourism and responsibility communication. Also, the challenges of social media communication defined by previous study are outlined. In the end, the theoretical framework of the study is presented. Chapter four discusses the methods and implementation of the study. The companies of the case study are presented. Chapter five presents the findings of the study. Chapter six concludes the research by answering the research questions and discussing the findings with respect to previous studies. Theoretical contribution and managerial implications are proposed. Lastly, critical evaluation is conducted.

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2 INFORMATION SEARCH OF RESPONSIBLE TOURIST

In this chapter, the information search behaviour of responsible tourists is discussed. However, consumers can adopt different positions in different situations, which makes identifying responsible and sustainable tourism segments difficult (Font & McCabe, 2017) and there is not much research on information search behaviour concerning especially responsible or sustainable tourists. Instead, this thesis uses an approach where possible segments for responsible tourism products are identified and their information search process is discussed together with general trends in tourist’s information search.

2.1 Information search in tourism

Tsiotsou & Wirtz (2012) define three phases for service consumption: pre-purchase phase, service encounter and post-encounter phase. For customer acquisition, the pre-purchase phase is especially important, as consumers search information by reading materials, interacting with the company and other consumers, and eventually making the purchase decision (Pedraja &

Yague, 2001; Tsiotsou & Wirtz, 2012). During the pre-purchase phase consumers also begin to think about what they want and expect from the service. The final purchase decision is made according to these attributes (Tsiotsou & Wirtz, 2012). In tourism, consumers tend to utilize plenty of information before the final purchase decision (Jacobsen & Munar, 2012). Pre-trip travel planning is a fundamental component of the travel experience and it requires a significant amount of information (Xiang, Magnini & Fesenmaier, 2015).

Information sources can be divided into internal and external. Internal search is the usage of information the person already has, for example from past experiences, and external search is searching for information from other channels (Engel, Blackwell & Miniard, 1995). Tourists have always used multiple channels and information sources for searching travel information (Snepenger, Meged, Snelling & Worrall, 1990) and have become more and more dependent on external online sources, because of the ease of their use (Xiang & Gretzel, 2010).

Over the past decades, internet has become the dominant channel for tourism-related information search (Buhalis & Law, 2008; Xiang et al., 2015). Some reasons for this are the fact that many travellers use internet throughout the different phases of service consumption (Pabel & Prideaux, 2016) and that data is easily available (Xiang & Gretzel, 2010). According to Hernández-Méndez, Muñoz-Leiva & Sánchez-Fernández (2015), the most used platforms

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for tourism-related information search are destination websites, travel blogs and social networking sites. Advantages of searching information online are for example low cost and easy access, customized information, product comparison, virtual communities, and interactivity (Wang, Head & Arthur, 2002).

2.2 Target groups for responsible tourism

Self-congruity can help to explain why people choose responsible tourism products. Self- congruity theory stands for the degree of match or mismatch between the image a consumer has of a brand or product compared to the perception they have of themselves (Sirgy, 1982). It is a psychological process where a consumer compares their perception of the brand to their self-image to see if they can identify themselves with the brand (Sirgy, 2018). Self-congruity has an impact on consumer’s brand evaluation and choice (Sirgy, 2018; Beerli et al., 2017), brand preference, satisfaction, word-of-mouth communication, brand loyalty and purchase decision (Sirgy, 2018). Consumers choose products to express themselves and to improve the perception of their self-image (Sirgy, 1986). Several studies argue that self-congruity exist also in tourism (e.g. Chon, 1992; Beerli et al., 2007; Boksberger et al., 2011). According to Sirgy, Lee & Yu (2018), tourists like to consume services and purchase products that paint a positive image of themselves among others. They have preferable images of themselves and gain a better self-esteem if others see them according to this image (Ascher, 1985). However, this might also decrease the purchase of sustainable travel products as the identity overrides other factors such as environmental impact (Hibbert, Dickinson, Gössling & Curtin, 2013).

Therefore, marketing for responsible tourism should be targeted for segments that see or would want others to see themselves as responsible consumers.

