Analyzing Hilton Hotels' Social Media Strategy in Tourism

This report examines the impact of social media on the travel and tourism industry, using Hilton Hotels as a case study. The introduction highlights globalization and technology's influence on the industry, emphasizing the profitability and competitive nature of modern tourism. The report fo...Read More

Running head: TRAVEL AND TOURISM
Travel and Tourism
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

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Part B
Report
Introduction
One of the most important aspects in the modern world is the globalization process.
Many things have gone through an evolution of technology. The use of technology has advanced
so much that all the industries are involved in a race. The tourism industry has come to be one of
the most profitable industries in the contemporary business world. The business models that the
organizations will imply will be only destined to increase the number of customers and improve
their services. The primary motive is to expand the business into other countries. The chosen
organization for this paper is Hilton Hotels that has evolved as one of the finest hotel resorts in
the world. They have selected social media as their communications strategy to communicate
with their customers.
Impact of social media in the travel and tourism industry
Social media is a very strong medium. It can communicate with almost all the people
who are involved in using the social media (Bertot, Jaeger & Hansen, 2012) The target audience
should be the main focus for all the organizations. As the main issue in this context deals with
the travel and tourism industry, the focus will remain so. The main organization is Hotel Hilton.
All the important background information has been provided about the organization in the earlier
section.
The less travelled destinations have to be promoted by the hotel organizations. The only
way to promote this is to use the social media and post the advertisements on the various social

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media platforms (Munar & Jacobsen, 2014). Hilton Hotels also is trying to do the same. This is
because they want to be the industry leaders and get the top spot by earning a higher turnover.
The companies want to reach a larger customer base and provide the best services to the
customers. Hilton Hotels is also trying the same thing because they want to expand their business
properly (Cook, Hsu & Marqua, 2014). They want to set up their business branches in the areas
which have not been highlighted as so popular a travel destination. One of the latest trends has
shown that people want to travel to less popular places and spend their holidays in an exotic
manner.
This is why the tourism industry is gearing up to expand their branches in the less known
places (Cook, Hsu & Marqua, 2014) They want to set up their branches in the regions where
very less number of people have gone. They do these things because they want to get rid of the
notion that only better known places are favorable for holiday destinations. There are some very
important aspects of this thing indeed (Munar & Jacobsen, 2014). The economy of the less
travelled places will develop in a big way if the hotels decide to open their branches in those
areas (Kozak & Martin, 2012). If the popularity of the less travelled places increases, the
pressure on the more popular places will decrease as well. This will be helpful for the
management and hotel authorities as well (Leung et al., 2013).
Social media use in Hotel Hilton
Hotel Hilton has tended to focus on the use of the social media in many ways. They have
implemented this communications strategy among their customers so that they can be aware of
their changing desires and provide them with the all the things that they need (Benckendorff,
Sheldon & Fesenmaier, 2014). They are willing to promote the lesser travelled holiday

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destinations. They think they can expand their business in many ways if they implement these
strategies (Hilton.com, 2018). They will use the social media in respect to attract more customers
towards them. There are many opportunities to promote the tourism sector and advantages can be
taken by them in the most positive ways. Hotel Hilton aims to do that positively. There are some
ways in which Hilton Hotel can survive in the long run if they take the help of social media as a
part of their communications strategy (Hvass & Munar, 2012).
 Hotel Hilton can surely open up their company page or company profile in many social
media platforms.
 They can create their profiles in Facebook, Instagram, Google+ and many other social
media platforms (Hilton.com, 2018).
 They can promote all these holiday destinations by providing various offers.
 The transport mediums will also be improved once they decide to expand into the less
travelled holiday destinations (Sigala, Christou & Gretzel, 2012).
 Their presence in the social media is quite strong. This is why they have succeeded a lot
in these areas.
 Their tweeter handle has a good number of followers. This is why the organization has a
good deal of customers. They receive good ratings in providing facilities as well (Hudson
& Thal, 2013).
 It has been noticed that a good percentage of older people nowadays like to use the social
media. They prefer to use the social media over the use of telephone. This is why Hilton
Hotels will like to use the social media.
 As a communications strategy, social media is so strong that they can connect with the
target audience almost directly (Zeng & Gerritsen, 2014).

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 Hilton Hotels has the best presence in Instagram. They update their pages and frequently
and posts the picture of the places that have not been that much popular yet.
 This strategy is very much useful because the audience can be attracted to these places by
seeing the beautiful sceneries.
 They create their own content and besides that they also take the help from their other
users. This is very useful indeed (Zeng & Gerritsen, 2014).
 They create a community that is engaged within their own community. These impacts are
very important for Hilton to use the social media.
Conclusion
This paper can be concluded by saying that Hilton Hotels and Resorts has been one of the
most important organizations in the travel and tourism industry. They have inclined to use the
social media as a weapon to draw the customers towards them and visit the less travelled
locations. There are many advantages of using these places. The travelers will be approached by
Hilton Hotels to visit the less popular places as their previous customers had a good experience
in using their services. This will expand their services and increase the sense of the customer
loyalty in them as well.

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References
Benckendorff, P. J., Sheldon, P. J., & Fesenmaier, D. R. (2014). Social media and
tourism. Tourism information technology, (Ed. 2), 120-147.
Cook, R. A., Hsu, C. H., & Marqua, J. J. (2014). Tourism: the business of hospitality and travel.
USA: Pearson.
Hudson, S., & Thal, K. (2013). The impact of social media on the consumer decision process:
Implications for tourism marketing. Journal of Travel & Tourism Marketing, 30(1-2),
156-160.
Hvass, K. A., & Munar, A. M. (2012). The takeoff of social media in tourism. Journal of
Vacation Marketing, 18(2), 93-103.
Kozak, M., & Martin, D. (2012). Tourism life cycle and sustainability analysis: Profit-focused
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Leung, D., Law, R., Van Hoof, H., & Buhalis, D. (2013). Social media in tourism and
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Munar, A. M., & Jacobsen, J. K. S. (2014). Motivations for sharing tourism experiences through
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Sigala, M., Christou, E., & Gretzel, U. (Eds.). (2012). Social media in travel, tourism and
hospitality: Theory, practice and cases. Ashgate Publishing, Ltd..

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Zeng, B., & Gerritsen, R. (2014). What do we know about social media in tourism? A
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