An assessment of the use of social media as a marketing tool to young tourists: Opportunities to Kenya Tourism Board

An assessment of the use of social media as a marketing tool

to young tourists: Opportunities to Kenya Tourism Board

By

AMOS OCHIENG

REG.NO. BTM/28/09

A Senior Project Submitted to Moi University, School of Tourism, Hospitality and Events

Management, Department of Tourism Management in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the

Award of the Degree of Bachelor of Tourism Management.

April, 2013

Table of Contents

Declaration by Candidate ....................................................................................................................................... i

Declaration by Supervisor ...................................................................................................................................... i

Dedication ............................................................................................................................................................. ii

Acknowledgement ................................................................................................................................................ iii

Abstract ................................................................................................................................................................ iv

List of Acronyms and Abbreviations .................................................................................................................... v

List of Tables ........................................................................................................................................................ vi

List of Figures ...................................................................................................................................................... vi

Quotable Quote ................................................................................................................................................... vii

1.0 CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION

1.1 Background information ....................................................................................................................... 1

1.2 Problem Statement ................................................................................................................................ 4

1.3 RESEARCH OBJECTIVES ................................................................................................................. 5

1.3.1 General objective ............................................................................................................................... 5

1.3.2 Specific objective .............................................................................................................................. 5

1.3.3 Research Questions ........................................................................................................................... 5

1.4 Research justification and significance ................................................................................................. 6

1.5 Limitations of study .............................................................................................................................. 6

1.6 Scope of study ....................................................................................................................................... 7

2.0 CHAPTER TWO: LITERATURE REVIEW

2.1 The youth tourism segment ................................................................................................................... 8

2.2 The internet ......................................................................................................................................... 11

2.3 Internet Connectivity – A mobile revolution ...................................................................................... 11

2.4 Social Media Features ......................................................................................................................... 12

2.5 Social media opportunities for destination promotion ........................................................................ 14

2.6 Social Media versus Traditional Media; A conceptual framework ..................................................... 17

3.0 CHAPTER THREE: METHODOLOGY

3.1 AREA OF STUDY .............................................................................................................................. 18

3.2 RESEARCH DESIGN ........................................................................................................................ 18

3.3 TARGET POPULATION ................................................................................................................... 19

3.4 DATA COLLECTION METHODS AND INSTRUMENTS. ............................................................ 19

3.5 VALIDITY AND RELIABILITY OF DATA .................................................................................... 19

3.6 DATA ANALYSIS AND PRESENTATION ..................................................................................... 20

3.7 ASSUMPTIONS TO THE STUDY .................................................................................................... 20

4.0 CHAPTER FOUR: DATA ANALYSIS, PRESENTATION AND INTERPRETATION

4.1 Analysis of themes .............................................................................................................................. 21

4.2 Facebook ............................................................................................................................................. 22

4.3 Foursquare ........................................................................................................................................... 23

4.4 Instagram ............................................................................................................................................. 24

4.5 LinkedIn .............................................................................................................................................. 25

4.6 Twitter ................................................................................................................................................. 26

4.7 Youtube ............................................................................................................................................... 27

4.8 Marketing potential of social media platforms .................................................................................... 28

4.9 Comparative analysis of social media features significant to marketing ............................................ 29

4.10 Internet penetration ............................................................................................................................. 30

5.0 CHAPTER FIVE: DISCUSSION, CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS

5.1 Discussion ........................................................................................................................................... 31

5.2 Implications for future research .......................................................................................................... 32

6.0 CONCLUSION ............................................................................................................................................. 33

7.0 RECOMMENDATION ................................................................................................................................ 34

8.0 REFERENCES .............................................................................................................................................. 36

9.0 APPENDICES ............................................................................................................................................... 39

9.1 Quotations ................................................................................................................................................. 39

9.2 Code sheet (Atlas.ti output) ....................................................................................................................... 41

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Declaration by Candidate Except for the references to other peoples work that have been duly cited, this senior project is my

original work and has not been presented for a degree in any university or anywhere else.

Signature………………………………….. Date………………………………………

Name: Amos Ochieng‟

Registration Number: BTM/28/09

Declaration by Supervisor This senior project report has been submitted for examination with my approval as university

supervisor.

Signature………………………………… Date……………………………

Dr. Dammianah Kieti

Department of Tourism Management

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Dedication

To my family and friends in recognition of their worth

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Acknowledgement

To my supervisor, Dr. Damianah Kieti who read my numerous revisions and helped make some sense

of the confusion. Her inspirational instruction and guidance during the development of this senior

project was phenomenal. Many thanks Daktari.

To my friends Martha Nzisa of Nairobi campus and Benard Ochieng for their peer reviews. Your

comments were invaluable. Thanks.

To God who continues to make the impossible possible.

There are a number of other people who endured this long process with me, always offering support

and love without whom this project might not have been written, and to whom I am greatly indebted.

I would have liked to name and individually thank each of you, but to preserve brevity I will not.

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Abstract

Social media marketing is a relatively new terrain for marketers. Field experience is very limited, as

is the academic attention and literature available. Despite the lack of experience and without concrete

evidence about the effectiveness of Social Media Marketing (SMM), Kenya Tourism Board (KTB)

are embracing the Social Media as part of their marketing strategy but even with it promoting a

destination is still not an easy task. Its challenge and difficulties derive from the multi-attributed

nature of the destination. KTB like other destination marketers face the challenge to create concise

messages that capture the essence of the place, differentiate the destination from several others and

make it meaningful for a heterogeneous market. It has been argued among marketers that a different

approach is required while promoting a destination for the different segments of a heterogeneous

market not only regarding the content of the message but also the communication channels. Different

generational cohorts or certain interest groups can be best approached by using specific

communication tools.

This desk study explores the extant opportunities for the use of social media to market Kenya‟s

tourism to young tourists. It further establishes the challenges associated with the use of social media

as a tourism marketing tool. This study did not directly isolate a geographical area for its central

analysis. However, it examined useful existing pre-published information, theories and ideas of

thought leaders in the field under study. The research design is systematic review. As such, the study

applies an explorative approach towards the discovery of ideas and insights into the different aspects

of social media marketing.

Only secondary data was collected. The Internet was the major resource of latest valuable

information. Reputable digital repositories such as KNBS (Kenya National Bureau of Statistics),

World Bank (WB), International Telecommunications Union (ITU) were used. Document sharing

websites were identified, such as Scribd, Slideshare and Docstoc. These offered access to conference

presentations, articles, manuals, e-books and links to other websites. Other websites visited include,

Communication Commission of Kenya (CCK), iHUB, KTB and Trip Advisor; Google was searched

using keywords; Archives of local dailies, The Daily Nation, The Standard and Business Daily, was

visited to access local content in context of the topic under study. Insight-stimulating examples were

obtained from social media websites, Twitter, Facebook, Wikipedia, YouTube, Delicious, Digg,

Google Reader, LinkedIn, Skype, Flickr, Hootsuite, FourSquare andInstagram. Data was analysed

qualitatively using ATLAS.ti 7.

This study focused on social media platforms that are most popular and in use by KTB. Facebook,

Twitter, YouTube, LinkedIn, Instagram and Foursquare. All the platforms reported features with

marketing significance and potential marketing opportunities to KTB. The study found that the shape

and functionality of social media depends on many themes which make it constantly change and

evolve as there is no clear definition of social media among academics. Results confirmed by

previous researches (Weinberg 2009, Zarrella 2010 et al). Empirical investigation reveals a

continuous growth in Internet penetration and demographic characteristics of online population

getting to resemble the general population in Kenya tourism source markets.

This study makes a contribution to the continuing debates on social media usage especially in how it

can grow the youth travel segment for Kenya.

