The impact of social media use on entity performance: a case of Tourist Accomodation Providers in Vhembe District

Abstract

Social media plays a key role in tourism and hospitality, transforming the way tourists search, find and co-create information about travel-related products, and changing the way they make hotel-related decisions online. The use of social media as part of the travel information search activity is becoming the norm. This study aims to find out how the accommodation sector markets its services on social media and how that impacts their performance, as measured by online booking generations.The primary objective is to investigate the impact of social media use on entity performance, focusing on tourism accommodation providers in Vhembe District Municipality. The study followed a quantitative research methodology to attain the set objectives of the study. Probability sampling technique was adopted, and the targeted population was tourist accommodation establishments in the Vhembe District Municipality. A sum of 107 was the targeted sample size of the study, where the establishments sampled were active on social media. The established sample was the accommodations that are operating and have active social media platforms. To analyse the data, simple linear regression analysis was performed for inferential statistics while descriptive statistics was performed to identify the accommodation’s ideal guests, their demographics, interests, and preferences. This process helps accommodation tailor their content to make it appealing. This study concluded that the accommodation industry finds social media more effective, and businesses use it more often to communicate and engage with their followers and customers.