Development of an implementation framework and social media analytics tool for Tanzania's tourism small and medium-sized enterprises

Abstract

Tourism is among the sectors that contribute greatly to the economic development of many countries. The industry contributes the growth of countries' economies and employment in 2019 it contributed 10.3% of the global gross domestic product and 330 million jobs. Majority of organisations in the tourism sector operate as small and medium enterprises (SMEs). Tourism SMEs prominently use ICT services including social media in their daily business activities. Performing social media analytics has the potential to bring maximum advantage to social media business users as it can provide insights of social media data for added business competitiveness. Tourism SMEs are conducting SMA in their business activities even though there is no framework to govern the process. There is a need for these tourism SMEs to have an implementation framework that governs the implementation and management of the SMA process. This study aims to develop a social media analytics implementation framework and a social media analytics tool for tourism SMEs in Tanzania. The study used questionnaires to survey tourism SMEs in the Arusha and Kilimanjaro regions to determine their social media analytics practices. The study found that majority of tourism SMEs 73% have not adopted the use of social media analytics tools and technologies. The 27% of SMEs that have adopted the use of social media analytics tools perform simple analytics using built-in tools from social media platforms, and don’t have guidelines or procedures to aid the implementation of social media analytics. The study is unique in that, it proposes a social media analytics implementation framework to assist tourism managers in implementing social media analytics in their social media platforms and the social media analytics tool. The framework was evaluated by tourism SMEs and the majority 86.66% agreed that it is appropriate for their usage. The study also introduces the social media analytics tool which will provide insight into the social media data of tourism SMEs. This research contributes knowledge and information about social media analytics to tourism SMEs managers and owners and provides the implementation framework and the social media analytics tool to tourism managers.