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List of Acronyms and Abbreviations

KTB Kenya Tourism Board

E-TOURISM Electronic Tourism

UNICEF United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund

UNWTO United Nations Word Tourism organization

ROI Return on Investment

YTCC Youth Tourism Consortium of Canada

NYP National Youth Policy

CGM Consumer-Generated Media

ISTC International Student Travel Confederation

FIYTO Federation of International Youth Travel Organizations

ATLAS Association of Leisure and Tourism Education

UK United Kingdom

CCK Communication Commission of Kenya

PCs Personal Computers

ICTs Information Communication Technologies

ITU International Telecommunication Union

TMT Technology, Media & telecommunication

MSRA Market& Social Research Association

PR Public Relations

SIM Subscriber Identity Module

WOM Word of Mouth

B2C Business-to-Customer

RSS Really Simple Syndication or Rich Site Summary

SMM Social Media Marketing

SWOT Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats

GPS Global Positioning System

BRICS Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa

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List of Tables

Table 4.1: Themes and frequency of occurrence

Table 7.0: 4Ps of Social Media Marketing

List of Figures

Figure 1: Integrating traditional methods

of tourism marketing with social media

Figure 4.2: Facebook

Figure 4.3: Foursquare features

Figure 4.4: Instagram features

Chart 4.5: LinkedIn features

Chart 4.6: Twitter features

Figure 4.7: YouTube

Figure 4.8: Marketing potential of platforms

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Quotable Quote

“The question is no longer, should we be doing social media, it's are we doing it right? “

Eric Qualmann, Author of Socialnomics

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CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1 Background information

For a long time, the Kenya tourism sector has failed to attract young tourists due to the use of old

methods of marketing. This includes; trade fairs, World Tourism Markets, brochures and use of

newspapers and television for advertising in key markets. These marketing methods have failed to

appeal to young tourists who prefer getting information about travel destinations online especially

through social networks which have revolutionized communication across the globe. According to the

head of E-Tourism Africa Damian Cook, Kenya should encourage online bookings and other modern

methods of tourism marketing to appeal to young tourists. Sentiments shared by Nancy Imunde,

Communications Manager of the Sarova Hotels, who maintains that “the benefits are obvious; with

the use of IT in marketing; we are already experiencing an increase in hotel bookings from our clients

overseas through our online booking system. And our clients are also able to confirm their bookings

by a click of the mouse; we realize that we must be part of the digital divide or risk to lose out on

business.”

Mr. Cook whose firm promotes online tourism, maintains that Kenya Tourist Board (KTB) mode of

marketing only attracts elderly tourists sidelining the young generation who are the future and

potential market for the sector. “Social sites such as Facebook have clocked 1 billion active users and

Twitter is about 0.5 billion. This is a potential market for the tourism in Kenya to tap in,” said Cook.

The use of old methods of marketing such as travel agents has led to reduction in tourism earnings as

this agencies tend to suggest where people go and to some extent pick the destinations making tourist

products redundant. As a result, a great deal of the revenue goes to large, international hotel chains

and not much of the money is retained locally. “If a tourist traveling to Kenya has 1000 friends on

Facebook or followers on twitter, for example, they travel with them through updating their status and

uploading pictures. This generates a lot of interest for more people who may wish to visit same

destinations,” added Cook. With 50 percent of the world‟s population being people under the age of

30 years, tapping into young market online is crucial and a huge opportunity for the tourism sector to

boost tourism profits.

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When looking at the internet culture, one important development is a shift in the association between

youth and media. Youth today are active participants in the creation of media content. The advent of

Web 2.0 increases the ability of youth not only to be passive consumers of information and content

online, but also to become active creators and contributors. According to UNICEF (2012), the

number of young people across the world is increasing and today they are the majority in most

countries including Kenya, where 15 to 34 year olds total 13.66 million, approximately 35.39% of the

population. This proportion of youth is expected to grow and form the bulk of the population in the

next 10-20 years, a phenomenon referred to as a youth bulge. This trend has generated interest among

development players hence the recognition that young people are important players in development.

As such, youth travel has become an increasingly important part of the global tourism industry in

recent decades, as more young people have begun to travel more frequently and over greater distances

creating a youth travel segment.

To date there is no globally accepted definition of the youth travel market segment, due to a lack of

clarity and difficulty in measuring its size and characteristics. According to UNWTO, the young

tourism market is defined as travelers of age group between 16-25years old. With an estimated 160

million international tourist arrivals a year, youth travel would account for over 20% of international

tourist arrivals (UNWTO, 2008).Due to longer average trip duration, a typical youth traveler spends

more than the average tourist during his/her trip. The average youth traveler spends US$ 2,600 per

trip, of which US$ 1,550 is spent in the destination, calculated as a proportion of the total income,

young people spend more than any other group on international travel (UNWTO, 2008).

Since mobile devices are rapidly becoming the primary medium most youths are using to access

Internet – social media services, it is imperative that KTB offers a mobile optimized experience in

promoting Kenya tourism products online. McCann (2008) defined social media as online

applications, platforms and media which aim to facilitate interaction, collaboration and the sharing of

content. On the other hand, Weinberg (2009) explained that social media is a process that empowers

individuals to promote their websites, products or services through online social channels and to

communicate with and tap into a much larger community that may not have been available via

traditional advertising channels. Zarrella (2010) also stated that social media are new web

technologies which have facilitated everyone to create and distribute their own content.

Kenya particularly now dubbed the “Silicon Savanna‟ is rising fast as a technology powerhouse on

the African continent and more so in Sub-Saharan Africa with17.8million active internet users (CCK,

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2012) and 1.5 million on Facebook (Kenya Facebook statistics,2012). Kenyans have taken to the

Internet like never before. Micro-blogging sites such as Twitter serve as a pivotal communication

channel in B2C (business-to-customer) relationship (Günther et al., 2009). In addition, there has been

arecent growth in social commerce sites which provide consumers to purchase offline products and

services at discounted prices (Bansal and Chen, 2011;Stephen and Olivier, 2010).

Social media have distinct properties that make them a powerful marketing tool. First, is immediacy

that allows a dissemination of information faster than typical offline mass media (Suh and Park,

2010). Second is connectedness which allows interaction between customers and businesses through

online networks (Michaelidou et al., 2011). The last one is openness which provides anyone with

easy access to information (Suh and Park, 2010).

Possessed with these characteristics, KTB must recognize and exploit its potential as a marketing tool

with various practical advantages in marketing Kenya tourism to both the domestic market and

international market and especially the young tourists because they are early technology adopters and

major consumers of social media services.

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1.2 Problem Statement

While there is a growing interest in social media marketing in the Kenya tourism industry, the degree

to which KTB is using social media as a marketing tool is commendable but facts indicate that, even

if the potentials of social media exist the rate of adoptability by KTB is very minimal as it seems to

lack a sound understanding as to what they can achieve by making use of it. Social Media (also

known as Web 2.0 applications) technologies such as online magazines, Internet forums, weblogs,

social blogs, wikis, podcasts, ratings and social bookmarking offer interesting possibilities for KTB to

grow the youth travel market segment as they (youths) are the biggest producers and consumers of

social media.

The researcher is concerned that If KTB fails to take this opportunity of tapping from the practical

advantages of these tools to promote Kenya tourism online then the window closes and private

organizations take over. And they may or may not promote Kenya‟s image in the best interest of the

country. Currently, there is also no substantial body of empirical work that has taken cognizance of

the opportunities and challenges social media poses to KTB. Some of the significant findings

available show that KTB uses social media platforms as information sources and communication

tools but not in marketing tourism products to the youth tourism segment.

There is a lot of work to be done if KTB is to fully tap into the potential of social media to market

tourism products to young people and make the sector grow and compete with other technologically

compliant tourist destinations like South Africa, Europe, America and Asian destinations. What is

required is a complete re-think on how the Internet marketing strategy will work to deliver a unique

and compelling online execution of how Kenya, the original home of safari, is the perfect and

preferred destination for young, independent and adventurous local and international travelers.

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1.3 RESEARCH OBJECTIVES

1.3.1 General objective

To assess the use of social media as a marketing tool to young tourists.

1.3.2 Specific objective

To explore the extant opportunities for the use of social media to market Kenya‟s tourism

to young tourists

1.3.3 Research Questions

What are the social media marketing opportunities for Kenya tourism?

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1.4 Research justification and significance

Due to the fact that social media is a very re-cent phenomenon and there is widespread lack of

understanding of its potential. The researcher believes the issue of social media marketing to be quite

contemporary and worth researching from the point of view of its usability as a marketing tool,

especially by KTB.

