Social Media Impact on Tourist Choices: A Dissertation on TUI's Role

This dissertation explores the impact of social media on tourism destination selection, using TUI as a case study. It examines the benefits of social media in tourism, identifies its main role in destination selection, and determines the different social media platforms used by visitors. The literature review analyzes various authors' viewpoints, emphasizing social media's role in marketing, customer engagement, and brand awareness. TUI's strategies, including social listening, customer service, and content creation, are analyzed to demonstrate how the company leverages social media to understand customer preferences and enhance its visibility. The dissertation highlights the importance of social media in the tourism industry, especially during global events like the COVID-19 pandemic, and concludes with insights into future customer requirements and the evolving role of social media in shaping travel decisions.

Dissertation & PHD
Thesis

Abstract:
The use of internet and other communication technologies has led to development of a new era in
the tourism economy. Social media is one of the most powerful online networking tools that are
integrated in different economic and social life in the changing contemporary environment. The
present report is based on analysing the prospects of social media and its benefits. It is find out
that main role of social media place is helping tourist and travellers in deciding the particular
destination. Further it is also very helpful in understanding the view points of travellers so that
various campaigns and packages are made as per changing customer preferences. This report
clearly signifies that social media platform is very crucial in understanding the present and future
customer requirements. There is proper communication and interactive channels at a build-up to
exchange the information with respect to changing customer needs.

Contents
Research Aims and Objectives....................................................................................................3
Research methodology...................................................................................................................10
Discussion (Quantitative research):...............................................................................................16
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................26

INTRODUCTION
Tourist destinations are the place of interest where travellers are willing to visit, enjoy
and have some recreational activities, in the changing environment it has become extremely
crucial for every tourism industry to modify themes with the changing requirements of external
environment. For this purpose Present report is based on TUI. TUI is a German multinational
tourism and travel brand that is having its headquarters located in Hanover German (Gretzel and
Yoo, 2017). It is the largest travel, tourism and leisure brand across different parts of the world.
They are having ownership if major five European airlines that is the largest holiday fleet in
Europe and also various other tour operators that are based in Europe. Present research report is
based on making analysis of the way the social media marketing aspects have contributed
towards the functioning of this tourism brand.
Research Aims and Objectives
Aims:
“To determine role of the social media on tourist destination selection”. A study on TUI.
Research Objectives:
 To understand the benefits of social media in context to tourism.
 To determine the main role of the social media on tourist destination selection.
 To identify the different social media platforms visitors can be used regarding destination
selection.
Research question
 What are the benefits of social media in tourism sector?
 What is the main role of social media on tourism destination selection?
 What are the different social media platform that can be used by visitors in selecting
destination?

Literature review:
Literature review is based on analysing the view points of various authors, journal articles
based on the laid objective and questions of the report. Presently there is analysis of secondary
sources of information that are available for the purpose of evaluating it and reaching to relevant
recommendations & conclusion for the organisation.
The benefits of social media in context to tourism
As per view points of Gizem Tas (2020), Social media has changed the overall aspect of lives of
people. Such development has significantly affected the business organisations by enabling new
marketing strategies. Tourism sector is one of the most vibrant sectors that are part of the global
economy. There are different social media marketing strategies that can help in leading towards
excellent results. social media impact on the tourism can be observed by the way people are
reaching before going on a trip, people are encouraged to share their overall travel experiences,
social media has transformed the way people are making decisions, the tourism marketing and
social media has lead to generation of excellent results for the business (Han and et.al., 2018).
For this purpose there is collection of information that is related with essentials of tourism sector.
It helped in determination of role in a more effective and better manner. The overall concept of
social media practise is described as a feeling, perfection and further reaction of an intellectual
entity based ion generation of a mediated communication environment. It is related with an
emotional sense of belongingness that organisations are willing to create with their target
customer base. The changing times has resulted into establishment of positive effective presence
on social media for the purpose of indirect affecting the overall user’s experiences.
Social media has lead to generation of improved customer regulations. When people are not
satisfied with a particular service then they can look for measures that can lead towards better
reputation of organisation. Social sharing can be one of the most significant factors that can
affect the tourism sector. It enables the young generation to share the significant memories from
the target segment of audiences. Social sharing can assist the ways in the process of attracting
new travellers by encouraging people to share their real life experiences through online
mediums. Further with the changing times organisations are also working towards generation of
possible benefits from social media strategies. Such as there is creation of content by engaging of
customers. Tourism industry is related with being aware of all the possible benefits of social

