Journal of Business Paradigms Vol 4 No 2, 2019

THE IMPLEMENTATION OF FACEBOOK IN DESTINATION MARKETING: THE CASE OF DUBROVNIK-NERETVA COUNTY

Lorena Bašan1 Faculty of Tourism and Hospitality Management, Croatia

Matea Ban Faculty of Tourism and Hospitality Management, Croatia

Review Manuscript Received October 20th 2019 Manuscript Accepted December 25th 2019

ABSTRACT Since the emergence and rapid development of the Internet and its implementation in companies within the tourism and hospitality industry, Internet marketing has become a vital marketing tool. Social media, in particular, are one of the most important media in Internet communication and an integral part of a large number of business entities, including those related to tourism. Many tourist destinations that understand the importance of social media as a source of information in the phase of tourist-destination selection and recognise the opportunities social media provide are using social networks to communicate and interact with tourists. Thus, the purpose of this paper is to determine the implementation level of Facebook as the most often used networking site in destination marketing. The paper is based on empirical research conducted in Dubrovnik-Neretva County using content analysis. Results obtained by this study allow decision makers in destination marketing to implement Facebook in a more efficient way, by exploiting the underutilized advantages of social media to gain a competitive advantage in the contemporary tourist market and achieve better business results in the future.

1 Address correspondence to Lorena Bašan Associate Professor, Faculty of Tourism and Hospitality Management, Department of Marketing, Opatija, Croatia, E-mail: [email protected]

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Keywords: destination marketing, social media, Facebook, Dubrovnik-Neretva County

JEL classification: M31

INTRODUCTION

The Internet, as one of the most important ICT solutions, has completely changed the entire process of travel and has a great role in increasing the competitiveness and quality of the tourism sector. The World Tourism Organization has stated that the keys to success on the Internet are the quick identification of consumer needs, direct communication, comprehensive presentation, customization and information updating (Sahin & Sengün 2015, 774). Buhalis (1998) found that information technologies, especially the Internet, can be used as an effective business tool in the tourism industry (Avcikurt, Giritlioglu and Sahin, 2011:2818). The Internet’s influence on travel is seen from the research results of Online Travel Trends in Europe in 2015 (eRevMax). The results indicate that in Europe multichannel marketing is the norm, 90% of travellers own a smartphone, 50% of bookings come from online, 20% of online bookings come from mobiles but 50% of hotels do not use mobile channels, 51% of hotels manage channels manually, 21% of gross hotel bookings come from OTAs, 60% of the OTA market is controlled by Booking.com, 45% of online bookers use metasearch to compare prices but 46% of hoteliers are unaware of metasearch integrations and 43% of travellers read reviews before making booking arrangements (eRevMax 2015).

In this context, Internet marketing has become an important marketing tool for gaining and retaining competitiveness in the fast-changing contemporary market, especially with regard to the tourism market. Brodie et al. show that the adoption of e-marketing is positively associated with performance, which supports Day and Bens (2005) that firms adopting e-marketing are likely to have competitive advantage (Brodie at al. 2007). Leung at al. (2015, 1570) found that more than 53% of the articles reviewed used hotel/lodging and destination/DMO as study settings but that social media deserves special attention. Social networks are becoming an efficient tool for IT-based businesses by providing a number of services for the tourism market (Di Pietro et al. 2012, 60).

Since there is a lack of publications dealing with the implementation of Facebook in

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the specific field of use by tourist boards, it seemed important to conduct research on the implementation of Facebook in the destination marketing activities of tourist boards. The subject of study is the tourist boards of Dubrovnik-Neretva County.

For the purpose of determining the implementation of Facebook by Tourist Boards empirical research was conducted with the following objectives: 1. to identify the presence, main features and effectiveness of tourist boards’ Facebook pages; 2. find out the current strategic use of tourist boards’ Facebook pages in destination marketing activities.