Founded on that background, this desk study therefore seeks to provide information to KTB on social

media marketing and particularly it‟s potential as a marketing tool to young tourists. Even though

academics have been conducting research related to youth tourism and social media marketing, more

research and the dissemination of knowledge on these phenomena is required, hence the

appropriateness and timeliness of this desk study to set the basis for further in depth research. This

study will not only provide academic foundation through exploratory approach but will also present

managerial implications in the strategic application of social media marketing in tourism.

The results will be used to identify marketing tactics where Social Media could be effectively used to

reach and attract potential future young tourist both domestic and international. The major research

objective of the study is to partially fulfill the academic requirement for the award of a Bachelor

degree in Tourism Management and to simultaneously provide market information as basis for a new

online marketing strategy towards growing the youth travel market segment.

The combination of social media and tourism marketing isn‟t a new concept – tactics and strategies

have been blogged and authored about this subject for the last five years. However, this study intends

to add to this field of study a way in which Kenya can diversify its tourism product line by targeting

the youth through social media.

1.5 Limitations of study

The researcher encountered certain constraints in carrying out the study. This includes:

Limited data visualization options

Scanty sources of on-topic information

Time and financial constraints

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1.6 Scope of study

The main thrust of this research is on social media marketing. The study was carried out between the

months of November, 2012 and March, 2013 and did not directly isolate a geographical area for its

central analysis, instead it examined useful existing pre-published information on social media

marketing and youth travel. To complement the aforementioned, analysis of KTB‟s online presence

was done to obtain „insight-stimulating‟ examples of how KTB uses social media as a marketing tool

for tourism. Lack of a clear social media marketing strategy hampers the board from maximising its

potential and does not help them exploit all the opportunities they may be having giving competitors

an unnecessary competitive advantage.

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CHAPTER 2

LITERATURE REVIEW

This chapter seeks to address the relevant works written by other authors concerning the use of social

media as a marketing tool to attract young tourists. The work thus looks at what has been written

lately (current) and relevant work to this research.

2.1 The youth tourism segment

To date there is no globally accepted definition of the youth travel market segment, contributing to a

lack of clarity and difficulty in measuring its size and characteristics. According to UNWTO, the

young tourism market is defined as travelers of age group between 16-25years old. The Youth

Tourism Consortium of Canada (YTCC) expands this definition to include young adults between the

ages of 26 and 30, owing to the fact that young adults tend to follow similar travel and tourism

patterns as their younger counterpart. Likewise, the Student and Youth Travel Association of North

America expands on the UNWTO definition to include youth under the age of 16 years in recognition

of the growing number of children travelling under school programmes, churches and youth groups.

In the Kenyan situation, National Youth Policy (NYP) defines youth as people of 18 to 35 years old.

Therefore, for the purpose of this study, the youth tourism market will be defined as; Young people

below 35 years of age, who are travelling outside their families, and whose primary motives for

travelling are generated by tourism experiences, extra-curricular activities and sports oriented

activities or event drive involving youth participants, but does not include business reasons.

Under this definition, the youth tourism market shall include all trips and tours of at least one night

stay, both domestic and international by either young independent travelers or groups(school based

youth groups –“student travel” and non-school based “youth groups” travel such as sports team,

church group, cultural/music performance troupes or scouts/guides).

Kenya youth and sports tourism strategic plan (2010-2015) defines Youth Tourism as a form of

tourism commonly associated with Youth and Student travel. Youth tourism is a phenomenon, which

was strongly influenced by youth movements born in the “peacefulideals” of the after-war period.

Today, young travelers (aged 15 to 25) represent more than20% of international tourist arrivals,

according to statistics by the UNWTO.

Youth tourism can be classified into qualitative and quantitative aspects. The qualitative aspects are

linked to quality, security, flexibility and access while the quantitative concerns include growth in

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youth tourism, its importance in relation to international tourism and the travel expenses of young

people. As a matter of fact, Mirza (2005) believes that youth travel is the fastest growing travel

market segment, surpassing even ecotourism and cultural tourism.

The World Development Report (2007), an annual publication of the World Bank acknowledges that

12-24 year olds worldwide have reached 1.3 billion, the largest in history. Whereas there are

unprecedented challenges when it comes to the question of young people, there are also great

opportunities that should be seized before the aging society closes those opportunities. According to

Youth Situation Review & Investment in Kenya Report(UNICEF, 2012), the number of young people

across the world is increasing and today they are the majority in most countries including Kenya,

where 15 to 34 year olds total 13.66 million, approximately 35.39% of the population. This

proportion of youth is expected to grow and form the bulk of the population in the next 10-20 years, a

phenomenon referred to as a youth bulge. This trend has generated interest among development

players hence the recognition that young people are important players in development. As such, youth

travel has become an increasingly important part of the global tourism industry in recent decades, as

more young people have begun to travel more frequently and over greater distances.

With an estimated 160 million international tourist arrivals a year, youth travel would account for

over 20% of international tourist arrivals according to Youth Travel Matters (UNWTO, 2008). Due to

longer average trip duration, a typical youth traveler spends more than the average tourist during

his/her trip. The average youth traveler spends US$ 2,600 per trip, of which US$ 1,550 is spent in the

destination, calculated as a proportion of the total income, young people spend more than any other

group on international travel(UNWTO, 2008).

The importance of youth tourism as a field of international interest for policymakers and researchers

was cemented at the first UNWTO Conference on Youth Tourism held in New Delhi, 1991. Since

then, youth associations such as the International Student Travel Confederation (ISTC) and the

Federation of International Youth Travel Organization(FIYTO) have been carrying out studies and

conducting annual conferences related to youth tourism. In 2002, ISTC in collaboration with the

Association of Leisure and Tourism Education (ATLAS) launched a landmark study on youth

tourism, “Today‟s Youth Travelers: Tomorrow‟s Global Nomads”. The report gave insights into the

main findings of a major transnational survey on independent youth and student travel, based on

responses from 2,300 young people and students from Canada, The Czech Republic, Hong

Kong,Mexico, Slovenia, South Africa, Sweden and the UK. Among their major findings were:

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Majority of the respondent were students aged below 26 years with a high education level.

The main motivations were to explore other cultures (83%), followed by excitement (74%)

and increasing knowledge (69%).

Long trips was seen as a „once in a lifetime opportunity‟ for many young people and students,

and they were prepared to dedicate a lot of time, energy and money to ensure that their trip

achieve that.

Their main sources of information used for planning their trip were the Internet (71%) and

friends/family (70%).

Less experienced travelers relied more heavily on travel agents for information, while the

slightly older travelers used guidebooks (37%).

The main mode of transport to the destination was air travel (82%), with rail travel at 30%.

The most popular forms of accommodation were visiting friends and relatives(41%) and

backpacker hostels (32%).

The most popular activities were visiting historic sites and monuments (77%), walking and

trekking (76%) and more leisurely pursuits such as sitting in cafes/restaurants (72%) and

shopping (72%).

The report concluded that the youth and students travel to seek experience, and often make repeat

visits. Most importantly, the study showed that youth travelers gain a thirst for moretravel after they

return from their trips, which increases the long-term potential of this market. Because travelling is

about making (and sharing) memories, 52% of social travelers report that friends‟ photos inspired

their next trip, 46% admit being invited to a trip via Facebook and 45% say that Facebook makes

them visit friends abroad. It is also noteworthy that 95% of all university students worldwide are on

Facebook (tripl.com, 2012 infographics).

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2.2 The internet

The Internet is the most important innovation since the development of the printing press (Hoffman,

2000). There have been significant innovations, such as the railroad, electricity, the telephone, the

automobile, the airplane, radio and television, which had widespread impact on both business and

everyday life (Barwise, Elberse, & Hammond, 2006). However, the Internet combines many of the

features of existing media with new capabilities of interactivity and addressability; thus, it transforms

not only the way individuals conduct their business with each other, but also the very essence of what

it means to be a human being in society (Barwise et al., 2006).

2.3 Internet Connectivity – A mobile revolution

Across the globe, the growing use of mobile phones has opened up many doors in personal learning,

networking and communication, media production, activism and economic development. In recent

years, the emergence of Internet access on these devices has fostered new opportunities to bridge the

digital divide and to close the Internet participation gap between and within countries.

