Prospects of Social Media in Tourism: A Study on TUI

Dissertation & PHD
Thesis

Abstract:
The use of internet and other communication technologies has led to development of a new era in
the tourism economy. Social media is one of the most powerful online networking tools that are
integrated in different economic and social life in the changing contemporary environment. The
present report is based on analysing the prospects of social media and its benefits. It is find out
that main role of social media place is helping tourist and travellers in deciding the particular
destination. Further it is also very helpful in understanding the view points of travellers so that
various campaigns and packages are made as per changing customer preferences. This report
clearly signifies that social media platform is very crucial in understanding the present and future
customer requirements. There is proper communication and interactive channels at a build-up to
exchange the information with respect to changing customer needs.

Contents
Research Aims and Objectives....................................................................................................3
Research methodology...................................................................................................................10
Discussion (Quantitative research):...............................................................................................16
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................26

INTRODUCTION
Tourist destinations are the place of interest where travellers are willing to visit, enjoy
and have some recreational activities, in the changing environment it has become extremely
crucial for every tourism industry to modify themes with the changing requirements of external
environment. For this purpose Present report is based on TUI. TUI is a German multinational
tourism and travel brand that is having its headquarters located in Hanover German (Gretzel and
Yoo, 2017). It is the largest travel, tourism and leisure brand across different parts of the world.
They are having ownership if major five European airlines that is the largest holiday fleet in
Europe and also various other tour operators that are based in Europe. Present research report is
based on making analysis of the way the social media marketing aspects have contributed
towards the functioning of this tourism brand.
Research Aims and Objectives
Aims:
“To determine role of the social media on tourist destination selection”. A study on TUI.
Research Objectives:
 To understand the benefits of social media in context to tourism.
 To determine the main role of the social media on tourist destination selection.
 To identify the different social media platforms visitors can be used regarding destination
selection.
Research question
 What are the benefits of social media in tourism sector?
 What is the main role of social media on tourism destination selection?
 What are the different social media platform that can be used by visitors in selecting
destination?

Literature review:
Literature review is based on analysing the view points of various authors, journal articles
based on the laid objective and questions of the report. Presently there is analysis of secondary
sources of information that are available for the purpose of evaluating it and reaching to relevant
recommendations & conclusion for the organisation.
The benefits of social media in context to tourism
As per view points of Gizem Tas (2020), Social media has changed the overall aspect of lives of
people. Such development has significantly affected the business organisations by enabling new
marketing strategies. Tourism sector is one of the most vibrant sectors that are part of the global
economy. There are different social media marketing strategies that can help in leading towards
excellent results. social media impact on the tourism can be observed by the way people are
reaching before going on a trip, people are encouraged to share their overall travel experiences,
social media has transformed the way people are making decisions, the tourism marketing and
social media has lead to generation of excellent results for the business (Han and et.al., 2018).
For this purpose there is collection of information that is related with essentials of tourism sector.
It helped in determination of role in a more effective and better manner. The overall concept of
social media practise is described as a feeling, perfection and further reaction of an intellectual
entity based ion generation of a mediated communication environment. It is related with an
emotional sense of belongingness that organisations are willing to create with their target
customer base. The changing times has resulted into establishment of positive effective presence
on social media for the purpose of indirect affecting the overall user’s experiences.
Social media has lead to generation of improved customer regulations. When people are not
satisfied with a particular service then they can look for measures that can lead towards better
reputation of organisation. Social sharing can be one of the most significant factors that can
affect the tourism sector. It enables the young generation to share the significant memories from
the target segment of audiences. Social sharing can assist the ways in the process of attracting
new travellers by encouraging people to share their real life experiences through online
mediums. Further with the changing times organisations are also working towards generation of
possible benefits from social media strategies. Such as there is creation of content by engaging of
customers. Tourism industry is related with being aware of all the possible benefits of social

Media for the business that can lead to high mount of brand awareness (The Role of Social Media
in Tourism Marketing, 2020).
User generated content is one of the best strategies in order to engage the business. Influencer
marketing is also an aspect of social media marketing that can help in influencing the experts so
that can help in specification of the target location and get in touch with various experts and
tourism influencers.
Another benefit of tourism marketing is associated with being familiar with the role of social
media marketing. In this process there is enhancement in the visibility by actively contacting
with the target customer base by listening to them and further answering their questions and
doubts. Offering customer services through online mode is one such aspect that is one of the
most effective ways of making the voice heard for the target base,. Tourism industry is seasonal
and extensive that is relevant when it comes with the timing aspect. Digital marketing agencies
can assist various tourism organisations like TUI for the purpose of having up to date campaigns
for the purpose of advertising the newest services. With the development of various social media
applications like twitter, facebook and instagram the social media marketing has become a leader
in the tourism industry (Carlson and et.al., , 2019). Facebook is an excellent platform that can
assist in the process of attracting various social media users. Further facebook recommendation
enables various users to share their experiences. It can help in effectively to reach information as
part of the travelling business. Twitter is another one such social media application that is
related with having effective tourism marketing strategy.
It can be said that the generation of various social media applications have transformed the ways
to rebuild a brand. In case of tourism industry with the changes taking place in billboards and
brochures the key to various business successes is to collect all the social shares, positive user
reviews and enhance the process of customer satisfaction on such social media sites. It can be
thus said that social media has generated a big opportunity for tourism companies. Further digital
agency network that can help in suitable agency for tourism marketing.
The main role of the social media on tourist destination selection
The changing times has resulted into importance of tourism destinations to have a good
visual presence. Social media has become more advance and is offering large number of options
to visualise a destination for people even before they are leaving to a particular place. It can be
worth consideration that the overall choice of destinations is having a profound influence on

