Impact of Social Media on Tourism System

Question: Discuss about the Impact of Social Media on Tourism System. Answer: Introduction: Social media is playing significant role all fields of business operations. Thus, in case of the hospitality or tourism industry, social media also plays a substantial role in numerous tourism aspects specifically in decision-making and information search behaviors (Zeng Gerritsen, 2014). Consumers always engage with the social networking websites looking for the research trips, take informed decisions regarding their travelling purposes as well as share their personal experiences of a specific restaurant, airline or hotel (Hudson Thal, 2013). Social media can significantly influence the tourism marketing activities by focusing on best practices to interact with customers (Leung et al., 2013). Therefore, in this context, the major aim of this project is to demonstrate the impact of the social media on the tourism industry. Hence, this section simply outlines the layout of the research activities through which the entire research would be performed to reach a proper finding (Munar Jacobsen, 2014). A Tabular form has been portrayed by mentioning the milestones, planned research activities, actual scenario as well as comment section. Milestone Planned Actual Comment To explore the impact of social media on tourism industry by demonstrating how social media can enhance the customer base of hospitality organizations. To identify major trends in social media landscape identified in the tourism industry In order to accomplish the milestone of the project, a survey can be made among few consumers who avail the hospitality service through social media. On the other hand, some employees and managers can also be selected to interview them. Their comments regarding the topic of this project would help to reach a proper conclusion. The survey respondents and interviewees would help to reach proper findings by sharing their views regarding social media impacts and trends within the tourism industry. Near about 100 consumers have been approached to participate in this survey. However, half of them were agreed to participate in this survey. Apart from that, similar problem was encountered while approaching the managers and employees from the hospitality sectors. Approximately, 25 employees and managers were asked to participate within the interview sessions. However, just 12 of them were agreed to give interview regarding this matter. The survey as well as the interview sessions arranged among the consumers and the employees and managers respectively can be proven very helpful to reach a proper finding. Their responses can provide the positive or negative conclusion regarding the impact of social media on hospitality industry. Issues There is a probability of occurrence of few consequences while conducting the research on exploring the impact of social media on tourism industry (Hudson et al., 2015). The major constraints are generally associated with the process of conducting the survey and the interviews among the employees (Munar Jacobsen, 2013). The researcher would conduct online surveys among the consumers who avail the services of hospitality industry. There are two major issues associated with conducting the research such as time constraint and proper cooperation from the participants (Hays, Page Buhalis, 2013). These constraints with time limitation as well as no-response should be effectively mitigated as early as possible so that the project can executed efficiently (Dijkmans, Kerkhof Beukeboom, 2015). Hence, the description of the constraints, date of resolving issues, actions to be accepted to mitigate the consequences and the status of activity completion have been portrayed in a tabular form giv en below. Description Date Action / Results Finished (Y/N) Time Constraint Time limitation is the major issue to conduct this entire project. Due to the short time of conducting the survey and interviews, researchers would be failed to interpret the proper finding of the project. 27th March, 2017 In order to resolve the time constraint associated with this research, it is necessary to properly schedule the entire project activities. Moreover, the researcher should always try to accomplish all the individual activities within the specified timelines allotted for those operations. No Cooperation from the respondents If people who have been approached for the survey or interviews are not agreed to participate then the researcher would face failure in executing the project efficiently and within the given time. 28th March, 2017 This kind of conflict is quite obvious to be encountered while conducting a specific project. Therefore, the researcher should follow few significant strategies to easily convince people to participate in the survey. On the other hand, the interview span should be limited as the corporate people have to manage time from their busy schedules. Thus, it can easily become an appropriate convincing factor for the employees and managers who work in tourism industry. No Cost the financial limitations can become a very crucial issue for the project to be executed. This particular constraint is often encountered if the project execution is not done within the given timeline set to execute the project. The researcher has to bare extra cost while project execution exceeds deadline allotted for the entire project execution. 29th March, 2017 The financial limitation should be minimized by restricting the delay occurring during the project execution. It would also help the researcher to execute the entire project within the budget considered for the project completion No Technical issues conducting online survey While conducting the online survey, technical difficulties can be encountered. Issues in internet connectivity can become a major concern while conducting the survey. The accessibility of the online websites can also be a crucial issue for the project execution. 30th March, 2017 The online website for conducting the survey should be accessible to the participants. Internet connectivity must be strong enough so that participants can effectively provide their responses in the survey. No References Dijkmans, C., Kerkhof, P., Beukeboom, C. J. (2015). 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