dissertation - gabriella farrugia
TRANSCRIPT
The impact of social media on the lodging
performance of five star hotels in Malta
Gabriella Farrugia
A long essay submitted in part fulfillment of the requirements of the Degree of
Bachelor of Arts with Honors in Tourism Studies.
INSTITUTE FOR TOURISM, TRAVEL & CULTURE
May 2015
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Abstract
Although social media is being widely used in Malta, research on a national level is still
very limited. On an international level this is not the case where in the past few years’
social media was subject for many research, including studies and books which focus on
the use of social media in the hotel industry.
All five star hotels in Malta are active on social media and nine hotels interviewed while
conducting this research expressed the importance of social media within their hotel,
claiming that it provides the possibility for two way communication with both existing and
potential customers, which is not possible with most traditional media. Though is this
reflected in their practices? And is the investment resulting into actual returns? Therefore
this study seeks to discover how five star hotels in Malta are using social media and
whether they managed to measure their social media success. The researcher goes a step
further and tries to discover the effectiveness of five star hotel social media presence in
Malta.
This was completed by using a mixed method approach, meaning that both qualitative and
quantitative research methods were used. In-depth interviews were carried out with hotel
managers responsible for social media, while questionnaires were distributed to guests who
have both stayed in a five star hotel in Malta. Since the researcher researched both ends,
that is the consumer side and the producer side, some contradicting findings were revealed.
Some of which question choices being done by five star hotels when using social media,
which raise various opportunities for future research.
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Acknowledgements
To begin with I’d like to start by thanking my tutor Mr. Simon Caruana who has guided me
and encouraged me throughout this research, with great eagerness and patience. Obviously,
I show great appreciation towards the people who spared their valuable time and
contributed towards the compilation of all necessary data, which without this paper would
not have been completed.
Finally, I dedicate this long essay to my parents who have supported me throughout these
three years, my dear class friends who have made these three years worthwhile and my
sister who I admire so much for her career achievements.
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Table of Contents
ABSTRACT III
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS V
TABLE OF CONTENTS VI
LIST OF FIGURES VIII
LIST OF TABLES IX
LIST OF APPENDICES X
1. INTRODUCTION 1
1.1 SOCIAL MEDIA USE IN THE HOSPITALITY INDUSTRY 1
1.2 PROBLEM DISCUSSION 2
1.3 THE AIM AND OBJECTIVES OF THE RESEARCH 3
2 LITERATURE REVIEW 4
2.1. INTRODUCTION 4
2.2. DEFINING SOCIAL MEDIA 4
2.2.1. ORIGIN OF SOCIAL MEDIA 4
2.2.2. DEFINITIONS 7
2.3 HOTELS AND SOCIAL MEDIA 10
2.4 SOCIAL MEDIA STRATEGIES 12
2.5 SOCIAL MEDIA IN FIVE STAR HOTELS 14
2.6 EXITING SOCIAL MEDIA STUDIES ABOUT MALTA 15
2.7 CONCLUSION 18
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3 METHODOLOGY 20
3.1 SECONDARY RESEARCH 20
3.2 PRIMARY RESEARCH 21
3.2.1. CHOICE OF RESEARCH METHODS 21
3.1.1 INTERVIEWS 21
3.2.3 SURVEY QUESTIONNAIRES 23
3.2.4 SAMPLE FOR SURVEY QUESTIONNAIRES 23
3.3 DATA ANALYSIS 25
3.4 LIMITATIONS 25
3.5 ETHICAL CONSIDERATION 26
4 DATA ANALYSIS 27
4.1 INTERVIEWS 27
4.1.1 THE IMPORTANCE OF SOCIAL MEDIA IN FIVE STAR HOTELS 28
4.1.2 SOCIAL MEDIA STRATEGY IN FIVE STAR HOTELS 33
4.1.3 THE RETURN OF INVESTMENT FROM SOCIAL MEDIA 35
4.1.4 THE IMPACT OF SOCIAL MEDIA ON THE LODGING PERFORMANCE OF FIVE STAR HOTELS
IN MALTA 36
4.2 SURVEY QUESTIONNAIRES 38
4.2.1 DEMOGRAPHICS 39
4.4 COMPARISON OF SURVEY QUESTIONNAIRES WITH INTERVIEWS 45
5 CONCLUSION & RECOMMENDATIONS 48
5.1 CONCLUSION 48
5.2 RECOMMENDATIONS 49
5.2.1 EMPLOYEE PARTICIPATION 49
5.2.2 TRAINING IN THE STRATEGIC USE OF SOCIAL MEDIA 50
5.2.3 USING THE RIGHT PLATFORM FOR YOUR TARGET AUDIENCE 51
5.3 FUTURE RESEARCH DIRECTIONS 52
6 REFERENCES 53
7 APPENDICES 58
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List of Figures
FIGURE 2.1: SENSE OF WEB 2.0 BY EXAMPLES ___________________________________ 6
FIGURE 4.2: WORD CLOUD ABOUT THE MAIN REASONS WHY HOTELS STARTED USING SOCIAL
MEDIA_______________________________________________________________ 6
FIGURE 4.3: IN-HOUSE OR USING THE SERVICES OF A MARKETING AGENCY _____________ 6
FIGURE 4.4: WAS IT POSSIBLE TO CORRELATE THE HOTEL'S OCCUPANCY RATE TO THE
HOTEL'S PRESENCE ON SOCIAL MEDIA? ______________________________________ 6
FIGURE 4.5: AGE OF RESPONDENTS ___________________________________________ 6
FIGURE 4.6: NATIONALITIES _________________________________________________ 6
FIGURE 4.8: LEADING SOCIAL NETWORKS WORLDWIDE AS OF MARCH 2015 ____________ 6
FIGURE 4.7: WHICH SOCIAL MEDIA DO YOU USE? _________________________________ 6
FIGURE 4.9: WHEN CHOOSING A HOTEL HOW IMPORTANT IS IT FOR THAT IT USES SOCIAL
MEDIA? ______________________________________________________________ 6
FIGURE 4.10: DID YOU EVER COMMUNICATE WITH A HOTEL USING SOCIAL MEDIA? _______ 6
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List of Tables
TABLE 4.1: SOCIAL MEDIA PLATFORMS USED BY FIVE STAR HOTELS IN MALTA __________ 6
TABLE 4.2: NUMBER OF EMPLOYEES WITH ADMINISTRATOR RIGHTS FOR THE HOTELS' SOCIAL
MEDIA ACCOUNTS ______________________________________________________ 6
TABLE 4.3: AGE OF RESPONDENTS ____________________________________________ 6
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List of Appendices
APPENDIX 1: PILOT INTERVIEW QUESTIONS ____________________________________ 6
APPENDIX 2: INTERVIEW QUESTIONS __________________________________________ 6
APPENDIX 3: PILOT SURVEY QUESTIONNAIRES __________________________________ 6
APPENDIX 4: SURVEY QUESTIONNAIRES _______________________________________ 6
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CHAPTER ONE
1. Introduction
The following study seeks to explore two areas, the first takes form of an analysis of the use
of social media in five star hotels in Malta and the second part seeks to find a link between
the social media presence of five star hotels in Malta to the lodging performance. In this
first chapter one will find; an introduction to the subject matter, through which the reader
will understand what the researcher is implying when using the word social media and will
be able to get a better grasp of the study. Finally this chapter will also include the problem
being tackled through this research and the aim and objectives of the study.
