HOTELS AND SOCIAL MEDIA – CASE STUDY OF SERBIA
Abstract
Considering the impact of Social Media on hotel business performance, the aim of this study is to identify ways of presenting hotels from Serbia with special reference to spa hotels. The research has been conducted on a sample of 331 categorized hotels in Serbia and it includes content analysis of the major Social Media portals such as TripAdvisor, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and Instagram. Significant differences in applied appearance strategies of these hotels have been found. These differences become apparent when a group of town, mountain and spa hotels and hotels of different official categories are compared. Regarding the segment of spa hotels, the participation of those who are represented on Instagram is less than 45%, on Facebook less than 24%, on YouTube less than 12%, TripAdvisor less than 11%, compared to the average established on a sample of all hotels in Serbia. A passive approach to managing online spa hotel image is also registered. At the level of Serbia, hotel management responded to 28% of published reviews on TripAdvisor, while that percentage is lower for spa hotels and it is 22%.
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References
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