Today, according to survey data about how people are accessing the Internet, PCs remain the

dominant Internet access device of preference in many countries by a large margin, including many

emerging markets. According to Ericsson‟s Traffic & Market Report (2012), “mobile data is expected

to have almost doubled in 2011. Laptops (mobile PCs), dominate data traffic in most mobile networks

today, but smartphone traffic is growing faster, due to high growth in subscriptions”.With laptops

shrinking in dimensions, and smartphones gaining in functionality, the differences between

smartphones, tablets and PCs are shrinking fast, while the gap between smartphones and basic feature

phones is widening.

In the near future, the outlook for Internet access devices will be more diverse. Ericsson estimates that

the total subscriptions of data-heavy devices (smartphones, mobile PCs and tablets) will grow from

around 850 million at the end of 2011 to 3.8 billion by 2017 globally. In terms of the number of

devices, Ericsson predicts smartphones will outnumber both tablets and PCs.

Locally, CCK (April 2012) cited in iHub (July 2012) indicates that there are approximately 28.08

mobile subscriptions in Kenya, representing a mobile penetration rate of 71.3%. It is assumed that

this number represents that of active SIM cards, those that have been used in the past three months or

so. The mobile subscription rates in Kenya have been rising exponentially since the introduction of

the second mobile phone operator, early in the last decade. It is expected by some analysts that total

mobile subscriptions in the country will reach 39.5 million by 2016, a penetration rate of 83.1%

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(Business Monitor International, May 2012). It is noteworthy that 99% of internet access is from a

mobile device (phone, modem, tablets etc.) This represents about 17 million internet users in Kenya.

2.4 Social Media Features

McCann (2008) defined social media as online applications, platforms and media which aim to

facilitate interaction, collaboration, and the sharing of content. On the other hand, Weinberg (2009)

explained that social media is a process that empowers individuals to promote their websites,

products or services through online social channels and to communicate with and tap into a much

larger community that may not have been available via traditional advertising channels. Zarrella

(2010) also stated that social media are new web technologies which have facilitated everyone to

create and distribute their own content.

Social media includes web-based and mobile technologies used to turn communication into

interactive dialogue. Kaplan and Haenlein(2012) cited in MSRA (2012) define social media as a

group of internet-based applications that build on the ideological and technological foundations of

Web 2.0 and that allow the creation and exchange of user-generated content. Social media is media

for social interaction as a super-set beyond social communication. Enabled by ubiquitously accessible

and scalable communication techniques, social media has substantially changed the way

organizations, communities and individuals communicate.

Social media technologies take on many different forms including magazines, Internet forums,

weblogs, social blogs, wikis, podcasts, rating and social bookmarking. More specifically, this study

attempts to define what kinds of social media can be used to attract young tourists and which

opportunities and challenges are extant in the use of them in marketing tourism. By applying a set of

theories in the field of media research (social presence, media richness) and social processes (self-

presentation, self-disclosure) Kaplan and Haenlein (2010) created a classification scheme for different

social media types.

The honeycomb framework defines how social media services focus on some or all of seven

functional building blocks (identity, conversations, sharing, presence, relationships, reputation, and

groups). These building blocks help understand the engagement needs of the social media audience.

For instance, LinkedIn users care mostly about identity, reputation and relationships; whereas

YouTube‟s primary building blocks are sharing, conversations, groups and reputation. Many

companies build their own social containers that attempt to link the seven functional building blocks

around their brands. These are private communities that engage people around a narrower theme, as

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in around a particular brand, vocation or hobby, than social media containers such as Facebook or

Google+.

Research firms and businesses may refer to social media as consumer-generated media (CGM). A

common thread running through all definitions of social media is a blending of technology and social

interaction for the co-creation of value. One characteristic shared by both social media and traditional

industrial media is the capability to reach small or large audiences; for example, either a blog post or

a television show may reach no people or millions of people. This has been clearly demonstrated in

Egypt, Libya and Kenya (Somalia war).

Social media has also been recognized for the way in which it has changed how public relations

professionals conduct their jobs. It has provided an open arena where people are free to exchange

ideas on companies, brands and products. As stated by Wagner (2011), social media provides an

environment where users and PR professionals can engage in conversation, where PR professionals

can promote their brand and improve their company's image, be listening and responding to what the

public is saying about their product.

Social change is important to young persons around the world, and they are taking action through

social media which is going through tremendous advancement. A case in example is the revolutionary

episodes that have taken place in Africa. While the level of engagement and importance vary with

age, most adults agree that they should be involved in positive social change by the youth in future

using all social media platforms. Globally, 80% of the young adults have turned onto social media as

a platform to bring about positive change and as means of relaying information. According to Harris

interactive (2011), most adults in countries around the world agree that technology canturn a cause

into a movement faster than anything else can. Young adults around the globe are leveraging digital

technology to get involved in positive social change.

In Kenya‟s 2013 election, when the mainstream media dropped its watchdog role resorting into a

conspiracy of silence, social media took over. With the high number of youth voters participating in

the poles, social media was expected to feature prominently. Notably, the elections was a worldwide

trend via Twitter; Kenyans retort via Twitter to US President Barack Obama on his remarks during

the Gridiron dinner, where he equated the environment in Kenya similar to that in Syria; British High

Commissioner Christian Turner turning to Twitter to fight allegations of interference in the Kenyan

electoral process not to mention the deep divisions and rifts on Facebook among supporters for the

leading political groupings. The list is very long.

Page | 14

2.5 Social media opportunities for destination promotion

Since the emergence of the Internet, travel planning (e.g., travel information search and booking) has

always been one of the main reasons that people use the Internet. The top five most popular online

purchases were books (66%), clothes (57%), travel arrangements (57%), gifts (51%) and CDs (45%)

in the US in 2007 (Center for the Digital Future, 2008). A study conducted in Britain (Dutton &

Helsper, 2007) found that respondents‟ most search activity conducted online was making travel

plans (84%), followed by getting information about local events (77%), looking for news (69%) and

finding information about health or medical care (68%) in 2007. The revolution of the Internet and

information and communication technologies (ICTs) has had already profound implications for the

tourism industry but with the emergence of social media, people now use internet differently.

KTB use a diverse media/communication mix to ensure the communication with all segments of a

heterogeneous market, such as the various forms of printed media, electronic media or Webpages.

But in recent years social media started to gather ground and has brought with it new communication

methods of communicating with the consumer. Social media applications are now enormously

popular among many consumers especially among the young travelers segment.

According to Danish statistical records people aged between 16 and 39 are significantly more active

in chatting or blogging then the older generation (Danmarks Statistik, 2009). In 200947 (2 %) of 16-

19 years old and 43 (8 %) of the 20-39 years old were reading blogs, while 26 (9 %) of the 40-59

years old and only 16 (2 %) of the 60 -74 years old engaged themselves in the same activity

(Danmarks Statistik, 2009). However, the segmentation of the focus group does not strictly consider

demographic variables, but more the behavior patterns towards the usage of social media.

O‟Connor (2008) describes Web 2.0 sites as applications that share common features such as being

participatory, inclusive, collaborative, user centric and information intensive, and furthermore, these

sites influence how users create, share and use information. Moreover, Gretzel et al. (2008) argue that

due to the search-engine friendliness, increased credibility, experiential properties and having no

commercial interest in promoting the product, consumer generated media is believed to have great

influence in tourism. It has to be mentioned that social media adds on the positive features on the

traditional WOM, by adding search engine friendliness and experiential features.

The main difference between social media and other traditional forms of media lies in the direction of

communication, as the content is generated by the consumer rather than by the marketer (Fernando,

2007). Furthermore, not just the direction of communication changes but it becomes a two-way

Page | 15

communication as well as it allows interactivity, a peer-to-peer communication, rather than only

providing a uni-directional communication.

Social media can take on several forms, such as wikis, blogs, photo sharing sites, reviews and rating,

blogs or broadcasts (Gretzel et al. 2008). Carrera et al. (2008) categorizes the different social media

sites according to its nature: blogs which can be understood as online journals or personal websites;

users‟ comments and reviews, which resembles WOM such as TripAdvisor, Wikipedia, Flickr,

YouTube and online social networks as MySpace, Facebook, Bebo.