1.1 Social Media use in the Hospitality Industry
Qualman (2010), describes the social media development as follows;
“From Main Street to Wall Street and from school rooms to board rooms”
The use of the above metaphor is very on point; Qualman is explaining how social media
moved up “From Main Street” which is a metaphor used to describe an economy made up
of local businesses which aims to create livelihoods. “To Wall Street” which is
characterized by very large global corporations with the main aim of making a lot of
profits. The second part of the sentence moves on to describe the movement of social media
from its use in our personal lives into the way we do business. Social Media is defined by
Jones (2009) as;
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“A category of online media where people are talking, participating, sharing, networking
and bookmarking online”. Social media has been defined by various researchers and expert,
though this will be discussed in more detail in the Literature Review chapter.
This social media evolution has strongly impacted the hospitality industry and social media
is becoming increasingly important, according to Pan and Crotts (2012) this happened due
to the nature of tourism products which are mostly composed of intangible elements and
based on experiences. In addition, technology today is gradually becoming more reachable
particularly to the average traveler, thus enabling them to contribute information online.
This development which happened over a short period of time and is ongoing is why social
media is referred to as a phenomenon which gave rise to countless amounts of studies,
including this one. This study focuses on the use of social media in five star hotel in Malta,
moreover it studies the link between hotel social media presence to lodging performance
i.e. the occupancy in a hotel.
1.2 Problem Discussion
All fifteen five star hotels in Malta are using social media; therefore five star hotels in
Malta are aware of the importance of social media in the hospitality industry. Social media,
being ultimately free makes it also very reachable by other hotel categorise such as; four
star hotels which offer cheaper prices. Therefore, this study seeks to explore how five star
hotels in Malta are using this new media in a five star manner. In addition, the researcher
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went a step further by studying the impact of social media presence to the lodging
performance of five star hotels in Malta.
1.3 The Aim and Objectives of the Research
Therefore, the aim of the following research is to discover how five star hotels are using
social media, to determine whether such use is affective and actually contributing in real
returns. In order, to reach this aim the researcher set the following objectives:
To discover the importance being given to social media in five star hotels in Malta,
through an analysis of various factors such as; employee investment and time
investment.
To research whether the use of social media in five star hotels in Malta is up to
international standards.
To identify the main social media platforms being used by five star hotels in Malta,
then comparing these platforms to the platforms being used by customers.
To find out whether social media goals being set by five star hotels in Malta are
actually being reached.
To find out whether there is a link between social media presence and the lodging
performance of five star hotels in Malta
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CHAPTER TWO
2 Literature Review
2.1. Introduction
Social media creates a platform where companies can showcase their product or service for
consumers and in return consumers are able to channel their feelings, energy, excitement or
anticipation regarding the product or service in the most convenient way. Though this is
only a fraction of what social media does and by far not a definition. This literature review
will cover the following areas; the origin of social media, the different definitions given to
social media as it developed and advanced in a short period of time, the relationship
between social media and hotels, the social media strategies used in hotels, the relationship
between five star hotels and social media and existing literature about social media in
Malta.
2.2. Defining Social Media
2.2.1. Origin of Social Media
The origin of social media is not clearly known due to its complexity, Boyd and Ellison
(2007) recognized SixDegrees.com as the first recognizable social networking site which
was launched in 1997. However, Taprial and Kanwar (2012) argued that before the
development of the World Wide Web social media was already present through other forms
which include features such as; logging in, in order to be able to upload or download
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software and exchanging messages with other users. All these features were present in the
Bulletin Board Systems (BBS) which was developed by Ward Christensen and was
launched in 1979. On the same year, 1979, in a different text Kaplan and Haenlein (2010)
mention software called Usernet as the beginning of social media.
Other individuals such as Dijck (2013) argue that Social Media was developed after the
progression to Web 2.0. This is due to the possibilities which Web 2.0 brought with it
which are characteristics found in social media today. Therefore, without such an
advancement of the web social media wouldn’t be possible, as Techterms.com states Web
2.0 technologies provide a level user interaction that was not available
before. Websites have become much more dynamic and interconnected, producing "online
communities" and making it even easier to share information on the Web. The similarities
can be easily noticed when one reads through section 2.2 of this literature review.
O’Reilly (2005) with MediaLive International put together their sense of Web 2.0 by
examples (which feature popular social media);
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Figure 2.1: Sense of Web 2.0 by examples
Source: O’Reilly with MediaLive International (2005)
If anyone continues to read into literature which documents social media before MySpace
and Facebook one would discover various other software which falls under this term.
Though most individuals behind these articles, journals and books like Kaplan and
Haenlein (2010) agree that it was the creation of MySpace (in 2003) and Facebook (in
2004) which actually coined the term ‘Social Media’ in the form of social networking sites.
Web 1.0
Web 2.0
DoubleClick --> Google AdSense
Ofoto --> Flickr
Akamai --> BitTorrent
mp3.com --> Napster
Britannica Online --> Wikipedia
personal websites --> blogging
evite --> upcoming.org and EVDB
domain name speculation --> search engine optimization
page views --> cost per click
screen scraping --> web services
publishing --> participation
content management systems --> wikis
directories (taxonomy) --> tagging ("folksonomy")
stickiness --> Syndication
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This reinforces the argument of Dijck (2013) which argues that social media began after the
progression of Web to Web 2.0 which happened in 2002.
Moving on to a more modern era, the advancement in internet connectivity such as WIFI
and 3G led to the invention of portable devices; which boosted social media to a whole new
level enabling users to access their social media accounts from wherever and whenever
they want to, as is argued by Christine (2014) from the Miami SEO Company. Applications
also took several steps forward from simple calendars and arcade games to the applications
which we have today. Although not all applications are social media, there are many names
which depend on the system for example; Instagram and Whatsapp both started off as
applications. This gives us an indication that applications have also been crucial for the
advancement of social media we see today. Therefore the element of mobility led to the
success that social media lives up to today.
2.2.2. Definitions
1. Boyd and Ellison (2007), social network sites are “web-based services that allow
individuals to (1) construct a public or semi-public profile within a bounded system, (2)
articulate a list of other users with whom they share a connection, and (3) view and
traverse their list of connections and those made by others within the system” (p. 211).
2. According to Merriam-Webster dictionary social media is defined as; “forms of
electronic communication through which users create online communities to share
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information, ideas, personal messages, and other content” (http://www.merriam-
webster.com/dictionary/social%20media).
3. Cambridge Dictionaries Online defines social media as follows, “forms of media that
allow people to communicate and share information using the internet or mobile
phones”.
4. Ron Jones (2009), “social media essentially is a category of online media where people
are talking, participating, sharing, networking and bookmarking online” (part 1).
5. Investopedia have the following definition for social media; “internet-based software
and interfaces that allow individuals to interact with one another, exchanging details
about their lives such as biographical data, professional information, personal photos
and up-to-the-minute thoughts” (http://www.investopedia.com/terms/s/social-
media.asp).
6. Oxford Dictionaries define social media as, “websites and applications that enable users
to create and share content or to participate in social networking”
(http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/social-media).
