E-tourism: Impact of Social Media Strategy on Turquoise Holidays

This report explores the impact of social media strategy on Turquoise Holidays, a medium-sized tourism company based in London. It evaluates the company's current social media strategy and its effectiveness in engaging customers and increasing sales. The report also discusses the developments of social media and mobile technology on hospitality businesses and provides recommendations for a new social media strategy.

E-tourism

Contents
INTRODUCTION.....................................................................................................................................3
Literature Review......................................................................................................................................3
Current social media strategy of Turquoise Holidays..............................................................................3
Case Study Evaluation (Findings)............................................................................................................6
Discussion...................................................................................................................................................9
Developments of Social Media and mobile technology on Hospitality Businesses.................................9
New Social Media Strategy.....................................................................................................................10
CONCLUSION........................................................................................................................................12
REFERENCES........................................................................................................................................13

INTRODUCTION
E-tourism can be referred to as the analysis, design and application of information
technology as well as e-commerce within the hospitality and tourism industry. The use of
information technology has completely changed how the tourism industry operates. Customers
are now able to choose their destination of travel easily by comparing prices (Alcántara-Pilar and
et. al., 2017). If information and other communication technologies are used effectively, they can
prove to be highly innovative tools that can help organizations in upgrading their positions
within the market. There are different advantages of e-tourism like it allows tourism enterprises
to communicate with the customers more efficiently and also leads to an increase in the number
of reservations.
Organization chosen for this report is Turquoise Holidays, medium sized tourism
company that is based in London, United Kingdom. The company was founded in the year 2002
and provides travel packages to customers to different destinations across the world. The
company has been able to keep hold of its existing customers and attract new ones at the same
time by mainly focusing on the details of the services that they provide. It has a good social
media presence across various platforms like YouTube, Facebook, Pinterest, Twitter and
Instagram. The report evaluates the developments of mobile technology as well as social media
on hospitality businesses. It also includes an evaluation of the company’s social media strategy
along with recommendations. Apart from this, the findings from the case as well as a new social
media strategy is also included in the report.
Literature Review
Current social media strategy of Turquoise Holidays
A social media strategy explains how an organization would use social media in order to
stay connected with its customers as well as achieve goals and objectives. It also explains the
different tools that the company would use in order to do so (Chen and Lin, 2018). In order to
build an effective social media strategy, it is important for an organization to make use of the
rights channels. Companies today have well defined social marketing goal of increasing its brand
presence in order to attract a greater number of potential customers. Currently, the companies
have a widespread social media presence across platforms like YouTube, Instagram, Pinterest,

Twitter and Facebook. They are able to engage customers and maintain a good position in the
market. They post regular updates about any new services or offers on different platforms in
order to keep the customers informed about the same. The current social media strategy of many
companies includes advertising through Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Pinterest.
This has proved to be beneficial for the companies as there has been an increase in the
overall sales as well as customer segment across the world. Besides this, the organizations also
use ads that are based on customer generated content. With the help of Facebook advertising,
tourism companies are able to generate leads as the level of engagement of users on this platform
is very high. In comparison to any other social media advertising platform, Facebook offers
much more advanced targeting (Chuang and et. al., 2017). The company does not run same
advertisements for a long period of time and instead keeps innovating them as the customers tend
to get bored of seeing the same content. When a new advertisement is developed, it is tested
within a small community in order to analyze its effectiveness. Although, the number of users on
Facebook is large, Instagram today is considered to be one of the major social advertising
platforms across the world. Advertising itself and its services through Instagram has helped
Turquoise Holidays in increasing its customer engagement rates.
Many companies post pictures and videos that are visually appealing to the customers
leading to an increase in the rate of engagement. Taking advantage of the various features of the
platform, they link the advertisements to the landing page of their website which allows the
customers to directly engage with the company. The main focus of the companies is on people
who are looking for either family holidays or once in a lifetime celebration. In order to attract
their attention, they post custom images of real people and offers various deals that are
irresistible for the customers and as a result lead to impulse buying. The companies ensure that
its services are innovative, fresh and not offered by none of their competitors in the market
(Kazandzhieva and Santana, 2019). Hashtags have recently gained a lot of popularity and the
respective company understands that the social media platform is driven by effective use of the
same. This is because hashtags serve to be one of the greatest ways for organizations to connect
with their niche market.
Being active on Instagram has resulted in more sales for the companies over the last few
years. Twitter advertising is another social media strategy that the organizations currently use.