Generation Y due to its unique characteristics behaves differently in a tourism context. As they were

born in The Information Age, they are technology confident and information hungry; moreover, they

are strongly influenced by friends, adapt really quickly to the new travel technologies, such as

booking online, and they consult a wide range of information sources during their travel planning

process(Beckendorff et al., 2010). Therefore, one can argue here that due to these characteristics their

behavior towards the social media would be different and they would consult Web 2.0applications

more often and in a different way during their travel planning process than other generations.

A classification of the types of social media is important because it helps looking at differences in

usage extent and marketing possibilities. Constantinides and Fountain (2008) proposed a grouping of

the social media types into five main categories:

(1) Web logs: applications allowing online journals (e.g. http://www.blogger.com).

(2) Social networks: applications allowing users to build personal websites and to connect to each

other (e.g. http://www.facebook.com).

(3) Communities: applications allowing the sharing of content (e.g. http://www.youtube.com).

(4) Forums: applications allowing the exchange and discussion of ideas and information

(e.g.http://www.epinions.com).

(5) Content aggregators: applications allowing users to make fully customizable web content

(e.g.http://www.google.com/ig).

Page | 16

Above mentioned application types also exist in combined forms. For example, a profile on a social

networking site (social network application) could include a discussion section on a certain

subject(forum application), include pictures or videos (community application) or publish a feed of

announcements from external sources (content aggregator application). The latter usually uses a

technology called “Really Simple Syndication” or “Rich Site Summary” (RSS) to automatically

stream data (e.g. blog entries, news updates) from selected sources with syndicated content.

For marketing purposes RSS technology offers great potential, as it can instantly distribute selected

information to a large number of recipients, or too many places where an organization has an online

presence.

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2.6 Social Media versus Traditional Media; A conceptual framework

People &

Communities

Advertising &

Branding

Figure 2: Integrating traditional methods of tourism marketing with social media

KTB’s MARKETING METHODS

Trade fairs, World

Tourism Markets, TV,

Radio, Print publications-

brochures, banners,

fliers, magazines e.t.c

Social media; Weblogs,

websites, social networks,

forums, communities,

RSS, Facebook, Twitter,

YouTube, LinkedIn

Global audience

Reach Mass marketing, brand

awareness by hard selling

One way communication

Global audience

Interaction among like-minded people around a brand

Two way communication

Product, Price, Place and

Promotion

4Ps of

marketing

Huge advertising budget

People, Platform, Participation

and Promotion

Minimal sharevertising budget

One size fits all

Usability High success rate (Proven)

Customized and teller-made

New media (work in progress)

Intrusive Customer

perception

and

feedback Not feedback friendly

Intrusive and participatory

Real time feedback

Once created, cannot be

altered

Permanence Can be altered almost instantaneously by comments or editing

Platforms

Required

Budget

Time lag (days, weeks, or

even months)

Immediate - only the users

determine any delay

Needs specialized skills No need for special skills

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CHAPTER THREE

METHODOLOGY

This chapter contains discussion on area of study, research design, target population, data collection

methods, data analysis and presentation, assumptions of the study and the expected results

3.1 AREA OF STUDY

LOCATION

This study does not directly isolate a geographical area for its central analysis. However, it examined

useful existing pre-published information on social media marketing and youth travel in/to Kenya as

it is the destination that the study seeks to inform.

3.2 RESEARCH DESIGN

Desk study (or secondary research) was chosen as the initial stage of this project and a precursor to

primary research. The research design is systematic review. As such, this desk study applies an

explorative approach towards the discovery of ideas and insights into the different aspects of the

problem under study.

The researcher reviewed and built upon the work already done by thought leaders on social

media marketing.

Due to time limitations, insights into the relationships between variables under study were

obtained by accessing and using the social media tools currently being used by KTB such as

Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Website and LinkedIn

Analysis of „insight-stimulating‟ examples from selected instances of social media application

was used. The examples were drawn from social networking sites, blogging sites, websites,

Wikis, Online communities, Newspapers advertisements, TV, Radio Advertisements

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3.3 TARGET POPULATION

Thought leaders in the field under study, this desk study incorporated and focused on their pre-

published theories and ideas.

3.4 DATA COLLECTION METHODS AND INSTRUMENTS.

Only secondary data was collected. Data was derived from a variety of secondary sources:

The Internet was the major resource of latest valuable information. Reputable digital repositories

with analytical reports and statistical publications such as KNBS (Kenya National Bureau of

Statistics), World Bank (WB), International Telecommunications Union (ITU) were used. Key

document sharing websites were identified, such as Scribd, Slideshare and Docstoc. These offered

access to conference presentations, articles, manuals, e-books and links to other websites. Other

major websites visited included that for The Communication Commission of Kenya (CCK),

iHUB, KTB and Trip Advisor.

Google was searched using the following keywords; e-commerce, social, media, marketing,

internet, tourism, Kenya, youth, mobile, technology, statistics, travel, trends, arrivals, earning,

security. The keywords were used in various combinations to derive meaning.

Useful reports were obtained from UNESCO.

Archives of local dailies, The Daily Nation, The Standard and Business Daily, was visited to

access contextual information for the topic under study. These sources were vital in accessing

local content.

Insight-stimulating examples were obtained from Twitter, Facebook, Wikipedia, YouTube,

Delicious, Digg, Google Reader, LinkedIn, Skype, Flickr, Sound cloud and Hootsuite,

FourSquare, Instagram

3.5 VALIDITY AND RELIABILITY OF DATA

Content validity was determined using expert opinion and constructive criticism from the project

supervisor who has had an extensive experience and expertise in research methods. Content was

revised and improved according to the supervisors‟ advice and suggestions.

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3.6 DATA ANALYSIS AND PRESENTATION

The data collected was cross referenced and collated for accuracy and completeness of research.

Coding was done by selective reduction and involved categorizing the data into themes. To draw out

the thematic areas of marketing significance, the researcher was guided by the marketing mix which

according to Kotler and Armstrong (2006, 50) the marketing mix is a set of controllable, tactical

marketing tools that the company blends to produce response in the target market, it consists of

everything the company can do to influence the demand for its product.

Data analysis was carried out qualitatively using ATLAS.ti7. The objectives of the analysis included:

to discover patterns and relationships within the data; to categorize the data into themes; to make

quantitative analysis of emerging themes possible; to produce results that are amenable to statistical

calculations; to discover patterns and relationships within the data;

Data was presented using tables, graphs, pictorials and charts.

3.7 ASSUMPTIONS TO THE STUDY

The main purpose of this research explains the need to target social media platforms. The assumption

is that the authors of the information gathered are social media thought leaders. The topic under study

required that data is filtered to refined mentions in the area of social media marketing. The other

assumption is that the information that was obtained is well correct. The correctness is assumed on

the basis of the availability of marketing content on the social media platforms. Data from published

academic papers are taken as is.

For purposes of coding and data analysis, it was assumed that the frequency with which a statement

occurs in the text is a valid indication of value or importance. All themes were given equal weight

and therefore each one can be compared directly with every other.

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CHAPTER FOUR

DATA ANALYSIS, PRESENTATION AND INTERPRETATION

This chapter concentrates on the analysis of all data gathered throughout the research study based on

the theoretical arguments in literature review. In addition, social media data of Facebook, Twitter,

YouTube, LinkedIn, Instagram and Foursquare were collected and analyzed using the output obtained

from Atlas.ti 7. The social media data collected was diverse and unstructured.

4.1 Analysis of themes

Table 4.1 below is a list of major themes that emerged from the data collected and the enumerated

frequencies of the issues. This standardized format was used to make inferences and trends about the

characteristics of social media with marketing significance. The code sheet output is appended

(Appendix 1).

Table 4.1: Themes and frequency of occurrence

Social media marketing

themes

Frequency of occurrence

Facebook Foursquare Instagram LinkedIn Twitter Youtube

1 IM (Instant Messaging) 1 0 0 0 0 0

2 image hosting: unlimited 1 0 1 0 0 0

3 interactive dialogue 1 0 0 2 2 0

4 Integration/mashups 0 0 0 1 2 0

5 Known (popularity) 1 1 1 1 1 1

6 location based 0 1 0 0 0 1

7 mobile ready 1 3 0 1 3 2

8 personal and professional 2 1 0 1 1 1

9 photo sharing service 1 0 3 0 0 0

10 photo tagging 1 0 0 0 0 0

11 privacy control: self 1 0 1 0 0 0

12 reward scheme 0 3 1 0 0 0

13 Sharevertising 1 0 1 2 2 1

14 social networking service 2 1 1 1 1 0

15 subscription service:

follow 1 0 0 0 1 0

16 tourists source market 1 0 0 1 0 0

17 Reach 1 0 0 1 1 0

18 video sharing service 0 0 0 0 0 1

19 voice calls 1 0 0 0 0 0

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To discover patterns and relationships within the data in Table 4.1 above and produce results that are

amenable to statistical calculations, a quantitative analysis of the themes was done for the social

media platforms.

