Executive Summary
Many businesses today share a relationship with social media. This is because social media is recognized as a powerful platform for communication. Hence, businesses utilize this platform to relay information about their companies. They make their companies known in various places worldwide and advertise the specific services and goods they offer. As such, social media has a significant impact on businesses today. This paper specifically focuses on the effect of social media on the hospitality and tourism industry.
This paper starts by defining social media and determining its fundamental dynamics. It then introduces the concept of the relationship between social media and businesses, where most companies utilize social media platforms to engage with their target audiences. The hospitality and tourism industry is also chosen as the focus of discussion. In doing so, three main impacts of social media on this industry are found. These include changes in client needs, impacts on local communities, and marketing implications. After, the paper concludes that social media has both negative and positive effects on this industry and offers three significant recommendations.
Introduction
In the current era of technological advancements, many people have embraced the idea of receiving and sharing information through digital technology. Today, social media is the most widely utilized digital technology. Therefore, social media can be defined as a form of digital technology consisting of numerous websites and applications used for online communication across the internet (Kapoor et al., 2017).
In simple terms, it can be understood as an online platform that enables the sharing of massive amounts of information, allowing numerous interactions among different users (Kapoor et al., 2017). Examples of these websites and applications commonly used include YouTube, Facebook, WhatsApp, Snapchat, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Pinterest.
Since social media is a widely accepted communication medium, it is found to have a significant influence on shaping how businesses, cultures, education, politics, and innovation operate across the world. For instance, in 2017, 50 million business accounts were active on Facebook. Additionally, research has shown that at least 88% of businesses utilize Twitter as part of their marketing strategies (Kapoor et al., 2017). This indicates that social media has a massive impact on businesses. When considering the realm of commerce, it is evident that many enterprises are actively engaged in multiple sectors worldwide.
Undoubtedly, one of the most thriving industries globally is the hospitality and tourism industry. This industry comprises many sectors, including hotels, restaurants, travel, events, and entertainment (Narayanan, 2022). With its diverse range of sectors, it is unsurprising that the industry makes a significant contribution to the global economy. This is evident from the 2017 statistics, which show that the hospitality and tourism industry accounted for at least $7 trillion of the world’s economy (Narayanan, 2022). With this in mind, this paper discusses the impacts of social media on the hospitality and tourism industry. Social media has had a dramatic impact on the industry, but a few drawbacks also exist.
Hospitality and Tourism Marketing Impacts
As established earlier, social media facilitates communication by enhancing how people share information and offer feedback. This is different from the traditional way of communication, where the power to spread news was limited by time and distance. As such, the hospitality and tourism industry leverages the communication features of social media to enhance its marketing efforts (Qenaj and Beqiri, 2022). This means that the companies share information about their products and services on social media, and the information is expected to reach a wider audience.
A study published between 2010 and 2013 found that when social media is used as a marketing tool, companies first explore the purchasing behavior of consumers before developing marketing strategies (Kapoor et al., 2017). Notably, a company’s marketing strategy influences consumers’ decision-making process. For example, a hotel that provides detailed information about its services and location, and includes pictures of the hotel on social media, makes customers perceive it as credible. Thus, hospitality and tourism companies use social media as a marketing tool.
With social media serving as a marketing tool, the marketing policies of the hospitality and tourism industry have undergone significant improvements. The three central policies social media has positively impacted include brand consistency, target audience, and reputation management (Qenaj and Beqiri, 2022). Starting with brand consistency, many companies have been able to increase awareness of their brands through social media platforms. This is because advertising is more manageable, and companies can utilize the users’ information on their interests and demographics to advertise their brands suitably. Additionally, many customers often rely on the reviews of others to determine a brand’s credibility (Qenaj and Beqiri, 2022).
Several studies have revealed that social media’s popularity has made people rely heavily on reviews about others’ experiences. Hence, brand awareness is increased. For the target audience, hospitality and tourism brands can customize their marketing campaigns to suit their desired audience. For instance, high-income earners and travel enthusiasts who post on Instagram are a good target for international hospitality and tourism brands.
Lastly, reputation management is a crucial marketing policy that social media can impact. Usually, people can leave positive or negative comments under social media posts (Qenaj and Beqiri, 2022). This will further damage the company’s reputation. As such, many hospitality and tourism companies often enhance their reputation management policies by ensuring they offer high-quality services. This way, their brand reputation on social media is impacted positively.
Impact on Locals
With social media being widely used, a broad audience can be reached when advertising hospitality and tourism services. Hence, it is expected that even local companies in remote areas are being searched for by many customers (Gretzel, 2019). This means that social media has a significant impact on the publicity of local hotels, restaurants, and other luxury services. While publicity is suitable for such amenities, the lives of locals can be significantly impacted. For example, once people are aware of a hidden local brand and have shared their experience online, they may cause overcrowding in the area (Gretzel, 2019). Overcrowding further contributes to pollution within the local areas.
First and foremost, most regional areas typically lack well-developed waste recycling systems. This means that pollution is likely to occur, negatively affecting the lives of locals. (Gretzel, 2019). Another impact is over-tourism, where the number of customers becomes unsustainable for local companies (Gretzel, 2019). This further forces local companies around the area to hike the prices of commodities and services. Consequently, this has had a detrimental impact on the vulnerable livelihoods of the indigenous population.
Hospitality and tourism companies must respond to the impact of overcrowding and overtourism in a critical manner. They achieve this by developing new tourist attractions and engaging the local community in decision-making (Gretzel, 2019). New tourist attractions help refocus customers’ attention to other places to avoid overcrowding. As such, social media can be used to advertise and market other hospitality and tourism areas.
