Page 1 of 7 E-Tourism Assignment Brief & Guidance Title: Critically evaluate the use of Social Media in a hospitality business. Use one case study to create a new detailed social media strategy for your chosen hospitality business. Assessment guidance: Choose a hospitality business (hotel of your choice) with social media presence. Evaluate their current social media strategy and create a new detailed social media strategy. The main parts of the assignment are the literature review and case study. The case study should include a detailed new social media strategy for your chosen business. Ensure you use academic references within your literature review, and that you add a copy of your collected data in the appendix. Structure: Introduction, literature review, case study, discussion & conclusion, references, appendices Word count: 4500 word Assessment deadline: 5 th May 2017 Suggestion A. Introduction (2-300 words)  Brief introduce the social media and how it facilitates the hotel industry.  Introduce the chosen hotel (the case). o Suggest to choice a small-to-medium size hotel with social media presence which it would be easier to identify its problems in using social medias and so to develop the recommendation  Define the scope of this assignment o Discuss the scope (topics will be covered in the assignment) B. Literature Review (1300-1500 words)  Briefly discuss Web 2.0  What is Social Media: o What is Social Media? o The characteristics of social media o The advantages and disadvantages of Social Media o Types of social media: (scope of Social media, Lecture 04)  Choice 3-4 types for this report. i.e. social networks, social publishing and news, social commenting in blogs etc.Page 2 of 7  Introduce each chosen type of social media, its characteristic, advantages and disadvantage.  Please ensure these chosen types of social media to be discussed on either Item D. Case Study and/or Item F. Recommendation o The relationship between hotel industry and social media  Briefly introduce ICT in Hospitality Industry in focusing on social media  Discuss the implication of Social Media to Hotel Industry, i.e. benefits and challenges  The functions of Social Media in Hotel Industry, i.e. marketing, distribution, customer service, etc. C. Methodology: (200-300 words)  Discuss the chosen theories/concepts per “Item C. Literature Review”  The rationale to choice these theories/concepts, i.e. how it can help you to conduct the analysis of the chosen case within the scope of the Title. 1. Read the definition of the theories/concepts from academic reference. 2. Based on your understanding of the theory to paragraphing it. (use your own word to write down on your report.) Do not just copy and paste it, if you do so, you won’t get any mark.  Discuss how you are going to collect data, information, evidences on “Item D. Case Study” for these chosen theories.  i.e. Secondary research: website search, journals, report etc. Read the characteristic and benefits & drawback of secondary research from textbook. D. Case Study (1300-1500 words)  Use examples to apply/evaluate/analyze the chosen theories/concept as per “Item B” for the chosen hotel  Evaluate/analyze how good/issues of the chosen hotel in using Social Media of the respected topic area. (Workshop05.The Social Media Mix) E. Conclusion (200-300 words)  Summarize the above key findings from “Item C”.  i.e. : i. which area/social media that the chosen hotel is doing good/not good enough and why. ii. Any social media type discussed on Item B. Literature Review that the chosen hotel does not have presence as such any implication for the chosen hotel?  Please do not put any new idea here F. Recommendation (500-600 words)  Based the Item D. propose social media strategy recommendation to the chosen hotel G. Reference Page H. Appendix PagePage 3 of 7 Others: 1. Reading:  Please ensure you are going to apply Harvard Reference system for the assignment. Please read below ‘The Harvard Reference’ for more information.  