ETourism TLH342 Report: Analyzing Social Media Strategies for Hotels

This report examines the evolving landscape of the hospitality industry in the context of e-tourism and social media. It begins with an introduction to the e-tourism concept and its growing importance, particularly for small and medium-sized businesses. The main body delves into the significance of social media in the hospitality sector, emphasizing the need for businesses to adapt to digital platforms. A literature review supports the arguments by exploring the current trends and the impact of social media on brand value and customer engagement. The report then focuses on Lancaster Gate Hotel as a case study, evaluating its current social media strategy, including content, digital, and LinkedIn marketing tactics. The findings are used to develop a new, detailed social media strategy for the hotel, incorporating recommendations based on the literature review and case study analysis. The report concludes with a summary of the key findings and implications for the hospitality industry.

ETourism TLH342

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION................................................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY.......................................................................................................................................3
Small and Medium Tourism or hospitality business with a social media presence........................3
Literature review .............................................................................................................................4
Evaluate their current social media strategy to discuss and support the arguments of your
literature review...............................................................................................................................5
CASE STUDY & Findings..............................................................................................................7
Social media strategy - New............................................................................................................8
CONCLUSION ..................................................................................................................................11
REFERENCES...................................................................................................................................12
Books & Journal:...........................................................................................................................12

INTRODUCTION
Hospitality industry is rising at rapid scale and changing with period of time. The service &
hospitality sector has been evolving with flexibility of market. With rise of technology and digital
business tourism industry is also getting adopting e-tourism concept (Charoensukmongkol, 2018).
The hospitality business sector has flexible market which makes it necessary for them to
understand concept and importance of social media effectively. Main aim of this report is to
understand the importance of e-tourism industry and impact on hospitality sector. In this
competitive market, it is crucial to be aware about strategies & get engaged with market trends so
that business survive for longer time interval. Social media is the one which is having the higher
number of user which are having the high level of influence ability which can be used by the
company which are looking for creating the awareness regarding their product or services along
with increase in their brand value. These are the one who are responsible for creating awareness in
just few period of time which is one of the best specification of this platform. Lancaster Gate
Hotel, a fined and medium sized based hotel located in United Kingdom. The Hotel is famous for
its providing services such as online room booking service, clean bath and shower, comfort sitting,
& offers romantic sitting with flat screen TV etc. This report comprises of medium sized based
business with social media presence, current social media strategy, developing social media strategy
& recommendations and case study evaluation based on literature review.
MAIN BODY
Small and Medium Tourism or hospitality business with a social media presence
The hospitality business is rising at rapid scale and it is essential to focus on market trends
as well as customer behaviour so that activities are carried out accordingly. Social media refers to
sharing of information and ideas or thoughts through virtual networks. In this competitive era, it is
due to entry of many new businesses in same field & changing demands of customer is negatively
impacting upon enterprises which directly affecting their profit & sales ratio. In business of
hospitality & service sector, it is essential to be aware about competitors so hat resources and
decision making is being carried out effectively (ERCAN, 2019).In context of chosen hotel which
is Lancaster Gate Hotel, they are also getting affected by change of market situations at wider scale.
The presence of social media has forced them to get engage with these digital platforms to enhance
their goodwill & access to customers at larger level. In united Kingdom, the business of hospitality
is being also adapting social media to access guests, visitors & enhance their brand value in market.
Moreover, it is not possible for current hotel businesses to improve their effectiveness in
market to increase their sustainability period. The E-tourism has been changing and they uses new