This is because the platform provides an unparalleled access to its users. Twitter is a viable
platform for the company as it does not have to pay any amount in order to reach its customers.
Various organizations use Twitter ads in order to drive their brand awareness among the
customers and promote specific products as well as services. The companies run various
campaigns on the platform that include promoted tweets, accounts and trends. In order too
promote its services and reach out to its target customers, companies use images that are
compelling and draw attention (Lama, Pradhan and Shrestha, 2020). Advertising on Twitter is
completely integrated into users’ timelines through promoted tweets. Twitter is basically
designed for engagement and therefore, has helped the company in being able to interact with its
customers on a regular basis and keep them engaged.
Another social media strategy that tourism companies use is Pinterest Advertising, which
is a unique way of reaching and engaging with the customers. The level of engagement on
Pinterest is high and also, the images are usually built on custom product creation. Pinterest ads
help in increasing the conversions because the customers are highly engaged. Advertisements on
Pinterest also help in generating demands for the customers and also drives traffic to the
company’s online website. Besides these, the companies also use chatbots that help them in
communicating with the customers as well as resolving their problems. They ensure that all of
the content that is posted on different social media platforms is of high quality and that the
customers can relate with it. Content marketing is one of the most used form of marketing that
various companies across different industries, including hospitality as well as tourism industry
have implemented. Companies have a team of dedicated professional content marketers who
maintain the frequency of posts across different platforms.
In order to further engage the customers, organizations run cross channel campaigns
across various social media platforms (Maravilla Jr and Gantalao, 2019). These campaigns allow
them to reach out to a greater number of people and makes sure that they are engaged. Cross
channel campaigns include the brand telling an engaging story or linking to a particular page that
will allow the audience to earn more about the campaign. Relevant hashtags along with unique
and memorable names help the companies in increasing their overall base of existing customers
as well as attracting new ones at the same time. Therefore, by implementing the various social
media strategies, the companies have seen an increase in the customer engagement and also been

able to stand out from other brands that offer similar products to the customers. They ensure that
the feedbacks or complaints that they receive across various social platforms by customers, are
addressed properly so that the customers are satisfied and would consider making bookings with
them again.
Case Study Evaluation (Findings)
The topics that are highlighted in the literature review section include various social
media strategies that Turquoise Holidays currently uses. It has been found that the company
advertises about itself as well as its services across various social media platforms. These include
Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube and Pinterest. Uploading posts has helped the company
in keeping its customers engaged and attracting a greater number of potential customers from
across various geographic locations (Masri and et. al., 2020). It can be said that posting
advertisements across various platforms can help in increasing the brand awareness of the
company as well as the customers will generate a conversation with the brand. With the help of
the same, the company has been able to engage with its customers and understand their
preferences as well as requirements in an effective manner. Customers write about their
experience and feedbacks, if any in the comments that provide the company with a better
understanding of the same so that it can provide better service. Since the company uses Facebook
advertising strategy, it has been found that the company’s overall reach among customers has
increased which has further led to an increase in the overall sales.
Facebook advertising has helped the company in developing ads based on a particular
objective and target audience. It has also allowed the company to choose the kind of ads as well
as target audience for the same. The ads can be customized based on the needs of the company as
well as the audience that it is trying to target. This has allowed the company to create better ads
and ensure a better understanding of the needs and preferences of its customers. Advertisements
have also allowed the company to remarket to people with whom it has already interacted with
before. It has ben found that with the help of Facebook advertisements, the company has been
able to find new leads (Múgica and Berné, 2019). This has led to an overall increase in the
company’s customer base along with overall sales. The customers have been loyal to it and the
company’s overall profitability has also increased because they are cheap. A lot of customers
spend a significant amount of time on Facebook in order to get updates.

