the effects of social media on tourism marketing: a study among

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*Corresponding author: Asst. Prof. Dr. Gonca Guzel Sahin, Assistant professor, Atilim University, Tourism and Hotel Management Department, Ankara, Turkey. E-Mail: [email protected]

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Management and Administrative Sciences Review

Volume 4, Issue 5

Pages: 772-786

September 2015

e-ISSN: 2308-1368

p-ISSN: 2310-872X

The Effects of Social Media on Tourism Marketing: A Study among University Students

Asst. Prof. Dr. Gonca Guzel Sahin1*, and Gunce Sengün2

1. Assistant professor, Atilim University, Tourism and Hotel Management Department, Ankara, Turkey.

2. Atilim University, Institute of Social Sciences, Master Program of Tourism Management, Ankara, Turkey. ([email protected])

Due to increasing popularity of internet applications, many tourism organizations such as hotels, airline companies and travel agencies have started using internet as one of their important marketing and communications strategies. In this way, internet has been one of the strongest elements of competition in tourism sector. Social media has started being used as a new marketing approach within the growing internet technologies by tourism sector.

The aim of this study is discussing the importance of social media in tourism marketing. The study is based on a survey implemented on the students of Atilim University evaluating the effects of social media among young generation. The data collection technique of this article is survey analysis. 624 survey forms have been distributed according to the number of students at 6 faculties, but 550 survey forms have been responded. According to the results of the survey, social media has influences in tourism sector both in positive and negative ways, as the tourism decisions of young generation have been strongly affected by comments and personal experiences of other users on social media.

Keywords: Tourism marketing, internet, social media

INTRODUCTION

According to the 10th Development Plan prepared by the Ministry of Development, covering the period of 2014-2018, Turkish Economy will reach to a proceeds of 1.3 trillion dollars in 2018. Pursuant to the plan, the same year, volume of the tourism revenue will be 45 billion dollars. And on the other hand the tourism expenditures will be around 8 billion dollars. Objectives of the plan indicates Turkey reaching a total number of 48.3 million tourists in 2018, 6 million of which will be the citizen

visitors that live abroad and visiting our country and the rest will be the foreign visitors. According to the findings of 2014-2018, the forecasts of which have been announced; the ratio of tourism incomes to GDP which was 3.7 % in 2012, will be around 3.5 % in 2018.

Turkey will produce 1.3 trillion dollars in 2018 and the ratio of tourism incomes to export, which was 19.2 % in 2012, will be realized as 16.2 %. Turkey will reach to an export of 277 billion dollars in 2018.

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There are also important objectives for health and medical tourism in the plan that covers the period of 2004-2018. Pursuant to this in 2018, 1.5 million tourist will be provided with the thermal service with 100 thousand total bed amount.

Changes happening in the recent years in the communication technology in development countries have various direct or indirect influences on the economic performance. In parallel with that, it can be observed that many concepts in micro and macro levels of the economy tend to lose the meaning due to differentiation gradually. This fact is mentioned as New Economy in literature (Bayraç, 2003, p.42). Today, the notion of new economy can be defined with notions as information economy, information, information production, and information exchange. New economy uses information and technology; and increases efficiency in means of economy through technology.

In parallel to the rearrangement of traditional economic activities with the technological developments in the information technology, economy has been one of the fields that received the most impact. However, according to the economic understanding of the time, new economy represents a world, where people work with their brain power instead of muscle strength as a result of the affect created by the information technologies and internet (Vatansever & Yıldız, 2014, p.54). Marketing studies in electronic environment called virtual platform start with the changing technology. Marketing studies in virtual communities do not have a long history. Starting date can be conceived as the 90s, when Internet begun to be popular (Meydan & Bayram, 2013).

New communication and information technology is also closely related to the tourism sector. Technologic novelties help tourism establishments to render new and flexible services with high competitiveness. For instance, electronic ticketing, use of internet and websites for promotion and sales of hotel and destination, sales and promotion of the travel agencies and tour operators through internet and web pages and other similar activities lead to important developments in the field of tourism marketing and tourism activities.

