| dc.description.abstract | The environment in which hotels operate is quite competitive due to the constantly
evolving environment. as a result, hotels are quickly rejuvenating their survival strategies to sustain
profitability. Despite the innovative adoption of digital marketing amongst hotels in Central
Region, most of the hotels are struggling to remain afloat as others close down. Against the
background, this study aimed at establishing the influence of social media marketing tools on
performance of hotels registered by Tourism Regulatory Authority in Central Region, Kenya. The
guiding objectives were to determine how social media platform, social media content, social
marketing capacity and social marketing culture influences performance of hotels in registered by
Tourism Regulatory Authority in Central Region, Kenya. The founding theoretical frameworks
included: technology acceptance model, theory of change, system theory of management and
social exchange theory. Descriptive survey research design was adopted in the implementation of
the research. The targeted population is 228 hotels registered by the Tourism Regulatory Authority
as by the year 2021 in central region. Census method was adopted. Raw data was collected by
means of structured questionnaires. Pilot study was conducted to a sample size of 23 respondents
in Nyeri County in order to enhance feasibility of the research methodology. Reliability and
validity of the instruments was determined using split half method and matching respectively. Data
was collected after getting clearance and research permit from the KCA University and NACOSTI
respectively. The following diagnostic tests were carried out: normality, heteroscedasticity and
multicollinearity. Quantitative data was subjected to SPSS version 25 so as to generate descriptive
statistics (frequencies, means, standard deviation and percentages) and inferential statistics
(correlation coefficients, regression coefficients, ANOVA). Relationship between variables was
established using Pearson`s Product Moment Correlational Analysis. Hypotheses was tested by
means of F-statistical test at the widely accepted 0.05 level of significance. Statistical findings
were presented in tables. The strength of the relationship between social media marketing tools
and performance of Hotels in Central Region of Kenya decreased in the following order: social
media content (r=0.81), social marketing capacity (r=0.76), social media platform (r=0.51) and
social marketing culture (r=0.33) for p = 0.00 < 0.05. Therefore, the four null hypotheses were
rejected and concluded that there is significant relationship between social media platform, social
media content, social marketing capacity, social marketing culture and performance of hotels in
central region in Kenya. The model or social media marketing tools (social media platform, social
media content, social marketing capacity, social marketing culture) accounted for 78% variation
in the performance of hotels in Central Region of Kenya (for R2=0.78). The resolved model was:
Y = 0.24+0.05X1+ 0.55X2+ 0.39X3+ 0.04X4+ε. It was concluded that an increase in social media
platform, social media content, social marketing capacity, social marketing culture would result
into a significant increase in the performance of hospitality firms amongst the registered hotels in
Central Region, Kenya. Government was recommended to create digital schools, develop policies
that encourage creative utility of social medial platforms while promoting ethical social media
marketing practices so as to protect the rights of the consumers while promoting fair trade.
Managers should conduct thorough analysis of the targeted audience and suitability of a social
media platform before adoption to optimize its utility in enhancing performance. Managers should
also ensure that the social media contents are relevant, informative and engaging with customers.
Also, managers should put in place a dedicated digital team to effectively manage and optimize
social media marketing while promoting positive social marketing culture. Future studies should
focus on testing the findings from this study in different contexts in order to generate more
representative and generalizable findings. | en_US |
