Exploring the Mediating Role of Companies’ Communication Between Goal Setting and Market Expansion in Social Media Tourism Marketing

The world is witnessing remarkable advancements in modern technology and electronics, particularly in social networking sites, which have become integral to many sectors, including tourism. Companies can now perform 360° marketing, integrating communication messages within a network context through social media and interactive virtual stores, on a 24/7/360 basis. The Internet has fundamentally reshaped the distribution of tourism information and the way people plan and carry out their trips. Most tourists now use the Internet to search for information about travel destinations. Given that tourism is a crucial economic sector for Greece, it is important to investigate how Greek tourism businesses utilize social media. Focusing to pertinent marketing literature, by effectively using social media, these businesses can gain a competitive advantage, create value for their products, and increase their profits. In this paper, we focus on the efficiency-oriented communication goal approach, which, when properly incorporated into social media tourism marketing strategies, can lead not only to efficiency, but also, to market expansion. To this end, we constructed a quantitative research instrument based on Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) and disseminated it through the Internet to a convenience sample of 700 social media and Internet tourism managers working at respective Greek companies, yielding a 28.15% response rate (197 responses). The research findings imply that certain companies’ communication strategies may have mediating effects on the relationship between goal setting oriented towards efficiency and market expansion. Implications for social media managers and academics are also discussed.