Critical Application of Social Media Marketing to Boost Tourism Sales

This project proposal investigates the application of social media marketing within the Australian tourism sector to boost sales. It identifies the problem of underutilized potential in Australian tourism and explores how social media can bridge this gap. The research aims to evaluate the value of social media marketing, identify effective social media tools, understand tourist behavior on social media when planning trips, and determine the platforms tourists rely on for travel information. The methodology includes both primary and secondary data collection methods to analyze the impact of social media on destination marketing, customer relationship management, and sales generation within the Australian tourism industry. The study also includes a budget, project activities, and a Gantt chart for project management. This document is available on Desklib, a platform offering study tools for students.

Running head: MARKETING ISSUES AFFECTING THE TOURISM INDUSTRY
Marketing issues affecting the Tourism Industry in Australia
Name
Institution

MARKETING ISSUES AFFECTING THE TOURISM INDUSTRY IN AUSTRALIA 2
Table of Contents
1.0 Introduction................................................................................................................................4
Problem Statement.......................................................................................................................4
Aim, Objective and Research question........................................................................................5
Justification and potential output of the research project............................................................5
Literature Review............................................................................................................................6
Social media marketing................................................................................................................6
Social Media Marketing Strategy................................................................................................7
Application of social media marketing in tourism industry.........................................................9
Generating sales.......................................................................................................................9
Destination marketing............................................................................................................10
Managing the customer relations...........................................................................................10
Inferring the expectation of customers...................................................................................11
Convert prospecting customers to customers.........................................................................11
Engaging marketers................................................................................................................12
Methodology..................................................................................................................................12
Research approach.....................................................................................................................12

MARKETING ISSUES AFFECTING THE TOURISM INDUSTRY IN AUSTRALIA 3
Population..................................................................................................................................13
Sampling method.......................................................................................................................13
Secondary data collection..........................................................................................................13
Primary data collection..............................................................................................................13
Data analysis..............................................................................................................................14
Organization of the study...............................................................................................................14
Budget, Project Activities and Gantt chart.................................................................................15
Appendices....................................................................................................................................20
Budget........................................................................................................................................20
Gantt chart..................................................................................................................................21
References......................................................................................................................................16

MARKETING ISSUES AFFECTING THE TOURISM INDUSTRY IN AUSTRALIA 4
1.0 Introduction
Australia is regarded as one of the top tourism destinations of the world. The tourism
industry is characterized by revenue generations from the passenger airline, food services, hotels
and motels, casinos and gaming, passenger and travel intermediaries. The tourism industry
contributes significantly to the employment and economic activities in Australia (Travel &
Tourism Industry Profile: Australia, 2016). Some of the issues faced by the Australia tourism
sector includes; new market branding, destination image positioning, creation of perception
awareness in the corporate marketing trade, and innovative approaches by the media.
Problem Statement
In the modern society, social media is an influential part of people’s daily lives and has
gained more momentum in the global business world. As a result, the rise of internet and e-
commerce use has led to development of different approaches to marketing. Traditional
marketing mix has become unreliable with the trends in the global market. The social media has
created a wide range of market for businesses. It has created a platform where people from
different parts of the world can interact and exchange information (Míguez, & Fernández-Cavia,
2015). Businesses take advantage of this opportunity to create a channel to connect with the
customers at personal level. Social media is very influential to the tourism industry in promoting
activities. The potential of tourism destinations in Australia is not fully exploited and its full
potential needs to be brought to the attention of the global market. The Australian tourism

MARKETING ISSUES AFFECTING THE TOURISM INDUSTRY IN AUSTRALIA 5
industry marketers use social media as a marketing communication tool. The framework of this
research is the use of social media in marketing. This paper aims to elaborate on the critical
application of Social media marketing in Australia tourism sector to boost sales.
Aim, Objective and Research question
The aim of this study is to determine the application of social media marketing in tourism
sector in Australia to boost sales. The research focuses on social media marketing to boost more
sales in the tourism industry. The following research questions will be used to analyze the impact
of social media marketing on the tourism sector.
 RQ1: To evaluate the values of social media marketing in promoting tourism in Australia.
 RQ2: what social media tools are more effective in marketing the tourism industry?
 RQ3: how potential and existing tourist use social media when making traveling plans
 RQ4: to find out the platforms tourist rely on to access travel information and
Justification and potential output of the research project
The tourism industry in Australia has led to economic growth and creation of
employment. Therefore, there is need to promote the industry for it to remain competitive in the
global market and generate revenue for the nation. Social media marketing offers many benefits
and has become more effective than the traditional marketing mix. To boost revenue, the full
value of social media marketing needs to be utilized. The research is significant for the marketers