Media for the business that can lead to high mount of brand awareness (The Role of Social Media
in Tourism Marketing, 2020).
User generated content is one of the best strategies in order to engage the business. Influencer
marketing is also an aspect of social media marketing that can help in influencing the experts so
that can help in specification of the target location and get in touch with various experts and
tourism influencers.
Another benefit of tourism marketing is associated with being familiar with the role of social
media marketing. In this process there is enhancement in the visibility by actively contacting
with the target customer base by listening to them and further answering their questions and
doubts. Offering customer services through online mode is one such aspect that is one of the
most effective ways of making the voice heard for the target base,. Tourism industry is seasonal
and extensive that is relevant when it comes with the timing aspect. Digital marketing agencies
can assist various tourism organisations like TUI for the purpose of having up to date campaigns
for the purpose of advertising the newest services. With the development of various social media
applications like twitter, facebook and instagram the social media marketing has become a leader
in the tourism industry (Carlson and et.al., , 2019). Facebook is an excellent platform that can
assist in the process of attracting various social media users. Further facebook recommendation
enables various users to share their experiences. It can help in effectively to reach information as
part of the travelling business. Twitter is another one such social media application that is
related with having effective tourism marketing strategy.
It can be said that the generation of various social media applications have transformed the ways
to rebuild a brand. In case of tourism industry with the changes taking place in billboards and
brochures the key to various business successes is to collect all the social shares, positive user
reviews and enhance the process of customer satisfaction on such social media sites. It can be
thus said that social media has generated a big opportunity for tourism companies. Further digital
agency network that can help in suitable agency for tourism marketing.
The main role of the social media on tourist destination selection
The changing times has resulted into importance of tourism destinations to have a good
visual presence. Social media has become more advance and is offering large number of options
to visualise a destination for people even before they are leaving to a particular place. It can be
worth consideration that the overall choice of destinations is having a profound influence on

social media presence of much business. Social media has resulted into social networking which
has become more valuable marketing tool for organizations that are functioning under such
industry.
As per recent statistics there are approximate 2.01 billion monthly active facebook users
that are active in June 2017. it is one such social media platform that is offering a different
tourist experiences and destination choices to customers. Apart from this other social media
application includes snap-chat, twitter, Instagram, trip advisor that is offering users to share their
positive or negative experiences on such public platforms. It is very effective in the process of
providing a overall insights to the prospective customers. Many destination boards have change
the way information is shared across such platforms (Zengand Wang, 2019). TUI is UK leading
travel brand that is serving customers every year one marking holidays, crises, fights across
world. The presence of TRUI on social media platforms is developing a essential connection
between the customers and brands. It has assisted in the process of increasing the overall
engagement process with the customers; it has also lead to reaching of new audiences, prioritizes
the engagement and promotes the process of new offerings (Customer support and content
solutions 2020).
As per view points of Nicola smith who is the senior social media marketing manager in
TUI in its branches of UK and Ireland, there is focus on building up of confidence by TUI to be
more transparent as possible so that there can be wider understand of the view points of people
based on their sentiment and key themes that can inform the part of the content. Social media has
become a prime destination for the customer services TUI uses sprout social to ensure that
written Facebook and Instagram bases are properly covered. In the present scenario of global
pandemic also there are many customer queries that are arsing at the unprecedented scale. It has
enabled the teams to start running as quickly as possible, for this TUI has developed a sprout
customer support to the team as and when it is required. Further there is focus on creation of
stronger support system for customers in the midst of global travel disruptions. With the start of
new decade TUI team has disrupted the global industry (Taylor, 2020). In February 2020 TUI
has received approx 53,900 messages across TUI UK and it has been amongst the first choice of
social channels. With the end of March as further the pandemic spread it lead to 269 percent that
s more than 198,000 messages. With the increasing of call volumes many customer agents have
moved to answer the inbound calls from 61 people across TUI volunteered to assistance. With