When involving the locals in decision-making, companies ensure that local community members are informed about tourist visitations and how to mitigate their adverse effects (Gretzel, 2019). For example, locals can help decide how plastic water bottles should be recycled. Therefore, social media can significantly impact how a local place becomes publicly known, potentially leading to overcrowding and over-tourism.
Changes in Client Needs
Social media has changed how customers make their purchase decisions. Their needs have also varied based on interactions with other social media users. Every social media platform has top users, known as influencers (Ao et al., 2023). These influencers often have a large following because they are perceived as possessing knowledge and expertise in specific industries. They, therefore, regularly post pictures or share information on their areas of expertise to persuade people to engage in the same (Ao et al., 2023). For example, an influencer can post a video on YouTube about their experience in an exotic restaurant. People who view the video will be influenced to visit the same restaurant. This means influencers can also market brands in the hospitality and tourism industry.
However, this can negatively impact some brands, as influencers have the power to set the trend. In other words, clients’ needs can change depending on what influencers post (Ao et al., 2023). For example, when an influencer only posts about holiday destinations outside the country, they may influence social media users to consider traveling abroad. This may further reduce potential and existing customers within a country (Ao et al., 2023). The same logic applies to hotel amenities, where influencers can set a trend of taking their pets on holiday. This means that only pet-friendly hotels will be highly searched on social media. Hence, social media impacts changes in client needs.
Companies have responded to changes in client needs in different ways. First, companies have considered paying influencers to patronize their brands on social media. This means they can actively rely on social media influencers to ensure that whatever the companies provide goes well with the client’s needs (Ao et al., 2023). Additionally, companies can modify their amenities to meet the client’s needs. For example, they can vary from not permitting pets to accommodating pet lovers. This analysis reveals that social media can influence shifts in client needs, prompting companies to respond by compensating influencers or modifying their offerings.
Conclusion
To conclude, social media acts as a powerful catalyst for change within the hospitality and tourism industry. By leveraging its global connectivity, companies in these fields have successfully integrated social media as a core component of their marketing efforts. Social media has significant marketing impacts, including maintaining solid brand consistency, reaching the target audience, and effective reputation management. This has enabled the industry to continue growing. However, inevitable drawbacks are also visible.
As noted, social media harms local brands due to overcrowding and over-tourism. There is also a drawback when it comes to changes in client needs. Despite this, the hospitality and tourist industries can still find solutions to these problems. It is also likely that in the future, the hotel and tourist sector may seize the initiative by taking ownership of and responsibility for managing the information that consumers publish on social media.
Recommendations
From the findings above, it is clear that social media’s impact on the hospitality and tourism industry has some drawbacks. Therefore, a solution for these drawbacks must be found. This section presents three main recommendations based on the findings discussed earlier. These recommendations are considered the best course of action for the hospitality and tourism industry to enhance the experience of both customers and companies.
Soliciting Regular Feedback And Suggestions
One advantageous feature of social media is that companies can get immediate feedback and suggestions from clients. This will help companies anticipate clients’ changing needs and adjust their amenities accordingly (Pateli, Mylonas, and Spyrou, 2020). Additionally, they will not only depend on influencers. A study published in 2013 established that social media’s social and structural dynamics are designed to increase user benefits and satisfaction. (Kapoor et al., 2017). This means that users often trust social media to cater to their needs. As such, companies should solicit feedback and suggestions to understand clients’ current and emerging needs.
Limiting Entries in Certain Places
The idea of restricting entries in certain areas concerns social media’s impact on locals. When a particular local tourist destination captures the attention of many customers through social media advertising, companies can curb overcrowding and over-tourism by limiting entry (Pateli, Mylonas, and Spyrou, 2020). They can restrict entrance by offering paid access to hospitality and tourism amenities. Numerous publications have reported that one of the behaviors of customers on social media is to trust the reviews and interactions of others (Kapoor et al., 2017). However, companies can choose to regulate customer entries.
Engaging the Audience in Marketing
Regarding the impact of hospitality and tourism marketing, one effective approach is to engage the audience in the marketing process. Companies hugely benefit from promoting their business on social media. However, one mistake they make is posting promotional content without engaging the audience (Pateli, Mylonas, and Spyrou, 2020). As such, companies need to engage the audience. They can do so by creating hashtags and jumping into conversations that existing and potential clients have about the industry. This way, companies’ marketing strategies will be of value since they will be perceived as responsive. Therefore, companies should engage their social media audience in marketing.
Reference List
Ao, L. et al. (2023) ‘Impact of social media influencers on customer engagement and purchase intention: A meta-analysis’, Sustainability, 15(3), p. 2744.
Gretzel, U. (2019) ‘5. The role of social media in creating and addressing overtourism’, Overtourism, pp. 62–75.
Kapoor, K.K. et al. (2017) ‘Advances in social media research: Past, present and future’, Information Systems Frontiers, 20(3), pp. 531–558.
Narayanan, E. (2022) ‘The impact of social media and information technology on service quality and guest satisfaction in the hospitality industry’, Handbook on Tourism and Social Media.
Pateli, A., Mylonas, N. and Spyrou, A. (2020) ‘Organizational adoption of social media in the hospitality industry: An integrated approach based on DIT and toe frameworks’, Sustainability, 12(17), p. 7132.
Qenaj, M. and Beqiri, G. (2022) ‘Social media marketing in hospitality industry and its effect on consumer behavior in Kosovo’, IFAC-PapersOnLine, 55(39), pp. 66–69.