MARKETING ISSUES AFFECTING THE TOURISM INDUSTRY IN AUSTRALIA 6
to fully understand the use of social media marketing and its value to increase the sales in the
tourism industry Kao, Yang, Wu, & Cheng, 2016)
Data collections, findings and analysis will answer the research questions determined in
the proposal above. The research outputs will be seen as an important academic work for the
stated problem in the research proposal. Social media marketing is beneficial to both the tourists
and tourism marketers (Egan, 2014). The information is beneficial to the Australia tourism
industry that needs to be fully exploited. Marketers should also exploit fully the business
opportunity made available by social media to remain competitive in their effort to promote
tourism industry. Tourists use social media to express their experiences of tourism destinations,
therefore determining the platforms they use will enable marketers understand the interests of the
tourists and use it to promote tourism business and activities in Australia. Customers also tend to
use social media to acquire information on the traveling destinations, therefore this research will
enable them identify the platforms they use to acquire information (Lee & Gretzel, 2012)
Literature Review
Social media marketing
Social media marketing involves having dialogues with the prospecting and existing
customer. According to Turner and Shah (2011) the conversations are more worthwhile and
profitable when you conduct dialogues with a prospect or a customer. The marketing
departments usually use social media as a means to create awareness of the products or services

MARKETING ISSUES AFFECTING THE TOURISM INDUSTRY IN AUSTRALIA 7
in the market. Social media marketing is handled similar to the traditional marketing instead of
using it as a creative and innovative way of attracting customers (Evans & McKee 2010). The
use of social media is often misunderstood as a free marketing tool, though for it to be
successful, it requires effort. The effort may come from employee, time or money and this makes
it important to handle social media marketing as other form of marketing. Some may argue that
the uploading of things on social platforms such as Facebook, twitter, Instagram or YouTube are
free, but it requires human capital and time to perform these tasks (Soukup, 2018).
According to Turner and Shah (2011) for a company to run an effective social media
campaign which reaches its potential, it is important for businesses to use the resources such as
time and money. An advantage of social media marketing campaign is the fact that the audience
has profiles and indicates their interests; therefore it is easy to meet their needs and position the
right products to them. This enables the products to be easily identified by the prospecting
customers.
Social Media Marketing Strategy
A strategy refers to the ability of a business to have a competitive advantage of its
competitors. The organizations identify their core product or services, develop goals and
objectives, and formulate a plan on how to achieve it. The social media marketing strategy has to
be part of the organizations overall marketing strategy. Social media marketing identifies the
target market and the value they intend to add to the customer in order to meet the needs of the
customers (Chaffey & Chadwick, 2012). The values make a difference in the market and they

MARKETING ISSUES AFFECTING THE TOURISM INDUSTRY IN AUSTRALIA 8
determine whether the customer chooses your product over the competitors. Market
segmentation is used to identify the target market; that is profiling the market for example,
targeting social media users between the age brackets of 20-26 with a specific product. The
importance of strategic social media marketing is to gain competitive advantage over your
competitors by using the writhe communication tools to reach the potential customers (Ráthonyi,
2013)
Tourism companies can use social media marketing strategy to reach their prospecting
customers and create awareness on the products and services available. Organization analysis is
critical in developing a social media marketing strategy. The use of SWOT analysis assists an
organization to assess their strengths, weaknesses, threats and opportunities in social media
context. Evaluating the bigger picture of the organization will enable you plan accordingly. The
strengths and weaknesses of the organization will help you form a strategy that maximizes on the
advantage of your strengths. Understanding the available competitors and business environment
is also key in strategy social media marketing. The analysis helps the business evaluate their
advantage in the market and the gaps they can capitalize on (Hutter, Hautz, Dennhardt & Füller,
2013).
After an analysis of the organization, it is important to select the right communication
channels to be used. It is notable that customers do not rely on one social media platform.
Therefore a research on the main social media used by the companies target market should be
conducted (Brodie, Hollebeek, Juric, & Ilic, 2011). Using all the available social platforms might
not provide the desired results. Identifying the main social media platform used by their