From the literature review, it has been found that having a social media strategy provides
a direction to the company which helps in achieving goals and objectives. Having a social media
strategy can be tailored based on the marketing and business goals. Apart from this, the company
can also measure, track and improve overall services as well as the level of engagement of the
customers. Turquoise Holidays has been able to track the level of engagement among users by
implementing different social media strategies. For any company, one of the most important
things is to gain loyalty for their brand from their customers (Navío-Marco, Ruiz-Gómez and
Sevilla-Sevilla, 2018). This is because new and potential customers contribute to an increase in
the conversion rate for the organization. It was found that Instagram is one of the most used
social media platforms with the level of engagement even higher than any other platform.
Instagram is a communication and networking platform that can create a voice through the
content that is posted on it. When customers comment on an image or video that is posted by the
brand, they value the response of the company that it provides.
They don’t like to get ignored and not responded to, due to which they can get diverted to
competitors. The company has its own YouTube channel, wherein it posts videos about the
services that it provides based on the reviews of the customers. This has helped the company in
growing its audience across the world. Turquoise Holidays has been able too reach out to a
greater number of people and creating awareness about the same. Implementing the use of
chatbots has helped the company in keeping up with the latest trends and providing a better
customer service to the people. Chatbots are becoming popular day by day and a lot of
companies that have an online presence are implementing this strategy to provide an extensive
customer assistance. The customers receive 24x7 assistance and therefore, prefer making
bookings with the enterprise. This has led to an increase in the level of engagement among the
customers and the company is able to monitor the customer data which helps it in making
informed decisions as well as gaining useful insights. It has also been found that chatbots make
sure that any issues that the customers are facing are resolved.
Through the analysis of literature review section, it has also been found that content
marketing is a social media strategy that the company currently uses in order to maintain the
level of engagement among customers (Rodrigues and et. al., 2017). This has helped the
respective company in increasing its social media presence and attracting a greater number of

potential customers. It can be said that the respective company, Turquoise Holidays has a
widespread presence across various platforms of social media. With the help of effective content
marketing strategy, there has been an increase in the overall viability of the company and the
brand is now being recognized among customers. Also, it has been able to build strong and
lasting relationships with customers who have already tried the services provided by it. But the
strategy has also posed some challenges for it as in order to develop content that is fresh and
innovative, more time as well as resources are required (Suau-Jiménez, 2019). This can act as a
barrier to the company. Besides this, there can also be cases wherein the content that is put up by
the company does not resonate with the customers. This can create a gap in communication
between the customers as well as the company.
Tourism is one of the industries that contributes to the overall economic development of a
country and it is important for organizations operating within this industry to ensure that they
implement the right strategies. This is because it can help them in reaching out to a greater
audience as well as increasing overall profitability (Wibasuri and et. al., 2018). The team of
content marketers within the company ensure that posts are uploaded on various social media
platforms from time to time. It has been found that Turquoise Holidays also advertises on Twitter
as well as Pinterest. Since Pinterest is driven by images, the company uploads pictures that are
appealing and seem attractive to the customers. As a result, their level of engagement is
increased and the overall awareness about the company as well as services offered by it is also
enhanced. This has led to an increase in the number of people reaching out to it in order to get
their bookings done. There has been an improvement in the conversion rates and brand loyalty as
well.
Therefore, it has been found that e-tourism is a segment that has gained popularity among
customers lately. This is because they have access to smartphones as well as internet and this is
also beneficial for the companies because the cost of marketing is less and better search engine
ranking. Marketing across various social media platforms is easy and Social media advertising
has grown to be a marketing alternative for plenty enterprise begin agencies globally (Tfaily,
2018). This is due to the convenience of the use of social networking sites to sell services and
products. The outcomes are nearly continually immediately, which permits organizations to
gauge the effectiveness of their marketing campaigns. Social media advertising has grown to be