The impact of generation Y, also known as millennials, on the global economy cannot be disregarded. Millennials are forecasted to be the most important generation for tourism as well (Moscardo & Benckendorff, 2010). Among all generational groups, millennials tend to express cogent opinions about environmental (Jang et al., 2011) and political (McCrindle, 2014) issues.

Millennials value authentic experiences and understand that they need to help to improve the world they live in (Veiga, Santos, Águas, & Santos, 2017). Millennials are open to sustainable tourism offer (Cavagnaro et al., 2018) and are willing to pay for environmentally friendly practices in the hospitality industry (Tang & Lam, 2017), hence, they can be considered as a potential segment for responsible tourism.

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Previous studies show that there are differences between nationalities in their interest towards responsible tourism (e.g. Kang & Moscardo, 2006; Baysan, 2001) and if they are willing to pay extra for sustainable and responsible products (Choi, Parsa, Sigala & Putrevu, 2009). Finnish tourists are relatively interested in responsible tourism and they pay attention on responsibility issues when searching for travel information (Pasanen, 2018). German tourists as well are interested in responsible and sustainable tourism and show more interest in it than many other European nationalities (Baysan, 2011; Drift, 2020) and German tour operators are aiming to increase their sustainable product offer (Visit Finland, 2018b).

Soyez (2012) argues that cultural values affect the different attitudes consumers have towards sustainable products and behaviour. Individuals from cultures with underlying pro- environmental value orientations, e.g. individualistic and eco-centric value orientation, have pro-environmental attitudes. She also states that Anglo cultures have a social pressure for environmentalism.

According to the results of Visit Finland’s brand tracking study (2019), Russians consider Finland as a much more sustainable destination than they consider the other countries in the study. This indicates that Russians interested in sustainable tourism, consider Finland as a potential destination. Different nationalities, however, interpret responsibility and sustainability differently if the definition is not explained to them (Pasanen, 2020). For example, Brits, Germans, and French understand sustainable tourism as environmentally friendly tourism as Russians concentrate on different aspects, for example seasonality, infrastructure, and services (Visit Finland, 2019). However, according to the study of Komppula, Honkanen, Rossi &

Kalesnikova (2018), Russian students are more concerned about environmental sustainability in tourism than Finnish students, although both groups recognize the environmental and social impacts of tourism.

2.3 Social media in responsible tourism information search

Social media has changed the information search process and information access in tourism, and how tourists utilize information in their travel planning (Xiang & Gretzel, 2010; Xiang et al., 2015). Thus, when it comes to information search in tourism, social media as channel is one of the most used and most important (Simms, 2012) and is shaping travel planning behaviour (Pabel & Prideaux, 2016); especially in the pre-purchase phase and purchase decision (Song &

Yoo, 2016; Zeng, 2013; Creevey et al., 2019) but also the service encounter and post-encounter

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phase (Fotis, Buhalis & Rossides, 2012). Especially young travellers (Draper, 2016) and more experienced internet users (Sun, Law & Luk, 2020) find social media platforms important sources for information search.

Purchase decisions are influenced by interactions in social media because consumers spend constantly more time in social media (Heinrichs et al., 2011). Social media enables content produced by consumers to be shared among themselves and more and more travellers are using the benefit of the collective nature of social media (Litvin, Goldsmith & Pan, 2008). For example, reading other people’s comments is a popular part of travel planning online (Xiang et al., 2015). Electronic word-of-mouth is another benefit of social media, which is shown to influence travel related decision-making (Hernández-Méndez et al., 2015).

Compared to older generations, millennials are more familiar with social media and are using it to search information and make decisions (Moscardo & Benckendorff, 2010; Bolton et al., 2013). Various research emphasizes that social media should not be disregarded in marketing for millennials in travel and tourism context (e. g. Bilgihan et al., 2013; Leask et al., 2014;

Balakrishnan et al. 2014; Reisenwitz & Fowler, 2019).