Influence of Changing Technology to Tourism Marketing

Tourism marketing has now started to utilize technology to approach to its target market with the changing technology. Tourism sector has not only been doing the marketing on internet but also has started to transfer it to various applications. The most important novelty formed by the information technologies in the tourism sector is the possibility of a direct communication of the vendors and purchasers via a channel focused on information and data. Therefore the importance of customer focused service sectors, with emphasize on information and service increases in the new economy.

Novelty based on technology has become the main source and a strategic key of the sustainable competition advantage in tourism sector due to the important role of the information in identification, promotion, distribution, bringing together, arrangement and provision of touristic products to customer. New technologies bring about a change in the activities, operation manners, communication methods of the tourism establishments and the ways of customers to seek for information and purchase of services and touristic products due to the constant change in the social life (Karataş & Babür, 2013).

Distribution channels in the tourism sector make plenty benefit of communication and information technologies. Success in marketing can only be achieved through presentation of the right products in the right place and with right intermediaries. Distribution works are facilitated with communication and information technologies and therefore a cost benefit is obtained and a mutual communication can be provided between the purchasers of touristic products and target markets. Today in global world level, production and distribution processes of touristic products and services are revised and readjusted in order to increase the effectiveness and efficiency (Buhalis, 1998). New economy includes also the internet market. Establishments using new technology and internet are of the quality to reach the demands of their own market easier and respond to these demands.

One of the most important phenomenon emerged along with technologic novelties is the internet.


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Many tourism organizations as hotels, airlines, travel agencies, have accepted internet as a part of their marketing and communication strategies for the popularity of the internet applications. Thus internet has become an important tool in the tourism market (Özdipçiner, 2010). Technology that is in a constant development speed has leaded important changes also in the tourism sector. Travel agencies, tour operators, airline companies, hotels, motels and all establishments in the small-scaled tourism sector have started to use the technology, which is a new marketing tool.

Accommodation facilities take the lead among the fields using the information technologies the most in the tourism sector. Computers and information technologies are intensively used in marketing, sales, security, catering, accounting and communication departments of accommodation establishments (Pırnar, 2005, p.45). Consumers in the past used to ask for the opinions of the people around on a certain brand, product or establishment and this used to be known as Word of Mouth (WOM) in the marketing literature. Personal comments and opinions have started to be shared on the internet with the development of computer based communication (Pollach, 2006 ).

Use of internet bring not only benefits but also forfeits and the tourism establishments, which cannot keep up with the changes or make the adjustments by bringing the necessary flexibility, stuck up in a difficult situation and even terminate their activities (Pırnar, 2005). Naturally the big development in the information technologies and internet in the world undoubtedly push tourism sector to be developed as well. The number of web users in the touristic establishments increases and becomes widespread day by day. Number of regional and local establishments, which would like to be ranked among in the world of internet with their own web sites increase in order to reach a larger mass and make benefit of the other advantages of the internet (Karakaş & Babür, 2013, p.15-24).

Possession of information is the primary objective in the tourism sector. Within this context, efficient use of the technology is pretty important for tourism sector. Rapid growth in the information technology provides new tools for globalising economy and forms an effective cooperation.

Information technologies in particular in the tourism sector have turned into irreplaceable tools for tourism establishments. Briefly, the rapid development of the tourism demand and supply has lead the information technologies to be very important for tourism sector. Therefore, information technologies have a very important place in means of tourism marketing distribution, promotion and coordination (Polatoğlu,1994, p.67).

Marketing of countries, regions and continents as a destination has been a developing activity in recent years. Destinations, which cannot have sustainable development, diversifying and presenting their charm, make use of their resources in the best way possible, realize new and creative marketing activities, will lose their shares in the international market in the future (Özdemir, 2007: 6). If a destination cannot take place on the internet, it loses the connection to millions of people accessing to internet. Internet with such big potential should be used and managed in the most efficient way. It is very important to be able to persuade a potential tourist making researches in the internet for destinations with the content and form of presentation of the information provided. Potential tourists, who inevitably would compare the websites of other destinations, may interpret these comparisons based on the service and product experience provided by the destinations. Internet is a very appropriate and effective tool also for the last minute sales promotions due to easy update possibility. Besides, indicating the web address on any kind of marketing and commercial materials create a catchy affect (Karataş & Babür, 2013, p.15-24 ).