software, hardware, technologies to enhance their execute their business functions & operations
appropriately. The selected hotel is three star hotel and make assure that appropriate type of social
media tools are being used which help in increasing their profitability ratio at higher level.
Importance of digital media platforms has shape sector of business in both positive & negative
manner. Also, it is examined that it depends upon need or requirement of enterprises to use which
type of social media platform for business expansion. There are various benefits of social media
presence such as communication is being carried out in proper manner, engagement of targetted
audience is done appropriately, management reputation increases with use of social media. So,
scanning of business environment is done so that it help in enhancing understanding market
situations with proper considerations. Also, when online as well as social media presence are
adopted, it is easy to make positive decisions for promotion or advertisement of products.
Thus, it is stated that sector of hospitality have to adapt & examine changes that impact on
their functions or operations so that they are able to carry out effective decisions. Manager of
chosen hotel need to track their progress or performance level of business so that everything is
done in correct way (Faraoni, 2016).
Literature review
According to (Kim, 2016), social media is trending concept which has been changing & is
used at wider scale in business sector. In this ongoing situation of pandemic situation of COVID19,
every business has become connected with digitally. Moreover, in this competitive era,hospitality
business is booming due to changing market situations. In United Kingdom, it has diverse economy
which comprises of IT professionals which has deep knowledge of social media and are well aware
about its importance. In every field of business, they uses digital display of social media on basis
which promotion and advertising is being done. Also, it is examined that it is stated every small,
medium or large businesses uses social media tools to market their brand or product at larger scale.
Social media gives a new opportunity to tourisms and hospitality business to gain competitive
benefits in market. Each and every individual is active on internet as well as social media and
access to information of organisation through online. Most of advertising & promotion is done with
help of social media platforms as they have fast response as compared to physical promotions. Main
benefits of using social media is that they enhance brand goodwill at wider level. In this modern
world and business sector, marketers now do not need to use push and aggressive strategy of
messages to promote their product in market. Also, media help customers in easily solving their
problems through accessing or posting on Twitter. Media business is wider and which gives
importance to social presence of digital platforms. Online & social media presence of firm needs

to be properly adopted so that resources & other functions of hospitality business are carried out
appropriately.
The above discussed literature review shows that presence of social media has increased use
of technology at larger level. Earlier, aggressive strategies were used to promote or advertise
product or services of firm such as town criers, messages, pamphlets, etc. But with change time
period,
Evaluate their current social media strategy to discuss and support the arguments of your literature
review
In hospitality businesses, it is essential to implement strategies so that goals as well as
objectives are achieved in most effective manner. The concept of social media is larger which
requires proper use of tactics and strategies so that decision making is done most efficiently
without facing any issue or problem. With proper analysis of market & competitor analysis, it is
easy to accomplish goals within time interval. Through review of literature review, it is seen that it
is necessary to adapt & use social media tools for business like Facebook, Instagram, You Tube and
other e-commerce websites such as Amazon, Alibaba through which promotion & advertising is
done appropriately. It is essential to examine current strategy that are beneficial for firm so that
management activities carried out properly. According to literature review, social media presence
assist keep engaging business with ,audience & with target market specifically. Manager of firm
conduct proper market analysis which helps them to analyse to choose what type of tactics for
business efficiency. In this hospitality business of Lancaster Gate Hotel there are various strategies
which are used by them within social media & are mentioned as follows-
Appropriate content & infographics-
It is one of most important strategy which is currently used by Lancaster Gate Hotel. In this
strategy, they use most relatable content for their product & brand. Also, with use of correct
infographics such as image, video, pictures etc. assist them to promote their services of hotel
through tourism related websites like trip advisor, trivago, etc. Both content & infographics are
necessary to be used so that it is easy to attract customers towards product or services of hotel. The
appropriate content are having the power to attract high number of customer base which are there
available there (Kovic, 2017). This can help in providing the correct information regarding any
product, services or the brand for which this platform is getting used. This is the one which uses the
image file, video file, pictures and many more through which there is chance of creating the
awareness which can help in increasing the sales of the product or service which is offered by the
related company. For providing the correct information about the brand, product or service there is
need to be carefully about the content which are there be advertise. There is use of many website