The paper consists of five chapters. The introduction explains the purpose, objectives and structure of the paper. Literature review, the second chapter, gives an overview of previous research on Internet marketing and social media, with focus on Facebook implementation. The third part, Methodology, describes the design of the study and the content analysis method used. The section that follows is dedicated to presenting findings and discussing results and the last part of the paper presents conclusions.

LITERATURE OVERVIEW

Given the rapid development of the Internet and its implementation in companies within the tourism and hospitality industry, Internet marketing has become a vital marketing tool.

In the literature we can find different definitions for Internet marketing by different authors. Chaffey et al. (2009:9) define Internet marketing as the application of the Internet and related digital technologies in conjunction with traditional communications to achieve marketing objectives. Internet marketing includes the use of a company’s website and other online promotional techniques (search engine marketing, interactive advertising, e-mail marketing and partnerships with other websites), which are used to support the objectives of acquiring new customers and providing services for existing customers that help to develop customer relationships. Successful Internet marketing implies the need for integrating online techniques with traditional media (print, TV and direct mail) as part of multichannel marketing communication.

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In the literature, the term “e-marketing” is very often used alongside the term “Internet marketing”. E-marketing or electronic marketing, however, has a broader scope in comparison with Internet marketing. McDonald and Wilson (1999) and Chaffey and Smith (2008) considered that e-marketing refers to digital media (web, e-mail, wireless media) but also includes the management of digital customer data and electronic customer relationship management systems - e-CRM systems (Chaffey et al. 2009:9). Hannam (2004) highlights that both marketing and promotion are clearly essential for successful tourism and hospitality development but are often overlooked or simplistic in nature (Williams 2006:482).

Laws and Hsu (2005:493) emphasize to hospitality practitioners that the Internet offers a means for them to sell their products to global customers withoutany geographical or time constrains (Avcikurt, Giritlioglu and Sahin, 2011:2818). Poel and Leunis (1999) find that the Internet is highly accepted as an information source and reservation device. A research study related to Colorado hoteliers showed that the Internet service had a significant financial impact on their operations (Yeh et al. 2005:35). Brodie et al. show that the adoption of e-marketing is positively associated with performance, which supports Day and Bens’ finding (2005) that firms adopting e-marketing are likely to have competitive advantage (Brodie et al. 2005).

Internet marketing can be classified into the following types (Stokes, R. 2013, 16- 17): Search engine optimization (SEO), search advertising, affiliate marketing, video marketing, e-mail marketing and social media marketing.

Social media are one of the most important media of Internet communication and an integral part of a large number of business entities today, including those related to tourism. Social networking is defined as developing a social network and relationships based on similar interests and views (Curran et al. 2011, 27). In that sense, a social network is a sociological structure depicting the interrelationships between individuals (Ružić et al. 2009, 366). Online social networks consist of unseen social links which are nevertheless visible because they allow us to see who our friends are, who our friends’ friends are, who their friends are and so on and on, within the frame of a highly accessible and simple interface (Ružić et al. 2009, 367). Once a user creates his or her profile on an online social network, the profile becomes a part of the social network’s sociogram.

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Beyond the range of possibilities provided by social media, there are three advantages that make it an attractive alternative or complement to traditional marketing channels: its free, personal and social nature (Coursaris et al. 2013, 2). Using social media, organizations can forge relationships with existing as well as new customers and form communities that interactively collaborate to identify problems and develop solutions for them. These interactions change the traditional roles of both seller and customer in exchanging relationships (Tsimonis and Dimitriadis 2013, 329). Therefore, a social networking site can be used to gain new customers, keep in touch with current customers and promote new products, sales/offers and events, creating overall high-quality PR that is specific to a company (Curran et al. 2011, 26).

