Significance of Social Media in Tourism Marketing - Essay Example

? Role and Significance of Social Media in Tourism Marketing affiliation Discuss the role and significance of social media in tourism marketing. You must consider the broader context of ICTs, new channels including smart phones, and the implications for the tourism industry and consumer experience. In the past 20-30 years, information communication technologies (ICT) have fundamentally restructured the tourism industry in different ways, including how the tourism related information is delivered to the potential consumers by the suppliers, the ways the consumers make payments for travel and plan for the trip (Buhalis and Law, 2008). Travel involves movement through geographic space and time. Technologies take parts in all functions of strategic and operational management. Nowadays, social media is the main route where information is being shared and delivered in tourism, and also where offers made by the tourism suppliers are promoted. “According to a study made by Lab42, more than 50% of people who use social media when planning their trips change their plans depending on what information they learn from social media. For those people who had changed their travel plans, 43% of them even changed their hotels or resorts.” As information is so important to tourism, technologies provide both opportunities and challenges for the industry (DimitriosBuhalis, 1998). Andreas Kaplan and Michael Haenlein have define social media as “a group of internet-based applications that build in the ideological and technological foundation of Web 2.0, and that allow the creation and exchange of user-generated content.” The users of the internet form virtual communities where they each have an anonym and protected identity. Consumer-generated content (CGC) is generated by the use of social media. It includes a variety of new and up-and-coming sources of online information, which are created, begun, distributed and made use of by consumers. This is done with the intent of enlightening each other about products, trademarks, services and concerns (Blackshaw&Nazzaro, 2006). In contrast, to the supplier- generated content (SCG) that is made available by marketers and suppliers, social media are created by consumers to be shared among themselves. With the enormous amount of data available to the travelers, the internet constitutes an important platform for information exchange between consumers with shared interests, as well as industry suppliers (e.g. attractions, hotels, and transportation sectors,), mediators (e.g. travel agents), regulation bodies (e.g. governments and executive organizations and non-profit organizations (e.g. destination marketing organizations) (Werthner& Klein, 1999). Today, Web 2.0 also referred to as Travel 2.0 in tourism, includes a range of new technological applications such as media and content syndication, mash-ups, AJAX, tagging, wikis, web forums and message boards, customer ratings and evaluation systems, virtual worlds, podcasting, blogs and online videos (vlogs) (Schmallegger& Carson, 2008). These social media include a wide range of applications, allowing consumers to “post”, “tag”, “digg”, or “blog” on the internet (Xiang &Gretzel, 2010). For example, Facebook, which is a social media website, allowing users to add friends, send messages to people and update their personal profile to notify friends about themselves during the travel; weblogs, individual or a group of people maintain a website with regular entries of commentary, description of events, or graphic materials like videos or images. Some travelers write travel blogs about their experiences and memories of the trip, which are online travel journals, also known as travelogs. YouTube, which is a website for sharing videos, which users can upload and distribute videos. This is a platform where vloggers (i.e. video blogging people) can record their traveling memories into video and upload onto YouTube for others to view, instead of typing a passage for people to read. There are many other different ways (e.g. Twitter, Instagram etc.) that travelers can upload whatever they want to share onto the internet. Family and friends from home can easily know what is happening around the traveler when updates are posted online. Traditionally, the separation from home due to travel was managed with telegrams, letters and postcards while today mobile phones and the internet have significantly increased the ease of keeping in touch (Rosh-White & White, 2007). Internet connectivity is an important aspect offered by hotels, and internet cafes have also became part of the touristic infrastructure. Travel means leaving the home behind. However, the technologies “forms and deforms the fabric of time and space” (Terranova, 2004:40), causes difficulties to distinguish between being home and being away. Memories of a trip that is not over yet can be shared immediately through social media. On the other hand, messages received from home and work through the technology can also easily interrupt and affect experiences during the travel (Jansson, 2007). Travelling with the access of the network is very much characterized by vitality and involves experiencing timeless time and placeless space as the traveler is simultaneously active in different time-zones and places (Castells, 1996). Physically and geographically away are not the only elements of leaving home, it also consists of emotional and social relationships (Rosh-White & White, 2007). Many travelers leave their home and go travel are trying to get away their daily life and to escape from interpersonal stress generated every day. However, the internet and mobile phones, as well as news keep them in contact with work, friends and family at home. Although such communications can decrease the feeling of guilt for leaving the others behind, they cannot satisfy the level of avoidance of stress they wished to have (Ulrike Gretzel, 2010). Earlier in the late 1990’s, Feiner et al (1997) have pointed out the potential for mobile phones with GPS signal, built-in compass and internet connectivity as a tool for guiding tourists including augmented reality experience with additional information overlaid onto the viewfinder. Until recent years, Smartphone, which is like a “handheld PC” have been released. The Smartphone is one multi-use device of combination of traditional mobile phone, Personal Digital Assistance (PDA), digital camera, navigation system and media player. Smartphone’s default setting is online, either over Wi-Fi or over 3G/4G. The increasing adoption of Smartphone’s and the developing range of contextually aware 3G/4G enable internet applications provides a rich potential to impact on tourist experiences (McCabe, Foster, Li & Nanda, 2011). The idea of “always on” and pervasive, “always present” internet services is rapidly becoming a reality and present major challenges and opportunities for tourism business and destinations in an ever increasing competitive visitor market environment (Buhalis and Law, 2008). Berger et al (2003) identified 4 major functions for the travelers: 1, the position of people and places; 2, routes and directions between them; 3, search facilities for services and attractions relevant to tourists in the destination; 4, information about travel conditions. There are 5 basic elements in a tourism cycle, including planning & preparation, & activities, travel back and activities afterwards. Technologies play important roles at each stage of the cycle. McCabe have defined various types of applications that help out during decision making and assist the travelers during the: 1. Transport planning apps (e.g. Trainline, Flight track). These applications allow users to track flight information in many locations in real time, helping them to share information on travel disruptions with other users and to make alternative arrangements. 