Influence of Social Media on Travel and Tourism Marketing Strategies

Desklib provides past papers and solved assignments for students. This project explores social media's impact on travel and tourism.

Influence of Social Media on Travel and Tourism
Research Project
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Contents
Introduction.................................................................................................................................................4
Task 1..........................................................................................................................................................5
Understanding on how to formulate a research specification.......................................................................5
1.1. Formulate and record possible research project outline specifications..............................................5
a. Aim..................................................................................................................................................5
b. Objectives........................................................................................................................................5
c. Research Question...........................................................................................................................5
d. Hypothesis.......................................................................................................................................6
1.2. Identify the factors that contribute to the process of research project selection................................6
a. Research Project Process.................................................................................................................6
b. Research Methodologies..................................................................................................................7
1.3. Undertake a critical review of key references...................................................................................7
a. Literature Review............................................................................................................................7
1.4. Produce a research project specification...........................................................................................8
a. Research Approaches.......................................................................................................................8
b. Sample Size.....................................................................................................................................9
c. Time Plan.........................................................................................................................................9
d. Validity and Reliability..................................................................................................................10
1.5. Provide an appropriate plan and procedures for the agreed research specification.........................10
a. Aim and Objectives.......................................................................................................................10
b. Rationale of the project..................................................................................................................10
c. Hypothesis.....................................................................................................................................11
d. Mile Stones....................................................................................................................................11
e. Monitoring and Review.................................................................................................................11
Task 2........................................................................................................................................................12
Be able to implement the research project within agreed procedures and to specification.........................12
2.1. Match resources efficiently to the research question or hypothesis................................................12
2.2. Undertake the proposed research investigation in accordance with the agreed specification and
procedures.............................................................................................................................................13
a. Survey Questionnaire.....................................................................................................................13
2.3. Record and collate relevant data where appropriate........................................................................15
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Task 3........................................................................................................................................................22
Be able to evaluate the research outcomes.................................................................................................22
3.1. Use appropriate ‘research evaluation techniques’. Which types of evaluation (formative or
summative) is more appropriate for your research? Why?.....................................................................22
3.2. Interpret and analyse the results in terms of the original research specification..............................23
3.3. Make recommendations and justify areas for further consideration................................................24
Task 4........................................................................................................................................................26
Be able to present the research outcomes..................................................................................................26
4.1. Use an agreed format and appropriate media to present the outcomes of the research to an
audience.................................................................................................................................................26
Conclusion.................................................................................................................................................27
References.................................................................................................................................................28
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Introduction
The aim of a Research Project is to study the given topic in deep, conduct necessary research on
the topic and provide the findings of the conducted research. A research project goes through
many different phases during its life cycle. Some of the important phases of a research project
are – developing the research formulations, creating the research proposal, creating a design for
the project, developing the hypothesis, conducting the literature review, collecting the primary
and secondary data, using various methodologies to process the collected data, analysing the
results of the research, presenting the results in a proper format and finally give the
recommendations while concluding the research.
The current research project is concerned with the use of technology in the travel and tourism
sector. The Travel and Tourism industry has become the largest industry in the world and
technology has played an important role in this growth of the industry (Craig and Douglas 2015).
While there are many different uses of technology in the travel and tourism sector that are
concerned with the automation of the whole supply chain management and integration, use of
technology in the marketing sector has seen the largest input in the growth of the industry.
Today, social media has emerged as one of the most used platform for the marketing and
promotion in the travel and tourism sector (Iacobucci and Churchill, 2009). Many social media
platforms such as Facebook and Twitter have established themselves as the prime targets for
running the promotional campaigns by the travel and tourism organisations. Big tour operators
like Thomas Cook and TUI have been using Social Media extensively in their promotional
campaigns. The current research project would study the influence of social media in the travel
and tourism sector.
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Task 1
Understanding on how to formulate a research specification
1.1. Formulate and record possible research project outline specifications
There are different aspects of the technology that have helped in the growth of the tourism
sector. However, social media has drastically changed the way promotional campaigns were run
by the tourism organisations (Chevalier and Mayzlin, 2006). The emergence of social media is
one of the main reasons behind the exponential growth of the travel and tourism sector which has
made this sector as the fastest growing sector in the world. The research project outlines on the
influence of the social media on travel and tourism sector are provided below:
a. Aim
This research project aims to study the influence of the social media as a technology on the
growth of the travel and tourism sector. The aim of the project is to identify the impact of the
social media on the marketing strategies of the tour operators and its integration in their
promotional campaigns. The project would study the use of social media by the tourism giants
such as Thomas Cook and TUI group.
b. Objectives
The main objectives of this research project are provided below:
1. Assessment of the impact of the technology on the travel and tourism sector.
2. Assessment of the influence of the social media networking sites on the growth of the
tour operators.
3. Assessment of the decision making process of the customers depending upon their
presence on the social media.
c. Research Question
The Research Question for the current project is – “How Social Media has changed the ways of
marketing in the Travel and Tourism Sector and this industry has reaped the benefits of the
technology in its marketing strategy?”