These definitions were listed in order to make both a comparison and also to show the
contrast between one and another. Identifying keywords which are frequently present in the
definitions above will help us to identify the main characteristics needed in a media so that
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it is considered as social media according to the above authors and companies. The first
keyword would be “share” which is present in 5 out of 6 defintions, this is obvious in our
daily use of social networks such as Facebook, YouTube, Twitter and other popular sites
where we are continuously sharing our personal details, opinions, ideas and anything which
would have caught our eyes while navigating.
Communication and connectivity are also important elements, without these two
characteristics the social tool would be useless as one would not be able to socialize with
other users. Social media enables users to communicate and connect with other users at any
distance in real time in simpler words; receiving your message, video, picture etcetera, at
that exact moment you have sent it (assuming good internet connection on both ends). A
clear example would be Skype, although Facebook also has the same concept though with
many more added frills.
Finally users, which without social media would not be successful, social media sites and
apps, depend on users without any users a social media platform would fail and close down.
This fourth element; “users”, combines all other keywords as it is the users which share
content and it is the users who communicate and connect. To conclude these keywords
highlight the similarities and links between Web 2.0 and Social Media as mentioned in
section 2.1.
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2.3 Hotels and Social Media
This third part of the literature review will focus on academic journals, articles and other
forms of existing literature which discusses the links between hotels and social media.
Halpern Lanz, Wiener Fischhof and Lee (2010) argue that those who ignore social media
stand to become irrelevant. This statement is reflective to most articles we find online
presently. But should hotels or any other business just dive into the world of social media
just because a lot of organisations are doing so?
In an article written in 2013, the Hotel Managers Group (2013) acknowledge social media
as a tool for hotel success but put emphasis on the importance of commitment and effort
which is needed to succeed. Therefore the article states that the most important rule of
social media marketing is: not to become involved with it unless you frequently have
something new and interesting to say. This is essential if the organisation would like to
keep and increase followers.
Halpern Lanz et al. (2010) also conducted a study of the use of social media by
international hotel brands. They highlight innovative ways how international hotel brands
are using social media, some examples are the following; InterContinental Hotels had
partnered with Communispace and created private online communities for their IHG
loyalty program. This way through social marketing InterContinental managed to put loyal
customers at the center of everything. Another example given is that of Hilton Hotels,
where fans of any Hilton Caribbean hotel can download a $50 resort credit redeemable at
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check-in. The journal gives further examples highlighting that besides these innovative
ideas these hotels use social networks such as Facebook, Linkedln and Twitter. These are
both examples on how hotels find ways to increase and retain their followers in the hope
that it will consequently increase their hotel visitors.
This leads us to the conclusion that social media for a hotel can have many roles and not
only in marketing. Social media unlike any other media used for marketing gives you the
chance to communicate with your existing and potential customers on a very direct level.
Two way communication is not possible with traditional media such as adverts in
newspapers, on television et cetera. An early attempt of two way communication in a hotel
was through the surveys given at the end of the stay and later the collection of email
addresses.
Like any other department within a hotel the social media department has to be in line with
the hotel’s vision, strategy and company values. Therefore a strategy must be created which
aims to reach the hotel’s vision, strategy and value as social media showcases the hotel, not
only the building but also the atmosphere and character. Though, this will be discussed
further in the next chapter.
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2.4 Social Media Strategies
According to the BusinessDictionary.com a strategy is a plan chosen to bring about a
desired future, such as the achievement of a goal or the solution to a problem. A lot of
businesses use social media as a marketing tool, therefore in some cases social media is
implemented into the marketing strategy. According to Entrepreneur (2006), it is known
that a marketing strategy is a result of a meticulous market analysis. Nowadays, due to its
growing complexity, a lot of organisations are opting to create a separate strategy i.e. a
social media strategy. Using social media without having a direction might be destructive
and DH Bond argues that the first step in creating a social media strategy is to have
relatively clear objectives of what you want to accomplish by using social media. Below I
will be discussing and comparing some strategy examples used by marketing companies
and social media experts.
The first social media strategy is by Convince and Convert Digital Marketing Advisors
which they work with. This particular guide encourages organisations to be more authentic
and less digital, Baer (2012) the author of the article recommends that; Companies should
focus more on how to BE social, and less on how to DO social media. Hootsuite University
gives us a more technical process of creating a social media strategy in five steps;
Clarify your business’ social media goals
Audit your current social media status
Develop your content strategy
Use analytics to track progress
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Adjust your strategy as needed
LaPage (2014), stresses on the importance of having a plan; you can’t just “wing it”
anymore. When so much of your business is now influenced, even dependent, on your
social media success, having a plan is essential. The third strategy by Inc.com, similar to
Convince and Convert, gives a more placid approach where replying to tweets and
comments, sharing personal experiences, authenticity and being grateful are few of the tips
given by Kerpen (2013). Rampton (2014) on Forbes.com took a different method by listing
six reasons why social media strategies fail. Although the idea is similar to that of
Hootsuite University but the other way round, where Rampton takes a technical approach
and stresses on points such as;
Values Don’t Match
Not Consistent
Misunderstanding How Social Media Really Works
Not Providing Anything Different
Shouting not Listening
Lack of Monitoring and Measuring
There are countless strategies available, mostly due to the fact that social media is still very
new especially when it comes to using it strategically in a business. Therefore experts,
business professionals, academics and so on are still discovering new ways of using social
media mostly coming from their own personal experience. Nevertheless, most of the
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strategies do have common ideas, though after analyzing a number of strategies one can
observe that some are more technical than others, while others are not technical at all.
2.5 Social Media in Five Star Hotels
Five star hotels are associated with luxury and besides providing accommodation to guests
they thrive to create a memorable experience. Soler (2011), claims that more than any other
type of hotels, social media is for luxury. The reason behind his claim is that with a social
media campaign one would make the dream a little more real to the potential guest.
Through various charts, five star hotels always classified on top of having the best
campaigns in various charts such as Top Hotels for Social Media Lovers (2014) and Social
Hotel Awards by HOTELS magazine (2013). Few of the most successful five star
international hotels mentioned are; Four Seasons Hotels & Resorts and The Ritz-Carlton
Hotel Company. Mayle (2013), conducted a study about luxury travelers focusing on
America and one important finding was that TripAdvisor holds a greater share of reviews
for luxury hotels (53.1%) than for non-luxury hotels (39.2%).
Another aspect which links social media and five star hotels was the movement from mass
tourism to a more tailored stay; this is due to people in this day and age seeking
individualisation. What is individualisation? Individualisation is when you discriminate an
individual from a generic group, in our case tourists. A level of individualisation is being
reached in five star hotels with social media, not through advertisement but through direct,
individual replies on various networks such as; TripAdvisor, Twitter and Facebook. Loews
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spokeswoman Christina VerHeu said; “Social media is a great tool for us to personalize
their experience and make them feel special during their stay.” International five star
luxury hotels are striving to achieve customer personalization and individualisation, Sorya
Ingrid Gaulin, Four Seasons’ director of social media and publicity claims that they have a
24/7 monitoring system and that they have marching orders to answer to complaints within
4 hours. Do five star hotels in Malta and Gozo have the same standards?