Web based destination marketing strategies are publicity tools used by many destinations and provides big opportunities. Web based marketing strategies are adopted widely and the pressure on the destinations to make investments on their websites increases more and more. There are not generally accepted standards to assess the success of the web sites in tourism. However it is very important for the destinations to increase the efficiency of their web sites and this reveals the necessity to define assessment criteria of web sites (Park & Gretzel, 2007, p.4). World Tourism Organization has stated that the key of success in internet is the quick identification of consumer needs, direct communication, comprehensive


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presentation, customization and updating the information.

Growth in the number of internet users in the world and thus spread of the trade on the internet (e-trade) lead consumers, who demand cultural and touristic values, to purchase products and services via internet (Çakır & Yalçın, 2012).

Relationship of Tourism Marketing with Social Media

Concept of social media has been defined in various ways. Social media is a wide term defining writings on blogs and forums, photographs, audio records, videos, links, profile pages on social networking sites and all different content forming many other social networks (Eley & Tilley, 2009). Another definition describes social media as collaborator, user created online content (Roberts & Kraynak, 2008). Social media has been defined as the group of applications based on internet, allowing the creation and change of the content developed by the user and based on the technological and ideological foundations of internet (Kaplan & Haenlein, 2010).

National and international tourism sector should be able to apply the developments in the field of media to its own marketing activities in order to sustain the benefit, success and profitability. At this point it is important to ensure the efficient use of internet for tourism activities. Tourism sector, which requires large fixed investments, can only realize the return of these large investments with steady sales in the desired amount for the tourists in the targeted socio-economic level (Yavuz & Haseki, 2012 ).

Consumer domination and fierce competition in the virtual environment makes it compulsory to take more strategic decisions on product presentation, pricing policies, publicity decisions and place elements (Meydan & Bayram, 2013). Virtual marketing has different characteristics than traditional marketing processes in tourism sector. Main grounds for that are the rapid changes due to the fact that the external conditions considered in the formation of marketing activities are more dynamic in virtual marketing and that activities are conducted in electronic environment.

Internet makes it possible for the establishment to have a briefer and direct communication with target

groups through web site, e-mail short message, forum etc. without calculating the money to be spent on the advertisement. Therefore, opportunities provided by the internet help executing the efforts on marketing communication and creating a comparative distinction (Babacan, Kamanlıoğlu & Yeniçeri, 2008). Social networking sites have an important efficiency as marketing tools and assume many functions. Social networking sites are important tools, where the consumers can get information regarding the goods and services, raise the awareness, have communication of word of mouth online in their opinions, behaviours, purchasing decisions, after purchase assessments and for the establishments they are the tools, where they can market their productions, strengthen their brands and use in their customer relations ( Albayrak, 2013).

Establishments gain an important advantage over their competitors when they use the social networking sites for marketing purposes. Number of people taking part in the social networking sites increase day by day and the fact that the number is high makes it possible for the entries to be spread rapidly in a very short time to many people. So it gives opportunity for the positive news and hearsays about the establishments in the social network to be expanded rapidly ( Magnold & Faulds, 2009 ).

Lim (2010), stated that the tourism consumer consulted to the family members, friends and acquaintances on the networking sites when taking an independent decision on purchasing goods and services and this process leaded to a unique promotion for the hotel managements. Taking into account the purposes of use of internet, in the first three months of 2014, the individuals using internet, joined by 78.8 % to the social networking, followed by 74.2 % with online news, newspapers and magazines, 67.2 % with searching for information on goods and services, 58.7 % with downloading or streaming games, music, film, image, 53.9 % e-mail sending and receiving. As of 2014, the most known and used social media sites are sites as Facebook, Twitter, İnstagram, Youtube, Linkdein. The number of the users of these sites is mentioned with billions and the ratio of usage of these sites is quite high every minute through mobile devices. The countries using the social media sites the most are


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in general the countries, which are developed and have a high participation to tourism activities.