Because social networks are overloaded with information, it is very difficult to attract the attention of the target market segment; hence, the crucial role of the effective use of social networks. Effectiveness means that the goals set by the company have been accomplished with the results achieved (Dencheva Yordanova, 73). Hoffman and Fodor (2019, 43) also pointed out that marketers should focus on objectives that explicitly recognize the value of operating in the social media environment and that the appropriate set of metrics depends on the objective. The effectiveness of marketing communications does not lie in what you say, but how you say it, considering the marketing channels used and the creativity of the message. The traditional approaches to communication put emphasis on mass media techniques which are less effective in an environment where tourists have access to large amounts of information on destinations, arrangements, hotels, etc. (Živković et al. 2014, 758).

With regard to tourist destinations, a growing number of destination marketing managers are recognising the advantages of using social networks in implementing the marketing activities of their destinations in comparison with the use of offline communication channels. When formulating communication strategies, destination marketing managers place emphasis on social networks, taking into account the reasons why tourists join social networks and how they participate in them. Social networks are becoming an efficient tool for IT-based businesses by providing a variety of services for the tourism market (Di Pietro et al. 2012, 60).

According to Chung and Buhalis (2008), the most important functional benefits from travellers’ participation in online communities include the ability to quickly

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and easily find information and the ability to share experiences (Alizadeh and Mat Isa, 2015, 179). Mulhern (2009) considers that tourists need to know, by means of reliable sources, what their experience might be like, in order to reduce uncertainty and create some expectations of what they are going to find at a destination (Živković et al. 2014, 759).

Lawrence and Giles (1999) state that today there are more than 300 different active online social networks, that is, active social network websites (Ružić et al. 2009, 367). Some of the best known and most visited social networks in 2019 were (Digital Information World 2019) Facebook, YouTube, Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp, Instagram, Twitter, Google+, LinkedIn, Skype, Snapchat, Pinterest, Line, Viber, WeChat and tumblr.

In 2019, Facebook had 85% of registered users and 79% of active users (Digital Information World 2019), making it the most popular social network. Facebook in particular has a great influence over consumer choices globally, especially in the travel sector (Živković et al. 2014, 758). Research conducted by Andrlić & De Alvis (2016), regarding the type of social media used, shows that Facebook is the social media most often used by DMOs in Croatia. Based on above mentioned, the implementation of Facebook as a social network in tourist boards’ destination marketing activities was selected as the subject of this research.

METHODOLOGY

Empirical research of tourist boards’ Facebook pages was conducted in June 2019, using content analysis. According to Hsieh and Shannon (2005, 1278) qualitative content analysis is defined as a research method for the subjective interpretation of the content of text data through the systematic classification process of coding and identifying themes or patterns. Kim and Kuljiš (2010, 374) consider that the method provides an excellent opportunity to study users’ styles, patterns or preferences that does not necessitate any researcher intervention. Accordingly, they anticipate that more and more researchers will start investigating web-based contents and that content analysis will become a method of choice in such studies.

For the purpose of this research, we created a form for data collecting, consisting of two groups of dimensions. The first group, consisting of ten dimensions, refers

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to the presence and main features of the Facebook pages of tourist boards. The components offered were taken from previous research by Alizadeh and Mat Isa (2015), who adapted dimensions from Hays et al. (2013). The second group of 12 dimensions was defined to estimate the strategic use of tourist boards’ Facebook pages in destination marketing activities. The offered dimensions were taken, and slightly adapted, from previous research by Alizadeh and Mat Isa (2015) and Zouganeli et al. (2011). This group of dimensions includes: identifiability, attitudes towards user participation, customization, information availability and innovativeness.

Research was conducted on tourist boards’ Facebook pages in Dubrovnik- Neretva County. Dubrovnik-Neretva County was chosen because of Dubrovnik’s position among 10 leading Croatian towns and municipalities with the best tourism performance. In 2017, Dubrovnik held second place according to the number of visitors and first place according to the number of overnight stays (Tourism in Numbers 2017, 33).