the hitting of global pandemic that is COVID 19 the focus of overall Marketing department in
TUI have satisfied towards more use of online platforms in order to maximise their support so
that team can be helped beyond a particular point.
TUI team has helped in the process of social listening that has a influence the overall content
strategy that is leading towards monitoring the glean insights about their various competitors,
TUI has focussed towards looking for amendments and specific destinations as compared to its
various competitors.
In TUI the social media marketing has helped in tracking the overall response rate and reply
times with a tool of inbox team report, in this there are customer care metrics that are developed
at individual level so that there can be better team visibility that is offered as per customer
service performance. As per the sprouts stage report in TUI there is analysis of the overall
performance by development of specific content themes that is regarded as the “covid content”.
It has garnered more than 28 million impressions. Further there are 3 million engagement that are
also created between a time period of march 1, 2020 and august 31,2020.
apart from this TUI as a global tourism brand has also offered a new content hub by the name
travel.me in which the main emphasis is laid down by the brand for the purpose of enhancing it
overall visibility and searching ability on joint platforms it together ties the content from approx
600 social media channels of TUI group 300 global travel brands that includes instagram, twitter,
you-tube and Facebook. TUI is a brand that ranges from airlines to hotels and cruises further
there are also various tour operators (Martínez-Navalón, Gelashvili and Saura, 2020). Each has
its own genuine treasure of stores that have recovered from travel.me. The development of
technology has resulted into a editorially managed content hub that is leading towards generation
of effective content as a way of enhancing the overall visibility of individual channels.
The process is adopted by the customers to reach a specific choice as per their laid preferences
dependents on a four step process. That is there is destination discovery at this stage people are
visiting various social media platforms that includes Facebook, twitter and Instagram to find and
develop some ideas and inspirations (Law, Chan and Wang, 2018). This stage provides the
prime opportunity to influence the decision making process. As the Present satisfied customers
have already posted about their experiences and that can further inspire the next prospective set
of travellers.

Travel reach: In this the videos and posts are offering the most popular content of different
social media channels. It is coupled with customer reviews that can help and provide the required
guidance to customers for booking a particular destination. Next step is the customer service
where there is social media interaction taking place via two way traffic. In this marketers can
listen to customer complaints
Loyalty programs can help in sharing of plans for enhancing the loyalty programs across various
travel companies. The evolution process of social media in destination marketing has lead to
achievement of required transformation with time. With the evolvement of destinations
marketing it is important to understand that there is huge transformation that is achieved with
time. The social media has lead to destination marketers to keeping up with the latest trends and
further reassess their marketing strategies.
Another great way that is used by organisations like TUI is to use variation of social distancing
for the purpose of discovering travelling. In this the target base of customers who are regularly
visiting or willing to visit a particular destination have to be targeted (Qiu and et.al., 2019).
Content creation is one of the best ways of providing the upfront value to customer via
downloadable resources like tip sheets, guides in TUI.
Snap on snapchat: it is one of social networks that is worth learning for targeting the young
travellers that is millennial generation. Snaps are the quick snippets of the way in which there
can be conversion of potential travellers in paying customers.
Tweet on twitter: twitter is also a tried & true method of reaching to potential travellers, tweets
are the 140 character that allows for the purpose of voicing of short travel specials, tips and
photos or videos that are related to the brand.
Livestream of Instagram and Facebook: there are regularly posts on instagram and facebook
accounts that are to be considered by going live regular. This tool is used by TUI for the purpose
of getting the required people attention. In case of TUI these LinkedIn groups can help in the
process of users to come together and hare information on travelling related topics.
Engaging via linked in: For the purpose of catering to the needs of various linked In groups it is
a great way for reaching to customers by offering them with higher value.

The different social media platforms visitors to be used regarding destination selection.
As per view points of Alexander bechte (2020), in the changing internet era where
travellers across different parts of the world are now working on using various online sources for
the purpose of enhancing their market presence. There is now development of destination
marketing organisations is using it as a tool for getting the required source of advantage. With
the changing times the travellers have now focussed on instagrammable as per the location. In
context of TUI it is advantageous as many studies have shown that there are 40 percent of the
millennial who can choose their travel destination based on the way how worthy Instagram
photos. These platforms are majorly focussed on sharing of the available information as per the
needs of target audiences. For instance while the target customer are willing to plan a family
vacation or stray in a given location then they have to asses the reviews provided by earlier
customers based on their visits (How to Use Social Media for Destination Marketing, 2020).
Further, there is leverage of various social media channels that are now focussed by
business organisations for the purpose of maximisation of the of the most popular ones.
Instagram is one of the highly effective platform that can leisure business and travel. It can assist
in the process of posting unique and high quality photos & videos of the destination for the
purpose of encouraging the potential customers and producing of higher engagement. Twitter is
handling the great option for SMM accounts. In this accounts have to be regularly updated to
ensure that there are visuals in endeavour for creating engaging tweets with the videos and
images.
Apart from this there are various social media channels that can leverage the process such
as Snap-chat is generally used by TUI when the brand is willing to target the young travellers
apart from this for the purpose of reaching to various professionals and business travellers
another platform that is LinkedIn is used as a source of online marketing (Myburgh, Kruger and
Saayman, 2018). Social media and destination marketing are the two tools that have created
evolution of social media platforms to manage various aspects of customer attraction and
customer engagement process.
The social media has a dramatic impact on the way there are different experiences across
world in the Social media and tourism sector. There are big three social networks that includes