Online media networking sites are among the sites, where the people spend tie in virtual environment. These sites are where the visual and audial bands are played. These sites make it possible for the elements as video/music and pictures to be transmitted to other users. Shared visual elements can be watched by millions just in hours. Undoubtedly creating an institutional user name in means of promotion, presenting the most correct and reliable information through this source to all relevant people would both contribute to promotion and lead to important changes in the opinions of possible guests by forming a big source of information. The cost of this promotion tool is very low. Many sources pent for promotion would be saved with this source and can be spent on the other needs (Çakır & Yalçın, 2012, p. 21).

Today, the increase of consciousness level of the consumers, easiness of share of information and possibility of examining many comments in virtual environment in the globalizing world, make it possible for tourism destinations or establishments to be assessed by the consumers in a cheaper, faster and easier. Many potential tourists use internet for their travel plans. They visit relevant social media sites before deciding on the travel due to the fact that they believe the virtual assessment to be useful for their purchasing decision (Sarıısık & Özbay, 2012). As the social media sites include comments and assessments, they influence the creation of the trademark of the tourism establishment, provide efficiency in the process of communication and marketing of the goods and services, increases the loyalty to the mark and the perceived (Wang & Hsieh, 2011).

As the social media use becomes widespread, number of users also increases day by day. Number of users of internet and social media all around the world is as follows; 2.5 billion people on the world use internet. 1.8 billion out of these users have an account on the social media networks, in the intercontinental internet use, North America takes the lead with a ratio of 81 %. Region with the least internet use in is South Asia (12%), only in 2013, 135 million people more created accounts in the social networks, numbers of active users of social media increases every year, facebook maintains its lead

among other social networks with a number of 1.184 billion current active users ( Global Digital Statistics, 2014).

Ranking of the most popular first 10 social media platforms according to the active user statistics is as follows Facebook (1.184 billion), QQ (Tencent) (816 million), Qzone (632 million), Whatsapp (400 million), Google+ (300 million), Wechat (272 million), LinkedIn (259 million), Twitter (232 million), Tumblr (230 million), Tencent Weibo (220 million).

According to the 2014 results of Consumer Barometer, which is a research done by google.com that measures and compares the internet usage habit in 46 different stations including Turkey and provides results on the mobile, video and shopping uses of internet users in 46 countries, Turkey is in the first rank in the use of social media. Consumer Barometer reports shows that social media use of internet users in Turkey is 92 % and it is approximately 40 per cent in the world. Turkey that is the leader in the use of social media is followed by Argentine with 86 per cent and by Brazil with 84 per cent and with 83 per cent by China. Evaluating the 2023 Tourism Strategy Plan foreseen by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, it is mentioned that the necessary investment will be done to the technology. In parallel to this, a 15 % grant in the 2012 promotion budget is assigned to activities done through internet and information technologies.

Obtaining the necessary technical support for the internet and information technologies including the new sectors with the developing technology, giving importance to the promotion tools for branding and PR studies done on the internet and making use of the Professional teams for these studies are among the priorities that should be considered in short term (Çakır & Yalçın, 2012, p. 30).

Impact of Social Media on Travel

Comments on sites and social media are important for preferences when the big ratio of internet users making travel plans are considered. In particular the users, who want to have information on the tourism destinations that they will use or accommodate for the first time are influenced by the comments on the social media to a great extent. For


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the tourism establishments, the most important objective to be achieved with the use of social media is to ensure target masses to make reservations. The fastest and most reliable way for tourists to reach to tourism establishments is through internet. People use internet to get information easily on tourism establishment and make reservations. This creates a positive affect on satisfaction of the tourist and brand value through media. As the tourist that uses the internet would also be influenced by the comments on the social media at the reservation stage, the brand recognition and reliability of the tourism establishment depend on these comments. Therefore, the influence of the social media on the travel is quite high.

While the positive product comment includes the good experiences and recommendation on the product, the negative product comments include the disappointments and bad experiences on the product. Thus, the affects of the negative product comments should be well analysed. Consumers that share the opinion-sharing environment rather prefer to come across with negative product assessments. Because the unsatisfied people tend to share their negative assessments more compared to others. Now the consumers look for negative assessments in particular (Sachse & Magnold, 2011). One of the most important ways of tourism establishments to get in touch to their guests through social media is to ensure the users to share in hashtag campaigns created on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook. So the shares reach out to millions of people in a short time and in an efficient way.