an indispensable part of any advertising program irrespective of length or nature. Turquoise
Holidays implemented all these social media strategies in order to maintain the level of
engagement among customers and promote itself so as to each out to a greater number of
potential customers.
Discussion
Developments of Social Media and mobile technology on Hospitality Businesses
Advancements in mobile technology and developments of social media have proved to be
game changers for the hospitality industry in context to customer service as well as engagement.
This is because customers today have an access to smartphones and prefer booking their
reservations online. Also, they get to know about different enterprises operating within the
industry through various social media platforms (Tkachenko and Kovalska, 2017). Today, nearly
every organization has an online presence across social media platforms like Facebook,
Instagram, YouTube and Twitter. This is because the level of engagement across these platforms
is more a compared to traditional ways of engaging the customers. Social media has made it easy
for organizations to respond to any customer complaints and address their feedbacks. This has
helped in improving the overall quality of services offered.
The hospitality and tourism organizations can use social media and mobile technologies
in order to engage with the customers and identify their needs. Social media has become an
important part of the industry as it allows the organizations to find new customers and promote
themselves online. There are a lot of hospitality and tourism organizations that still rely on word
of mouth and good reviews from their customers (Utomo, 2019). But social media usage has
become widespread and travelers across the world consistently use social media to review their
experiences and to find new enterprises that can offer them with experiences based on their
individual tastes and preferences. Turquoise Holidays is a medium sized tourism enterprise in the
United Kingdom that has a significant online presence across social media platforms like
Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube etc. This has helped the company in engaging its
customers as well as attracting potential customers from across the world.
As per the viewpoint of Varsha Kumari, the different mobile technology trends within the
hospitality industry include Artificial Intelligence, use of Internet of Things or IoT, blockchain
technology, augmented and virtual reality etc. a lot of organization shave implemented different

features of mobile technology in order to provide the customers a seamless experience (How
Mobile Technology Is Changing the Hospitality Industry?, 2020). These features include
websites and applications that are mobile friendly, self-service, better prediction of trends in the
industry based on the behavior of customers and loyalty programs. Developing applications and
websites that are mobile friendly can help tourism organizations to attract a greater number of
customers thereby increasing overall sales and gaining a competitive advantage. Organizations
also make use of various social media platforms to build a rapport as well as understand about
the food and stay experiences of the customers in a more refined manner.
According to the viewpoint of (Tuten and Solomon, 2017) It can be seen that social
media has a huge impact on the tourism industry where consumers are continuously engaging in
the social media sites for the research trips identifying the information and making decisions
related to their travel and tourism plan. Social media platforms are continuously increasing the
awareness about different kind of tourism sites as well as help the tourism destinations in
promoting themselves in an appropriate manner. It is continuously being a source of promotion
where this style of user generated content is seen by the online communities as more as credible
and authentic and it is used by many hotels restaurant and visiting attractions for increasing the
visitors.
The role of social media is increasing dramatically within the tourism business where
there are different platforms which are used by tourism based organization and related to social
media. Some platform which is used by the organization in relation to social media is WhatsApp,
Facebook and many others. Using the social media channels provide a wider cover to the
organization as well as also maintain long range goal of the firm in relation to development of
the market related to a particular tourism industry. Organization working under the tourism
industry can use the social media platforms to information about different packages which
organization is going to launch in relation to the tourist destination. It relation to the current
market situation the trend toward the social media is increasing continuously where 90% of the
population under the age group of 15 to 40 is using social media platforms. Organization situated
with the tourism industry can use the social media platform to attract the customers by providing
effective contents as well as attractive information about the destination which is promoted by

