E-Tourism Case Study: Marine Court Hotel's Social Media Strategy

This case study examines the e-tourism strategies employed by Marine Court Hotel, a small and medium-sized hospitality business in the United Kingdom. The report explores the impact of social media and mobile technologies on the hotel's marketing and communication efforts. It begins with an introduction to e-tourism and its significance in the service industry, followed by a literature review on the use of social media in the hospitality sector. The case study then evaluates Marine Court Hotel's current social media strategy, including its presence on platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and LinkedIn. The analysis considers how the hotel engages with customers, utilizes content, and participates in social media contests. The findings highlight the challenges and opportunities the hotel faces in leveraging social media to enhance its brand image and customer base. The study also includes a discussion on the potential for mobile applications. Finally, the case study concludes with suggestions for improving the hotel's social media strategy to boost service operations and revenue.

Running Head: E-TOURISM 1
E-Tourism

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Introduction
Over the past few years, service industry has played an important role in the development of
most of the industrialized countries. Innovative business models and technologies have
transformed the service environment in the country. In today’s modern business environment,
service industry is highly dependent on the social media and other internet sources to approach
its customers. It is practical for the hospitality sector to realize this fact and familiarize with these
changes for their marketing and communication process. By looking at the organizations in
hospitality industry, it can be stated that innovative business models and technologies have
transformed the hospitality and tourism industries. Some of the examples of such innovations are
mobile booking, phone-as-key-cards, mobile self-check-in, check-in kiosks, electronic luggage
lags, lobby media panels etc. Looking at the scenario, it can be seen that social media has
developed into an extension of organizations and when practiced can be an excellent way to
engage with the customers and enhance market intelligence (Berkowitch, 2010). This digitization
of hospitality and tourist industry can be possible by the development of e-tourism. E-tourism
assists in doing communication with its customers. Use of social media and mobile technologies
play a significant role in the life of small and medium hospitality enterprises. An increase in thee
sales is seen in the hospitality industry. About this, it can be said that internet has completely
changed the principle and infrastructure of hospitality and tourism.
This case study report includes the role of social media and mobile technologies for a small and
medium hospitality business i.e. Marine Court Hotel that is located in United Kingdom. The
company has presence on different social media platforms and networking sites so that it can
reach to its potential customers. This report includes the literature review on current social media
strategy that is used by this organization in hotel industry. Furthermore, it includes the case study
evaluation about the chosen business that includes all the findings which are generated from the
about literature review. At the end, a new social media strategy is suggested to enhance the
service operations and revenues of the chosen hotel.
Literature review
With the increase in the number of internet users, the use of social media platforms has grown
over the past decades. This utilization has increasingly grown from the individuals and

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businesses. There are various companies which are proactively using social media as a vehicle to
approach millions of potential and repeat customers. Businesses in service sector, like hospitality
which engage in continuous communication with the guests are hugely changing their marketing
strategies by selecting this modern age interactive media over the outdated practices of
marketing and public relations.
According to Seth (2012), social media has changed the way the people around the world interact
with each other. However, social networking exists right from the beginning of humanity. The
social networking concept has developed much like other innovations and it is becoming very
sophisticated with the improvement in the technology. The author defined social media as a form
of electronic communication through which the users create and share the essential information
online through pictures, texts, video and audio (Seth, 2012). As social media approaches the
huge number of people, it has developed as an effective marketing tool to communicate with the
customers and build the brand image by the constant correspondence.
In this context, Van der Bank (2014) stated that social media has become a low-cost marketing
tool which enhances two-way communication between customers and businesses. Considering
different small and medium enterprises, it can be stated that social media and mobile
technologies play an important role in the growth of small and medium hospitality businesses
(Van der Bank, 2015). As per Mgijima and Flowerday (2012) internet and mobile technologies
have the potential to assist the small-medium businesses to enhance quality of service, decrease
the costs, enhance productivity, attain competitive advantage and enhance profitability and
revenues (Mgijima and Flowerday, 2012).
There are various small and medium hospitality organizations in United Kingdom which are
using social media and other internet technologies to reach out to its customer base. Marine
Court Hotel is one of them that are using social media to promote its services among targeted
audiences. Marine Court Hotel is a small and medium hospitality organization that is situated on
the seafront at Bangor. The hotel boasts an on-site restaurant and bar, gym and other wellness
facilities. The organization offers free of cost parking services at its site. Rooms at this
hospitality organization feature the stylish and traditional décor and furniture and they are
equipped with the television and coffee and tea making amenities (Marine Court Hotel, 2018).
To promote its services and grab the attention of London’s population, the organization is using