4.2 Facebook

Facebook is 15% very personal and professional (Figure 4.1) and dominantly a social networking

service (15%) with 70% shared features including instant messenger service, unlimited image

hosting, photo tagging, user privacy control, sharevertising, subscription service with a „follow‟

button, voice calls and high popularity.

Figure 4.2: Facebook

The site is also a potential tourist source market due to its polarity in:

United States with 168.8 million members

Brazil with 64.6 million members

India with 62.6 million members

Indonesia with 51.4 million members

Mexico with 40.2 million members

All of the above total 309 million members or about 38.6% of Facebook's 1 billion worldwide

members (Wikipedia, January 2013)

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4.3 Foursquare

Foursquare is a location-based social networking website for mobile devices, such as smartphones.

Users "check in" at venues using a mobile website, text messaging or a device-specific application by

selecting from a list of venues the application locates nearby. Location is based on GPS hardware in

the mobile device or network location provided by the application. Each check-in awards the user

points and sometimes "badges".

The research findings revealed that foursquare is 30% mobile ready (Figure 4.2) because it was built

for mobile devices as its main medium of access. Its services are highly dependent on rewarding users

(30%). Foursquare is location based (10%), personal and professional (10%), a social networking

service (10%) and 10% well known among social media users.

Figure 4.3: Foursquare features

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4.4 Instagram

The dominant feature of Instagram is image hosting (30%) or online photo-sharing (20%). It is also a

social networking service (10%) that enables its users to take pictures, apply digital filters to them,

and share them on a variety of social networking services, such as media sites including Facebook or

Twitter (Figure 4.3). A distinctive feature is that it confines photos to a square shape in contrast to the

4:3 aspect ratio typically used by mobile device cameras. On February 27, 2013, Instagram

announced that they had 100 million active users a month, only two years and a half after first

launching (Wikipedia, 2013).

Figure 4.4: Instagram features

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4.5 LinkedIn

LinkedIn Corporation is 23% personal and professional, 15% popular, interactive and a sharevertising

platform. It is a social networking website for people in professional occupations. It is mainly used

for professional networking. As of January 2013, LinkedIn reports more than 200 million acquired

users in more than 200 countries and territories.

As of October 2011, LinkedIn had over 14 million students and recent college graduates as members.

As of November 2012, LinkedIn announced it had 187 million members. LinkedIn saw a 10 to 15

million member per quarter growth rate throughout 2012.

In January 2013, the countries with the most LinkedIn users were:

• United States with 74 million members

• India with 18 million members

• United Kingdom with 11 million members

• Brazil with 11 million members

• Canada with 7 million members

Figure 1.5: LinkedIn features

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4.6 Twitter

Twitter is the most mobile ready social media platform (Figure 4.5); it can be used completely

without internet access. It has a version of the website for mobile devices as well as SMS and MMS

service. Twitter is an online social networking service and microblogging service that enables its

users to send and read text-based messages of up to 140 characters, known as "tweets".

Twitter is extremely popular (Figure 4.5) because a word, phrase or topic that is tagged at a greater

rate than other tags is said to be a trending topic. Trending topics become popular either through a

concerted effort by users or because of an event that prompts people to talk about one specific topic.

These topics help Twitter and their users to understand what is happening in the world.

On September 7, 2011, Twitter announced that it has 100 million active users logging in at least once

a month and 50 million active users every day. It has also confirmed to be the biggest social media

network in Japan, with Facebook following closely in second, making Japan the only country in the

world where Twitter leads Facebook.

Figure 4.6: Twitter features

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4.7 Youtube

YouTube is a video-sharing website (Figure 4.6). It is a powerful medium for social media

advertising (sharevertising); it can be accessed on mobile devices and serves both personal and

professional functions. Viral videos on Youtubecan get visibility of up to 1billion views.

Figure 4.7: YouTube

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4.8 Marketing potential of social media platforms

Of all the nineteen (19) themes analyzed, it was found that Twitter has the highest features of

marketing significance (22%) followed by Facebook (19%) and Linkedin 18%. Instagram, YouTube

and Foursquare are averagely of equal significance (14%). Twitter stands out because of its ease of

access and use via mobile phones, its ease of use because of the subscription service and interactive

dialogue. It is a social networking service that is useful for personal and professional functions but

most importantly it is the only social media platform that has had the greatest social impact

worldwide.

According to an analysis of accounts, the heads of state of 125 countries and 139 other leading

politicians have Twitter accounts that have between them sent more than 350,000 tweets and have

almost 52 million followers.

Figure 4.8 : Marketing potential of platforms

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4.9 Comparative analysis of social media features significant to marketing

According to figure 4.8, the most social media feature significant to marketing is mobile accessibility.

Followed by sharevertising. Personal and professional functions are also important features when

considering social media marketing. Usage of social media platforms as tourism target market is at

dismal low because social media has not been widely adopted as a marketing channel to attract

tourists.

Figure 4.9: A comparative analysis

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4.10 Internet penetration

Global statistics show the continuous growth in Internet penetration and demographic characteristics

of online population getting to resemble the general population (Figure 4.9). The average age of

Internet users is rising in tandem with that of the general population, and racial and ethnic

characteristics are more closely mirroring those in the offline population (eMarketer, 2010). More

interesting to this study is the fact that over 90% of people between age of five and 17 use the Internet

on a regular basis (Turban et al., 2008). These younger people are more familiar with the Internet than

other media such as radio and television. When they grow into the economically active population,

the Internet will be the most influential medium in business.

A whole system of ICTs and the Internet has been rapidly diffused throughout tourism sectors

(Buhalis, 2004; Buhalis & Law, 2008; Poon, 1993; Werthner & Klein, 1999). Subsequently, online

travel bookings and associated travel services are recognized as one of the most successful e-

commerce implementations, with estimates of sales of $73.4 billion in 2006 (Turban et al., 2008).

Locally, internet usage has grown rapidly due to high demand and increae in mobile device usage.

The estimated number of Internet users rose by 21.55% from 14.30 million users to 17.38 million

(CCK, 2012).

The internet is the major form of advertising adopted by KTB through its various websites- Magical

Kenya (www.magicalkenya.com) being their major official website.

Figure 4.10: World Internet users

Source: http://www.internetworldstats.com/stats.htm

Page | 31

CHAPTER FIVE

DISCUSSION, CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS

5.1 Discussion

So far there has not been a very clear definition of social media among academics. This is because

social media is a process. The study found that its shape and functionality depends on many themes

which make it constantly change and evolve. Results confirmed by previous researches (Weinberg

2009, Zarrella 2010 et al) explains that social media is a process that empowers individuals to

promote their websites, products or services through online social channels and to communicate with

and tap into a much larger community that may not have been available via traditional advertising

channels.

This study focused on social media platforms that are most popular and in use by KTB. Facebook,

Twitter, YouTube, LinkedIn, Instagram and Foursquare were analyzed for features with marketing

significance, in order to draw conclusions about the role of social media in marketing and thus,

identify their marketing opportunities to KTB and suggest potential ways of using social media in the

KTB‟s marketing and promotional activities.

This study reports a continuous growth in Internet penetration and demographic characteristics of

online population getting to resemble the general population in Kenya tourism source markets. It has

been pointed out that North America leads the world for social network penetration, UK, France,

Germany, Spain being top users of social media tools. Twitter which is the most potent (22%) social

media marketing tool according to this study has a very high penetration in BRICS countries. Brazil

leading with 24% followed by India, Russia and China.