Millennials use social networking channels and tools for different reasons, for example to interact with others and to share travel related content (Moscardo & Benckendorff, 2010) and to search for information to plan their trip (Belanche, Casalo, Flavian & Guinaliu, 2010). Xiang

& Gretzel (2010) emphasize the meaning of interaction for millennials and their use of social media in tourism. Interaction serves as information for other consumers and creates consumer- generated content. According to Yoo & Gretzel (2011), consumer-generated content in tourism is seen as trustworthy and it is widely used in the travel planning process. Successful interaction with the online site increases trust in the site (Nusair, Bilgihan & Okumus, 2013). Millennials seek for benefits from the online networking sites and the greater the benefits are the more engaged they will become with the site (Yoo & Gretzel, 2011).

Young travellers often use social media to express their personality (Mkono & Tribe, 2017).

Luna-Cortéz et al. (2019) argue that self-congruity affects the use of social media among millennials. If millennials feel that an experience is similar to their lifestyle and self-image, it is natural for them to create content about it. They suggest that companies should concentrate on providing content that is congruent with the identity of their customers. Millennials are also influenced by their peers, which increases the importance of using social networking sites (Moscardo & Benckendorff, 2010).

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3 RESPONSIBILITY COMMUNICATION

3.1 Responsible tourism

Responsibility of a company is often described with the term corporate social responsibility (CSR). It is a business approach that along with the traditional economic topics takes into consideration ethical, social, and environmental aspects of the business and considers the different stakeholders a company has (Coles, Fenclova & Dinan, 2013). However, the definition of CSR and responsibility has been widely discussed in the academic literature. According to the strategy of European Commission (2011), corporate responsibility is executed if a company incorporates social, environmental, ethical, and human rights to the strategy. It is also seen that the core of CSR is sustainable business development (Coles et al., 2013). Tamajon & Font define CRS as “the voluntary contribution by companies to improving the environment, society and economy, either for altruistic reasons and/or to improve their competitive position, by taking into account all stakeholders, not just shareholders” (2013). If companies engage in responsibility activities, they enhance stakeholder attitudes and behaviour, strengthen the stakeholder-company relationship, and build company image (Du et al, 2010).

The Cape Town Declaration on Responsible Tourism in Destinations defines responsible tourism as follows:

Responsible tourism minimises negative economic, environmental and social impacts, generates greater economic benefits for local people and enhances the well-being of host communities, improves working conditions and access to the industry, involves local people in decisions that affect their lives and life chances, makes positive contributions to the conservation of natural and cultural heritage embracing diversity, provides more enjoyable experiences for tourists through more meaningful connections with local people, and a greater understanding of local cultural, social and environmental issues, provides access for physically challenged people and is culturally sensitive, encourages respect between tourists and hosts, and builds local pride and confidence. (International Conference on Responsible Tourism in Destinations, 2002).

Responsible tourism is commonly used synonymously with sustainable tourism, ethical tourism, social responsibility, and ecotourism (Connell, 2000). Especially sustainability and sustainable development are widely used concepts in tourism. Sustainable tourism can be described as the objective and responsible tourism as the process to achieve the objective

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(Veijola, Ilola & Edelheim, 2013). In responsible tourism, all stakeholders and individuals take responsibility and action to achieve sustainability (Coles et al., 2013).

As the importance of the tourism industry to the world economy has grown, also the impacts of the industry have risen. Sustainable tourism as a concept has appeared to eliminate the negative impacts. It is widely accepted as a preferable approach to tourism development, also politically (Sharpley, 2003). The most commonly accepted dimensions of sustainability and sustainable development in the literature are environmental, economic, social (e.g. Bridges & Wilhelm, 2008; Goodland, 1995), cultural and even political (Tervo-Kankare, 2017); also in tourism (e.g.

Gilmore & Simmons, 2007). The concept of sustainable tourism started being promoted in the 1960s as mass tourism increased and has been visible in the academic literature since the 1990s (Bac, 2014). Creating products with more sustainable attributes is one example of how sustainable development has been adopted into the tourism industry. These attributes include low and efficient use of natural resources, measurable positive socio-economic impacts, and benefits to the local economy. (Wehrli et al. 2014.)

3.2 Communicating responsibility

Responsibility and sustainability marketing encompasses a range of activities with the aim of satisfying consumer needs and enhancing the position of the company in the marketplace with communication about environmental, social, and economic issues (Bridges & Wilhelm, 2008).

