Evaluating social media’s communication effectiveness on travel product promotion: Facebook for college students in Hong Kong
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/IDD-10-2021-0117 |
| Published date | 22 June 2022 |
| Date | 22 June 2022 |
| Pages | 66-73 |
| Subject Matter | Library & information science,Library & information services,Lending,Document delivery,Collection building & management,Stock revision,Consortia |
| Author | Venessa Suet Yee Cheung,Joey Chung Yi Lo,Dickson K.W. Chiu,Kevin K.W. Ho |
Evaluating social media’s communication
effectiveness on travel product promotion:
Facebook for college students in Hong Kong
Venessa Suet Yee Cheung, Joey Chung Yi Lo and Dickson K.W. Chiu
Faculty of Education, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China, and
Kevin K.W. Ho
Graduate School of Business Sciences, University of Tsukuba, Tokyo, Japan
Abstract
Purpose –This study aims to evaluate social media’s communication effectiveness on travel product promotion among college students in Hong
Kong. As traveling has become a popular activity, promoting travel products via social network sites (SNSs) has become common. Thus, identifying
factors that affect shopping decisions is vital to tourism businesses. While the number of people using social commun ication tools has increased
quickly, social media marketing provides a new strategy for the local travel business to sell and promote their products online.
Design/methodology/approach –This study adopts the attention, interest, desire and action (AIDA) marketing communication model to explore
the influence of Facebook on the marketing of travel products among youngsters. Because Facebook is the most widely used social media platform
in Hong Kong, it was selected for this study. An online survey was conducted via Google Form to collect responses from students of different local
universities.
Findings –The findings indicate that our respondents consider purchasing travel products according to brand, discount and custome r comments.
They generally perceived Facebook advertising as a platform that could deliver various updated travel promotions and discounts, which can be
adequately explained based on the AIDA model. However, respondents were unwilling to recommend the travel company to their friends on
Facebook, even if they were satisfied with the travel products after purchase. Also, Facebook promotion could positively influence, draw the
attention and make travel desire of the customer, but no positive influence to arouse their interest.
Originality/value –Although there are many studies on the travel industry’s marketing and social media, scant studies have investigated the
influence of social media on the promotion of travel products with the AIDA model. In particular, it is crucia l to explore what factors can affect
young people’s decision-making, their perception of social media advertising and how marketers can make good use of this channel.
Keywords AIDA model, Marketing communication model, Social networks, Travel product marketing, PLS, Hong Kong, Quantitative research,
Factor analysis
Paper type Research paper
Introduction
With technological advancement, the number of purchasing
travel products online has increased. According to the
Mastercard (2018) online shopping survey, most Hong Kong
Mastercard users spent their money on airlines, hotels and
travel (38.3%, 37.2% and 34.7%,respectively), indicating that
travel products or services were one of the most popular
categories Hongkongers love to spend on. As promotion
activities are no longer restricted to traditional media (Chan
and Chiu, 2022), online companies now use social media to
engage their customers, build brand loyalty within their virtual
community (Cheng et al.,2020;Lam et al., 2022), and cocreate
values with their customers (See-To and Ho, 2014). Thus,
travel companies, hotels and airlines use social media
extensively to promote their products and services (Ni et al.,
2021).
However, promotion and customer relationship
management (CRM) viasocial media involve many factors that
affect the decision-making of online customers (Chan and
Chiu, 2022;Cheng et al., 2020;Wanget al., 2022). With many
online competitors, social media marketing needs to provide
updated information, interesting content and adequate staff
interactions with potential buyers. Otherwise, the image of
these companiesmay be negatively affected(Cheng et al., 2020;
Fong et al.,2020;Lam et al.,2019).
Notably, convenience is another key reason customers use
social media to obtain information anytime and anywhere
(Gong et al.,2017;Ni et al.,2021). Discounted products or
services are the most popular way to encourage customers to
purchase online, especiallybecause travel products and services
may change price quicklybecause of demand and supply (Chan
and Chiu, 2022). Besides, Ho and See-To (2018) suggest that
The current issue and full text archiveof this journal is available on Emerald
Insight at: https://www.emerald.com/insight/2398-6247.htm
Information Discovery and Delivery
51/1 (2023) 66–73
© Emerald Publishing Limited [ISSN 2398-6247]
[DOI 10.1108/IDD-10-2021-0117]
Received 18 October 2021
Revised 12 February 2022
11 May 2022
Accepted 4 June 2022
66
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