EDUFI Fellowship/Yabibal Afework Abate
Päärahoittaja
Rahoittajan antama koodi/diaarinumero: OPH-4268-2023
Päärahoittajan myöntämä tuki (€)
- 5 700,00
Rahoitusohjelma
Hankkeen aikataulu
Hankkeen aloituspäivämäärä: 01.12.2023
Hankkeen päättymispäivämäärä: 29.02.2024
Tiivistelmä
Brief summary
Climate change, resource depletion, and social inequality demanded different stakeholders to emphasize
sustainability and sustainable development. Representing 10% of world GDP, and 25% employment opportunities (World Travel and Tourism Council, 2022), sustainable business performance in tourism industry across the globe strongly contributes to sustainable development (Scheyvens & Cheer, 2021), with a direct or indirect connection to all the 17 sustainable development goals (SDGs) (Buhalis et al., 2023). Despite the efforts being made by stakeholders to make the tourism industry more sustainable, its negative socio-economic and environmental footprints are still visible (Kronenberg & Fuchs, 2022)
Technological innovations are generally believed to bring solutions to sustainability challenges by enabling efficient and clean use of scarce resources (Chen et al., 2021). With the advent of social media platforms and the increasing connectivity of travelers, the global tourism industry has witnessed a remarkable transformation (Chu et al., 2020; Yamagishi et al., 2020; Deb et al., 2022). Social media marketing brings new alternatives that improve customer engagement, increase brand awareness, cost efficient marketing practice, and enhance customer insight to the tourism and hospitality industry (Chu et al., 2020; Peco-Torres, 2021). It also benefits travelers through increased information access, minimized cost of travel plan, convenient booking, and payment alternatives (Lu et al., 2018). Furthermore, social media marketing also plays a crucial role for firms’ sustainable tourism performance (economic, social, and environmental) through resource-efficient marketing practice, enhancing awareness creation, influencing travelers’ behavior, showcasing best practices of responsible tourism, enabling conscious travel decisions, and enhancing communication with stakeholders for a better y engagement (Martí-Parreño & Gómez-Calvet, 2020; El Archi et al., 2023). However, extant research on social media marketing in the tourism industry almost solely focused on its effect on branding (Li et al., 2020; So et al., 2021), customer satisfaction, and economic performance (Obermayer et al., 2022).
Despite the growing body of academic literature on social media marketing and tourism sustainability concepts independently, little has been done on the dynamics between the use of social media marketing as a marketing strategy and its effect on sustainable tourism performance. Moreover, the study of the role of digitalization in general and social media marketing in particular on sustainable business performance is fragmented and lacks a clear framework.
1.2 Research purpose
The purpose of this study is to investigate the effect of social media marketing activities on sustainable
tourism performance in a cross-country context. The study also seeks to identify common patterns and digital inequality nuances that affect the use of social media marketing tools to enhance sustainable performance among firms in Ethiopian and Finnish tourism industries. The research project is directly aligned with the focus area of “Future-Sustainable Environment” theme, while it can still be indirectly associated to the remaining four areas. We intend to achieve the following specific objectives with this study.
• To determine the challenges and opportunities for using social media marketing to foster sustainable
tourism performance.
• To investigate the role of social media marketing in sustainable tourism performance across countries.
• To evaluate the impact of digital inequality on the use of social media marketing strategies for
sustainable tourism., and
• To measure the effect of sustainable - social media content on travelers’ intention to visit across
countries.
Climate change, resource depletion, and social inequality demanded different stakeholders to emphasize
sustainability and sustainable development. Representing 10% of world GDP, and 25% employment opportunities (World Travel and Tourism Council, 2022), sustainable business performance in tourism industry across the globe strongly contributes to sustainable development (Scheyvens & Cheer, 2021), with a direct or indirect connection to all the 17 sustainable development goals (SDGs) (Buhalis et al., 2023). Despite the efforts being made by stakeholders to make the tourism industry more sustainable, its negative socio-economic and environmental footprints are still visible (Kronenberg & Fuchs, 2022)
Technological innovations are generally believed to bring solutions to sustainability challenges by enabling efficient and clean use of scarce resources (Chen et al., 2021). With the advent of social media platforms and the increasing connectivity of travelers, the global tourism industry has witnessed a remarkable transformation (Chu et al., 2020; Yamagishi et al., 2020; Deb et al., 2022). Social media marketing brings new alternatives that improve customer engagement, increase brand awareness, cost efficient marketing practice, and enhance customer insight to the tourism and hospitality industry (Chu et al., 2020; Peco-Torres, 2021). It also benefits travelers through increased information access, minimized cost of travel plan, convenient booking, and payment alternatives (Lu et al., 2018). Furthermore, social media marketing also plays a crucial role for firms’ sustainable tourism performance (economic, social, and environmental) through resource-efficient marketing practice, enhancing awareness creation, influencing travelers’ behavior, showcasing best practices of responsible tourism, enabling conscious travel decisions, and enhancing communication with stakeholders for a better y engagement (Martí-Parreño & Gómez-Calvet, 2020; El Archi et al., 2023). However, extant research on social media marketing in the tourism industry almost solely focused on its effect on branding (Li et al., 2020; So et al., 2021), customer satisfaction, and economic performance (Obermayer et al., 2022).
Despite the growing body of academic literature on social media marketing and tourism sustainability concepts independently, little has been done on the dynamics between the use of social media marketing as a marketing strategy and its effect on sustainable tourism performance. Moreover, the study of the role of digitalization in general and social media marketing in particular on sustainable business performance is fragmented and lacks a clear framework.
1.2 Research purpose
The purpose of this study is to investigate the effect of social media marketing activities on sustainable
tourism performance in a cross-country context. The study also seeks to identify common patterns and digital inequality nuances that affect the use of social media marketing tools to enhance sustainable performance among firms in Ethiopian and Finnish tourism industries. The research project is directly aligned with the focus area of “Future-Sustainable Environment” theme, while it can still be indirectly associated to the remaining four areas. We intend to achieve the following specific objectives with this study.
• To determine the challenges and opportunities for using social media marketing to foster sustainable
tourism performance.
• To investigate the role of social media marketing in sustainable tourism performance across countries.
• To evaluate the impact of digital inequality on the use of social media marketing strategies for
sustainable tourism., and
• To measure the effect of sustainable - social media content on travelers’ intention to visit across
countries.
