Social Media and Its Direct Impact on Hotel Occupancy Levels

by

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

I would like to take this chance for thanking my research facilitator, friends & family for support they provided & their belief in me as well as guidance they provided without which I would have never been able to do this research.

DECLARATION

I, (), would like to declare that all contents included in this thesis/dissertation stand for my individual work without any aid, & this thesis/dissertation has not been submitted for any examination at academic as well as professional level previously. It is also representing my very own views & not essentially which are associated with university.

Signature:

ABSTRACT

For this study, the researcher aimed to examine the marketing strategies for international hospitality industry. Hospitality is one of the fastest growing industries globally. Recently, due to increased competition and enhanced globalization, tourism around the world has increased which can be easily measured in increased number of visits of people to different cities and countries on a frequent basis. For many years, business management has been applied in hospitality industry. Marketing of any kind of service can be interesting but at the same time challenging. Through various combinations, hospitality is a product or an institution sells its services which are depicted to be the main factor which affect how the product or service is sold to the represented, sold and constructed to the customers. Qualitative research method has been adopted to acquire the primary data. Using the qualitative research method, the researcher conducted interviews with different employees of the marketing department of various companies. However, to respect the participant's contribution and enhance the research integrity, participant's information and personal details have been kept confidential.



ACKNOWLEDGEMENTii

DECLARATIONiii

ABSTRACTiv

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION6

Purpose of the Study8

Research Questions9

Significance of Study9

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW11

Hospitality Industry11

Hotels12

Types of Social Media12

Implementation of Social Media and Consumers Shift towards the New Medium13

Responsibility for Social Media in the Organization13

Internet and Social Media Marketing14

Consumer Propagation and Viral Marketing16

Penetration of Social Media in the U.S Market17

Online Social Interaction18

Social Influence Online19

Social Validation21

CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY23

Research Design23

Data Collection24

Data Analysis25

Limitations26

REFERENCES27

BIBLIOGRAPHY32

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION

Hospitality businesses are one of the industries that are highly comeptitive with dynamic environment changes experience and many competitors. In the business enviroment the global hotel industry is facing continuous changes.The innovative forces of the 21st century drives an innovative competition in the arena of the hospitality industry. This situation is leading the business firms to espouse innovative planned marketing strategies and effective marketing processes.

The foundation of innovative marketing dynamic, strategies, and processes mainly takes place due to inevitable structural transformations that exemplify the development of the twenty-first century and that are establishing aspects for the alteration of the international setting of countries in general and particularly in the hospitality business (Holjevac, 2003). In a general context, it is probable to affirm that businessmen and marketing managers in today's modern world are experiencing an innovative trend of revolutions that have formed current everyday life more uncertain, global, and dynamic (Tribe, 2010 ). The increased expansion and exponential advancement of technology in the framework ...