The survey comprises the Facebook pages of 18 tourist boards – the Dubrovnik- Neretva County Tourist Board, five tourist boards of towns and 12 tourist boards of municipalities – based on the List of Tourist Boards of Dubrovnik-Neretva County, taken from the website of the Dubrovnik-Neretva County Tourist Board. Two tourist boards – Slivno Tourist Board and Janjina Tourist Board – were not included in the research because they do not have a Facebook presence. The tourist boards included in the survey are the Dubrovnik-Neretva County Tourist Board, Dubrovnik Tourist Board, Cavtat Konavle Tourist Board, Župa Dubrovačka Tourist Board, Ston Tourist Board, Mljet Tourist Board, Orebić Tourist Board, Trpanj Tourist Board, Korčula Tourist Board, Lumbarda Tourist Board, Blato Tourist Board, Vela Luka Tourist Board, Smokvica Tourist Board, Lastovo Tourist Board, Metković Tourist Board, Ploče Tourist Board, Tourist Board of Dubrovačko Primorje and Opuzen Tourist Board. Descriptive statistics were used in data analysis.

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RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

The first research objective was to determine the main features of the tourist boards’ Facebook pages. To that end, we analysed the presence, performance and effectiveness of the tourist boards’ Facebook pages’. Analysis results are shown in Table 1.

The analysis included the Facebook pages of 18 tourist boards (88.9 %), while two tourist boards (11.1%) do not have Facebook pages. They are Slivno Tourist Board and Janjina Tourist Board. Obviously this is a great weakness of these two tourist destinations, considering that Facebook reaches an estimated 29.9% of the global Internet user community, as pointed out by Nielsen (2009) and that, in terms of usage, social networking is today the third most popular computing activity (Zouganeli et al.), ahead of using e-mail. The absence of the two tourist boards in the Facebook community is sure to impact the destinations’ ability to gain competitive positions in the contemporary tourist market and will certainly affect their performance.

The oldest members of the Facebook user community in Dubrovnik-Neretva County are the Tourist Boards of Lumbarda, Smokvica and Lastovo (16.7%), which have been present on Facebook since 2010. The following year, 2011, another seven tourist boards (38.7%) joined the Facebook community. Of the analysed tourist boards, 16 (88.9%) were present on Facebook by 2015. The Tourist Board of Župa Dubrovačka was the latest to join Facebook last year.

In the below section, we analyse the effectiveness of the Facebook pages of the tourist boards through several metrics. As a measure of Facebook page effectiveness, the number of fans is analysed. The number of posts on a page, number of fan posts, number of likes, number of comments, and “People Talking About This”, together with the most popular metrics, are analysed in the last 7 days from the date when the survey was conducted. Communication language is analysed through the last 10 posts.

Almost half of the analysed Facebook pages have from 1,000 to 5,000 fans (44.5%). When the Facebook page of the County Tourist Board (with 111,660 fans) is excluded, the Dubrovnik Tourist Board Facebook page has the largest number of fans, almost 50,000. Previous research (Zouganeli et al. 114-115) has confirmed

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that there is no correlation between the number of fans and the number of posts, average daily frequency, number of tourist arrivals or a destination’s population, and that quantity does not secure more fans. The focus should be on quality. It’s something that triggers page visitors to become fans, which can be directly or indirectly related to the destination and, as such, encourages comments and likes and strengthens page mobility.

The number of posts as well as the number of comments on the Facebook pages was very low. Most of the Facebook pages (72.2%) had less than 10 posts in 7 days and there were no fan posts on the pages. While 27.6% of pages had no comments in 7 days, 39.2% had less than 10 comments. Only the Dubrovnik Tourist Board Facebook page had a large number of comments (229) in 7 days.

With regard to quality mentioned above, there was a high number of likes in the 7 days. Fully 44.6% of Facebook pages had more than 300 likes. The leading page by this metrics is the Facebook page of Dubrovnik, with 4,330 likes in 7 days. This is almost eight times more likes than on the County Tourist Board Facebook page (554).

