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Investigating Social Media Marketing in the Hospitality Industry: Facebook and European Hotels

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Information and Communication Technologies in Tourism 2014

Abstract

Social media have changed the way people interact with each other and with companies. In fact, recent research confirms that user-generated content is a key element in the decision-making process of customers who travel. The hotel business is now taking advantage of the introduction of social media into their marketing programmes, trying to create a customized relationship with consumers. The aim of this study is to investigate the use of social media among European hotels. Quantitative and qualitative research methods have been combined to identify a group of items useful to comprehend how hotels interact with customers on social media. The results show that European hotels are still in the first stages of developing social media strategies that present a moderate level of integration among different media. They are considered a useful instrument to promote the hotel brand but the potentiality of customer engagement is still undervalued.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Law, Economics and Culture, University of Insubria, Como, Italy

    Roberta Minazzi

  2. Department of Marketing, School of Business and Economics, Linnaeus University, Växjö and Kalmar, Sweden

    Stefan Lagrosen

Authors
  1. Roberta Minazzi
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  2. Stefan Lagrosen
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Roberta Minazzi .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, Virginia, USA

    Zheng Xiang

  2. Washington State University, Vancouver, Washington, USA

    Iis Tussyadiah

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Minazzi, R., Lagrosen, S. (2013). Investigating Social Media Marketing in the Hospitality Industry: Facebook and European Hotels. In: Xiang, Z., Tussyadiah, I. (eds) Information and Communication Technologies in Tourism 2014. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-03973-2_11

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