twitter, Facebook and instagram. People who are travelling or have altered visited a particular
place share their experiences in form of posts, photos, videos, regular content that is a very
effective tool that can affect the present plan of social media marketing. Social media allows
organisations for the purpose of sharing their written testaments of the brand with most amazing
qualities, Videos and pictures of experiences. They are willing to capture the imagination of
networks for the future prospective travellers. Facebook recommendations are a feature that
allows users for the purpose of seeking advices from their peers. Users can gather timely
feedbacks from this network that is ranging from travel gear to the destination process.
Apart from this various other social media applications like instagram, Facebook can also
help countless travellers in deliberating turning if the social media for helping in the process of
planning trips. It is one of the massive sources of inspiration for world be travellers are a
destination (Li and et.al., 2021). Apart from this organisations like TUI can use a opportunity to
direct their customers by providing them with the instant support through messenger or
comments in case of issues that are arsing for the business. Another additional benefit that can
help in dealing with the uses faced by customer is through the development of a reputation of
quality services & higher professionalism in present and future customer market.
The tourism industry mainly depends in the information and communication technology
for the purpose of promotional activities for the purpose of development of management
relationship with the customers. Social media enables the process of respective of destinations
and various service providers to have easy access to wide range of potential visitors at a
relatively low cost.
Research methodology
Research methodology is a framework that will be used by the researcher for the purpose of
conducting the development of knowledge base. It is a specified procedure that will be used to
determine the techniques for identification, selection and analysis of information with respect to
the laid aims and objectives. It is going to further help in evaluating the validity and reliability of
the overall collected information through identification of various primary and secondary
research methods. This section of the present research is going to determine the different types of
matters that are to be analysed in order to determine the suitable method selected for the
research.

Research philosophy: research philosophy is regarded as the set of beliefs, nature, reality and
type of knowledge that is part of research project. This section helps a researcher to develop the
knowledge base with respect to the laid research topic. There are different types of research
philosophies that include epistemology, ontology and Anxiology (Saldaña, 2021) . Apart from
this there are other types of research philosophies that include pragmatism, positivism,
interpretivism and realism. In the present research report positivism research philosophy will
be used for the purpose of collecting the required information and data.
Justification: Positivism research philosophy will be used as a measure of highly structured data
with large sample size and is going to help in measuring the quantitative as well as qualitative
information. As per the laid research topic of social media on tourism destination positive
philosophy is going to assist in the process of collecting data.
Research approach: Research approach is regarded as the methodology that is to be used by the
researcher for the purpose of conducting research. It is related to selection of specific Research
question objectives and appropriate method in order to develop a knowledge base (Ellingson,
2017). There are two types of research approach that includes inductive and deductive approach.
Deductive approach is used to have hypothesis data that is dependent on pre-existing theory on
the other hand inductive approach is used for the purpose of creating a Theory instead of having
a pre-existing information. With respect to the present is research role of social media in tourism
sector deductive approach will be used by the researcher.
Justification: In present report deductive approach will be used by the researcher for the purpose
of considering information and developing questionnaire to understand the various observations
made in the course of research.
Research strategy: It is regarded as the step by step action plan that provides direction to the
efforts and thoughts of conducting the research in a systematic manner. It includes survey,
experiment, case study, Ethnography, grounded theory and questionnaire that can be further used
to develop the understanding related to the laid aims and objectives (Mason, 2017). In the
present research report the impact of social media is to be understood on the destination selection
aspect. For this purpose questionnaire is selected as the research strategy where there are
different questions that are prepared for the purpose of developing the understanding view points
of respondents working in TUI.