where such correct information which is related with the associated product or services are releases
there on the popular websites which are visited by the customer who are their target. There is need
to use the many other animation which should be used which are having the better ability to get
noticed and are able to attract the targeted customer who are the main target of such awareness for
increasing the customer base. Which can ultimately leads to provide the popularity to the Lancaster
Gate Hotel which can lead to increase the profit and the productivity of this hotel.
Digital marketing-
It is another strategy which is sued by chosen hotel as digital marketing has been in trending
spot. It is to be defined as tool or technology which is utilised by entity to promote their product
and business in market. It is most effective strategy which is impact on hospitality business at larger
scale. Further, in viewpoint of chosen hotel, they do promotion of their hotel by posting images,
videos of their hotels on Facebook, You Tube, Instagram etc. It is beneficial strategy which is
adopted at wider scale. To use this strategy in business, appropriate level of knowledge, skills are
required so that it is applied in most efficient manner (Kwayu, 2018). This is the one which is used
for the marketing purpose which are having there own value for the marketing purpose. In this, it is
highly effective in creating the brand awareness about the product or services along with the brand
name which is one of the most important advantage of using the digital media. In the hospitality
sector this can be very effective when there is use of the digital media platform. This allows the
marketing of the product and services which is done within some time. For this, the company need
to use the proper timing of the advertisement which is there can be planned. They are having higher
number of users every time which is one of the best specification of this platform.
LinkedIn marketing strategy-
This is another strategy which is currently used by selected hotel. This market strategy is
required at priority level because with help of this portal they posts new jobs or vacancy, on basis
of which promotion is done accordingly through engaging with candidates who apply for job etc.
Using this tactic is also cost expensive because it require subscription & on basis of which it is jobs
are posted on carrier sites (Maartens, 2020).This LinkedIn marketing strategy is highly effective
because most of individual searches for jobs through this job portal. This is the type of strategy
which is the used for the creating awareness which is regarding any product or services which are
there in the market and having the ability to full fill the demand and requirement of the customer.
LinkedIn is one of the platform which is used for the awareness purpose where the main work is to
reach out the people who are or can be the customer in future. This can help in attracting the
customer who are there for finding the job opportunity which is one of the important source of
finding the job. This is the one where there are large number of youth who are having the ability to

fill the mind of their customer about the idea to avail such type of product or services which creates
the market demand and increases profit.
Instagram marketing strategy-
Instagram is social media platform which is used for communicating information and
exploring data. It is also an most used strategy in which chosen hotel uses Instagram as tool to
promote their brand and services. It is done by posting images, video, articles about hotels or their
amenities. This Instagram marketing strategy assist in promotion of products at wider scale (Malec,
2016). It is trending and is widely used because adults, teenagers, all people uses this tool for
communication. Instagram marketing strategy can be there in increasing the high level of awareness
which is due to used by the high number of the youth which are having the buying capacity along
with they are initiator who initiates their parents and their friends to have such services which leads
to high demand of the product or services. This can help in increasing the sales of the product or a
services which is provided by the advertising company. Here, Lancaster Gate Hotel is the one who
needs to use such marketing media which are there having the high number of customer or user and
are having the ability to create high level of awareness.
Therefore, from above discussed matter it is seen that strategies are base of entity without
which it is not possible to achieve goals in specific manner. Further, it is also analysed that manager
of hotel need to be active as well a focused towards market situations so that competitive
advantages are achieved appropriately.
CASE STUDY & Findings
Hospitality business is changing at rapid scale with increase use of technology it has
become important to be aware about changes in market. Earlier organisation uses traditional way
of marketing such as town criers, aggressive messages, and many more methods to promote their
product as well as services within market. In this, flexible market of business uncertain situations
are bound to arise due to both external as well as internal factors. Lancaster Gate Hotel, a three star
hotel located in United Kingdom. It is medium sized based business which provide wide range of
services and facilities to customers, guests etc. In U.K, there are wide number of hotels which
provide same services & which also leads to increase of competition in market. It is it also seen
that with this higher competition, every business is connected with internet. Moreover, presence of
social media platforms like Facebook, Youtube, has increased importance of this concept. Also, in
hospitality sector it is essential for managers to be aware about these platforms on basis of which
they are able to do promotion & advertising in most effective ,manner.
Customers insight and information is easily gained by using social platforms as they