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social media and mobile technologies. It uses effective social media strategies which assist the
organization to reach out to its potential customers.
According to Cardon and Marshall (2015) with customers responding and expressing their
opinions on public domain, social media has become more than a promotional tool for Marine
Court Hotel. For the company, it is working a channel which enables the interaction and provides
the chosen hotel an opportunity to look at the issues and needs of customers. If the organization
is able to resolve them effectively, it contributes to build an enhanced brand image in the UK
hospitality industry. The authors further stated that with the increase in the number of websites
like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram etc. which give the possible customers an opportunity to look
the reviews by actual customers, the way the data is interpreted today has been changed
significantly (Cardon and Marshall, 2015). Marine Hotel develops its social media strategy
considering the fact that developing a unique social media network which enables the guests to
create a profile and share feelings, opinions, photos, stories etc. can be a better source of
competitive edge or disadvantage.
According to Carter (2014), the chosen organization understands that social media has a large
impact on the hospitality industry. Customers use these platforms to make their purchasing
decision. Under its current social media strategy, Marine Court Hotel first makes the decision on
the selection of right platform like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and LinkedIn. It has created a
page on Facebook where it posts the pictures and important information about the hotel and its
services. To increase its brand presence, the organization gives various offers to its regular guests
at hotels. It gives the information about the discounted offers on its Facebook page (Carter,
2014). In this process, the business ensures that the content of message is user generated and it
posts the messages on being mindful like the organization gets the most engagement from their
audiences on Fridays and Saturdays. In this context, Tuten and Solomon (2014) stated that apart
from having understanding of social media platforms which hotels’ audiences use, the hotel
keeps the deep knowledge of which type of content generates the most commitment for them.
Since the audiences find the images and videos more engaging, the hotel posts the content with
the visually and engaged strong images across all the social media platforms (Tuten, and
Solomon, 2014).

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As a part of its current social media strategy, Marine Court Hotels uses social media contests that
are the most effective way to generate the engagement among the current guests and follower.
These contests assist in getting new followers. According to Aula (2010) social media contests
are an excellent way to source the user-produced content and enhance the visibility of brand.
Considering this fact, Marine Court hotel holds various contests across its social media channels.
The organization is operating its hospitality business as small and medium enterprises and it does
not have significant brand presence in the industry. So, company provides an opportunity to
directly talk to the customers. It ensures that it is listening to social media platforms for what the
people are talking about them and their hospitality services (Aula, 2010). Marine House Hotel
shows the appreciation of loyalty by reverting with re-tweets, replies and favorites. It assists the
organization in gaining the attention of customers towards its hospitality services. It affects the
customers’ perception positively.
According to Zeng and Gerritsen (2014), there are various small and medium businesses that use
mobile technologies to promote its hospitality services. Marine Court Hotel is one of the
hospitality organizations that have realized that mobile applications and websites are ideal to
encourage the possible customers to check availability and book rooms, look through hospitality
services, read reviews, and see the hotel pictures and many more things. Utilization of mobile
apps and websites makes sure that people can have an excellent browsing experience by using
their smart phones and they do not require waiting till they hold of a computer or laptop (Zeng
and Gerritsen, 2014). Considering this marketing strategy as significant way, the organization is
also planning to develop a mobile application for its hospitality services. In this way, Marine
Court Hotel has created its social marketing strategy that can assist the organization to attract
more customers towards its hospitality services. By using this strategy, the hotel is making
efforts to increase its customer base and brand presence in United Kingdom and other nations.
The business is effectively using internet sources, social media platforms and mobile
technologies to promote its hospitality services among a large population.
Case Study Evaluation (Findings)
Looking at the above literature review, it can be stated that Marine Court Hotel is a small and
medium hospitality enterprise that is making efforts to increase its customer base through