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d. Hypothesis
The research hypotheses for the current project are:
H1 – The Technology has been integrated with the success of the travel and tourism sector.
H2 – Social Media has emerged as the most used tool in the promotional campaigns by the
travel and tourism organisations.
H3 – Social Media has helped in increasing the leverage and brand equity of the tourism
brands
H4 – Social Media plays a crucial role in the Decision making Process of the consumers in the
Travel and Tourism sector.
1.2. Identify the factors that contribute to the process of research project selection
The topic of a research project has to be selected very carefully depending upon the various
factors that would affect the outcome of the research project. First of all, the research project
should be chosen according to the interest of the researcher so that he could do justice with the
research project. Secondly, there should be enough data available to conduct the secondary
research so that proper literature review could be conducted by the researcher. Thirdly,
appropriate tools should be available to conduct the primary research so that relevant current data
could be collected. In the end, the availability of the research data analysis should also be
considered during the research project selection (Malhotra, 2008).
a. Research Project Process
Research Project Process starts with the selection of the topic for the research. After the research
project topic is selected, a research design has to be devises that includes the use of the various
methodologies for conducting the research. Once the research project is selected, the next step is
to create the research questions and relevant hypotheses on which the research objectives are
based. In the current project, the research project is to study the influence of the social media on
the decision making process of the consumers in the travel and tourism sector and to study the
impact of the social media on the growth of the travel and tourism sector. The importance of the
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social media in the marketing strategy and its use in the promotional campaigns could also be
studies in the current research project.
b. Research Methodologies
There are mainly two research methodologies which would be used in the current project. The
qualitative research methodology would be used for the secondary data analysis and the
quantitative research methodology would be used for the primary data analysis.
1.3. Undertake a critical review of key references
a. Literature Review
There was a time when travel and tourism was used as a tool for education and people used to
travel in search of business and education only. But later in the 20th century, the view of the
people changed and tourism became a leisure industry. However, the tourism industry is still
associated widely with education and exploration; leisure has become the main ingredient of the
tourism sector (Patton, 2005). The emergence of the tour operators who provided integrated
tourism services that included transportation, accommodation, food and site seeing services was
the turning point of the tourism sector. In the 21st century, tour operators started to experiment
with the use of technology and slowly the technology changed the way these tour operators
conducted their business (Srinivasan, 2008). The air transport removed the geographical
difficulties and people started to go on international tours frequently. Similarly, technology has
transformed the way services were provided to the consumers. Tour operators like Thomas Cook
and TUI started their online portals where consumers could explore their tour packages and book
them online.
However, the revolution in the tourism industry came with the social media and mobile
technology. With the help of information communication technology in the global environment,
individuals may interact; move through space and time and their necessary information
accompany and help them to find the desirable product or services. This is where tourism
organisations understood the importance of technology in the marketing of their products and
services to the consumers (Chevalier and Mayzlin, 2006). Tour operators were already using the
internet technologies such as Search Engine Marketing and Search Engine Optimisation to attract
more and more customers towards their online portals where they were selling their tour
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packages. But interacting directly with the consumers through social media seemed a better
option and tourism organisations started running the promotional campaigns on the social
networking sites worldwide. Another face of the social media is the connecting among the users
where they share their tour stories and their feedback on the tourism services provided by their
tour operator. The word of mouth is the best publicity as mentioned by many marketing experts
and social media is the best platform where people share their views on their experience with the
people who might be siting thousands mile apart (Bryman and Bell, 2011). Hence, social media
influenced heavily the decision making process of the consumer in the travel and tourism
industry. According to a research, 52% of the people made changes in their tours after they
conducted the research about the tour package online. In this research, 41% people used social
media as a source of data for their online research. In the same study, it is concluded that 87%
tourists use their smartphone when they are on a tour and 57% people in the study said that the
photos uploaded by their friends and relatives on the social networking site Facebook inspired
them to go on the tour. Moreover, 37% people said that they included some of the places visited
by friends in their itinerary after seeing the photos of the attractions at these places on Facebook
(Driver, Rushworth, Squires and Robinson, 2013). This study creates a wide picture of the
decision making process of the consumers in the travel and tourism sector and throws light on
the influence of the social media in the tourism sector.
1.4. Produce a research project specification
The research project specifications includes the selection of the various methodologies for
conducting the research project, identifying the research design, selecting the sample size for the
data collection, setting up the time plan and creating a validity regime for the research project.
The research approaches which would be used in the current project are:
a. Research Approaches
1. Quantitative Methodology
Quantitative Research Methodology would be used in the current research project to analyse the
numeric data collected during the primary research. The data would be conducted through online
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survey where people would be given a questionnaire and asked to tick the suitable answer from
the given choices. The numeric data collected from the survey would be analysed using MS
Excel and presented in the chart form in the research report.