social media presence of much business. Social media has resulted into social networking which
has become more valuable marketing tool for organizations that are functioning under such
industry.
As per recent statistics there are approximate 2.01 billion monthly active facebook users
that are active in June 2017. it is one such social media platform that is offering a different
tourist experiences and destination choices to customers. Apart from this other social media
application includes snap-chat, twitter, Instagram, trip advisor that is offering users to share their
positive or negative experiences on such public platforms. It is very effective in the process of
providing a overall insights to the prospective customers. Many destination boards have change
the way information is shared across such platforms (Zengand Wang, 2019). TUI is UK leading
travel brand that is serving customers every year one marking holidays, crises, fights across
world. The presence of TRUI on social media platforms is developing a essential connection
between the customers and brands. It has assisted in the process of increasing the overall
engagement process with the customers; it has also lead to reaching of new audiences, prioritizes
the engagement and promotes the process of new offerings (Customer support and content
solutions 2020).
As per view points of Nicola smith who is the senior social media marketing manager in
TUI in its branches of UK and Ireland, there is focus on building up of confidence by TUI to be
more transparent as possible so that there can be wider understand of the view points of people
based on their sentiment and key themes that can inform the part of the content. Social media has
become a prime destination for the customer services TUI uses sprout social to ensure that
written Facebook and Instagram bases are properly covered. In the present scenario of global
pandemic also there are many customer queries that are arsing at the unprecedented scale. It has
enabled the teams to start running as quickly as possible, for this TUI has developed a sprout
customer support to the team as and when it is required. Further there is focus on creation of
stronger support system for customers in the midst of global travel disruptions. With the start of
new decade TUI team has disrupted the global industry (Taylor, 2020). In February 2020 TUI
has received approx 53,900 messages across TUI UK and it has been amongst the first choice of
social channels. With the end of March as further the pandemic spread it lead to 269 percent that
s more than 198,000 messages. With the increasing of call volumes many customer agents have
moved to answer the inbound calls from 61 people across TUI volunteered to assistance. With

the hitting of global pandemic that is COVID 19 the focus of overall Marketing department in
TUI have satisfied towards more use of online platforms in order to maximise their support so
that team can be helped beyond a particular point.
TUI team has helped in the process of social listening that has a influence the overall content
strategy that is leading towards monitoring the glean insights about their various competitors,
TUI has focussed towards looking for amendments and specific destinations as compared to its
various competitors.
In TUI the social media marketing has helped in tracking the overall response rate and reply
times with a tool of inbox team report, in this there are customer care metrics that are developed
at individual level so that there can be better team visibility that is offered as per customer
service performance. As per the sprouts stage report in TUI there is analysis of the overall
performance by development of specific content themes that is regarded as the “covid content”.
It has garnered more than 28 million impressions. Further there are 3 million engagement that are
also created between a time period of march 1, 2020 and august 31,2020.
apart from this TUI as a global tourism brand has also offered a new content hub by the name
travel.me in which the main emphasis is laid down by the brand for the purpose of enhancing it
overall visibility and searching ability on joint platforms it together ties the content from approx
600 social media channels of TUI group 300 global travel brands that includes instagram, twitter,
you-tube and Facebook. TUI is a brand that ranges from airlines to hotels and cruises further
there are also various tour operators (Martínez-Navalón, Gelashvili and Saura, 2020). Each has
its own genuine treasure of stores that have recovered from travel.me. The development of
technology has resulted into a editorially managed content hub that is leading towards generation
of effective content as a way of enhancing the overall visibility of individual channels.
The process is adopted by the customers to reach a specific choice as per their laid preferences
dependents on a four step process. That is there is destination discovery at this stage people are
visiting various social media platforms that includes Facebook, twitter and Instagram to find and
develop some ideas and inspirations (Law, Chan and Wang, 2018). This stage provides the
prime opportunity to influence the decision making process. As the Present satisfied customers
have already posted about their experiences and that can further inspire the next prospective set
of travellers.