Font and McCabe (2017) define sustainability marketing in tourism as functions, processes, and techniques, which serve the needs of visitors and stakeholders in present and future.

Communication is a significant part of responsibility marketing. If a company wants to enhance the relationship with its stakeholders, responsibility and sustainability actions need to be communicated to the public (Green & Peloza, 2015) and made visible (Arvidsson, 2010). In tourism context, the discussion is concentrating more on sustainability than responsibility communication (Tölkes, 2018). Sustainability communication in tourism increases the awareness of sustainable tourism products and informs consumers about their availability and how they meet the sustainability criteria (Tölkes, 2018). According to Bridges & Wilhelm (2008), sustainability communication is not just about the products, it also aims to increase transparency about the sustainability engagement of a company and encourage dialogue about the company's activities between different stakeholders. On the other hand, Belz & Peattie (2012) argue that sustainability communication precisely concentrates on the products whereas

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corporate social responsibility concentrates on corporate level responsibility instead of sustainability in individual products.

Even though tourism marketing is sometimes seen to fuel hedonistic consumerism, can responsibility and sustainability marketing be used for good purpose, e.g., creating more persuasive communication that increases behavioural change (Font & McCabe, 2017) and enhancing consumers to act more responsible and emphasizing their personal responsibility (Moscardo & Hughes, 2018). However, the final goal of sustainability communication is to motivate consumers to purchase sustainable products (Belz & Peattie, 2012; Tölkes, 2018) and engage them with the company by appealing to the benefits for the customer (Belz & Peattie, 2012).

3.3 Motives of the company

Companies engage in responsibility and sustainability actions for different reasons. According to Branco & Lima Rodriguez (2006), large companies experience more pressure to act responsibly and therefore also communicate about it more than smaller companies. Arvidsson (2010) as well stresses that many companies feel the need to respond to the social pressure. Her study showed that companies execute responsibility actions to avert the negative effects and not because they aim for social betterment.

Three reasons for companies to engage in responsibility are widely accepted by previous literature: cost reduction/competition, societal legitimization, and altruism/lifestyle-value drivers (Garay & Font, 2012). The study of Font et al. (2016) verifies these groups and their sustainability actions also among tourism SMEs and identifies differences in the actions and communication between the different groups. In the value-motivated group habit and lifestyle of the owner-managers explain a large part of the sustainability behaviour. This group undertakes the most sustainability actions but dislikes sustainability communication and marketing in the commercial terms. Legitimacy-motivated businesses use sustainability actions to influence stakeholders, gain social capital and to seek marketing benefits. They are the most active in social media communication. The biggest group is the competition-motivated businesses. They engage in fewer sustainability actions than the other groups and they seek commercial benefits in sustainability actions and communication. (Font et al., 2016.)

Consumers react differently towards the different types of motivations they can identify from the companies. In general, consumers detect two kinds of motivations: benefitting the company

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or benefitting the community (Forehand & Grier, 2003). Ellen et al. (2006) argue that consumers engage better with responsibility communication if the company shows both, extrinsic and intrinsic motivations for responsibility actions. Du et al. (2010) add that any inconsistencies between what consumers perceive and the publicly stated responsibility motives of the company will enhance scepticism and decrease credibility. Consumers are sceptical if they recognize an ulterior motive for sustainability actions (Rahman, Park & Chi, 2015).

3.4 Communication strategy

Key issues related to a responsibility communication strategy are for example content (what should be communicated), channels (where should be communicated), and factors that affect the effectiveness of the communication. (Du et al., 2010). In terms of sustainability, the communication is part of the wider sustainability marketing strategy of a company (Belz &

Peattie, 2012). Whereas green marketing considers only the environmental aspects and social marketing the social aspects, a sustainability marketing strategy requires the consideration of environmental, social, cultural, and financial issues throughout the marketing planning process, with each of the marketing mix variables (Bridges & Wilhelm, 2008).

Overall responsibility communication of a company can focus on the commitment, impact or motives of the company (Du et al., 2010). According to van Staden & Hooks (2007), companies have either a reactive or a proactive approach towards responsibility communication and legitimacy among stakeholders. Reactive approach means that communication happens only if the company or the industry faces issues or a crisis, and proactive that the communication is preventing legitimacy issues before they arise (van Staden & Hooks 2007).