Fotis (2012), ranked the social media causes of the social media users in the travel planning process as before, during and after the trip. Before; To search for alternatives when thinking of a trip (44.5%), To reduce the destination preferences (24%), To confirm that the correct destination choice has been made (30.9%), To look for information on accommodation alternatives (34.4%), To get information on the entertainment activities (41.6%). During; To get information on the entertainment activities (29.5%), To share the comments on experiences during the trip (16.5%), To stay connected with their friends (49.1%), To visit social media sites independent of getting information (15%). After; To share the experiences and photographs with friends after the trip (78.3%), To

assess and comment on the destination (26.6%), To have opinions for the next holiday plan (29.2%).

The most important element to be taken account for the tourism establishments in the social media is that the current costumers and potential customers exchange any kind of information. The fact that social media cannot be controlled with regards to tourism is an issue causing quite a lot of troubles in means of ethic approaches in marketing. Unethical code of conduct in means of tourism marketing in social media can indicate in particular misleading information and incorrect advertisement content. Especially the comments on the social networking sites made subjectively by getting money from the establishments and presentations of misleading, exaggerated and partial information on the goods and services of the destination and establishment are among the unethical codes of conduct that can be most commonly seen in the use of social media in tourism marketing.

These complaints can also be reduced through social media; since the tourism services are abstract, the comments of the users that really had the touristic experience can define the real quality of the service. However from the perspective of business ethics, unreal comments can negatively influence the users that would like to receive the touristic service. Therefore it is important for establishments to return fast to these negative and positive comments also in means of business ethics.

So possessing ethical code of conducts on the social media used as a communication and distribution channel is of vital importance for the establishments in the sector. Ethical codes that are defined for these applications should be adopted and brought into force from the top-level management to the lowest level employee of the establishments in the sector. It is above all important for the tourism establishments and stakeholders to internalize these ethical codes and to make them a management method. Furthermore consumers should also question the accuracy of the information and its source when using the social media and direct their behaviours accordingly (Eröz & Doğdubay, 2012, p. 153).

With the new technology especially the young population under 35 have started to use internet and technological devices, smart phones and smart phone applications and social media sites more


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often and along with that the rapid change in technology and internet have started to influence the tourism sector on an important level. Within this context, it can be foreseen that the tourism sector will enter into a new period related to technology within the upcoming years. It is foreseen that the establishments in the tourism sector are reaching to their own target markets through internet and the new economy is creating its own target mass in the changing conditions of the world. We can assume that with the new technology the mass under 35 is living their social lives constantly on the internet in daily life, and the biggest impacts of that are on the tourism sector. It can be seen that the share of new technology in the tourism sector will increase with its positive and negative impacts.

The number of internet and social media users is as follows; raito of internet use in Turkey compared to the whole population is 45 %, there are over 35 million internet users in Turkey and 36 million active Facebook accounts (including the fake accounts), users in Turkey spend an average of 4.9 hours daily on personal computers and 1.9 hours on mobile devices in internet, an average of 2 hours 32 minutes daily is spent on social media in Turkey, facebook (93%) as the most used social media platform, is followed by Twitter, Twitter (72%), Google + (70%) and Linkedin (33%) in Turkey.

RESEARCH METHOD

Today, the notion of social media, which came into our lives with the fast growing technology, have gained importance especially for tourism sector. Most of the internet users in the world and in Turkey are influenced by the comments on the social media in the holiday preferences, after the holidays and in their holiday experiences and also share their own experiences. The objective of the research is to reveal the importance of social media in tourism marketing by analysing the importance of the impact of the mass using social media on the tourism establishments with statistical methods. Research is focused on the university students since the majority of social media users are the youth.

During the preparation of survey questions, the article “The Effect of Social Media Utilization on Holiday Decisions of Tourists: A Study on Academic Staff” published on 2013 has been

referred. Research problem is the question: “What is the Influence of Social Media on Tourism Marketing?” Research has been conducted on the students of Atilim University to define the perceptions of young mass on social media and tourism. Survey technic has been used as a method in the study for the data to be impartial and to get statistical results. Survey consists of two parts. In the first part, there are demographical questions related to the personal characteristics of the students. In the second part, there are 36 statements to assess the impact of utilization of Social Media on tourism marketing. The survey used in the research consists of 43 questions, 7 of which are divided in demographic subcategories and 36 are 5-point Likert scale. The survey was distributed to 550 students in total in Atilim University. Out of 550 distributed surveys, 506 were filled in full and correctly, and due to the mistakes and incompleteness in the other 44, a total of 506 surveys could be applied to the research as impeccably.