MARKETING ISSUES AFFECTING THE TOURISM INDUSTRY IN AUSTRALIA 9
customers and potential clients is significant to critical for the concentration of marketing effort.
The organisations should spend more time in identifying the right platforms for social media
campaigns in order to be successful and the strategy should be measured.
Application of social media marketing in tourism industry
To succeed on today’s business; companies have to use the available social media
platforms to promote the tourism industry. In their systematic review, Leung, Law, Hoof and
Buhalis (2013) supported this argument by encouraging companies to participate in social media
sites so as to remain relevant. The platforms provide a good ground to interact with customers.
According to Luliana, Luigi and Mihaj (2013) emphasized that tourism companies should use
these platforms to build relationships with their customers and promote sense of intimacy with
the customer. Guo (2014) adds that tourism organisations can utilize social media to create bonds
with customers Social media is very important as customer loyalty can be lost anytime through
small mistakes. The social media acts as platforms for marketing where they listen and respond
to the customer’s needs and develop meaningful dialogues. Below are some of the ways tourism
companies use social media to market their products and increase sales.
Generating sales
Social media marketing is used to attract more tourists Australia destinations. The
marketing campaigns create the awareness and provide information on the attraction sites

MARKETING ISSUES AFFECTING THE TOURISM INDUSTRY IN AUSTRALIA 10
available in a destination. This helps persuade tourists to visit Australia leading to generation of
sales. Cite supports this by indicating that social media sites lead to sale generation (Minazzi,
2014)
Destination marketing
According to Achen (2017), people like talking about their experience traveling, social
media marketing creates awareness of their destinations and this enables people to talk about it.
People become aware of the destination and consider it when making the traveling destination
(Achen, 2017). The visits increase the destination sales. Batra and Keller (2016) add that
destination campaigns through social media also attract tourists to a destination. When tourists
become aware of the beautiful scenes available in the location, they tend to visit the area.
Managing the customer relations
Through focused generated content, social media is used to retain customers by building
relationship and engaging them through social attraction (Kumar, Bezawada, Rishika,
Janakiraman, & Kannan, 2016). It is effective in providing customer service, public relations and
communication. The platform is essential in solving customer complaints and improving the
quality of services. This enhances customer engagement and retention of customers as they are
able to visit the site again when their concerns are addressed. Baird and Parasnis, (2011) noted
the potential of social media in helping tourism and hospitality companies to increase their online

MARKETING ISSUES AFFECTING THE TOURISM INDUSTRY IN AUSTRALIA 11
presence and to engage potential, current, and previous customers. The customers are important
to any business success and development.
Inferring the expectation of customers
The social media platform is a point for the tourism industries to infer to the experience
and expectation of the customers. When organisations are able to understand the expectation of
their customers, they can provide the right products and services to meet the needs of the
customers. When the needs of the customers are met, they become pleased and share their
experience with others enabling a revisit of the destination and also prospecting customers to
gain confidence on the destination and influence their consumer decision making process
(Hudson, Simon, Thal & Karen, 2013).
Convert prospecting customers to customers
Social media acts as an effective communication and public relation tool (Martínez-Sala,
Monserrat, & Alhama, 2017). The use of social media in marketing is responsible for converting
prospects to actual customers. Akhlagh, Esmaeil, Akbari, Kasani, & Meghdadi, 2016) stated that
by providing information on the available attraction sites of a destination converts prospects into
customers. For example campaign images may attract a prospect looking for a destination
holiday into make decision to visit the place.

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Engaging marketers
Social media marketing enables tourism industries to engage other marketers with wide
followers’ base. Tourists turn to marketing sites to locate and various destinations to travel to.
Providing an update on the information to marketers enables wide spread of information which
influences the decision making of clients. The prospecting customers can ask the marketers
questions and get clarity as they are aware of the destination products (Hajli, 2014). This
provides tourist with easy choice on the travel destination. For example when there are discounts,
they are able to inform the tourist on the available discounts which influences the decision of the
tourists on visiting a given destination. According to Leung, Bai and Stahura (2015) the travel
blogs plays a critical role in customer’s decision making.
Methodology
Research approach
To arrive at research findings that respond to the established research questions and meet
the objectives of the study, a specific methodology has to be used. Therefore, this research will
analyze secondary data from previous studies and finding on past use of social media marketing
to generate sales. The research will then use primary data to confirm the results of the secondary
data. The research will use a quantitative research method which will be cross-sectional in nature
to collect primary data. The data will then be analyzed to determine its implications on the
research topic.