More interesting to this study is the fact that the social media feature that is most significant to

marketing is mobile accessibility, followed by sharevertising. Twitter and Foursqure are built on the

premise of mobile accessibility. Facebook, YouTube, LinkedIn and Instagram also have their mobile

equivalents. In the near future, the outlook for Internet access devices will be more diverse according

to Ericsson (2012) predicting smartphones will soon outnumber both tablets and PCs. Locally, CCK

(April 2012) indicates that there are approximately 28.08 mobile subscriptions in Kenya and 99% of

internet access is from a mobile device. Personal and professional functions are also important

features when considering social media marketing.

Page | 32

These findings open up (new) opportunities for KTB, to further exploit social media in their

promotional activities since most of the incoming tourists are already using these new technologies

and Kenyans as well. However, in order to take advantage of the marketing potential of social media,

it is crucial to acknowledge its role in travelers‟ decision making process and the characteristics

influencing its usage especially by young people below 35 years of age, who are travelling outside

their families, and whose primary motives for travelling are generated by tourism experiences, extra-

curricular activities and sports oriented activities but does not include business reasons. This is

because Mirza (2005) believes that youth travel is the fastest growing travel market segment,

surpassing even ecotourism and cultural tourism.

Trip Advisor reported greater benefits from sharevertising as a method of promoting destinations

online. Travelers use social media for its fast communication abilities and for reviewing others‟

experiences. Therefore, reaching other travelers‟ recommendations and comments in a cost effective

way are clearly considered important for all travelers. Sharevertising is also available on Facebook,

Twitter, YouTube, LinkedIn, Instagram and Foursquare. Youth tourists are not hostile to the official

promotions placed in social media; they even perceive it as modern and proactive approach, though

the content of the promotion still plays a significant role.

All these above stated give an indication to KTB which type of social media they should mainly

center their promotional or revenue generating strategies, which target group of tourists they should

consider and at which travel planning phase they should focus on when exploiting social media.

5.2 Implications for future research

This undergraduate project studied social media marketing opportunities for tourism. Even though this

research has pointed out some possible directions of how KTB can benefit from social media, it

would be necessary to conduct more research with different data design among the different types of

travelers and age groups of tourists visiting Kenya in order to effectively design their exact

promotional tools in social media. Further research could find answers to the question of how to address

the challenges associated with the use of social media as a tourism marketing tool and if social media

compromises productivity and security?. Social Media marketing is a relatively new field, and

therefore it is hard to find studies that have measured the effectiveness of a Social Media marketing

program.

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6.0 CONCLUSION

While there is a growing interest in social media marketing in the Kenya tourism industry, social

media by itself do not influence decision makers but rather it is the content and more specifically the

content creators that carry the influence. However, social media enables the spread and reach of a

message sent out, in addition when social media is used by influencers the content is carried with

authority which makes its impact very significant.

New marketing methods are potentially capable of boosting a company's client base; they may not be

able to fulfill what traditional marketing does for businesses. Traditional marketing techniques have a

high success rate and are proven. Whereas web based applications such as social media are subject to

clients or customers having access to an online medium and being Internet savvy, the messaging can

be built around tourist attractions, services, people, organizations, ideas, news or any other relevant

theme.

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7.0 RECOMMENDATION

Recommendations were made by extracting the social media features of marketing significance from

existing literature and the empirical data. The main social media marketing tactics this study proposes

was guided by the marketing mix which according to Kotler and Armstrong (2006, 50) the marketing

mix is a set of controllable, tactical marketing tools that the company blends to produce response in

the target market. It consists of everything KTB can do to influence the demand for tourism product.

Table 7.0: 4Ps of Social Media Marketing

4Ps of social media marketing

Product:

(multimedia

content)

Place:

(target

audience)

Promotion:

(tactics)

Price:

(cost of use)

Attractions,

Services,

People,

Organizations,

Ideas,

News,

information

Website Provide useful facts, photos and videos of the

destination

Provide a route planner for the destinations

Include places to stay and things to do at the

destination as well as booking facilities.

Intuitive interfaces

KTB should stimulate visitors to sign a guest book

online and help them create personal brochures to

build own guidebook to the destination.

Mailto: e-mail link to allow visitors contact KTB

Adapt brochures to web framework

Customer support through FAQs and live chats

Join a banner exchange program

Saves

money on

printed

brochures

Paid online

ads and paid

offline ads

to be used

Twitter

Facebook

YouTube

Foursqure

Flickr

Trip Advisor

Google+

Before embarking on social media marketing, KTB should map out the specific business goals. There

are only three true business goals which are increasing the revenue, lowering the costs, or improving

the customer satisfaction. These goals steer the marketing programmes on the high level. Sterne

(2010, 5-6.).

Moreover, to enhance social media usage onsite, KTB could cooperate with software developers to

design specific features for mobile devices such as image recognizing software that links together

with travel reviews.

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Expertise is crucial to implementing a social media strategy. Skilled social media personnel who can

blend a humorous approach to deliver its message in a funny manner will be an important element of

social media marketing since it makes the message more of entertaining than advertising.

Getting people to socialize around the Magical Kenya brand, through its existing online platforms,

Facebook page, Twitter account, YouTube channel, Flickr account and its various websites is a good

way to build a brand identity.

To get feedback, KTB can organize tourists‟ get togethers via Google hangouts, Facebook groups and

chat. Sharing the experience is a better way to get feedback than distributing questionnaire at the

airport because the participants are volunteering information and are not restricted to standard

questions. This way a standard questionnaires can still be used but in a participatory way.

The success of social media content lies in its persuasive power. Comments, likes, views, retweets,

shares are some common metrics for measuring success of social media content in terms of reach to

target audience. However, it is hard to measure how many people targeted are converted into

consumers.

KTB should continue using its diverse media/communication mix to ensure communication with all

segments of a heterogeneous market, such as the various forms of printed media, electronic media or

Web pages. But should not ignore social media applications that has brought with it new

communication methods of communicating with the consumer.

Page | 36

8.0 REFERENCES

Armstrong, G., & Kotler, P. (2006). Principles of Marketing 11th

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of Privacy and Security Concerns,” Proceedings of the 6th Midwest Association for Information

Systems Conference, Omaha, Nebraska.

Buhalis, D., and Law, R. (2008). Progress in information technology and tourism management: 20

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Broadband Commission (September 2012). The state of broadband: Achieving digital inclusion for

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Barwise, P., Elberse, A. and Hammond, K. (2006). Marketing and the Internet. In B. Weitz& R.

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Constantinides, E., & Fountain, S. J. (2008).Web 2.0: Conceptual foundations and marketing

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Li, C., &Bernoff, J. (2008). Groundswell: Winning in a World Transformed by Social Technologies.

Harvard Business Press.

Center for the Digital Future (2008). Annual Internet survey by the Center for the Digital Future finds

shifting trends among adults about the benefits and consequences of children going online. Los

Angeles, CA: Center for the Digital Future, University of Southern California.

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Release.pdf.

CCK, (October-December 2011/2012). Quarterly sector statistics report 2nd quarter

Danish Statistics, (2010). Use of internet for communication activities by type and communication

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Page | 39

9.0 APPENDICES

Appendix I: Research Instruments

9.1 Quotations

All objects sorted by creation date

______________________________________________________________________

HU: social media analysis

File: [C:\Users\Amos\Documents\Atlas analysis data\social media analysis.hpr7]

Edited by: Amos

Date/Time: 2013-03-18 05:14:00

______________________________________________________________________

Editing period : 2 hours

First object created: 2013-03-16 19:27:43 (HU: social media analysis)

Last object created: 2013-03-16 21:48:42 (Code Family: social)

(2013-03-16 19:27:43) HU: social media analysis

(2013-03-16 19:28:41) Primary Doc: P 2: Foursquare.docx {8}

(2013-03-16 19:28:41) Primary Doc: P 1: Facebook.docx {14}

(2013-03-16 19:28:42) Primary Doc: P 5: Twitter.docx {8}

(2013-03-16 19:28:42) Primary Doc: P 4: LinkedIn.docx {8}

(2013-03-16 19:28:42) Primary Doc: P 3: Instagram.docx {5}

(2013-03-16 19:28:43) Primary Doc: P 6: YouTube.docx {6}

(2013-03-16 19:31:47) Code: social networking service {6-0}

(2013-03-16 19:31:47) Quotation: 1:1 Facebook is a HYPERLINK "http:.. (2:2)