Vining (2012) argues that five stars hotels have a slight advantage on four star hotels and
less when it comes to social media, because the luxury brand hotels would make a bigger
impression and create more social media buzz when the guest shares. Since the amenities
found in such hotels won’t be found in 4 star or less hotels, thus they'll be worth sharing
with a social network, with the hope that the user’s followers will recognize and respect
their ability to consume such unique experiences.
2.6 Exiting Social Media studies about Malta
Social media is a relatively new phenomenon around the world and in Malta it is no
exception. In Malta one can observe an imbalance in the use of social media, and even
though apps such as Instagram, Whatsapp and Pinterest are gaining popularity, Facebook
still remains noticeably at the top, being used by both businesses and individuals. This is
very evident when compared to the micro blogging site Twitter, which in other countries is
widely used, according to a study carried out by Ballve (2013) for the Business Insider
which shows us that Twitter has more users than LinkedIn, Instagram or Pinterest.
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Therefore on this note the following lines will focus on existing social media studies
already carried out on Malta;
In 2013 Eurostat, the statistical office of the European Union, published a study on ICT
usage in enterprises in 2013 including all 28 member countries. The general outcome on a
European Union scale was that 30% of enterprises were using social media in 2013.
According to Eurostat in 2013 Malta has the largest percentage of social media usage
among the twenty eight members, at 55%. Though this does not mean that all the Maltese
enterprises are using social media in the best way, in fact according to Eurostat Malta has a
share of only 14% when it comes to enterprises having a formal policy for using social
media for their business. Other results from this study show that Malta holds a top ranking
when it comes to social networking sites (52%), while as commented above it has a low
score (12%) when it comes to blogs or micro blogs like Twitter.
The next study was carried out on a national level by Misco, with eighty nine participating
businesses, including businesses from the hospitality industry. The study concluded that
84% of the eighty nine participants use social media. As commented in the first paragraph
in this section, this study proves that Facebook is still the most widely used social media
networking website in Malta by businesses followed by LinkedIn and YouTube. This study
carried out by Misco also goes into details such as the impact of social media on retaining
current customers and acquiring new customers, and also measuring the return on
investment, where 38% consider it rather difficult to determine. This study will be of great
interest in order to compare the data gathered from five star hotels in Malta and Gozo.
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These studies show us how Maltese businesses favour Facebook to other social media
websites and apps, though not popular in Malta does not mean not popular abroad! This
study deals with the hotel industry where the main target audience is not local Maltese
people but rather tourists, therefore hotels should choose the social media they will be using
according to the audience they are targeting and not according to the trends within the
location country.
The Malta Tourism Authority published a report regarding Future Employment
Opportunities (2011), this report had aspects which are relevant for this study. In many
instances the authors, EMCS Consortium, make reference to social media and new
technologies not only as a national employment opportunity for all industries, but even on
more specific terms in the hotel/catering industry where one of the skills needed was found
to be; using new technology to communicate with customers. Another discovery by this
report was how ICT in general, which also includes social media, has facilitated
considerably communication. Finally on a more direct note, the report determined through
interviews how most accommodation entities in Malta understand the magnitude of the
influence of ICT and online marketing on their business, indicating the importance of
online presence and the constant increase in online sales bookings.
Such report and its strong acknowledgement of social media by the EMCS Consortium,
which also includes the MTA, is a clear sign of the growing importance of new media in
Maltese businesses and the need of professionals in social media.
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2.7 Conclusion
Social media is constantly evolving, with the creation of new social networking sites, new
apps and new innovative ways of socializing through new technological inventions. This is
very much evident in both the history of social media and the many dynamic definitions
available. LinkedIn was the starting point for many businesses in social media engagement
and this also applies to Hotels, though this rapidly shifted to other social media networking
websites such as Facebook.
Today it is very evident that although social media has rapidly picked it is still a mystery
how businesses plan their social media interactions with their followers, thus showing us
that many of which are blindly jumping into this social media trend, which to some or to
several is still very much unknown. When speaking about businesses, hotels are also
included though obviously their approach to social media is very different as stressed
earlier since they mostly rely on the foreign market unlike other local businesses.
Although one cannot generalise, hotels all over the world have proven to be great users of
social media, inventing new ways on how to interact with their followers, hoping to entice
them to choose their hotel. Malta is also picking up to this trend when it comes to the
hospitality industry, though lack of studies and interest on the matter have resulted into a lot
of confusion and void. A great example of innovative ways how five star hotels in Malta
are using social media is “Twitter by the Pool” at the Corinthia St George’s Bay where
guests instead of leaving their deck chairs to order a cool cocktail they can just tweet their
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order which will be than delivered by a hotel employee. This was also featured in
Greenhalgh’s book HOTELS: Best Social Media Practices Guide (2014).
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CHAPTER THREE
3 Methodology
The aim of this chapter is to outline the research approach and techniques used in the
development of this long essay, most importantly the explanation of the data collection
phase and the data analysis chapter. Various research techniques were analysed in order to
utilise the most relevant approach to the nature of this study. The following methodology
will cover the following areas: secondary research and primary research which will include
choice of research methods, sample for interviews, interviews, sample for survey
questionnaires and survey questionnaires.
3.1 Secondary Research
This research presents a balance between secondary research and primary research, where
primary research was crucial to answer the research question. On the other hand secondary
research provided further probing on the subject and also supported the primary research, as
presented in both the Literature Review chapter and the Data Analysis chapter. Due to the
lack of Maltese literature on social media secondary research was also obtained through
international literature mostly British and American. This was done through the use of
various researches and studies found in books, academic journals, articles and on the
internet. These were all rightly referenced in acknowledgement to the author.
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3.2 Primary Research
3.2.1. Choice of Research Methods
The key findings of this study were established using a mixed method that is using both
qualitative and quantitative research. Qualitative research was used due lack of studies on
the subject on a national level as discovered through the literature review; therefore
qualitative research would give the opportunity to investigate in much more detail helping
the researcher to get the utmost information about the subject matter.
Qualitative research was carried out through the use of in-depth interviews with employees
within the hotels who are responsible for social media. This was done due to the reason that
this research paper examines the situation of social media from the hotel’s point of view,
unlike studies such as the one done by Professor Chris Anderson from Cornell’s Center for
Hospitality which measured the impact of Social Media on Lodging Performance through
the potential customers which visit TripAdvisor.
3.1.1 Interviews
As mentioned above interviews were completed in order to explore and discover further
information about social media. The interviews were carried out with five star hotel
employees which are in-charge of the hotel’s social media presence. According to the Malta
Tourism Authority Edition 2014 Statistics presently in Malta there are fifteen hotels which
are listed as five star hotels. From fifteen hotels, nine hotels were successfully interviewed
22
using two different methods; one to one session and due to limitations such as busy
schedules; interviews were also sent via email. One to one sessions was the best method as
it provided the researcher with much more detail.
In order to ensure that all important points were covered during the in-depth interviews
seventeen questions were written down, the design of the interview covers the following
areas:
The importance of social media in five star hotels
Social media strategy in five star hotels
The return of investment from social media
The impact of social media on hotel overall revenue
The impact of social media on the lodging performance of five star hotels in
Malta
The questions were checked and a pilot interview was carried out, changes included;
adding more open ended questions to avoid yes and no answers and the use of better
technical words, since the interviewees were all professionals. Copies of the interview
questions before and after the pilot are to be found in the Appendix chapter of this long
essay.