2. What’s on guide/Event listing apps (e.g. buzzd). These applications allow users to up/download information on events and activities in your current location and to rate/recommend places and events. These types of applications can increase tourists sense of spontaneity, encourage new forms of sociality and enhanced word of mouth has the potential to increase users sense of authentic experiences and interactions within destinations, beyond sanctioned guides. 3. Travel planner applications (e.g. TripIT, Tripcase, TripDeck). Different to the transport planning applications described above, these apps perform integrated itinerary management functions including flights and car hire, hotel and restaurant reservations, and meetings, which are synchronized to the users I-calendar. These types of applications perform the traditional function of the tour operator and allow users to have an easy to manage online itinerary. 4. Accommodation planning applications (e.g. hotels.com, hotelpal). These types of applications function as a location-based tourist information centre service for accommodation services. Users are able to locate Hotels within their current location and compare prices, quality levels and other features, as well as book accommodation. These types of applications assist with users information search processes, enabling shorter planning times and increased flexibility and choice. 5. Tour guide applications (e.g. UK Travel guide, NY Travel guide). Generally consist of city guides containing recommendations for restaurants, shopping, attractions, nightlife and possibly some augmented reality services. These applications can replace paper guidebooks and add value since the information is constantly updated, often includes the reviewers of other visitors as well as sponsored information, which is easy to use and relatively cost-effective. 6. Directional services (e.g. Google maps, Navmii). Can offer complete satellite navigation software designed for a mobile platform, or a simple map service to help users find their way through and about their location. These types of applications offer simple solutions to tourists seeking to find their way around a city or tourism destination and will offer search functions, distances, and other information. 7. Location based social-networking applications (e.g. Gowalla, Foursquare). These types of applications have the potential to offer important social opportunities for tourists, helping them to identify friends and contacts in their location and to discover opportunities to experience different aspects of a destination. This could enhance the feeling of connection with a place, and lead to more authentic visitor experiences (off the beaten track). These applications are based on the principle that users ‘check-in’ –allow others to see their location – and share information about what they are doing with other subscribers. Users receive rewards and can play games, adding value to the visitor experience. 8. Attraction applications (e.g. Thrill Seeker, London Museum guide). These types of applications have often been developed to deliver an enhanced visitor experience at a particular site or attraction. Some, such as the London Museum Guide includes an augmented reality feature, which allows users to point their camera phone at a location and additional information is overlaid onto the viewfinder to create a more interactive user experience and add additional quality to the interpretation of an artifact or location. 9. Company specific applications (e.g. British Airways, Lufthansa). These applications allow users to examine and run their bookings and other information, which the company could hold about them. Airlines can provide customers with boarding cards to their mobiles, and these applications are very useful for companies to manage their customer relationships. 10. Tourist assistance applications (e.g. Currency, language translator). These types of applications provide supporting services for travelers including spoken language translation and translation services using the camera function. These services can facilitate tourist experiences and enable new types of tourist interactions. 11. Social-networking applications (e.g. Facebook, Twitter). These types of applications are also available on mobile platforms, which allow users to share information, photographs and experiences about places with their friends. Users can join groups and these sites have the potential to create new forms of destination marketing. (McCabe et al, 2011) The applications available on the smartphone eliminate the friction between the traveler and localities and increase the level of tourist interaction. Customer generated content that is supported via social media is an assortment of actuality and judgment, notion and attitude, established and speculative tidbits, experiences and even rumor (Blackshaw&Nazzaro, 2006: 4). Advantages of social media From the discussion above, it is clear that social media is very helpful in the process of marketing. Just as twitter and Facebook, among other social networks, are used to advertise for goods being sold and services being offered by groups of people and individuals, it also can be used in the marketing of tourism within the country. The use of social media in marketing has its advantages and disadvantages. Some of the advantages of using social media in the marketing of tourism include the following. First is that the use of social media is very cost friendly. This is justified by the fact that most of these social media have a free access. Due to this the target audience is reached at very low or no costs at all. Secondly, it is quite easy to use. One just has to create a profile on the part of tourism being advertised and give the information. For instance, on Facebook, one just has to create a page on tourism in the country and invite people to like the page. On twitter, one needs to create posts that people can follow. Thus, the people that are interested in the information on tourism will just visit the pages, posts or blogs created on the subject. Another advantage is that social networks have a viral nature that enables many people to access information posted in these