Below is the reading list Topic References Introduction to eTourism Buhalis D. (2003): eTourism book • Chapter 1: Information and communication technologies: evolution and revolution (p.5-27) • Chapter 3: eTourism: the dynamic interaction of ICTs and tourism (p.75-107) and • Chapter 4: Demand driven eTourism (p.109-135) Buhalis, D., Law, R. (2008) Progress in information technology and tourism management: 20 years on and 10 years after the Internet - The state of eTourism research. Progress. Tourism Management Vol 29 pp. 609–623. Sigala et al (2012) Social Media in Travel, Tourism and Hospitality, Theory, Practice and Cases, Ashworth. Intelligent systems in Tourism (incl. DMSs) (eDestinations) Buhalis D. (2003): Chapter 5: Supply driven eTourism (p.138- 172) and Chapter 6: Operational and management in distribution in eTourism (p.174-191) Gretzel, U. (2011). Intelligent systems in tourism: A Social Science Perspective. Annals of Tourism Research 38, 757–779. Govers, Go, Gunmar (2007) Virtual destination image, a new Measurement Approach. Annals of Tourism Buhalis eTourism book!!! Chapter 11 eDestinations, also view case study in the back of the book Buhalis, Egger (2009) Case studies in eTourism: Review destination related case studies. ICT and Hospitality Buhalis D. (2003): eTourism book: Chapter 8: eHospitality Murphy et al (2006) Investigating the evolution of hotel internet adoption. Information Technology & Tourism, Vol. 8 pp. 161– 177 Pan, Litvin, O’Donnell (2007) Understanding accommodation search query formulation: The first step in putting ‘heads inPage 4 of 7 beds’ Journal of Vacation Marketing 2007; 13; 371 (also interesting for Internet search engines) Small and medium tourism enterprises (SMTEs) Buhalis, D. & Main, H., 1998. Information technology in peripheral small and medium hospitality enterprises: strategic analysis and critical factors. International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management, 10(5), 198 - 202. Main, H.C., 2002. The Expansion of Technology in Small and Medium Hospitality Enterprises With a Focus on Net Technology. Information Technology & Tourism, 4, 167-174. Murphy, J., Schegg, R., Qiu, M. (2006) An investingation of consitent rates across swiss hotels’ direct channels. Information Technology and Tourism Vol 8 (2) pp. 105-120 Sellito, C., Burgess S. (2007) Planning and implementing the web sites of Australian SMTEs. Information Technologies and Tourism Vol 9 (2) pp. 115-132 Buhalis (2003) eTourism: Chapter 7 and 8: eHospitality Web site design and evaluation Benckendorff, Pierre (2006) An Exploratory Analysis of Traveller Preferences for Airline Website Content. Journal of Information Technology and Tourism, Vol. 8 No. 3-4 Law, R., Qi, S. & Buhalis, D., 2010. Progress in tourism management: A review of website evaluation in tourism research. Tourism Management, 31(3), 297-313 Zafiropoulos, Costas; Vrana, Vasiliki (2006) A Framework for the Evaluation of Hotel Websites: The Case of Greece. Journal of Information Technology and Tourism, Vol. 8 No. 3-4 Hallett, R. W. & Kaplan-Weinger, J. (2010). Official Tourism Websites: A Discourse Analysis Perspective. Channel View Publications. Chiou, W.-C., Lin, C.-C., and Perng, C. (2011). A strategic website evaluation of online travel agencies. Tourism Management 32, 1463–1473. Nielsen, J., and Loranger, H. (2006). Prioritizing Web usability (New Riders). Website: http://www.useit.com/ Social networking and tourism Sigala et al (2012) Social Media in Travel, Tourism and Hospitality, Theory, Practice and Cases, Ashworth.Page 5 of 7 Kim, W., Jeong, O. & Lee, S., 2010. On social Web sites. Information Systems, 35(2), 215-236. (Available also via www.Sciencedirect.com) Jiang, H., Mills, J., Stepchenkova, S. (2008) Digital identity management and satisfaction with virtual travel communities. Information Technology and Tourism Vol. 10 pp. 43-58 Du, H. S. and C. Wagner (2006). Weblog success: Exploring the role of technology. International Journal of Human-Computer Studies 64(9): 789. Mobile internet usage is going through a transformation in the UK - New Media Trend Watch Latest News. Available at: http://www.newmediatrendwatch.com/index.php?option=com_c ontent&task=view&id=449&Itemid=2 [Accessed March 16, 2010]. Higgins, M., 2009. Apps for the iPhone: A Traveler’s Companion, Pocket Size. The New York Times. Available at: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/29/travel/29praciphone.html?