23
3.2.3 Survey Questionnaires
On the other hand, quantitative methods were used as they helped to reinforce or contradict
results obtained from qualitative research i.e. in-depth interviews with the hotel employees.
This part of the research further helped to answer the research question. The quantitative
data was collected through an online short survey made accessible to non-Maltese and
Maltese people who have stayed in a Maltese hotel. A pilot questionnaire was conducted
and minor changes were implemented; the use of likert scale and a change of syntax in
question five. Copies of the survey questionnaires before and after the pilot are to be found
in the Appendix chapter of this long essay.
3.2.4 Sample for Survey Questionnaires
The population which is significant for this long essay is that of the total number of beds in
five star hotels in Malta and Gozo: 7,210 beds. This was established using the Malta
Tourism Authority Edition 2014 Statistics. This resulted into a sample of 147 respondents
selected from the population of 7,210 beds stated above, which guarantees a maximum
confidence margin of error of 8% assuming a 95% confidence level.
The profile which was targeted to answer the questionnaire was;
Age <18 - >60
Location Both Maltese and non-Maltese people
Table 3.1: Respondents Profile
24
Such a large age bracket was integrated as individuals are able to create a social media
account at the age of 13, therefore if a person under the age of 18 does come to a holiday in
Malta and stays in a Maltese hotel with family or adult friends, he or she can still have
access to the hotels Facebook, Twitter account et cetera or can still have an impact on the
hotel through the use of social media. As per location both Maltese and non-Maltese were
considered, although the hotel industry depends heavily on tourists, locals do visit five star
hotels both for overnights and to dine.
This sample was collected through two social media channels, Twitter and Facebook.
Facebook; to ensure that respondents had visited Malta specific groups were targeted such
as;
Malta Holiday Experiences -
https://www.facebook.com/groups/MaltaHolidays/
MALTESE PEOPLE AROUND THE WORLD -
https://www.facebook.com/groups/maltesepeoplearoundtheworld/?ref=brow
ser
Paradise Diving Malta -
https://www.facebook.com/groups/115712895120659/?ref=browser
MALTA LOVE -
https://www.facebook.com/groups/563218783744527/?ref=browser
Golden Bay Malta -
https://www.facebook.com/groups/347037795370448/?ref=browser
25
Restaurants in Malta – The Good, The Bad, The Rip-Offs -
https://www.facebook.com/groups/restaurantsinmalta/
Españoles en Paceville (MALTA) -
https://www.facebook.com/groups/172988329483064/?ref=browser
On the other hand a more direct approach was taken when using Twitter by using hash tags
such as; #holiday #Malta and #hotel, this lead to the identification of individuals which
have tweeted about their stay in one of the five star hotels in Malta or Gozo.
3.3 Data Analysis
The interviews were analysed using the answers given via email or through the notes taken
during the interview. On the other hand, survey questionnaires were analysed with the help
of surveymonkey.net. Any answers which stood out from the rest of the responses from
both the interviews and the questionnaires will be quoted and analysed.
3.4 Limitations
While conducting this study the researcher encountered various limitations which restricted
the amount of research which could be carried out. Firstly, both the period of time given to
carry out the research and the word count limit of 10,000 words have restricted the amount
26
of primary data collected. Therefore, such a limitation has lead to a smaller sample size,
which prohibited the researcher to carry out a more detailed and accurate analysis.
Finally, due to the busy schedules of hotel managers some of the interviews had to be
carried out through emails and it was observed that when carrying out face-to-face
interviews much more detail was given by the interviewee as opposed to interviews carried
out using emails.
3.5 Ethical Consideration
Ethical considerations were given a lot of significance throughout the completion of this
long essay and thus names of both interviewees and hotels are kept anonymous. In addition,
this research is more of an overall analysis of the situation regarding social media in five
star hotels in Malta, rather than a comparison between one Maltese five star hotel and
another.
27
CHAPTER FOUR
4 Data Analysis
The following chapter, analyses all primary data collected in the following order;
interviews, survey questionnaires and finally an additional part which will tie the two
analyses together. All these parts will be compared to the findings of the Literature Review
chapter giving a better flow and understanding from chapter to chapter.
4.1 Interviews
As explained previously in the Methodology chapter interviews were successfully done,
carried out with nine out of fifteen five star hotels in Malta and Gozo. In order to analyse
these interviews they were broken down under four topics, which are:
4.1.1. The importance of social media in five star hotels
4.1.2. Social media strategy in five star hotels
4.1.3. The return of investment from social media
4.1.4. The impact of social media on the lodging performance of five star hotels in
Malta
28
4.1.1 The importance of social media in five star hotels
The figure below illustrates how long the interviewed five star hotels have been using
social media, with the y-axis representing the number of years and the x-axis representing
the hotels. Results range from 11 years to 3 years, though one cannot compare one hotel to
another since the hotels where all opened on different years. Though, the use of social
media for the last 11 years in Hotel 4 can be seen as a benchmark for social media use not
only in hotels but also in businesses on a national level.
Figure 4.1: How long has the hotel been using social media?
To get a better understanding the hotels were asked which social media platforms they use
and the results are illustrated in the following page. It is also interesting to note that all
hotels have claimed that the first platform they started with was Facebook. Other platforms
were mentioned by the hotels; Flickr, Wordpress Blog and LinkedIn, these fall under the
Other caption.
0
2
4
6
8
10
12
H1 H2 H3 H4 H5 H6 H7 H8 H9
29
Table 4.1: Social media platforms used by five star hotels in Malta
Facebook Twitter Instagram Pinterest YouTube Google+ Other
H1 X X X X X X
H2 X X X
H3 X X
H4 X X X X X
H5 X X X X
H6 X X X
H7 X X X
H8 X X X X X X
H9 X X X X X X X
30
All interviewed hotels classified social media as being very important for their hotel, most
respondents justified their classifications by arguing that social media enables two way
communication unlike any other media. This ties well with the link created in the Literature
Review chapter where it was said that through social media one can create individualisation,
where the hotel can discriminate an individual from a generic group. In other words a tourist is
seperated from the rest of the tourists, in order to interact on a business-to-peer level. This is
above all applicable to five star hotels as five star hotels are moving away from mass tourism and
try to give tourist a more tailored stay, and this can be also achieved through social media. This
is defined very well by Gazarian (2014), “Each engagement with a guest is its own unique
interaction. Each social media touch point is an opportunity to grow a relationship and foster a
deeper connection with The Ritz-Carlton.”
Figure 4.2: Word Cloud about the main reasons why hotels started using social media
Created using: http://tagcrowd.com/
The above word cloud was created by inputting all answers obtained from question 5 (What are
the main reasons why the management team decided to start using social media?) into a special
program available online. The word cloud includes the most common words used by hotel
31
managers. Such illustration is easy to analyse where one can note that social media is seen by
five star hotels as an important marketing and advertising tool to promote their company i.e.
hotel to their clients. Four out of nine hotels commented on the fact that social media enables
direct contact with customers, with a great description by Hotel 4; “In order to create a more
personalized engagement with our customer, hence more effective promotion both through direct
promotional information and engagement information.” It seems as five star hotels in Malta do
recognise the benefits from using social media, but are they making effective use of the medias
full potential?