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effective social media strategies (Brochado, Rita and Margarido, 2016). From the above
literature review, it can be founded that Marine Court Hotel is developing its social marketing
strategy considering some important facts which are given below:
 Selection of right social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.
 The organization always posts the user-generated content on its social media page.
 Generally, it posts the advertisements and messages on social media being mindful. For
example, it posts the pictures and messages on Fridays and Saturdays (Berthon, et al,
2012).
 The organization ensures that content is attractive and impactful. Before posting the ads,
it understands the message that can engage the customers quickly.
 There are different ways to engage the customers in organization’s messages like posting
the pictures and videos, conducting social media contests, celebrity ads etc. Marine
House Hotel uses social media contests to create an effective use engagement.
In this way, the company is making efforts to use an effective social media strategy but still it is
unable to create a strong brand image in the UK hospitality industry. Currently, the firm is
operating its business as small and medium hospitality enterprise in the country. However, it has
been a blessing for the small and medium enterprise (Marine Court Hotel) with limited
resources. Free social media platforms like Instagram, Facebook and Twitter have been actively
used by Marine Court by the businesses for advertising, marketing, developing customer
relations, publicity and for purpose of market research. But the total number of platforms
available can be challenging for the organization. The major challenge for this hospitality
business is to create a balance between emphasizing too hardly on some of social networks and
advertising itself too lightly by using too many networks (Cardon and Marshall, 2015).
For Marine Court hotel, it is very important to understand that it uses a limited number of social
media platforms to promote its hospitality services among a large targeted population. In this
process, Facebook and Twitter are two good platforms for starting a promotional campaign. The
hotel can make the decision on selecting social media platform by considering different
segmentation characteristics of the people like target customers’ age, interests and gender.
Before making its social media efforts, the hotel can use these variables to select the most
appropriate social media platform (Zeng and Gerritsen, 2014). Hospitality business is all about

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the quality of service delivery to the end customer. A fully satisfied guest is a type of
advertisement that provides a promotional boost to the hotel (Chan, Okumus and Chan, 2017).
The people who stay at Marine Court Hotel share their experience and reviews on the social
media page of hotel. If the post is positive then it will have positive impact in customer
perception. Opposite of this fact is very risky for the organization. A negative review about the
hospitality services of Marine Court Hotel can deteriorate the whole brand image of the firm.
This is the negative side of using social media strategy as people can see all the posts and
comments on the social media page. If some of the customers post something negative about the
hotel’s services, it can have adverse impact on the customer’s perception (Dijkmans, Kerkhof
and Beukeboom, 2015). Previously, the people did not pay attention to the reviews but now
customers are very much aware about the reviews of hotels. On social media, these reviews have
become a significant part of business development strategy of Marine Court Hotel. For instance,
if a guest of Marine Court Hotel having more than 50000 followers on Twitter thinks to share a
negative experience that is faced on its hotels, then it will interpret into negative publicity
because social media plays a role of cascading medium. This is the major reason that it has
become very important today for the small and medium hospitality business i.e. Marine Court
Hotel to use dedicated digital medium team that can emphasize on these aspects (Aula, 2010).
In addition to this, use of mobile technology the Marine Court Hotel can promote its services to
the people who are not using social media platforms like Facebook, Instagra and Twitter.
According to an authorized report, in the year 2015 mobile internet user penetration was
approximately 52.7% and a single smartphone user gives around 85% of the tie on mobile
phones applications (Divisekera and Nguyen, 2018). So, this is the best ways to increase the
awareness about hospitality services among a large population in the country. The mobile
technology with internet and applications is a game changing innovation for various sectors
including hospitality with regard to effective engagement and customer service.
For a small and medium business, it can be a great way to make sure a fast booking experience
for the guests and keep them updated about the events, offers and other notifications. For
example, currently organization has posted the ad on its Facebook about a Royal Wedding event
that will be holding on 19 May 2018. Moreover, the mobile applications enable the hotel to
promote their accommodation and amenities to a large population in engaging and unique ways.