“People Talking About This” (PTAT) is an important metric, as user-generated content, which emphasizes engagement beyond the simple number of likes (Alizadeh and Mat Isa, 2015, 185). This metric has a significant presence in Facebook pages.Fully 44.3% of the Facebook pages have more than 300 stories about the page in the 7-day period. Darwell (2012) highlights that people can create a story when they engage in activities such as liking a page, posting on the page timeline and commenting on a post (Alizadeh and Mat Isa, 2015, 185). Poor results of this metric are evident in 11.1% of pages in which stories are not present. Further there is a need to highlight how successful the tourist boards were in engaging their users. The tourist boards had an average PTAT of 513. This means that an average of 513 people had created a story about pages in the 7-day period at the time of data collection.

Community involvement rate was determined by dividing the “People Talking About This” value by the number of fans (Alizadeh and Mat Isa (2015, 185). For the County Facebook page, with more than 100,000 fans, the value was 0.5%. The average community involvement rate for pages with 1-9,999 fans was 8.2% and for those with 10,000-99,999, it was 6.4%. Therefore the results obtained in this

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research are in accordance with previous research by Alizadeh and Mat Isa (2015, 185) which confirms that pages with smaller fan bases score the best community involvement rates.

The most popular metric in all pages are likes. Based on the last ten posts, the communication language was Croatian and English in 83.3% of pages and Croatian in 16.7 % of pages.

Table 1. Main features of Facebook pages of Tourist Boards of Dubrovnik-Neretva County in June 2019 (N=18)

NUMBER OF Basic Facebook information % TOURIST BOARDS 1. Facebook presence Yes 16 88.9 No 2 11.1 2. The date when Tourist Board joined Facebook 2010 3 16.7 2011 7 38.7 2012 1 5.6 2013 3 16.7 2015 2 11.1 2017 1 5.6 2018 1 5.6 3. Number of posts on the page (in the last 7 days) No posts 2 11.1 < 10 13 72.2 10-20 2 11.1 20 1 5.6

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Continuated Table 1.

4. Number of fan posts on the page (in the last 7 days) No posts 18 100.0 5. Number of likes (in the last 7 days) No likes 2 11.1 < 100 3 16.7 100-300 5 27.6 300-500 3 16.7 500-700 3 16.7 700-900 1 5.6 > 900 1 5.6 6. Number of comments (in the last 7 days) No comments 7 27.6 < 10 6 39.2 10-20 4 27.6 20-30 > 30 1 5.6 7. Number of fans associated with the Facebook page < 1,000 2 11.1 1,000-5,000 9 44.5 5,000-10,000 3 22.2 10,000-15,000 15,000-20,000 2 11.1 > 20,000 2 11.1

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8. “People Talking About This” (in the last 7 days) No story 2 11.1 < 100 3 17.0 100-300 5 27.6 300-600 5 27.6 600-900 2 11.1 > 900 1 5.6 9. The most popular metrics (in the last 7 days) No metrics 2 11.1 Likes 16 88.9 10. Communication language (in the last 10 posts) Croatian and English 15 83.3 Croatian 3 16.7

Source: research results

The second objective of this research was to determine the strategic use of the tourist boards’ Facebook pages in destination marketing. The analysis results are shown in Table 2.

The strategic use of Facebook pages by the tourist boards was analysed through five dimensions: identifiability, attitudes towards user participation, customization, information availability and innovativeness.

Identifiability, the first dimension analysed, refers to the possibility of a Facebook page being recognised by the user. To that end, the profile pictures of the tourist boards’ Facebook pages were analysed. The majority of tourist boards use an identifiable logo (66.7%). However, 33.3 % of tourist boards should improve the identifiability of their Facebook pages, which feature either scenery (22.2 %) or a vague logo (11.1 %).

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The second strategic dimension analysed was the attitudes of tourist boards towards user participation. Results show there is a possibility for good interaction with people, because 88.9% of tourist boards allow posts on their timelines as well as reviews. Only reviews are allowed on 11.1% of the Facebook pages.

