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Social Networks and Societal Strategic Orientation in the Hotel Sector: Netnographic Study

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Digital Economy. Emerging Technologies and Business Innovation (ICDEc 2019)

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Business Information Processing ((LNBIP,volume 358))

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Abstract

In the marketing literature of sustainable tourism, a debate is emerging around the perception of guests and their behavior regarding the sustainable aspects of a hotel. Clients leave electronic traces in all travel-related activities, providing comments on community websites or through online surveys. Hence, social networks offer a valuable database of feedback about guest stays in hotels. Since the studied context is still emerging and needs to be explored, we have initiated a Netnographic study as a method of data collection. Our research proposes to study the comments on the travel website “HolidayCheck” of guests who have had a recent experience in a Tunisian hotel of the international channel MagicLife (ML). The aim is to explore the main facets of a hotel’s societal strategic orientation in their verbatim namely: physical well-being, psychological well-being, environmental orientation, social relations and economic contribution. The results indicate the presence of the societal dimensions in the online evaluations of the guests but in a disproportionate way. Positive and negative connotations are also present in the feedbacks of these guests.

The major implications for hoteliers highlight the need to understand how potential consumers perceive societal dimensions and possibly how this affects their reservation interests. Also, this study allows optimizing the hotels’ decision-making and investments in societal strategic orientation.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    http://www2.unwto.org/press-release/2019-01-21/international-tourist-arrivals-reach-14-billion-two-years-ahead-forecasts (Jan 2019).

  2. 2.

    http://www.id-tourisme.fr/etude-accorhotels-engagement-developpementdurable/ (Dec 2018).

  3. 3.

    http://www.unep.fr/shared/publications/pdf/dtix0592xpa-tourismpolicyen.pdf (May 2016).

  4. 4.

    Ibid.

  5. 5.

    The hotel is an Imperial Beach 5 stars having invested in an integrated management system (ISO 9001, ISO 14001 & ISO 22000), a system that certify the implementation of a SD approach.

  6. 6.

    https://moderndiplomacy.eu/2018/06/29/use-technology-for-more-sustainable-tourism-management/ (Dec 2018).

  7. 7.

    http://www.tourisme.gov.tn/realisations-et-perspectives/vision-strategique-3-1/qualite-formation.html (May 2016).

  8. 8.

    Ibid.

  9. 9.

    https://www.destinationtunisie.info/tourisme-represente-151-pib-de-tunisie-selon-cnuced/ (Dec 2018).

  10. 10.

    https://unctad.org/en/PublicationsLibrary/aldcafrica2017_en.pdf (Dec 2018).

  11. 11.

    “ReviewPro is the leading provider of guest intelligence solutions to independent hotel brands worldwide” Available at: https://www.hospitalitynet.org/organization/17014180/reviewpro.html.

  12. 12.

    http://www.id-tourisme.fr/etude-accorhotels-engagement-developpementdurable/ (Dec 2018).

  13. 13.

    https://corporate.tui.be/fr/presse/nouvelles/20170321-tourisme-durable (Dec 2018).

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Acknowledgments

We would like to sincerely thank the General Manager and the Assistant General Manager of the Tunisian hotel ML, who supported us during certain stages of the exploratory research carried out as part of our study.

Also, we would like to sincerely thank the anonymous reviewers of the manuscript for the inspiring and encouraging comments throughout the evaluation process.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Manouba, Manouba, Tunisia

    Hasna Koubaa & Rim Jallouli

Authors
  1. Hasna Koubaa
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  2. Rim Jallouli
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Correspondence to Rim Jallouli .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. ESEN, University of Manouba, Manouba, Tunisia

    Rim Jallouli

  2. ESEN, University of Manouba, Manouba, Tunisia

    Mohamed Anis Bach Tobji

  3. Université de Sherbrooke, Sherbrooke, QC, Canada

    Deny Bélisle

  4. Université Laval, Quebec, QC, Canada

    Sehl Mellouli

  5. International University of Beirut, Mazraa, Lebanon

    Farid Abdallah

  6. American University of Beirut, Beirut, Lebanon

    Ibrahim Osman

Annex 1

Annex 1

Table 1. Frequency table and examples of verbatim
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Koubaa, H., Jallouli, R. (2019). Social Networks and Societal Strategic Orientation in the Hotel Sector: Netnographic Study. In: Jallouli, R., Bach Tobji, M., Bélisle, D., Mellouli, S., Abdallah, F., Osman, I. (eds) Digital Economy. Emerging Technologies and Business Innovation. ICDEc 2019. Lecture Notes in Business Information Processing, vol 358. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-30874-2_7

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