A study on the use of social media tools as a marketing tool in hospitality businesses: The case of Bodrum peninsula

Social media is a marketing and promotional tool that is very important for accommodation businesses, as in other areas. The main purpose of this study is to raise awareness of the opportunities it provides in terms of marketing tourism by revealing the purposes and levels of use of social media by accommodation businesses and guests. In the study, the social media perceptions of the accommodation establishments and the guests who prefer these establishments were determined. Two separate surveys were used for businesses and for guests. The data obtained were obtained by the survey method consisting of 2 main parts. In the first part, the demographic information of the participants was determined, while in the second part, questions to determine the data about the impact were included. A 5-point Likert scale was used in the surveys for the use of social media tools as a marketing tool in accommodation establishments. In this direction, it has been determined that social media tools contribute to the recognition of the names of the businesses, increase the power of the competitive environment, and affect the decision-making processes of people and the sub-dimensions of these processes such as purchasing, interaction, intention, social sharing, information and destination utilization. In addition, in the study, it has been determined that there is a positive, moderate and high level significant relationship between purchasing perceptions, interaction perceptions and intention perceptions and interaction, intention, social sharing utilization, information and destination utilization perceptions. In addition, it has been determined that information has a positive effect on purchasing, interaction, intention, social sharing utilization and destination utilization.