2. Qualitative Methodology
The Qualitative Research Methodology would be used in analysing the secondary data. The
secondary data would be collected from various sources such as books, magazines, news articles,
online portals and previous research papers published on the research topic. The data would be
analysed and its result would be included in the outcome of the research.
b. Sample Size
To conduct the primary data collection, a sample size of 300 has been set where these 300 people
would be asked to respond to the online questionnaire. Every participant of the survey would be
sent a link which would lead them to the survey page. Participants would answer the survey
questions and submit their survey by clicking on the submit button provided on the survey page.
The survey page would be created using the services of the SurveyMonkey.com.
c. Time Plan
Activity Days
Meet with tutor for discussion and topic selection 5
Studying the literature review 15
Preparing the research questions and objectives 6
Data collection 19
Data analysis 8
A draft of the research project will be submitted to the teacher. 7
Draft will be revised as per the feedback and final paper submission 12
d. Validity and Reliability
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To determine a valid outcome of any research project, it is essential that the data used in the
research (whether it is the primary data or the secondary data) is reliable and properly validated
(Burns and Bush, 2006). This research project would ensure that the secondary data is collected
from reliable sources such as published journals and books written by renowned authors.
Similarly, articles from prestigious magazines and newspapers would be used in conducting the
secondary research. During the primary data collection, survey participants would be asked to
authenticate themselves using their social media accounts before they could answer the survey
questionnaire.
1.5. Provide an appropriate plan and procedures for the agreed research specification
a. Aim and Objectives
This research project aims to study the influence of the social media as a technology on the
growth of the travel and tourism sector. The aim of the project is to identify the impact of the
social media on the marketing strategies of the tour operators and its integration in their
promotional campaigns. The project would study the use of social media by the tourism giants
such as Thomas Cook and TUI group.
The main objectives of this research project are provided below:
1. Assessment of the impact of the technology on the travel and tourism sector.
2. Assessment of the influence of the social media networking sites on the growth of the
tour operators.
3. Assessment of the decision making process of the customers depending upon their
presence on the social media.
b. Rationale of the project
Many researches have suggested that social media is one of the prime reason behind the decision
making process of consumers. However, there are also many other techniques that are used by
the tourism organisations in their promotional campaigns (Sekaran, 2006). This research project
would assess the influence of the social media as a technology in the marketing strategies of the
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tourism organisations and its actual role in the promotional campaigns and how it affects the
decision making process of the people when they go online to buy a tourism package.
c. Hypothesis
H1 – The Technology has been integrated with the success of the travel and tourism sector.
H2 – Social Media has emerged as the most used tool in the promotional campaigns by the
travel and tourism organisations.
H3 – Social Media has helped in increasing the leverage and brand equity of the tourism brands
H4 – Social Media plays a crucial role in the Decision making Process of the consumers in the
Travel and Tourism sector.
d. Mile Stones
The milestones set up for this research project are:
Milestone 1
Research Project Specification and Outline is prepared including the research design
Milestone 2
Literature Review is concluded
Milestone 3
Primary Data is collected
Milestone 4
Data Analysis is concluded
Milestone 5
Research Outcomes are presented
e. Monitoring and Review
A time plan has been setup for the research project and time has been allocated to the different
activities in the project. Every phase of the project would be monitored closely by the instructor
and feedback would be included in every phase to improve the outcome of the research.
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Task 2
Be able to implement the research project within agreed procedures and to
specification
2.1. Match resources efficiently to the research question or hypothesis
During the conduction of the research paper, it is essential that the available resources are
matched with the research question and hypothesis. The current research project is on the topic
of the influence of the social media on the travel and tourism sector and the way social media
affects the decision making process of the consumers in the decision making process. To conduct
this research, first of all, the availability of the secondary data is required. It is crucial that the
previous researches on the similar topic are available from where the secondary data could be
collected (Smith. 2014). Then availability of the journals, travel magazines and news articles are
crucial for the qualitative analysis of the research project. The data on the tourism organisations
such as big tour operators like Thomas Cook and TUI is essential.
Previous researches on the influence of social media on travel and tourism sector reveal that
more than 78% of the total sales of the tour packages by Thomas Cook are achieved through its
online portal i.e. website. There are some people who know the website of the company and goes
to the website directly to book their tour package. However, many people are directed to the
website from search engines. When people browse through the social media and see the pictures
posted by the people in their network about the places they visited during their holidays, they
look for those places on search engines (Aaker, Kumar and Day, 2008). These searches results in
the online links to the tour operators that provide tours to these places. Hence, a combination of
social media and search engines has proved to be one of the prime reasons behind the influence
of social media on the travel and tourism sector. This process also explains the decision making
of the consumers in the travel and tourism sector where people trust on the feedback given by
their friends and other members of their social media network and look for the relevant tourist
destinations on internet before booking a tour.
Online survey is the next important resource which would be used in this research project for the
collection of primary data. The purpose of the online survey is to assess the thinking of the
people on the research questions so that the objectives of the research could be fulfilled. The
hypotheses in this research project would be validated against the response of the participants in
the online survey. Hence, it is essential that the questions included in the online survey are
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