media. This also implies that people who read the posts that are written on tourism are bound to pass the information to other users, by sharing or inviting them to follow or like the pages. Therefore, the information can reach a large group of people within a short time, thus enhancing tourism. Social media enables the creator of the profile learn the ways they can use to improve the services they offer in the tourism industry. This is because, in social media, people are able to give comments on whether they like the services or not. Also, through social media, one gets more information about their target customers. This is by viewing their comments and analytics. Finally, with social media, one is able to get to people who cannot be reached through customary techniques of marketing. Tourism is best marketed by passing information on to other people, which is by spreading the opinions on tourism sites. From the advantages mentioned above, it is clear that social media will create this foundation for the spread of opinions. As much as social media is able to enhance tourism management, there are disadvantages that are associated with its use. One of these disadvantages is that social media consumes a lot of time for people who set up these blogs and pages. This is because they require constant response to the concerns of those visiting these pages. Also, the content of these pages have to be updated regularly, approved and published, and the pages must also be maintained. Another disadvantage is that social media requires one to have very creative skills so as to come up with pages that will highly attract the users of social media. It is also difficult to ensure that all the new editions of these pages are creative. Social media also makes people to lose some of their marketing efforts. This is because anything published is prone to criticism from its viewers. Also, the social media publications are prone to being stolen by other competitors to use them as their own. As observed marketing via social media can create a platform on which tourism gains multiple benefits and lots of profits. The increase in the profits also come along with challenges like those mentioned. Tourism marketing and promotion Unlike other industries, tourism markets places and the things, these places have to offer, instead of marketing services and goods. Tourism marketing requires a lot of creativity and innovativeness to come up with the best images of the most attractive sites in the intended destination. This is because the tourism industry entails competing with the entire world to give the best marketing strategy that will throw off the competitors. This requires a constant update of the beat images of the destination so as to create interest and desire to visit these destinations on a large scale, and in all the possible ways. Tourism can be marketed through the following methods. One is through trade shows. Trade fares attract a lot of people who come either as suppliers or buyers. This helps in marketing the destination and the things it offers in that the tourists to this destination will want to pass information to other people about the destination. Also, natives who attend these trade shows also pass on their opinions to other natives. Trade shows have managed to draw a lot of attention from a lot of people, this helps in promoting the travel tourism industry. These shows also draw a lot of attention to media, public attendees, national travel agencies, as well as many customers. Partnerships also help in marketing and promoting tourism. Partnerships cause an increase in the amount of income made since they help to reach the most desirable audience on a large scale. This is so especially during the promotion of tourism of a particular destination. Partnerships ensure that instead of trying to market the destination and have tonnes of followers one could make agreements with organizations that have the large number of followers. This partnership is a benefit in that it makes certain that both parties will gain from the partnership equally. For example, entering into a partnership with an agency that is involved in travelling benefits both the tourism destination and the travel agency. This is because the travel agency is guaranteed to have their customers travelling to many parts of the nation while the tourism industry benefits from the visits from these tourists. Tourism can also be promoted by advertising. To properly advertise tourism in an area, it is advisable to come up with a brand that will be associated with the destination. For instance, tourism in Vegas is enhances due to brand it created: "What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas". Attractive ads are made on trade fares so as to attract sellers and buyers from different places, to the destination. Sponsorship also helps in promoting and marketing tourism. This is through the creation of activities that the tourism industry can sponsor. The use of giveaways together with sponsored events that are associated with the brand of the tourism industry creates a good reputation for the industry. Each of these events has varied audience, and all these audience bring varied benefits to the destination. Sponsorship is possible by identifying and sponsoring events taking place in the region that have a direct association with the tourism destination. The use of online methods of promoting tourism has emerged with the development of technology. The use of customer review website and online booking methods have been used. In these, website pages are created to give information on the tourism destination. This page also provides the customer with options to book for the facilities they would like to use during the visit. This could include hotels, tour guide or means of travelling. This will make it easier for customers to access the destination. The page could also give the tourists that have been to the destination to give a review of the experiences they have had in this destination. The use of these two helps in the promotion of tourism. The effects of marketing and promoting tourism are the increase of tourists to the destination and increasing the number of people that know about the destination. This is because the methods of marketing and promotion used ensure that opinion about the destination is passed to other people, thus increasing the audience. This increase in tourism will ultimately lead to the increase of income along with other benefits that come with tourism. To conclude, the methods of marketing in tourism mentioned above have all significantly helped in the promotion of tourism. The use of social media in marketing is an excellent strategy that is bound to have positive effects on tourism and is thus encouraged. References McCabe, S., Foster, C., Li, Chunxiao, Nanda, B. 2011. The mobile revolution in tourism: Smartphone use and the visiting experience. Unpublished Discussion paper. Marketing division, University of Nottingham. Xiang, Z., and Gretzel, U. 2010. 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