Besides the different approaches, three different communication strategies describing the stakeholder engagement in responsibility communication have been introduced by Morsing &

Schultz (2006): stakeholder information, response, and involvement strategy. The stakeholder information strategy is a one-way communication strategy with the purpose of informing the public. Response strategy is a two-way communication strategy with the purpose of seeing how the public reacts but without an intention to change the company’s actions. Involvement strategy is a two-way communication strategy with dialogue and both sides trying to change the behaviour of the other. (Morsing & Schultz 2006.)

Responsibility actions can be communicated through various channels, e.g., websites, press releases, traditional advertisement, responsibility reports and social media. To reach the public

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effectively, several channels can be used (Du et al., 2010). Online channels are already among the most important channels for companies to inform customers and other stakeholders about their responsibility efforts (Colleoni, 2013). Online communication enables the consumer word-of-mouth, which should not be underestimated; channels that are not fully controllable by the company are seen as more credible by consumers (Du et al., 2010).

3.4.1 Message factors affecting the effectiveness of responsibility communication

The different factors impacting the effectiveness of responsibility communication is a widely researched topic. Several studies show that effective sustainability communication needs to be credible (Du et al., 2010; Ottmann, Stafford & Hartman, 2006). In online context, trustworthiness of the responsibility content is especially important (Sparks, Perkins &

Buckley, 2013).

There are studies supporting that persuasion in communication will enhance the customer engagement with the content (Bettinghaus & Cody, 1994; O’Keefe, 1991). O’Keefe (1991) defines persuasion as communication with the aim of influencing others by affecting their beliefs, values, or attitudes. The more specific the message is the more persuasive it is.

(O’Keefe, 1991.) Denotative messages (messages with literal/explicit meaning) are more persuasive than connotative (not literal) and abstract messages (Bettinghaus & Cody, 1994).

Appealing to social norms is one way to increase the persuasiveness of the message (e.g. Zanon

& Teichman, 2016) but this is not commonly used in tourism industry (Villarino & Font, 2015).

Especially descriptive norms (i. e. perceptions of typical behaviour what others are doing) motivate tourists to buy sustainable products (Zanon & Teichman, 2016).

Several studies show that emotional sustainability messages are more appealing than rational (Wehrli et al 2014; Villarino & Font, 2015; Zanon & Teichman 2016). Wehrli et al. (2017) confirm that this applies for both, textual and visual content, and in different geographical markets. However, the level of emotionality should be in line with the product type; emotional products can benefit from more emotional messages and utilitarian products from more rational messages (Wehrli et al., 2014).

Wehrli et al. (2014) argue that rational messages are more appealing for sustainability- experienced travellers than non-experienced travellers, although both groups show preference for emotional messages. However, the differences between the groups are small and communication needs and requirements are similar (Wehrli et al., 2014). Grimmer & Woolley (2014) argue that consumers with more environmental apprehension are more impacted with

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messages emphasizing purely environmental benefits and consumers with lower level of environmental concern prefer messages that emphasize personal benefits. Wehrli et al. (2014) have studied, how to reach customers less interested in sustainability issues. They suggest that communication should highlight self-referential values in addition to altruistic values. Wehrli et al. (2017) argue that understanding the message concerning a sustainable product may require prior knowledge or cognitive effort and the product attributes should be communicated clearly.

Sustainable companies often struggle with sustainability marketing myopia, meaning that they are product instead of customer centric (Villarino & Font, 2015). Customer should be the centre of the message, even though the sustainability actions benefit also the company and/or society (Ottman et al., 2006). The study of Hardeman, Font & Nawijn (2017) showed that personal benefits should be emphasized in the communication and personal messages are more appealing than those addressed to collective level or those lacking personal pronouns completely.

