How social media has affected public perception of the hospitality industry

Abstract

Social media has become a part of our daily lives. It has evolved from a basic environment where people can chat and post their ideas and pictures into a big marketing industry which has become an essential part of the marketing strategy of a lot of businesses in the hospitality industry due to its advantages. This study aims to establish a relationship between people exposure to marketing on social media and the changing habits of the consumers when they come to choose which place they choose to eat out or go abroad. This will be done by establishing a correlation between people following pages related to food and if leads more people to try out different eating places and why people are searching for information on social media when going abroad. This study found that there is a strong correlation on whether people follow any of these pages and their preference to try out a new eating place. There is also a strong correlation between people following travel pages and whether they check out the place on social media before visiting. This study came to the conclusion that social media marketing is leaving an impact on our habits of people especially in the hotel industry. However, word of mouth is what leads people to try out a new restaurant thus making the service as well as the food and the experience as a whole the best part restaurants should focus on to improve their business.