This leads us to the following set of data where respondents were asked the number of
employees which have administrator rights for the hotels’ social media accounts. The answers
were the following;
Table 4.2: Number of employees with administrator rights for the hotels' social media accounts
Hotel No. of employees
Hotel 1 2
Hotel 2 2
Hotel 3 1
Hotel 4 2
Hotel 5 6
Hotel 6 2
Hotel 7 2
Hotel 8 1
Hotel 9 4
32
In addition to Table 4.1, conflicting arguments were raised during the interviews where several
respondents agreed that one employee should have full control in order to maintain both
standards and consistency. In contrast, Hotel 8 expressed that they would like to implement
employee participation, especially in hours when the one person with administor rights is not in
the office. Kaplan and Haenlein (2010) argue, that a possible approach is to appoint groups of
employees whose primary objective would be that of managing the company’s social media,
while all other employees are treated as occasional participants. Employee participation is
possible and many international companies are adopting such strategy unlike five star hotels in
Malta. An example of employee participation is @HiltonSuggests on Twitter, where Hilton
employees tweet suggestions to travellers around the world, described as the second type of
concierge.
The limited amount of employees which are able to access and manage the social media
platforms in the five star hotels interviewed lead to various issues, for example in Hotel 8 the
interviewee claimed that in order to keep up he has to access the platforms even during the
weekend when he’s not in the office. In fact when the respondents were asked how often the
social media accounts are accessed; 4 out of 9 respondents said that they access all accounts
daily, while 4 hotels including Hotel 8 stressed that they access social media a lot! Whereas,
Hotel 5 although having the largest amount of employees who can access social media (refer to
figure 4.3) admit that although Facebook is accessed every day the other social media which
include Twitter, Pinterest and Instagram (refer to figure 4.2) are only accessed about once or
twice a week.
33
4.1.2 Social media strategy in five star hotels
The hotels were asked two questions one with regards to the hotel’s social media strategy and
another one about the hotel’s contents plan. Some hotels showed a level of confusion when
answering these questions as the distinction between the two seemed unclear. In other words, for
some hotels a social media strategy and a content plan are interchangeable. A social media
strategy is a more holistic concept and according to Lardi and Fuchs (2013) it includes having a
clear target audience and having business objectives for social media use. On the other hand, a
content plan is just a content plan, which is a part of the social media strategy but not the social
media strategy. According to Lepage (2014) the company’s social media strategy should include
a content plan, containing of strategies for content creation, content curation and an editorial
calendar.
In fact hotel 5 understands this distinction and argued that, they discuss what needs to be
advertised the most with the heads of departments and plan according to the target audience.
When asked about the contents plan hotel 5 answered in the following manner, We first see the
festive days for the year and plan content around them and then fill in our content, which
depends on what is trending and if anything special is happening at the hotels. Conversely, hotel
7 argue that they have a monthly strategy for Facebook and Twitter, in addition they have an
annual plan for any competitions and creating relations between different channels. Though,
when asked about the hotel’s content plans he argued that this is the same as described in
Question 11, which is the question regarding the hotel’s social media strategy. Important remarks
emerged while discussing social media strategy, such as the separation of the international and
34
the local marketing, where hotel 9 takes a different approach when targeting the local market
where it focuses more on food & beverage and fitness.
Figure 4.3: In-house or using the services of a marketing agency
Figure 4.3 explains that three out of nine hotels interviewed stated that they carry out all their
social media strategy and content plan in-house, while six out of nine hotels do seek assistances
when needed. Though none of the hotels rely exclusively on the services of a marketing agency.
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
In-house Agency Both
35
4.1.3 The return of investment from social media
According to Gilfoil and Jobs (2012) the rate of investment (ROI) of social media (SM) has been
broadly discussed in various publications. Through a study of these publications Gilfoil and Jobs
(2012) pp. 639 summarized the findings in the following range of views:
SM ROI cannot be measured; attempts to do so are folly or near impossible
SM ROI can be measured – but should be defined or specified in a certain way
SM ROI can be measured – but only in financial terms
SM ROI can be measured – but should be part of a larger, contextual framework
or system
SM ROI can readily be measured without much difficulty
Therefore, where do five star hotels in Malta stand? All nine hotels interviewed agreed that
social media does give a level of measurable return on investment. With eight out of nine hotels
agreeing that this is mostly possible through Facebook. Hotel 8 measured their return of
investment through the amount of interactions i.e. through likes and comments et cetera, though
this can be classified under another title which is return on engagement (ROE), according to
Wetzel (2008), as engagement is the new awareness and ROE is the new ROI. Though she
moves on to say that ROI should not disappear, but as long as the economy puts sour, doubtful
faces on every consumer, it's more important than ever to look at those faces, and engage with
each and every one of them.
36
4.1.4 The impact of social media on the lodging performance of five star hotels in Malta
According to Buhalis (2003), the impact of new technologies has been acknowledged not only
on marketing but also on selling levels. When the hotels were asked whether they think that
social media has a direct impact on the hotels’ overall revenue Hotel 8 argued that this is mostly
possible through TripAdvisor and Booking.com, but eventually if people like what they see they
move on to the other platforms. The same argument was raised by Hotel 6 and Hotel 7, hence
implying that to a certain extent social media does have an impact on consumer booking
behavior which would hopefully lead to the consumer choosing the particular hotel and hence
contributing to the hotels revenue.
Unfortunately, as Xian and Gretzel (2010) argue that although social media are becoming
increasingly important in the online tourism field, there still seems to be a lack of practical data
describing and explaining the role of social media in the context of online travel information
search. Therefore this explains the uncertainty of five star hotels when answering this particular
question where 3 out of 9 answered with a simple yes but were not able to explain their answer,
while one hotel choose not to answer this particular question.
37
Figure 4.4: Was it possible to correlate the hotel's occupancy rate to the hotel's presence on social
media?
Figure 4.4 illustrates that none of the five star hotels interviewed were able to correlate the
hotel’s occupancy rate to the hotel’s presence on social media. On an international level
according to Anderson (2012) pp.5, there is an absence of a comprehensive attempt to quantify
the impact of social media upon the lodging performance as measured by bookings, occupancy
and revenue. Anderson moves on to try and quantify such impact but similar to Question 16
(impact of social media on hotel revenue) he does this through TripAdvisor.
TripAdvisor describes itself as a travel site which provides reviews of travel related content.
Although, lately it has applied various changes such as; a function which ties it to Facebook and
in addition now has its own forum, as discussed by Erwin (2012). In fact many studies do
categorize TripAdvisor as a social media with Miguens, Baggio and Costa (2008), referring to
TripAdvisor as a travel networking website. Such indecisiveness on the matter is reflected in the
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
Yes No
38
responses given by five star hotels. Hotel 5 stated that they managed to estimate an approximate
correlation between the occupancy rate and their presence on social media, through the use of
guest feedback forms. However, Hotel 4 claimed that the hotel occupancy rate derives from
different business segments and that it does effect but not to that extent.
4.2 Survey Questionnaires
As stated in the methodology this research was conducted using a mixed method, therefore apart
from the interviews which were already discussed the researcher also conducted survey
questionnaires. The survey questionnaires will be analysed in the following section.