3.4.2 Interaction and social media communication

The importance of online channels in communicating about responsibility actions is evident (Colleoni, 2013). A one-way communication strategy has traditionally been used for responsibility communication, but the different channels and possibilities of Web 2.0 for two- way communication have been taken into use lately (Capriotti, 2011). One-way responsibility communication is necessary, but it is not enough and there is a need to develop two-way communication (Morsing & Schulz, 2016). According to Belz and Peattie (2012), sustainability communication has two objectives: to inform the public about the sustainability of the products and to enable a dialogue between the company ant the public. For example, interactive communication offered by Web 2.0 allows companies to get feedback on the responsibility actions from the stakeholders (Testarmata, 2018), which enhances the dialogue.

Interactive communication is changing social dynamics and becoming an important channel for corporate communication (Buhalis & Law, 2008). Especially consumers are important in this regard because responsibility communication generated by consumers is regarded as credible (Font, Walmsley, Cogotti, Mccombes & Häusler, 2012). Interactive communication enables companies to engage with consumers and to profit from the word-of-mouth publicity (Du et al., 2010).

The higher the level of interactions with consumers, the stronger is the sense of trust and credibility among consumers (Nusair et al., 2013; Eberle et al., 2013). Eberle et al. (2013) argue that perceived interaction is more important for message credibility than the actual level of

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interaction. Message credibility also increases corporate reputation and word-of-mouth intention of consumers. Hence, companies should spur consumers to interact, share information and post content. It is also important to recognize and appreciate the consumer’s participation in the interaction (Nusair et al., 2013). Social interactions in tourism context are a mix of innovativeness, information sharing, perceived utility, trust, and loyalty. Positive and strong interaction ensures trust and loyalty especially among millennials. (Nusair et al., 2013.)

As the traditional media, also social media enables sharing of information and providing content for users; the difference between social media and traditional media lies in the way the users use the content (Song & Yoo, 2016). Social media allows efficient and convenient sharing and gathering of information through interaction (Dunne, Lawlor & Rowley, 2010) and enables companies to create dialogue and interaction with consumers (Gretzel & Dinhopl, 2014).

Because of the Web 2.0 and social media, tourists can communicate, interact, and form connections not only with companies, but also with other tourists and destinations (Hudson &

Thal, 2013).

Web 2.0 and social media are not synonyms. Web 2.0 is a way to utilize the Internet as a platform where content is modified by users. Social media are the tools that use Web 2.0 and user-generated content. It includes for example blogs, social networking sites, video content sites and virtual games and worlds. (Kaplan & Haenlein, 2010.) Online communities and social networking sites are considered the most important social media tools for communication (Tench & Jones, 2015).

Social media might be the key to successful promotion of responsibility efforts because it allows consumers to engage in responsibility actions in a creative way (Go & Bortree, 2017). Social media is a good channel for stakeholder involvement strategy in responsibility communication but is not effectively implemented in most companies (Zizka, 2017). Social media is mainly used for informing consumers about responsibility actions (Cho et al., 2017; Manetti &

Bellucci, 2016; Testarmata et al., 2018), but consumer engagement level is the highest when interacting strategies (stakeholder response and involvement strategy) are used (Cho et al., 2017). From the different social media channels, Facebook has the highest level of engagement within responsibility-related content (Manetti & Bellucci, 2016). Martinez, Herrero & García- de Los Salmones (2020) argue that consumers’ trust in Facebook increases their desire to share and comment on responsibility related posts, which has a positive impact on electronic word- of-mouth marketing.

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The advantages of social media communication include that it is dynamic (Hudson & Thal, 2013) and can speed up the communication process (Kaplan & Haenlein, 2010) with a low cost (Manetti & Bellucci, 2016). Commenting function enables consumers to express their opinions and the company to respond to those immediately (Go & Bortree, 2017), which enables a dialogue. The success of social media communication is depending on the dialogue it creates (Zizka, 2017). Responding to messages is important, as responsibility messages have more credibility when the reader can see the original messages as well as the comments from other users. Communicating in social media also opens the company to criticism which increases truthfulness and makes the company more believable (Eberle et al., 2013).

Social media as a platform for responsibility communication requires the use of imagination and creativity (Tench & Jones, 2015). Social media is not about advertising the product, it is about engaging stakeholders to active and open conversation (Kaplan & Haenlein, 2010). The companies need to create content that is interesting for the targeted customers, otherwise the customers will not interact with the content (Kaplan & Haenlein, 2010). Especially millennials show a higher degree of interaction if they find the content entertaining, customizable and exciting (Nusair et al., 2013).