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In this way, by the use of mobile technology and its applications, the hotel is able to provide an
excellent service experience to its guests (Golesworthy, 2016).
However, the social media strategy of Marine Court Hotel, London is beneficial for the
organization to stimulate the desire of customers towards its hotel and hospitality services. But,
these strategies have some disadvantages which can affect the brand image and hospitality
business operations of the hotel. One of the major disadvantages is that it consumes a lot of time
and efforts to create an interactive presence on social media. As Marine Court Hotel is a small
and medium business that has limited resources and small team, so it can be difficult to invest
required resources to social media strategy (Guttentag and Smith, 2017). The firm always needs
to post the right and reliable information on social media page, as it is very easy to catch up on
the social media platforms. Moreover, one of the biggest disadvantages is discussed above i.e.
negative feedback about hotel’s services on the social media portals of hotels. It can have
negative impact on the guest’s perception. This SME needs to focus on the above mentioned
facts and make efforts to avoid the situation of embarrassment on social media networking sites
as social media strategies of this hotel work as reflection of its brand image. The guests observe
the social media profile of the company and make their perception accordingly (Hardin and Kim,
2010).
Discussion
The findings of the report indicate both positive and negative sides of social media marketing
strategy of Marine Court Hotel, London. The organization is using an effective social media
strategy that is both advantageous and disadvantageous for the hospitality services of the hotel.
The movement from traditional marketing strategies to online marketing has become profusely
clear during past few decades. In this modern and expensive business environment, small and
medium businesses are taking the advantage of free of cost and highly visible media platforms
and for the good cause (Heller Baird and Parasnis, 2011). From the above literature review and
case study evaluation, it can be discussed that social media marketing strategy plays a vital role
to approach a large customer base in the country. In this case, Marine Court Hotel as a small and
medium business enterprise has made various efforts to make its social presence but the
company is failed due to limited resources and ineffective management of the strategies.

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Considering the impact of social media strategy, the hotel needs to focus on its targeted
audiences and develop the strategies accordingly (Hoffman and Fodor, 2010). For the small
business owners, social media strategy is becoming very important to drive the business growth
and success if it is implemented in an appropriate way. It can be stated that parameters of social
media sites possess various unique implications for Marine Court Hotel including its staff, guests
and hotel’s management. The social media platforms offer a platform for a rating system which
can be used to create, monitor and analyze the brand image and reputation of the business.
Online user-generate content is considered as highly credible. The participation of Marine Court
Hotel in social media marketing is shows to be cost effective modes for communication and
engagement with the possible customers (Jenkins, 2009). Participation on social media platforms
provides the small and medium hospitality business with the direct access to actively engaged
users without the requirement to add any extra software and hardware.
It can be included in the discussion that social media platform is a straightforward, easily
accessible and enticing that enables the customers to become engaged in different ways. It is not
surprise that there are many hotels and other hospitality organizations like Marine Court hotel,
which have entered in the social media network space. Like others, Marine Court Hotel is
actively communicating with the customers by introducing new and innovative solutions and
providing quality hospitality services. Online customer review plays an important role in
selecting the hotel for the accommodation (Antioco, and Coussement, 2018). The above analysis
states that social media and its sources play an important role in the growth and success of
Marine Court Hotel in London. By the use of these social media marketing strategies, the
organization able to spread the information and specialties about its hospitality services and other
related offers and discounts. According a research, it can be stated that the small and medium
hospitality businesses which engage their guests through social media they get their guests to
spend more have more guests with repeat intention. In addition to this, they can increase their
customers through guest referrals (Kaplan and Haenlein, 2010).
Thus, the above findings show that hotels can rely on the social media marketing strategies but
they need to focus on other strategies also. It can be said about this organization that it needs to
improve and implement new social media strategy looking at the requirements of customers
towards hospitality services. In the country, the hotel still does not have a huge brand presence,