39
4.2.1 Demographics
In terms of demographics two questions were asked these are the respondents’ age and
nationality. These are both important factors, age is an important factor to analyse since social
media has for a long time been associated with a younger generation. On the other hand,
nationality is important in order to analyse to observe whether different nationalities favour a
particular platform over another.
Figure 4.5: Age of respondents
40
The survey questionnaire was targeted specifically at hotel guests therefore this explains the
large number of respondents which fall under the age brackets 30-44 and 45-59, especially since
the research focuses on five star hotels. The results are illustrated in the table below;
Table 4.3: Age of Respondents
As the researcher stated in the Methodology chapter the surveys were carried using an online
survey creator and eventually collected through the social media platform Facebook. Therefore
this is an automatic indication that all respondents use social media, hence this proves that social
media today is used by different generations and not only the young.
Age No. of Respondents
<18 1
18 - 29 26
30 - 44 40
45 - 59 49
>60 30
41
It is very evident that the largest
amount of respondents are
Maltese and British. According to
MTA (2014), the total number of
inbound tourists which came to
Malta from the United Kingdom
in 2013 amounted to 454,649,
making the UK the top source
market in 2013. Therefore this
explains the large representation
of the UK within this research,
which has shown to be the most
cooperative.
Figure 4.6: Nationalities
In addition the local market is a very important market for five star hotels in Malta as claimed by
various hotels interviews, most importantly in the shoulder months where hotels are able to
retain a certain level of income through food and beverage outlets open for locals. In addition,
locals also do like to enjoy a weekend in a hotel every once in a while.
42
Figure 4.8: Leading social networks worldwide as of March
2015
Figure 4.7: Which social media do you use?
Facebook, as demonstrated by figure 4.8, is the social media
platform with most active users and this is also reflected in this
research with all nine hotels being aware of that. The questionnaire
also had an Other option where other social media platforms were
mentioned such as; SnapChat, Pinterest, WordPress, Skype,
YouTube and Flickr. Source : statista (2015)
43
Figure 4.9: When choosing a hotel how important is it for that it uses social media?
From the above figure it is very important to note the level of distribution of the data. In the
Literature Review chapter it was discussed that those who ignore social media stand to become
irrelevant, Halpern Lanz, Wiener Fischhof and Lee (2010). On the other hand figure 4.9
44
contradicts such statement as 33 respondents argued that it is not at all important that a hotel has
a social media presence.
Figure 4.10: Did you ever communicate with a hotel using social media?
The above figure shows that 83 out of 147 questionnaire respondents have communicated with a
hotel using social media, although this accounts to an approximate 57% the number of
respondents who never communicated to a hotel using social media it is still very high
amounting to 62 respondents.
Finally respondents were asked how they feel when a hotel uses social media to keep in contact
with them after their stay. Most comments were positive but a number of respondents expressed
that they prefer if this is done through an email stating that it is more private, such method have
now been practised by hotel for a long time. Though, the use of social media in this aspect can
still be kept private through the use of private a message which is featured on most social media
platforms. Comments which stood out are the following:
45
Respondent #31: Many 5 Star Hotels will send you a Guest Satisfaction Survey via mail days
after your departure. I find this to be a bit careless. GSS should be collected from the guest
room 2 days prior departure therefore it gives you time to clarify any pending negative
issues/comments/experience that the guest might have encountered during the stay. In 5 Star
it happened that I also got to receive a post 'Thank You' for staying with us a kind of thing
and that's very positive. All in all I think that Social media may be a very effective marketing
tool.
Respondent #51: I think it would help to have direct contact with the hotel especially if you
have booked it through a travel agent
Respondent #63: Good customer relations. I wasn't just a number, my opinion counts!
Respondent #118: No problem I get a Christmas Card message every year from a hotel we
stayed at few years ago
Respondent #125: Not really into hotels spamming me... So I’m not really into them
contacting me after my stay. Especially since they’re easily contactable if I ever need
anything.
Respondent #131: If the contact is not "invasive" it is fine.
4.4 Comparison of Survey Questionnaires with Interviews
Although various interesting views emerged from the survey questionnaires they were
fundamentally carried out in order to be able to see the contradictions and agreements between
the hoteliers and customers on the subject matter.
46
As discussed on figure 4.7 interviewed hotels are aware of the importance of Facebook as proven
from the questionnaires and nine out of nine hotels. An interesting finding from figure 4.7 was
the popularity of Google+ which ranked 2nd right after Facebook, it is very important to note that
only three five star hotels make use of this platform. A more in-depth analysis shows that
Google + is very popular in the United Kingdom which is a main source market for Malta this is
also proven by Supermonitoring.com which ranks the UK 4th after the USA, India and Brazil.
Google+ is also ranked 2nd in the world according to figure 4.
With regards to figure 4.10, where respondents were asked whether they ever communicated to a
hotel through social media, the researcher analysed that 42% of respondents never
communicated to a hotel through their social media profiles. However, none of the hotels
expressed any type of concern regarding lack of engagement from customers during interviews.
To conclude, figure 4.9 illustrates a distributed level of data with 31 respondents arguing that a
hotel having a social media presence is extremely important for them when choosing a hotel and
34 respondents argued it is very important. On the other hand, 35 respondents argued it is
moderately important, 14 respondents said it is slightly important, while 33 respondents claimed
that it is not at all important. When comparing this data to Section 4.14 (The impact of social
media on the lodging performance of five star hotels in Malta ) one can conclude that even
through the sample of 147 respondents collected by the researcher, one can note a level of
uncertainty of whether social media has a direct impact on the occupancy rate through the
distribution of data. Yet, the 65 respondents which value a hotel’s social media presence when
47
choosing a hotel sustain the answers that the interviewed hotels gave where it was argued that
social media does pose an impact on customer booking behavior.
48
CHAPTER FIVE
5 Conclusion & Recommendations
5.1 Conclusion
When the researcher was conducting this study it was noted that both international and national
literature and research on social media is on the increase, though nationally this is occurring at a
much slower rate. Though, in Malta such an increase is mostly noted at a general level i.e.
overall studies of the use of social media in businesses, but when this research was conducted
research on social media use in the hospitality industry it was still found to be very limited. This
provided the researcher with great opportunities when it came to the collection of primary data as
the reader can observe in the Data Analysis chapter. Therefore, through this research the
researcher was able to come up with the following conclusions;
1 A situational analysis of the use of social media in five star hotels which determined the
following findings;
Social media is very important for five star hotels
Social media is mainly seen as a tool which enables two way communication between
five star hotels and their existing and potential customers
Five star hotels are not as yet using social media to its full potential
An unclear distinction between a social media strategy and a social media content
plan was noted
49
Five star hotels in Malta are able to measure the social media return of investment
Five star hotels in Malta are not yet able to correlate the hotel’s occupancy rate to the
hotel’s social media presence
2 Facebook is still the most popular social media platform but Google+ is seen to be
gaining popularity surpassing Twitter. This is not only perceived through international
studies but also through the sample collected by the researcher. However, only three five
star hotels in Malta have Google+ accounts.
3 It was determined that although it is very hard to establish whether or not social media
has an impact on the occupancy rate, social media does have an impact on customer
booking behavior which eventually can lead to an affect on a hotel’s occupancy rate,
though this is not yet proven.
