The Impact of Social Media on Business Performance of Hotel Enterprises in Northern Province, Sri Lanka

Abstract

Social Media (SM) has an extensive effect on entrepreneurial industry, while hotel sectors worldwide provide immense economic opportunities to every country and its local community. The widespread use of SM by hotels and the efficacy of SM activities, particularly the evaluation of SM features in relation to business performance, are both in short supply throughout the Northern Region. The major objective of the study is to evaluate how SM affects hotel business performance in the Northern Province of Sri Lanka. An online five-point Likert scale model questionnaire was used to collect the data from a sample of 86 hotels in the Northern Province by using a convenient sampling approach. As the dimensions of visibility, edit-ability and association-related factors were chosen as independent variables. The hotel industry's business success was identified as dependent variables and financial and non-financial performances were assessed to determine the overall business performance. The collected data were examined using statistical methods, namely correlation and regression analysis, and the hypothesis were evaluated based on the results.  The findings of the data analysis reveal that SM characteristics have a positive and significant impact on hotel business performance, and all four hypotheses were accepted with a significance level of 0.000. Further, the findings demonstrated that social media characteristics have a positive impact on hotel business success; it also has important implications for hotel managers who wish to concentrate their social media strategy and take use of social media's potential to improve hotel performance. Furthermore, the result may be beneficial to other businesses contemplating investment in SM.

Keywords: Business Performance, Hotel Entrepreneurship, Social Media, Social Media Characteristics