Cronbach’s Alpha value of the research is 0.908. Within this framework, considering the scale above, when the phenomenon that is desired to be measured by our questions that is whether there is an influence of the social media on the tourism marketing is asked, it can be assumed that there was a success in measurement with stable answers in a ratio approximately of 90 % with the answers of the participants.

According to the analysis made in SPSS package programme, out of 506 people that took part in the survey, 225 were men and 281 were women. As a percentage it has been identified that as a result of the analysis, 55.3 % of the people who took part in the survey was women and 44.47 % was men. Out of the sample of 506, 24.9 % is in the age range 16-20, 56.9% is in the age range 20-24, 17,6 % is in the age range 24-28. In this situation the majority of the students taking part in the survey is in the age range 20-24. Out of 506 students taking part in the survey, 127 is in Faculty of Business, 104 is in Faculty of Science and Letters, 84 is in Faculty of Fine Arts, 82 is in Faculty of Law, 80 is in Faculty of Engineering and 29 is in Civil Aviation Vocational High School. When the results of the survey are examined, it has been concluded that the 25.1 % of the young mass taking part in the survey consists of the students in


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the Faculty of Business and the least participation was from the Faculty of Law with 5.7 %.

According to the analysis results, the frequency of social media utilization is the first rank with 142 people with a frequency of 4-6 years utilization ratio. In this case, the analysis gives meaningful and correct results with 95 % importance level. Following that, the answers 6-8 years, 8 years or more, 1-3 years and less than 1 year comprises the survey result. Considering the survey results, out of 506 students, 134 uses the social media 2-6 hours weekly and this ratio corresponds to 26,5 %. Following that 127 students stated that they use it 17 hours or more and 106 students between 7-11 hours. In line with these ratios, we can observe that the duration of social media utilization among the youth is high and this increases the social media interactions.

When the Area graphics and Frequency tables are interpreted, the most commonly used social media site is Instagram. Following this comes respectively; Facebook, Twitter, other networks and Linkedin. Interpretation of Area graphics and Frequency tables shows that the most frequently used social media site is Instagram by the subject group. It can be understood from that, the shares on Instagram in tourism marketing draw the attention of the young mass much more and are more important than the others. Analysis of the surveys has been conducted with the comparison of the demographic data of the students as gender, age, faculty and class they study at, with their statements on the social media utilization. This study has mainly focused on the gender since no significant difference was observed in the other data than the gender.

TABLE 1 HERE

According to the data in Table 1, it is observed that the most significant difference is at "I agree and strongly agree" category. 33.8% of men whereas 46.9% of women agree with the view of I am influenced by the positive reviews of holiday destinations in social media in this category.

TABLE 2HERE

According to the data in Table 2, it is observed that the most significant difference is at "I disagree and strongly disagree" category. 44.4% of men whereas 47.7% of women disagree with the view of I share my positive experiences about holiday destinations

on social media in this category. According to the data in Table 3, it is observed that the most significant difference is at "I agree and strongly agree" category. 46.2% of men whereas 57% of women agree with the view of I am influenced by the positive reviews of travel agencies in social media in this category.

TABLE 3 & 4 HERE

According to the data in Table 4, it is observed that the most significant difference is at "I am neutral" category. 24% of men whereas 24.2% of women are undecided about the view of I share my positive experiences about travel agents on social media in this category.

TABLE 5 HERE

According to the data in Table 5, it is observed that the most significant difference is at "I agreeand strongly agree" category. 38.2% of men whereas 55.9% of women agree with the view of I am influenced by the positive reviews of hotel enterprises in social media in this category. According to the data in Table 6, it is observed that the most significant difference is at "I agree and strongly agree" category. 37.3% of men whereas 36.7% of women agree with the view of I share my positive experiences about hotel enterprises on social media in this category.