3.5 Challenges of responsibility communication in social media

Even if previous literature outlines the importance of interactivity and engagement in responsibility communication, the implementation is not easy and does not happen automatically (Etter, 2013; Testarmata et al., 2018).

Controlling social media communication is one challenge for companies. It is hard to control the channels, because of the open dialogue between the company and the public (Morsing &

Schulz, 2006), which means that there is a trade-off between controllability and credibility (Camilleri, 2018). This might impact the credibility and effectiveness of the message (Eberle et al., 2013). Companies can never know who is really behind the comments and people might write things they would not say in person (Tench & Jones, 2015). However, the dialogue created in social media enables electronic word-of-mouth, which can be beneficial but has been challenging for marketers in tourism industry to take advantage of and to use to influence consumers’ attitudes and purchase decision (Xiang et al., 2015).

Eberle et al. (2013) argue that companies need to carefully monitor the interactive communication channels because the negative comments can have more severe negative

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influence on the company than the positive influence of positive comments. Tench & Jones (2015) as well stress the importance of monitoring the channels, which can be difficult.

Second challenge are the resources. In small businesses, the owner-managers might not have the required digital skills (Villarino & Font, 2015) or time and resources to use social media (Camilleri, 2018). Companies need to react more quickly in social media than in traditional media, which requires enough resources (Tench & Jones, 2015). Comments without responses from the company have a negative impact on the reputation and social presence of the company (Go & Bortree, 2017). In his study, Camilleri (2018) found out that owner-managers realize that digital media can help them promote the responsibility actions they are doing. They felt that digital media is constantly changing but, however, did not fear to make mistakes when trying the new forms (Camilleri, 2018).

Third challenge in interactive responsibility communication is the content and messages. It is difficult to know what is enough in terms of responsibility marketing. According to Morsing &

Schulz (2006), the level of responsibility actions needs to be in line with the company; a too high level might hurt the credibility. Companies also need to balance between facts and emotions in the communication to avoid both, marketing myopia and greenwashing, which can be a challenge (Villarino & Font, 2015).

3.6 Theoretical framework of the study

Consumer behaviour is the reason why companies should communicate about responsibility in general and especially in an interactive way. The theoretical framework of this study is presented in Figure 3.

Figure 3. Theoretical framework of the study

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The framework illustrates the concepts impacting effective responsibility communication. The basis is in the motives that the company has for acting responsibly as those affect the communication. Next stage are the different aspects that the company includes to responsibility.

The right message content, message factors and the chosen channels lead to effective responsibility communication. This study goes a little further as effective communication executed as two-way communication leads to engaging responsibility communication with interaction between the consumer and the company.

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4 METDODS

4.1 Extensive case study

This study used a qualitative research approach. Many qualitative research methods concentrate on interpreting and understanding and are suitable when prior insights about the research phenomenon are modest (Eriksson & Kovalainen, 2008). Understanding the phenomenon was the aim of this study.

To gain in-depth understanding of the topic, multiple case study was conducted. Case studies are popular in business research because they can present complex business issues in an accessible format. Case study is not a research method but rather an approach with several possibilities for data analysis methods (Eriksson & Kovalainen, 2008). Case studies aim to dig deep, look for explanations and gain understanding (Farquhar, 2012, p. 8), which matched the objectives of this study. Case studies are often iterative processes where the researcher goes through different phases and returns to previous phases to do comparison with the data (Eriksson & Koistinen, 2005, p. 19).

Case studies can be intensive or extensive. This study used an extensive approach. Intensive case study is interested in the case itself, whereas extensive case study aims at elaboration, testing theories or generation of theories by comparing several cases. The individual cases as themselves are not the primary interest, but they are seen as instruments for exploring the phenomenon. (Eriksson & Kovalainen, 2008.) Extensive case study aims to test and supplement theoretical concepts in a new environment, develop new theoretical ideas or create new theoretical models. The cases are compared with each other and the researcher must decide if similarities, differences, or both are sought. (Eriksson & Koistinen, 2005, p. 17.) This study sought both, differences and similarities in the cases and tried to develop theoretical ideas on the phenomenon. This approach is also called instrumental case study as the cases generate knowledge beyond the case itself and the research aims in achieving something else than understanding a particular case (Stake, 1995). This study aimed to understand the phenomenon with the help of the selected cases instead of understanding only the particular cases. In instrumental case studies, the research questions are prepared before the selection of cases and the cases are selected based on the research questions (Eriksson & Koistinen, 2005, p. 10).