the organization. It is a rapid display system which helps the organization information by
managing effective content on their websites or other platform.
New Social Media Strategy
In relation to Turquoise holidays organization is using different kind of social media and
marketing techniques which include catboats, content marketing, cross-channel campaigns,
marketing with YouTube and various other channels related to social media. It is necessary for
the organization to use appropriate strategy which is related to the current time and can be used
to improve the services in relation to using the social media platforms for advertising and
marketing the products and services offered by the organization (Felix, Rauschnabel and Hinsch,
2017).
In recent time, the best suitable method which can be adopted by the organization to use
as a new marketing strategy by the use of social media platform is related to using Twitter as a
platform to increase the awareness about the products and services of the organization. The main
reason behind this is that Twitter promotes customer engagements which help the organization in
achieving its objectives related to marketing the products and services. Organization can also use
Facebook Instagram and WhatsApp as a channel on the social media to promote the goods and
services in an appropriate manner. This is helpful to the organization in achieving a separate
competitive as with the market as a desk utilizing its resources by creating the content on
different social media pages of the organization. It is the best suitable strategy to the organization
because it is helpful in managing the content and using the information for attracting the
customers. 90% of the total users from the age group of 15 to 40 use one of these platforms
related to social media. These are Facebook, Twitter INSTAGRAM, SNAPCHAT and many
more. 20 social media platforms provide opportunity to the organization in attracting the
customers by using proper content creation system (Wang and Kim, 2017).
There are different kinds of steps which can be used by the organization to implement the
new reforms strategy related to use of social media in marketing. For implementation of the
strategy it is recommended to the organization that it has to formulate a meaningful set of social
media marketing goals which are related to the real stick objectives. Organization is going to use
a news channel on social media which include different kind of social media platforms like
Twitter INSTAGRAM, Facebook and WHATSAPP (Duffett, 2017) . For marketing on this

platform organization needs to create a content for which it has to hire different kind of content
writers as well as content creators performed according to the needs and requirements within the
current market. After setting the goals it is required to the organization that it has to identify the
target audience. Priority implementation of newly form strategy it is important to target the
audience in a particular market and area. Relation to turquoise holidays, organization is
performing its function in different kind of social media platforms where it is easier for the firm
to identify the target audience and use them in an appropriate manner. For the current strategy
organization is going to target customers from the age group of 25 to 40 which is helpful to the
form in managing its resources and identify needs and requirements of customers.
It is also recommended to the organization that analysis of competitive strategy is also
important for the firm. It is important for the organization analyses the competitors so that it can
take effective decisions by minimizing the negative impacts of strategies. Ability of competitive
helps in achieving a competitive h where organization can use different contents in relation to its
competitors for attracting the customers within the industry. Timelines are also important part
within the implementation of a new strategy within organization related to use of social media
platforms. In relation to timelines it is the top priorities of the organization where organization
has to identify different factors related to it. For this organization and also use a proper
management system which will guide the manager about the specific time line related to a
content which has to be posted on the organizations social media platforms which are going to
use in future.
CONCLUSION
It can be concluded from the above mentioned information that scope of social media is
increasing continuously in relation to the tourism and Other industries. This is because it is
providing a better platform to the organization in relation to promotion of products and services.
This is helpful to the organization achieving the separate market image as well as using the
trends within the market to promote the products and services. Social media platforms cover
wide range of market as well as it is easier to operate the social media. Major platforms which
provide a better level of promotion to the organization includes WHATSAPP, Facebook Twitter,
INSTAGRAM and many more. These all are the important aspects and tools which can be used
by the organization to improve the performance and achieve its objectives related to marketing of

the products and services. It can also conclude that there are various important aspects which has
to be considered by the organization while implementing a new strategy related to social media.
These aspects are directly related to identification of competitive strategies using specific time
limits and maintaining proper relations between different departments that strategies can be
implemented in direction to achievement of objective related to marketing of product and
services.

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Online
How Mobile Technology Is Changing the Hospitality Industry?. 2020. [Online]. Available
through:< https://www.quytech.com/blog/mobile-technology-changing-hospitality-
industry/ >.