5.2 Recommendations
Based on the Data Analysis and the above conclusions the researcher proposes the following
recommendations;
5.2.1 Employee Participation
Through the interviews conducted the researcher was made aware that although five star hotels
consider social media as very important, this is not reflected upon the number of employees
50
being invested into social media, where marketing managers are left struggling to keep up with
engagements (refer to section 4.1.1 in the Data Analysis chapter).
Hence, the researcher recommends a system which allows a selected number of employees to be
able to monitor social media at times when the employee responsible for social media is not in
the office. A practical example can be the participation of the front office department which is
open 24/7, obviously the employees would require training and boundaries to what and what not
the employee is able to do must be set.
5.2.2 Training in the strategic use of social media
Through the interviews with hotels the researcher discovered a lack of ability to distinguish
between a social media strategy and a social media content plan. As already discussed in the
Data Analysis chapter section 4.1.2, although using social media strategically is still a very fresh
practice the distinction between the two is still present in some literature (refer to section 4.1.2 in
the Data Analysis chapter). Social media has changed the way companies are marketing and
advertising their product and service, hotel 4 argues, the media of advertising is changing
drastically. The majority of advertising is done online, and social media is a large part of this. In
fact, one can note a change in job requirements for the position of marketing manager in Malta or
the emergence of new positions such as social media executives or digital marketing managers.
Education in Social Media is still a very controversial topic, although many universities and
institutes around the world even in Malta offer courses, degrees and even recently various
universities have introduced master degrees. Various experts oppose the idea of getting
51
education in social media, as seen in the following examples; Butler (2014) argues that, a degree
in social media would be a lost cause, as social media is in a constant state of flux. Legnini
(2014) also agrees and recommends bypassing certificates or degree programs and instead
focusing on gaining hands-on experience in social media. Though, Kiousis (2013) defended the
release of courses, degrees and master degrees at the University of Florida arguing that; People
use social media for personal purposes and reason, but using it for strategic purposes takes
formal training and specialized knowledge.
5.2.3 Using the right platform for your target audience
A comparison between interviews with hotels and survey questionnaires with hotel guests lead to
a very interesting finding regarding the use of Google+, although Google+ is proven to be very
popular especially in the UK only three hotels have claimed to have hotel Google+ accounts.
This raises several questions on how hotels choose the social media platforms they embark upon.
This enforces the argument that some hotels are not aware of the importance of having a social
media strategy which is not a social media content plan.
Therefore, the researcher suggests that hotels should create a social media strategy which
includes their target audience and then analyse which would be the right platform to use
according to the popularity of platforms amongst the target audience.
52
5.3 Future Research Directions
The limited amount of literature and research available nationally regarding the subject matter
provides further opportunity for future researchers to explore the subject. Whilst analysing the
data, the researcher determined various other ways in which the research can be further
developed to focus on a particular area of the research and achieve more precise results. For that
reason, below are some suggestions for future research:
The impact of social media on the lodging performance of five star hotels in Malta &
Gozo can be carried out with other hotel categories such as; four star hotels or boutique
hotels.
A completely quantitative research from the consumer point of view can be carried out,
in order to discover social media platform preferences according to hotel guest
nationality. If done properly such study can be a very important tool for Maltese hotels.
A completely quantitative research from the consumer point of view can be carried out,
in order to discover social media platform preferences according to hotel guest age. If
done properly such study can be a very important tool for Maltese hotels.
53
CHAPTER SIX
6 References
Andreas M. Kaplan and Michael Haenlein (2010), Users of the world, unite! The challenges
and opportunities of Social Media in Business Horizons, pp. 53, 59 – 68.
Buhalis, D., & Law, R. (2008).. Tourism Management [Electronic Version]. Progress in
information technology and tourism management: 20 years on and 10 years after the
Internetdthe state of eTourism research in Zheng Xiang and Ulrike Gretzel (2010), Tourism
Management [Electronic Version]. Role of social media in online travel information search,
Vol 31(2) pp. 179, Retrieved April 5th 2015
BusinessDictionary.com, definition of the word strategy. Retrieved January 13th 2015 from
http://www.businessdictionary.com/
Butler (2014) in John Egan (2014), Do You Need a Degree in Social Media? No Way, Some
Experts Say, Retrieved May 2nd 2015 from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/
Chris K. Anderson (2012), Cornell Hospitality Report [Electronic Version].The Impact of
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58
CHAPTER SEVEN
7 Appendices
Appendix 1: Pilot Interview Questions
1. Do you think it’s important for hotels today to use social media?
Why?
2. How many employees can administrate the hotel’s social media accounts?
3. Does the hotel have a specific person/s screening social media?
4. How long has the hotel been using social media?
5. Why did the hotel management start using social media? (Due to competitors doing so?
Innovation? Hotels abroad doing so? Etc...)
6. Which was the first social media used?
7. Which social media is being used presently?
8. In which of the mentioned social media is the hotel most successful?
Do you give this social network more importance than others?
9. Do you access all the hotel’s social media accounts daily?
10. For what purposes would you say the hotel uses social media?
Do you think this is being achieved?
11. Do you have a plan or strategy for this?
59
12. Do you have a plan or strategy on the contents you put on these accounts?
13. Do you engage with guests and potential guests through social media?
Can you give some examples please?
14. Do you think social media has a direct impact on this hotel’s lodging performance?
Have you ever carried out a study to prove this?
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Appendix 2: Interview Questions
1 How important is social media for your hotel?
2 How many employees have administrator rights for the hotel’s social media accounts?
3 Does the hotel have a designated employee responsible to manage and oversee the social
media accounts?
4 How long has the hotel been using social media?
5 What are the main reasons why the management team decided to start using social media?
6 Which platforms did you start with and what platforms are you using now?
7 Which platform gives the best return on investment and how do you measure success?
8 Are all the platforms given the same priority or you focus your efforts on specific ones?
9 How often do you access your social media accounts?
10 What are the main goals you aim to achieve when using social media?
a. Do you think this is being achieved?
11 How do you plan your social media strategy?
12 Do you do this in-house or you have assistance from a marketing agency?
13 How do you create your content plan for all the platforms?
14 Since you started using social media did you notice an increase in guests’ communication through these channels?
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15 When do your guests connect with you on social media? Before, during or after their stay?
16 Do you think social media has a direct impact on this hotel’s overall revenue?
17 Was it possible to correlate the hotel’s occupancy rate to the hotel’s presence on social media?
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Appendix 3: Pilot Survey Questionnaires
1. Age: 16 – 24 25 – 34 35 – 44
45-54 55-64 65+
2. Nationality: ______________________
3. Do you use Social Media? Yes No
4. Which Social Media do you use? (Starting from your favourite going down to your least
favourite)
_____________________________________
_____________________________________
_____________________________________
_____________________________________
_____________________________________
_____________________________________
5. How important is it for you that a hotel uses Social Media when choosing a hotel?
Extremely Important
Very Important
Moderately Important
Slightly Important
Not at all important
6. Did you ever communicate with a hotel through social media?
Yes No
7. If yes, was it a Maltese Hotel?
Yes No
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Appendix 4: Survey Questionnaires
64