Naslov
SOCIAL MEDIA IN HOTEL INDUSTRY: PERSPECTIVE OF CROATIAN HOTELS

Autori
Ćurlin, Tamara

Vrsta, podvrsta
Radovi u časopisima, znanstveni

Izvornik
Proceedings of FEB Zagreb 13th International Odyssey Conference on Economics and Business (2022)

Status rada
Prihvaćen

Ključne riječi
hotel industry, social media, hotel marketing, distribution channels, Chi-square analysis

Sažetak
Social media platforms have become strong marketing drivers for different business sectors, and their influence is significant in sales and service industries such as hospitality, tourism, and travel. Social media exceeded its role as a just marketing tool for the hotel industry, and it became a brand image, information, and direct communication booking mechanism. This paper aims to explore the state of social media utilization in Croatian hotels and discover the relationship between different types of hotels and social media platforms. To achieve this goal, extensive content analysis on the sample of 201 hotels and their social media platforms was conducted. Although utilizing other social media platforms is scarce, Croatian hotels use Facebook and Instagram platforms the most. Furthermore, more than half of Croatian hotels' social media activity is low, which means that hotels do not profit from social media benefits enough. Hotels with 4 and 5 stars, hotel chains, and seaside located hotels utilize social media more than others. Additionally, hotels focused on direct reservations as dominant distribution channels use social media platforms more often, recognizing the social media market strength for attracting new customers. Chi-square analysis confirmed statistically significant relationships between hotel characteristics and social media features: hotel chain affiliation and all social media features, Instagram and LinkedIn usage and hotel categorization, and distribution channel and social media activity. Future investigations could include additional hotel characteristics, social media features, and social media content analysis to extract more important patterns for social media utilization in the hotel industry. Finally, the relationship between specific social media features and direct booking should be explored.

Izvorni jezik
Engleski

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