customer are more active in these tools & technologies. There are many challenges which are faced
with traditional method promotion like they are time consuming and it is not easy to access to all
customers in market. This has been seen that it is crucial to be aware market brand at larger scale
so that products or services are consumed at all aspects. Further, as due to pandemic situation
they might loose their business profit and sales revenue. Thus, it makes them important for them to
adopt this concept of social media. Also, it is essential to adopt these social media platforms with
proper considerations. Thus, manager of hotel uses these platforms in such a way that they are able
to increase their brand value in market at wider approach.
Social media strategy - New
Social media is defined as online platform where the number of user are active in single
time. This help to promote the product and services. Many organisation are adopted this new
technology because it have maximum number of reachability of customer. This help to engage
number of customer at same. As per this, Lancaster gate hotel must follow the social media
strategies to promote their hotel and their services to customer. They have number of tools which is
applied in hotel. These are:
Select relevant and realistic social media marketing goals: On of the most normal problem
is faced by many or organisation is to engaged with social media is that they have been never spend
as much time into setting social media goals. The social media marketing goals need to fit into
business planning as a whole (Nanda, 2018).This often predict the number of value which is consist
of new approach to attract the new customer by their content. This refers as SMART is in kind
which elaborate specific, measurable, attainable, relevant and time bound. It help to say that smarter
the goals more likely able to meet them. In the context with Lancaster gate hotel, they also play a
move of smart play to capture and hold number of customer by providing brief information of their
service in social media platform which help to influence number of customer (Nazarian, 2017).
Research of target audience: Making strategies is good in marketing which is based on
offline but in case of online making assumption can create dangerous game for marketer. In today
time social media demographic is higher then other platform, now days everyone taking new
service of product form online store or online website because they attract customer in such way to
visit their site and earn maximum profit and revenue. The active user are million in number on
social platform here are some key takeaways:
 Facebook, Instagram and other platform which is related with online platform create the
prime place for ads due to the part of earning uses bases. In this contest Lancaster gate hotel
must follow this technique of creating ads and other on the these platform to promote the
hotel because in this kind of platform their are number of active user.

 The majority of user are also active in Instagram. In this Instagram have huge base of user
and they also doing paid promotion tool in their application. So as per this this help the
Lancaster hotel to do paid promotion of their firm in such a way where they can post their
hotel picture and and short video which is helpful for generate the awareness of service in
customer.
Purchasing decision is influenced by social media: in the era of the social media it help to
building the audience base and engagement, the current era is totally focused on commerce and
personalisation and individuals (Phillips-Wren, 2016). This are the major platforms which have
heavy access and customer. It is easy for the organisation to choose the target market and promote
their product in such a way which change the mind of customer and alter purchasing decision. In
aspect of Lancaster gate hotel this tool help firm to promote their hotel in a organic manner and
service are introduce. This help the overall firm to produce number of reliable ability to change
purchasing decision in regards with hotel. There are some example which is useful to alter decision.
 Manage audience data for custom audience targeting
 Create campaigns and ads
 Build custom dashboard and run analytics. Manage campaigns assets, page, accounts and many more.
Introduce new product or services events in social media: this is act as promotional
technique. In this any new service or product is going to launch then before that the first look is
introduce in social media which help create know the number of user are active to see this. This
help to get knowledge about the fan base and following customer for that particular product and
services. In the context with Lancaster gate hotel, this is very useful for the hotel in which they
introduce their new service and new promotional activities posted on social media that help to
gather the number of customer and influence them to use the service for at once (Salem, 2018).
Engaged with customer: As per this it help to get an interaction with customer for long
time, the social platform have potential to engaged with your customer for all the time. By
introducing new service and new product, offers and many more which help to get engaged with
customer and also help to provide the feedback form the customer, which help to improve any
service or product. In the context with Lancaster gate hotel, this tool help to engaged with customer
for all the time. This also help to create brand reputation.
Improve on competitors, past contents which have done better on social media-
One of the best way to see the competitors work which have done well on the social media
and are able to give the Lancaster Gate Hotel some advantage. This is the one through the hotel can
use such media content which have their experienced effect for the marketing of the hospitality
industry. There is need to find out the content which is related to your serving food which are