TABLE 6 & 7 HERE

According to the data in Table 7, it is observed that the most significant difference is at "I agree and strongly agree" category. 42.7% of men whereas 51.9% of women agree with the view of I am influenced by the positive reviews of food&beverage enterprises in social media in this category.

TABLE 8 HERE

According to the data in Table 8, it is observed that the most significant difference is at "I agree and strongly agree" category. 35.2% of men whereas 35.9% of women agree with the view of I share my positive experiences about food&Beverage enterprises on social media in this category. As a result of all analyzes performed; social media plays an important role in tourism marketing and subject groups are accessible to many audiences using social media in general terms and categories of


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Likert scale questions should be attempted to be improved.

RESULTS

This study has been conducted to examine the role of social media use in tourism marketing. Social media is increasingly becoming important today, this effect is also significantly affect the tourism market. When we examine the survey results, it is clear that the tourism preferences of young generation are affected by comments on social media and social media has positive and a negative effects on the tourism market. In summary, social media users who share their experiences have been largely influenced by comments when they make tourism preferences.

The distribution of social networking sites have been used by survey respondants frequently are Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin and others respectively. According to these findings, tourism enterprises should take place in these social media sites with advirtisements and other viral media instruments when they plan marketing activities of destinations. According to survey results, 171 persons (33.8%) out of 506 people participated in the survey strongly agreed that they use social media in order to share photos, videos and experiences. Thus, yougner people share their tourism experiences on social media with visual media instruments such as photos and videos. Positive and negative comments on social media widely affect decisions of these people using social media. 41.1% of all respondants agreed that they have been influenced by positive comments on social media about holiday destinations and 47.8% of all respondants agreed that they have been influenced by negative comments on social media about holiday destinations.

According to results of the analysis, survey respondants have been to a large extent by the comments on social media about holiday destinations, hospitality enterprises, travel agents, entertainment enterprises, food and beverage enterprises and transportation enterprises.

DISCUSSIONS AND CONLUSION

Extensive use of social media by young people is even increasing and this situation has positive and

negative effects on every sector, however the greatest impact is on tourism sector. Hospitality, travel, transportation enterprises and even tour operators in tourism sector are getting reviewed extensively. As the product of tourism sector is service, marketing this product is very important. In spite of the high quality of service at some enterprises, slightest negative comment can affect business in worst sense. For this reason, tourism enterprises should use social media in an effective way creating official accounts and hiring staff to manage these accounts. As the young generation might share negative comments using photos and videos on social media accounts, enterprises should resolve these dissatisfactions of the guests and find most efficient solutions to prevent the possibility of involvement of other people from this review. This situation is of great importance for businesses when considering the speed of social media.

Today, most large tourism businesses utilize social media effectively. Since there are many social media networks including online booking sites, the guests can share their comments promptly and enterprises provide solutions as soon as they enter the process to prevent their brand image. Social media can be said to create a nice situation for tourists as returns are faster in case of a negative experience. Enterprises can use social media as a good advertising tool as there is a high potential in this sense due to positive reviews of the guests. As a result, the tourism enterprises should be aware of this new power of advertisement world and use social media as a new communication and advertising tool in the most efficient way to provide best service to the guests. According to survey results, tourism businesses, agencies, hotels, transportation enterprises should use social media effectively. Related staff should be employed and they should use social media platforms for social networking as a marketing tool. In addition, irrelevant comments made through fake accounts should be dealt in legal ways to prevent brand image. Use of emerging technologies in tourism marketing has emerged as one of the most effective tools in the competition.

Reliability and validity situation of this article is that Cronbach’s Alpha value of the research is 0.908. Within this framework, considering the scale above, when the phenomenon that is desired to be measured by our questions that is whether there is


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an influence of the social media on the tourism marketing is asked, it can be assumed that there was a success in measurement with stable answers in a ratio approximately of 90 % with the answers of the participants.