Selection of the number of cases for a multiple case study depends on the research aims (Eriksson & Kovalainen, 2008). Eisenhardt (1989) suggests four to ten cases being ideal. Six

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cases were chosen for this study with purposive sampling. The criteria for the sampling were laid down by the researcher. According to Eriksson and Kovalainen (2008) the cases in a multiple case study should be similar enough to build theoretical constructs or some of them to be similar and some different to allow comparison. The six case companies represented different fields of tourism (accommodation, rural tourism, activities) and different company sizes. Some companies were fairly young, and others have been operating for a longer time. All cases were geographically limited to Eastern and North East Finland. Most of the cases were entrepreneurial businesses with the entrepreneurs being in charge of the communication. One bigger company was selected to allow comparison between smaller and bigger organizations.

To be able to answer the research questions, only companies taking responsibility into consideration in their business and communicating about it on their website and in social media were chosen for this study. If the companies would not communicate about responsibility the data would not give enough new insights about the topic of interest.

Possible case companies were sought from Visit Finland’s database on companies with Sustainable Travel Finland (STF) label, because to achieve the STF label, a company must communicate about responsibility and sustainability. Besides the STF-labelled companies, suggestions from the thesis supervisors were received. The researcher familiarized herself with the responsibility communication the companies had on their websites and on their social media channels in the past 12 months. The aim was to find accommodation and activity providers and rural tourism companies that have informed about the company’s responsibility and sustainability values and actions on the website and brought at least some aspects of those out also in the social media posts. As a benefit was regarded if the company had interaction on the social media channel. Based on this background research, six primary companies and alternative options were selected. After contacting the companies, all primary companies agreed to participate in the study. For this report, the cases were given descriptive code names to differentiate them from each other based on the field of business: RUR (rural tourism), HOTSMA (hotel small), HOTBIG (hotel bigger), BNB (accommodation bed and breakfast + cottages), ACT1 and ACT2 (activity providers) The cases are presented in Table 1.

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Table 1. Description of the cases

RUR HOTSMA ACT1 BNB ACT2 HOTBIG

Field of tourism / services

Rural tourism / accommodatio n, activities, packages

Accommodatio n / hotel small

Activity services / activities, courses, accommodatio n

Accommodatio n / bed and breakfast, cottages

Activity services / activities, excursions

Accommodatio n / hotel medium size

Location of business

North Karelia North Karelia Northern Ostrobothnia

South Savo South Savo North Karelia

Size of business

small small small small small medium

Certificate / label for sustainable travel

Yes Working

towards achieving

Yes Yes Considering Yes

Responsibility communicatio n on website

Widely, concrete examples, all aspects

Widely, concrete examples, lacks economic aspect

Widely, concrete examples, all aspects

On parent company website:

widely, concrete examples, all aspects Responsibility

communicatio n on social media

Medium, mostly social, low

interactivity

High, all aspects, medium interactivity

High, mostly social + ecological, medium interactivity

High, all aspects, low interactivity

Low/mediu m, only ecological, low interactivity

Medium, all aspects, medium interactivity

4.2 Methods of data collection

The data in this study was collected by interviews. Interview is a suitable data collection method if the researcher wants to find out what the informant thinks and why they behave in a certain way (Tuomi & Sarajärvi, 2018), which matched the aim of this study. Interviews are often used as primary source of data in business research case studies and other sources of data as complementary (Eriksson & Kovalainen, 2008). The benefit of interview is flexibility: the

Requirements of effective responsibility communication in tourism

TABLE OF CONTENTS

1 INTRODUCTION

2 INFORMATION SEARCH OF RESPONSIBLE TOURIST

3 RESPONSIBILITY COMMUNICATION

4 METDODS