The third strategic dimension was customization, which is analysed through the use of languages. Although 94.4% of the Facebook pages provide the option of using different languages, there is still a great amount of text in the Croatian language. For users searching for information, this might be a big problem that could influence their decision-making process when choosing a tourist destination, especially in the initial phase of gathering information.

Chung and Buhalis (2008) pointed out that one of the main reasons that users join NTOs on Facebook is to search for the information they need (Alizadeh and Mat Isa, 2015, 186). Hence, it is very important that Facebook pages provide basic information. Results show that only 22.2% of tourist boards have clearly stated their mission statement on their Facebook page. The tourist boards that have failed to do so are missing out on an opportunity to distinctly differentiate themselves from other destinations. Information about community rules, vital to the successful communication process with users, is provided on the Facebook pages of only 11.1% of tourist boards. A description of the destination, also considered basic information, is missing on many Facebook pages and is present on 61.1% of Facebook pages.

Innovativeness was the last strategic dimension to be analysed. The results indicate that the Facebook pages of the tourist boards display a good level of innovativeness. All Facebook pages use photo, video or events applications. Underutilized by tourist boards are interactive and notes applications, which are used in 22.2% of Facebook pages. “Feeds” for other social media applications, used in 38.9 % of Facebook pages, also need to be improved.

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Table 2. The strategic use of Facebook pages of Tourist Boards of Dubrovnik-Neretva County in June 2019 (N=18)

NUMBER OF Strategic use dimensions % TOURIST BOARDS 1. Identifiability An identifiable logo 12 66.7 Scenery/fauna/flora 4 22.2 A flag/a vague logo 2 11.1 A person 2. User participation Only posts on the timeline Only reviews 2 11.1 Post on the timeline and reviews 16 88.9 User can only interact with admin posts 3. Customization Different languages 17 94.4 Croatian 1 5.6 4. Information availability Mission statement of the Tourist Board 5 22.2 Community rules 2 11.1 Destination description 11 61.1 5. Innovativeness Interactive applications 4 22.2 Photos applications 18 100.0 Videos applications 18 100.0 Events applications 18 100.0 Notes applications 4 22.2 “Feeds” for other social media applications 7 38.9 Source: research results

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CONCLUSION

This research contributes to the study in this field by providing insights into the use of Facebook pages by tourist boards in their destination marketing activities. Based on the presented results of empirical research, it can be concluded that the tourist boards are aware of the importance of using Facebook as a marketing tool for achieving success and competitiveness on the contemporary tourist market.

The limitations of the research results are twofold. First, research was focused on a seven-day period, which is relatively short if we take into account the dynamic changes present in the social community. The recommendation for future research is to include different points of the time into research. Second, the research was conducted on the Facebook pages of only one county. Thus, the recommendation for future research is to extend the sample of research.

The results regarding the presence of tourist boards on Facebook show that the largest share of tourist boards is present in the social community. Based on the evaluated pages, effectiveness can be concluded from the fact that most of the pages have a large number of fans and a high number of likes as well a “People Talking About This” value, as a metric which has a significant presence in Facebook pages. The number of posts and number of comments on pages are metrics which have to be improved.

In the context of the strategic use of Facebook pages in destination marketing activities, the majority of tourist boards have good identifiability, use identifiable logos and provide good opportunities for user participation by allowing posts on their timelines as well as reviews. In terms of customization, the largest share of tourist board Facebook pages provides the option of using several different languages but there is still a great amount of text in the Croatian language. Based on the fact that social media, as well as Facebook, are an important source of information for tourists searching for and collecting data about destinations, a significant drawback of the tourist boards’ Facebook pages is the lack of a mission statement and destination description, as well as community rules that are vital to a successful communication process with users. Although the level of innovativeness of Facebook pages is high, “feeds” for other social media applications and notes application should be improved.

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Results obtained by this study allow decision makers in destination marketing to implement Facebook in a more efficient way, by using the underutilized advantages of social media in general to gain a competitive advantage in the contemporary tourist market and achieve better business results in the future.

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