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APPENDIX

Table 1: Percentage of Impact on Positive Comments about Holiday Destinations in Social Media

Gender Total

Male Female

I am influenced from positive comments about holiday destination in social media

Strongly disagree

Count % within gender

50 22.2%

42 14.9%

92 18.2%

Disagree Count % within gender

54 24.0%

58 20.6%

112 22.1%

Neutral Count % within gender

45 20.0%

49 27.4%

94 18.6%

Agree Count % within gender

53 23.6%

101 35.9%

154 30.4%

Strongly Agree


23 10.2%

31 11.0%

54 10.7%

Total Count % within gender

225 100.0%

281 100.0%

506 100.0%

Table 2: Percentage of Sharing Positive Experiences about Holiday Destinations on Social Media

Gender Total

Male Female

I share my positive experience about holiday destination in social media

Strongly disagree


55 24.4%

61 21.7%

116 22.9%


45 20.0%

73 26.0%

118 23.3%


43 19.1%

58 20.6%

101 20.0%


50 22.2%

59 21.0%

109 21.5%

Strongly Agree


32 14.2%

30 10.7%

62 12.3%


225 100.0%

281 100.0%

506 100.0%

http://tureng.com/search/holiday%20destination


http://tureng.com/search/experience




784

Table 3: Percentage of Impact on Positive Comments about Travel Agents in Social Media

Gender Total

Male Female

I am influenced from positive comments about travel agency in social media

Strongly disagree


44 19.6%

36 12.8%

80 15.8%


39 17.3%

45 16.0%

84 16.6%


38 16.9%

40 14.2%

78 15.4%


65 28.9%

116 41.3%

181 35.8%

Strongly Agree


39 17.3%

44 15.7%

83 16.4%


225 100.0%

281 100.0%

506 100.0%

Table 4: Percentage of Sharing Positive Experiences about Travel Agents on Social Media

Gender Total

Male Female

I share my positive experience about travel agency in social media

Strongly disagree


49 21.8%

46 16.4%

95 18.8%


53 23.6%

62 22.1%

115 22.7%


54 24.0%

68 24.2%

122 24.1%


39 17.3%

75 26.7%

114 22.5%

Strongly Agree


30 13.3%

30 10.7%

60 11.9%


225 100.0%

281 100.0%

506 100.0%

http://tureng.com/search/lay-by


http://tureng.com/search/lay-by


785

Table 5: Percentage of Impact on Positive Comments about Hotel Enterprises in Social Media

Gender Total

Male Female

I am influenced from positive comments about hotel enterprises in social media

Strongly disagree


47 20.9%

38 13.5%

85 16.8%


43 19.1%

42 14.9%

85 16.8%


49 21.8%

44 15.7%

93 18.4%


52 23.1%

111 39.5%

163 23.3%

Strongly Agree


34 15.1%

46 16.4%

80 15.8%


225 100.0%

281 100.0%

506 100.0%

Table 6: Percentage of Sharing Positive Experiences about Hotel Enterprises on Social Media

Gender Total

Male Female

I share my positive experience about hotel enterprises in social media

Strongly disagree


46 20.4%

60 21.4%

106 20.9%


48 21.3%

56 19.9%

104 20.6%


47 20.9%

63 22.4%

110 21.7%


52 23.1%

66 23.5%

118 23.3%

Strongly Agree


32 14.2%

36 12.8%

68 13.4%


225 100.0%

281 100.0%

506 100.0%



786

Table 7: Percentage of Impact on Positive Comments about Food & Beverage Enterprises in Social Media

Gender Total

Male Female

I am influenced with positive comments about food and beverage enterprises in social media

Strongly disagree


53 23.6%

46 16.4%

99 19.6%


39 17.3%

46 16.4%

85 16.8%


37 16.4%

43 15.3%

80 15.8%


54 24.0%

106 37.7%

160 31.6%

Strongly Agree


42 18.7%

40 14.2%

82 16.2%


225 100.0%

281 100.0%

506 100.0%

Table 8: Percentage of Sharing Positive Experiences about Food & Beverage Enterprises on Social Media

Gender Total

Male Female

I share the positive comments about food and beverage enterprises in social media

Strongly disagree


48 21.3%

56 19.9%

104 20.6%


50 22.2%

64 22.8%

114 22.5%


48 21.3%

60 21.4%

108 21.3%


53 23.6%

70 34.9%

123 24.3%

Strongly Agree


26 11.6%

31 11.0%

57 11.3%


225 100.0%

281 100.0%

506 100.0%

the effects of social media on tourism marketing: a study among

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