Análisis de las redes sociales empleadas por los hoteles andaluces de 4 y 5 estrellas

Abstract

The Internet has changed the procedure by which tourists plan their trip. Along with the characteristics of thedestination's establishments, travelers focus their attention on the contents generated by other travelers in socialnetworks, in online communities or in consumer opinion portals.Aware of this new scenario and the wide penetration of social networks over the past few years, hotels have optedto incorporate them into their web pages to enhance direct contact with real and potential customers.This work aimed to analyze the social networks present in the websites of the Andalusian hotels of 4 and 5 stars,as well as possible variables that may influence the number and the choice of them.The information obtained from 503 hotels allowed descriptive analysis to characterize the social networks of thehotels. The possible dependency relationships between variables were analyzed with contingency tables, throughthe study of the Chi-square.The results showed that 87% of the hotels had at least one social network, with Facebook (85%) and Twitter (74%)being the majority. In addition, 72% had at least 3 networks on their website. According to the analysis of the ChiSquare, the number and variety of the networks were directly related to the membership of a chain, the modalityand the size of the hotel.However, it is important to highlight the fact that 12.5% of the hotels analyzed did not include networks on theirwebsites, especially when they belong to the category of 4 and 5 stars. We believe that a large part of theinstitutional efforts should fall on them as a means of improving the competitive position of the hotels in the region.