(2013-03-16 19:32:35) Code: mobile ready {10-0}

(2013-03-16 19:32:35) Quotation: 1:2 Facebook has over HYPERLINK "h.. (2:2)

(2013-03-16 19:33:29) Quotation: 1:3 HYPERLINK "http://en.wikipedi.. (2:2)

(2013-03-16 19:33:29) Code: personal and professional {6-0}

(2013-03-16 19:37:43) Quotation: 1:4 In May 2005, Accel partners in.. (4:7)

(2013-03-16 19:37:43) Code: very popular {3-0}

(2013-03-16 19:38:30) Quotation: 1:5 Users can create profiles with.. (10:10)

(2013-03-16 19:40:22) Code: privacy control:self {2-0}

(2013-03-16 19:40:22) Quotation: 1:6 To allay concerns about privac.. (12:12)

(2013-03-16 19:42:10) Quotation: 1:7 One of the most popular applic.. (19:19)

(2013-03-16 19:42:10) Code: image hosting:unlimited {2-0}

(2013-03-16 19:43:37) Code: photo tagging {1-0}

(2013-03-16 19:43:37) Quotation: 1:8 Photos application is the abil.. (20:20)

(2013-03-16 19:45:40) Code: sharevertising {7-0}

(2013-03-16 19:45:40) Quotation: 1:9 Facebook launched HYPERLINK "h.. (25:25)

(2013-03-16 19:46:45) Code: IM {1-0}

(2013-03-16 19:46:45) Quotation: 1:10 A new Messaging platform, code.. (30:31)

(2013-03-16 19:47:55) Quotation: 1:11 Since April 2011, Facebook use.. (33:36)

(2013-03-16 19:47:55) Code: voice calls {1-0}

(2013-03-16 19:49:06) Code: subscription service:follow {2-0}

(2013-03-16 19:49:06) Quotation: 1:12 On September 14, 2011, Faceboo.. (37:39)

(2013-03-16 19:52:52) Code: tourists source market {2-0}

(2013-03-16 19:52:52) Quotation: 1:13 In January 2013, the countries.. (63:68)

(2013-03-16 19:56:58) Quotation: 1:14 Facebook has affected the soci.. (84:84)

(2013-03-16 20:04:24) Quotation: 2:1 Foursquare is a location-based.. (2:2)

(2013-03-16 20:04:24) Code: location based {2-0}

(2013-03-16 20:05:03) Quotation: 2:2 HYPERLINK "http://en.wikipedi.. (2:2)

(2013-03-16 20:06:51) Quotation: 2:3 Foursquare is the second itera.. (4:4)

(2013-03-16 20:07:18) Code: known {2-0}

(2013-03-16 20:08:23) Quotation: 2:4 Foursquare is a web and mobile.. (5:5)

(2013-03-16 20:09:53) Quotation: 2:5 Users are encouraged to be hyp.. (5:6)

(2013-03-16 20:10:52) Code: reward scheme {4-0}

(2013-03-16 20:10:52) Quotation: 2:6 Mayorship If a user has checke.. (8:11)

(2013-03-16 20:12:47) Quotation: 2:7 Scoring Each time the user che.. (14:28)

http://en.wikipedi/

http://en.wikipedi/

Page | 40

(2013-03-16 20:14:03) Quotation: 2:8 Foursquare Brands allows compa.. (30:33)

(2013-03-16 21:08:26) Code: photo sharing service {1-0}

(2013-03-16 21:08:26) Quotation: 3:1 photo-sharing (2:2)

(2013-03-16 21:08:50) Quotation: 3:2 social networking service that.. (2:2)

(2013-03-16 21:13:15) Quotation: 3:3 Instagram was created by Kevin.. (3:7)

(2013-03-16 21:15:03) Quotation: 3:4 On August 9, 2012, English mus.. (11:11)

(2013-03-16 21:15:52) Quotation: 3:5 There are basic Terms of Use t.. (8:9)

(2013-03-16 21:16:41) Quotation: 4:1 a HYPERLINK "http://en.wikiped.. (2:3)

(2013-03-16 21:17:32) Quotation: 4:2 United States with 74 million .. (9:13)

(2013-03-16 21:19:09) Quotation: 4:3 A contact network is built up .. (17:24)

(2013-03-16 21:22:42) Code: intergration-mashups {3-0}

(2013-03-16 21:22:42) Quotation: 4:4 In October 2008, LinkedIn enab.. (31:31)

(2013-03-16 21:23:47) Quotation: 4:5 In October 2008, LinkedIn enab.. (31:32)

(2013-03-16 21:24:04) Quotation: 4:6 A mobile version of the site w.. (34:35)

(2013-03-16 21:24:28) Code: interactive dialogue {4-0}

(2013-03-16 21:24:28) Quotation: 4:7 LinkedIn also supports the for.. (37:40)

(2013-03-16 21:24:45) Quotation: 4:8 The feature HYPERLINK "http://.. (26:26)

(2013-03-16 21:25:59) Quotation: 5:1 Twitter is an online HYPERLINK.. (2:2)

(2013-03-16 21:27:06) Quotation: 5:2 "the HYPERLINK "http://en.wiki.. (3:4)

(2013-03-16 21:29:14) Quotation: 5:3 HYPERLINK "http://en.wikipedia.. (19:26)

(2013-03-16 21:30:17) Quotation: 5:4 Users can group posts together.. (28:31)

(2013-03-16 21:31:14) Quotation: 5:5 There are numerous tools for a.. (38:38)

(2013-03-16 21:31:36) Quotation: 5:6 Mobile Twitter has mobile apps.. (41:42)

(2013-03-16 21:32:01) Quotation: 5:7 Rankings Twitter is ranked as .. (46:47)

(2013-03-16 21:34:00) Quotation: 5:8 Television, rating Twitter is .. (67:69)

(2013-03-16 21:34:33) Code: video sharing service {1-0}

(2013-03-16 21:34:33) Quotation: 6:1 YouTube is a HYPERLINK "http:/.. (2:2)

(2013-03-16 21:34:59) Quotation: 6:2 Most of the content on YouTube.. (3:4)

(2013-03-16 21:36:18) Quotation: 6:3 Uploading All YouTube users ca.. (11:12)

(2013-03-16 21:37:58) Quotation: 6:4 Some HYPERLINK "http://en.wiki.. (25:27)

(2013-03-16 21:38:54) Quotation: 6:5 On June 19, 2007, Google CEO H.. (29:35)

(2013-03-16 21:39:59) Quotation: 6:6 While other HYPERLINK "http://.. (44:49)

(2013-03-16 1:48:42) Code Family: social (0)

http://en.wikiped/

http://en.wiki/

http://en.wikipedia/

http://en.wiki/

Page | 41

9.2 Code sheet (Atlas.ti output)

CODES-PRIMARY-DOCUMENTS-TABLE

Report created by Amos - 03/16/2013 10:57:28 PM

HU: [C:\Users\Amos\Documents\Atlas analysis data\social media analysis.hpr7]

Code-Filter: All [19]

PD-Filter: All [6]

Quotation-Filter: All [49]

Units of analysis P 1: P 2: P 3: P 4: P 5: P 6: TOTALS:

1 IM 1 0 0 0 0 0 1

2 image hosting:unlimited 1 0 1 0 0 0 2

3 interactive dialogue 0 0 0 2 2 0 4

4 intergration-mashups 0 0 0 1 2 0 3

5 known 0 1 1 0 0 0 2

6 location based 0 1 0 0 0 1 2

7 mobile ready 1 3 0 1 3 2 10

8 personal and professional 2 1 0 1 1 1 6

9 photo sharing service 0 0 1 0 0 0 1

10 photo tagging 1 0 0 0 0 0 1

11 privacy control:self 1 0 1 0 0 0 2

12 reward scheme 0 3 1 0 0 0 4

13 sharevertising 1 0 1 2 2 1 7

14 social networking service 2 1 1 1 1 0 6

15 subscription service:follow 1 0 0 0 1 0 2

16 tourists source market 1 0 0 1 0 0 2

17 very popular 1 0 0 1 1 0 3

18 video sharing service 0 0 0 0 0 1 1

19 voice calls 1 0 0 0 0 0 1

TOTALS: 14 10 7 10 13 6 60