Réseaux Sociaux

The 2012 International Conference on Business and Management

6 – 7 September 2012, Phuket - Thailand

~ 325 ~

Social Media Marketing and the Hospitality

Industry: Evidence from Thailand

Ilian Assenov

Faculty of Hospitality and Tourism, Prince of Songkla University

Phuket, Thailand

Email: ilianassenov@gmail.com

Naina Khurana

Faculty of Hospitality and Tourism, Prince of Songkla University

Phuket, Thailand

Abstract

Social media are increasingly important in today’s marketing world, and have

become a major factor in influencing consumer behavior. This study bridges the

gap in literature to identify how hotels use social media for their marketing

communications and to determine the importance of social media for the hotel

selection process of tourists. Face-to-face interviews were conducted with hotels

in Phuket, Thailand, and an online survey was conducted with travelers to this

destination. Social media are used by many consumers in gathering information

prior to their travels and selecting hotels based on the comments and reviews

provided by other travelers, as these are often considered more reliable than

traditional online sources of information. A group of the respondents do not use

social media due to privacy and reliability concerns. Most of the hotels in Phuket

consider social media as an effective channel to interact with their customers

and an effective PR tool for promoting and improving the brand awareness of

their hotels. Social media act as a powerful word of mouth among users rather

than as a direct sales tool. The paper provides recommendations on improving

the effectiveness of hotels’ marketing communication via social media.

Keywords: social media, hotel marketing communication, user-generated

content, Phuket

INTRODUCTION

Internet, as arguably the most significant technological phenomenon today,

provides completely new competitive opportunities to the tourist firms (Andrlic and

Ruzic, 2010). The emergence of Internet marketing and new technologies has had a

significant impact on the operations of marketers and consumers. Technology

innovation has developed with the change of consumer behavior. The consumers are

now seeking participation in which they can share and be a part of the

communications (Larson, 2009). In today’s world increasingly the consumers are the

key persons who decide what information to share, how that information can be used

(Stewart and Pavlou, 2002, p. 394). More power is now in the consumers’ hands, thus

creating challenges for the marketer.

The 2012 International Conference on Business and Management

6 – 7 September 2012, Phuket - Thailand

~ 326 ~

“The new demands created by changed consumer needs, societal changes and

technological developments, mean that organizations would have to keep up with

these changes and start to rethink their ways of operation” (Radder, 2002, p. 49).

The ways of communicating with customers have also changed significantly

with the emergence of Social Media, also referred to as consumer-generated media

(Mangold and Faulds, 2009). Social media are becoming increasingly important in

today’s marketing world. It is now one way of doing marketing for business

organizations. Individuals are using social media not only for networking but also for

business purposes. Social media emphasize on building customer relationship rather

than just direct sales and it also makes information easier to access at any time.

Online social media offer the opportunity to connect with the audiences, unlike

traditional media (Brown, Broderick and Lee, 2007).

Social media are a very broad concept and include a variety of websites where

there is much information to share among the users. They have become a major

factor in influencing various aspects of consumer behavior including needs

recognition, information acquisition, opinions and attitudes, purchase behavior, and

post-purchase communication and most importantly evaluation (Mangold and Faulds,

2009).

Increasingly more and more companies are using social media as one of their

marketing channels to communicate with their customers, advertising and also selling

products. Among others the hotel industry has also started to use this media as a tool

for promoting and create brand awareness. This study will investigate further how

effective this marketing strategy is for the hotels in the island of Phuket, Thailand, a

popular tourism destination which in 2010 had over 3.5

...