_ r=1 [Accessed November 30, 2009]. (Further reading, but interesting, newspaper clip) Höpken, W., Fuchs, M., Zanker, M., and Beer, T. (2010). Context-Based Adaptation of Mobile Applications in Tourism. Information Technology & Tourism 12, 175–195. User generated content Gretzel, U. & Yoo, K.H., 2008. Use and Impact of Online Travel Reviews. In Information and Communication Technologies in Tourism 2008. pp. 35-46. Vermeulen, I. and Seegers, D. 2009. Tried and tested: The impact of online hotel reviews on consumer consideration. Tourism Management 30: 123-127 Zhang, Z., Ye, Q., Law, R. & Li, Y. (2010). The impact of eword-of-mouth on the online popularity of restaurants: A comparison of consumer reviews and editor reviews. International Journal of Hospitality Management 29(4), 694-700. Searching the Net Kleinberg J., Lawrence S.(2001): The Structure of the Web, Science, Vol 294, p.1849-1850 Lawrence S. (2000) Context in Web Search, IEEE Data Engineering Bulletin, Vol.23(3), pp.25-32 Pan, B., and Fesenmaier, D. R. (2006). Online Information Search: Vacation Planning Process. Annals of Tourism ResearchPage 6 of 7 33, 809–832. Mitsche, N. (2005) Understanding the Information Search Process within a Domain-specific Search Engine. In: Frew (2005) Information Technologies in Tourism, Proceedings of the Int. Conference, Innsbruck, 2005. Xiang, Z. (2011). Modeling the Persuasive Effects of Search Engine Results. Information Technology & Tourism 12, 233– 248. Search engine optimisation Guest speaker: Kate Bozym (Online Marketing Manager, Monster Threads) No wires attached: Mobile technologies Mobile internet usage is going through a transformation in the UK - New Media Trend Watch Latest News. Available at: http://www.newmediatrendwatch.com/index.php?option=com_c ontent&task=view&id=449&Itemid=2 [Accessed March 16, 2010]. Higgins, M., 2009. Apps for the iPhone: A Traveler’s Companion, Pocket Size. The New York Times. Available at: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/29/travel/29praciphone.html?_ r=1 [Accessed November 30, 2009]. (Further reading, but interesting, newspaper clip) Höpken, W., Fuchs, M., Zanker, M., and Beer, T. (2010). Context-Based Adaptation of Mobile Applications in Tourism. Information Technology & Tourism 12, 175–195. Others: Chaffey et al., Digital Marketing: Strategy, Implementation and Practice, 5th edition © Pearson Education Limited 2013 Efraim T. et.al., Electronic Commerce2012, A managerial and Scoial Networks Perspective 7th edition, Pearson My Module Resources is your reading list online, all the essential information sources you’ve been recommended for your module in one place. You’ll find direct links to journals and journal articles via Discover and direct links to core texts in print and electronically via the Library Catalogue. Access My Module Resources within your SunSpace module, or via the library web pages https://moduleresources.sunderland.ac.uk/list.php?list_id=12996Page 7 of 7 Self-reading Materials is another source of materials under our Module Folder at SunSpace to facilitate your learning and assessment. 2. The Harvard Reference You have to put all references that have used on your assessment by applying Harvard Reference System [in-text citations (on the body of your assignment) and reference list (on the Reference Page)]. You will find information on how to reference using the Harvard style on Cite them right online. There is a link on the library home page or you can access directly at http://www.citethemrightonline.com. If you are on-campus you will be logged into Cite Them Right online automatically. If you are off campus you will need to login with your University User ID and password. You can explore how to use of the Cite Them Right via https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VabETaCXXLY&authuser=0 Your assignment will get ZERO mark and would be classified as plagiarism if it does not show the references on the assignment