proving to the customer as a meal. This can help in finding some of the new idea for getting more
information which is there for the hospitality industry. By using the old content Lancaster Gate
Hotel can be able to make some of the better content which can help in the marketing of the hotel.
There are many such content is available on the internet which were used and had the better effect
on the social media in sense of creating the awareness of the either the specific meal of the hotel or
the hotel brand name. This is having the advantage in which the content which was circulate for the
marketing purpose by their competitors, can be used for making new content with having some of
the improvement in such content which are able to attract and create more customer for your
specific hotel. This one can be the high advantage to show your brand a high level and through
which they can be able to show better content which can be able to attract the higher number of
customer which can increase the customer base of the hotel. This strategy should use by the
Lancaster Gate Hotel which can helpful in creating large market for providing their services along
with products which is meal there. This can help in increasing the profitability of the hotel.
Creating social media plan
This is one of the most necessary thing for creating the awareness about your product or
brand. This is the one which is used very carefully because due to having any fault which can lead
to the miscommunication. In this, there is need to plan with high attention which leads to the
positive effects otherwise this can be used to decrease the brand value of your brand. When there is
lack in the social media plan then there is the advantage to the competitors which can leads to
decrease the brand value along with reducing in the customer base. For creating some of the
personal connection one is need to plan well. A good plan can tell the Lancaster Gate Hotel which is
having the benefits of the social media (Townsend, 2019). This is having the advantage of telling
one what they need to prioritize, how to measure and optimize and when it's the right time to
execute the plan. Sharing the different information any time when ever you want which is not going
to work in positive way and also can decrease the brand value of the Hotel.
So, one need to keep in mind that they should use the proper time, which is best for the
sharing of the information which is going to create the awareness of the hotel at the right time with
the right plan. This makes to face the content ignorance by your targeted customer which is not a
good thing for the brand value. Every social media plan is able to tell you about the best time on
which the potential customers are likely to see about your social updates. This can be helpful for the
Lancaster Gate Hotel in increasing the costumer base along with increase the printability and the
brand value of the hotel.
Use hashtags sensibly
In the social media one of the most powerful is using the hashtags which is having its own
value in this platform where any information which is having the hashtag got viral in just few hours
due to having the specific point which is there in the hashtags. So there is need to be very careful

during choosing the point for hashtag which can be the most useful one. Hashtag is having the
power to make your business popular in just few times which were not even known by the nearby
people. They are having the value to make anything popular whether used for criticizing or for
complementing to any person, product or brand. This can be used in any social media platform like
Facebook, Instagram, Twitter etc. By organising the campaign which is one the social media
platform by using the hashtag which can help in increasing the awareness of that campaign. This
can get popular in just few hours which is having one of the best advantage of using this. This can
be explained by using an example which is explained here. For example- In year 2014, there were
the social media campaign where the use of the hashtag was there for creating the popularity or say
awareness which was for the Coca-Cola (Viko, 2019).
Where there were the hashtag which was the “#shareacoke”.This campaign was there on
twitter where customer were sharing their pics which was related with this hashtag campaign got
highly popular and due to this sales increases highly at that time which created the high level of
awareness of the brand in just few times. Like this it can be explained the power of the hashtag
which is need to use by the Lancaster Gate Hotel to create high level of awareness of their brand in
just few time which need to do at the right time with having one of best hashtag. This can help the
hotel to increase the popularity along with the brand name awareness and their value which can
ultimately leads to increase in the productivity and the profitability of the hotel (Vrontis, 2018).

CONCLUSION
After analysis of above mentioned report, it has been concluded that it is essential to
understand concept of e-tourism so that objectives are achieved with proper considerations. So,
discussions have been made about importance & presence of social media in hospitality business,
literature review, findings of case study, current and new social media strategy & recommendations.
In this report, there is detailed explanation is available which is having the information which is
related with the hospitality industry where there is highly requirement of the creating the awareness
for attracting high number of customer which can help in providing the profit to that hospitality
sector. This is the one where the given hotel need to create the awareness which is done by using the
social media which is having the high level of effectiveness and there are many reasons and social
media platform which are there which are having the ability of increase the popularity of any brand.
Thus, it has been evaluated that it is important for business to cope with new challenges &
situations which occur in market and directly affects business. Furthermore, it is too analysed that it
is duty of HR manager to make assure that correct tactics are being applied within business which
increase productivity of business at larger scale. In business sector, it is necessary to connect social
media to business which assist in achieving of better results.

REFERENCES
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perspective.Information Systems Frontiers,20(3), pp.439-456.
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impacts from the incorporation of CHP and CCHP systems in existing UK hotel
buildings.Energies,11(5), p.1219.
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and valuation.Journal of Business Research,100, pp.245-254.
Viko, 2019.Penerapan Advertising dan Sales Promotion pada Kongkow Carwash (Doctoral
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Vrontis, 2018. The impact of social media on international student recruitment: the case of
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