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so it needs to emphasize on its advertising and promotional efforts (Kietzmann, et al, 2011).
Currently, the organization is operating its business as small and medium enterprises in
hospitality industry. By the use of effective social media marketing strategy, it will be able to
expand its operations as large firm. Considering the negative effects of current social media
strategy, the hotel should adopt a new social media strategy so that it can increase its brand
presence and customer base. The below-paragraph recommends a new social media marketing
strategy to the organization. The organization should operate its business by making
improvement in its social media strategies. It should implement the strategies by considering the
strategies implemented by the larger organizations in UK hospitality industry (Ngai, et al, 2015).
It will assist the organization to establish a strong brand image among a mass population.
New Social Media Strategy
After analyzing the literature review and finding of the case study evaluation, it can be
recommended that Marine Court Hotel should use a new social media marketing strategy so that
it can overcome the negative effects of previous strategy. In addition to above social marketing
strategy, the chosen organization should make the strategic use of celebrities to intensify its
brand messages and enhance customer engagement (Palacios-Marqués, Merigó, and Soto-
Acosta, 2015). As discussed above, this hotel is operating its business as a small and medium
hospitality enterprise so it will be somewhat expensive for the organization but it will be very
beneficial for the organization. On its social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter, it
should collaborate with the popular celebrities in the region and it should use them as celebrity
influencer on social platforms. In today’s modern scenario, there are various organizations which
are using celebrity to promote their products on social media platforms (Shen, et al, 2016).
With the digital marketing, Marine Court Hotels should introduce the beneficial social media
promotional campaign with the assistance of influencers and celebrities. Generally, people love
and try to follow the celebrities who they like most so it will impact their purchase perception
positively. There are some examples of larger hotel groups like Hilton hotels and
InterContinental Hotel which are also using this type of social media marketing strategy and they
are able to enhance and maintain their brand image in the global hospitality industry (Siamagka
et al, 2015). Generally, the influencers are active on social media platforms and they can be

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known as niche promoters. Furthermore, they can promote the services of Marine Court Hotel to
their relatives and friends. So, it will be better to acknowledge this that influence of celebrities in
affecting the brand awareness and buying decisions of people is very strong in the leading
industries like hospitality. Along with the celebrities, Marine Court Hotel should use the
hashtags in its social media marketing strategy. These hashtags can be like #NoStayRegrets,
#MarineStory etc. The hotel should ensure that these hashtag statements are unique, simple and
easy to understand. This marketing strategy assists to tie the social media users into one stream
so that it can measure the growth and record that how the visitors respond to those posts (Sucher
and Cheung, 2015).
In addition to this, the hotel should create its owned mobile application, through which people
can get the information about the types of rooms, prices, reviews, ratings, facilities etc. The
customers will be able to get their booking by using mobile application. There are various other
portals that promote the services of hospitality and tourism organization like booking.com,
Tripadvisor etc. This hotel can register itself on these sites that will assist it to increase its
presence. The people can see the hotel ratings on these websites. Nowadays, marketing is about
becoming see-through and stand out from the rivalry (Veijola, et al, 2014). Thus, the companies
with effective social media strategies are coming with different ways and stand out from the
competition.
Apart from the above social media strategy, Marine Court Hotel should not always post about
itself only, it should use the social media platforms to give its followers with unique and
important data that can be used by them while they plan to travel to London. For example, it can
give the information like “how to travel with little kids”. In this way, the organization can post
the interesting and attractive content about anything related to people and their life. It will attract
the travellers towards the services of Marine Court Hotel (Viglia, Pelloia and Buhalis, 2018). It
can be analyzed that Marine Court Hotel should focus on the evaluation and monitoring of its
social media strategy. It should use the social media to meet its marketing objective and operate
its business carefully. Moreover, it should expand its business in global market and try to
transform itself in larger enterprises. These social media platforms can assist the hotel to engage
the customers. It will assist the Marine Court Hotels to become one of the successful hospitality
businesses in the country (Wang, So and Sparks, 2017).

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Conclusion
In modern business environment, updated technologies have given the businesses various
luxuries to practice the things which were not possible few decades ago. With the support of
these advancements, the businesses offer an excellent experience to the customers. But there are
some risks and disadvantages of going online. In today’s world, the aspect of business which
deals with the interacting with customers has social media as an important part. From the
analysis, it can be concluded that Marine Court Hotel is using effective social media strategies to
promote its products among its customers. The firm is posting the advertisement on social media
networking sites and other platforms. The above report includes the literature review on the
social media strategy and its role for the small and medium businesses in hospitality industry.
Furthermore, the report includes the findings of literature review in the case study evaluation
part. It is founded that companies are using effective modes to promote its services. They are
able to increase their customer base by this process. The literature review and discussion show
that Marine Court Hotel may have both advantages and disadvantages of its current social media
strategy. So, company should implement a new strategy by taking support of celebrities. It is the
best way to attract the customers towards its hospitality services. By using recommended social
media strategies, the Marine Court Hotel will be able to create brand awareness among its
customers.