Social media in Tyrolean tourism associations

How does crisis communication via social media work in Tyrolean tourism associations? How important is social media monitoring in destination management?

As part of a research project by the Tyrolean Science Funding (TWF), the use of social media in crisis communication and social media monitoring in Tyrolean tourism associations was examined in more detail. This article provides an overview of the core results of the project.

Initial situation and objectives

The increasing importance of social media in the communication of tourism associations forms the starting point of this project. While the use of social media channels has already been examined in more detail in an earlier project(for details see here), this project addressed new issues arising from crisis communication during the COVID-19 pandemic as well as the evaluation of these communication channels, their monitoring and the strategic implications of the channels. The objectives of the TWF project "Social Network Analysis of Tyrolean Tourism Associations" were therefore:

(1) to carry out an evaluation of the social media activities of the 34 Tyrolean tourism associations with a focus on crisis communication during the Covid-19 crisis and

(2) to implement social media monitoring and reporting on the online knowledge platform "ttr.tirol - Tirol Tourism Research".

Results - Part 1: Crisis communication in tourism: The Covid-19 pandemic on social media

With the start of the Covid-19 project crisis shortly after the start of the project, the focus of the project was placed on the current issue: How and what are Tyrolean tourism associations and tourism companies communicating during the Covid-19 crisis? Which topics are coming to the fore? Which hashtags are dominating the debate? In several publications with a diverse empirical focus, the topics were examined in various sectors (tourism associations, ski resorts, family hotel industry) as well as geographical comparisons. Here you will find an overview of the articles already published:

• Bosio, B., Fecker, D., Nadegger, M., Haselwanter, S. (2022). Crisis communication in ski resorts. A cross-national social media analysis of the COVID-19 crisis Switzerland - Austria. In Bieger, T., Beritelli, P. & Laesser, C. (eds.). Crisis management and digital innovations in alpine tourism. Swiss Yearbook for Tourism 2021/2022. Erich Schmidt Verlag.
• Fecker, D., Bosio, B., Nadegger, M., & Haselwanter, S. (2021). Skiing during the pandemic with masks and tests. How Austrian ski resorts cope with the COVID-19 crisis on Instagram. Journal of Tourism Science, 13(3), 423-443.
• Fecker, D.; Nadegger, M.; Haselwanter, S. (2021): Physically Apart, Emotionally Close. How Family-Run Hotels Used Instagram During the COVID-19 Pandemic. In: Anita Zehrer, Gundula Glowka, Katrin Magdalena Schwaiger and Victoria Ranacher-Lackner (eds.): Resiliency Models and Addressing Future Risks for Family Firms in the Tourism Industry: IGI Global (Advances in Hospitality, Tourism, and the Services Industry), pp. 207-241.
• Nadegger, M., Bosio, B., Haselwanter, S., Untersteiner, J. & Wegerer, P. (2021). Social media communication in the Covid-19 crisis. An Instagram analysis of the Tyrolean tourism associations. In: Bieger, T., Beritelli, P., & Laesser, C. (Eds.). Crisis management and future strategies for Alpine tourism. Swiss Yearbook for Tourism 2020/21. Berlin: ESV
• Nadegger, M., Bosio, B., Wegerer, P., Haselwanter, S. & Untersteiner, J. (2020). #mitabstandnah - A hashtag analysis of the Tyrolean tourism associations in Corona times. Tourism Knowledge Quarterly, 21, July 20, pp. 222-227.

Results - Part 2: Social media monitoring - hurdles, opportunities and strategic use

Part 2 of the TWF project deals with the use of social media monitoring in Tyrolean tourism associations. The aim here is to first understand the initial situation and importance, but also the hurdles in the implementation of social media monitoring in tourism associations, in order to then develop assistance and an overview of the core key figures on the ttr.tirol platform.

The first step was to conduct interviews with eight different tourism associations in order to understand the importance and use of social media monitoring in the daily work of tourism associations. The interviews revealed the following key findings:

Central channels

• Facebook & Instagram as main channels
• Target groups: Facebook - Baby Boomers; Instagram - Generation Y & Z;
• Use of other channels such as Pinterest or YouTube less strategic and more "on-the-go" or for inspiration
• TikTok as the main channel for experimentation and future use for a younger audience
• Twitter as the least important channel for destinations

Key KPIs

• Interactions (likes, shares, comments) & engagement (interaction in relation to followers) as key indicators
• Number of followers, impressions and reach are considered important, but should be interpreted with caution ("fake followers")
• Building knowledge about these indicators is more important than benchmarking and comparison with competitors

Importance of monitoring

• Strategic use of social media monitoring is becoming increasingly important: the more professional & regular, the greater the influence on strategic decisions and product development.
• Especially in larger associations, social media monitoring is an important part of overall performance and management.

Obstacles

• Financial and personnel capacities, especially in smaller destinations: no time for monitoring (or regular posting)
• In-house expertise: collaboration with third-party agencies seen as critical; building in-house expertise and knowledge of monitoring as a key factor
• Technological barriers: Complicated and/or expensive monitoring tools and volatile social media insights on the platforms themselves as key barriers to systematic and strategic monitoring.

These findings from the interviews were used to develop a social media monitoring report in the form of a poster and short videos for the 2021/2022 tourism year. Facebook and Instagram were selected as the central channels here, and the key figures were selected based on the interviews. The data basis is provided by the Fanpage Karma platform, which offers access to a complete survey of social media insights for all 34 tourism associations twice a year by arrangement.

Conclusion & outlook

Both parts of the project provide scientific findings on the use of social networks in tourism associations. Part 1 contributed valuable insights into communication in times of crisis and provided scientific insights into the communication work and social media use of tourism service providers in exceptional cases. Part 2, on the other hand, was able to shed more light on the use of social media monitoring in destinations, identify the problems and central issues and, building on this, support tourism associations in their monitoring work and contribute to knowledge transfer with the development of a TTR social media poster. In the next step, the social media monitoring poster will be converted into interactive statistics at TTR. We will keep you up to date on this topic here.

If you have any questions about the research results or do not have access to individual articles at your university or organization, you can contact us by email or via our social media channels(Facebook and Instagram).