Preferred Social Networking App by Employees in Tourism and Hospitality Industry in Kenya

Abstract

The purpose of this paper was to examine the preferred social media application network by employees in the tourism and hospitality industry. The specific aims were to examine the preferred social media amongst Facebook, WhatsApp, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, email and YouTube, examine the relationship between respondent's gender, a position at workplace and choice of social media and finally find out official the duties performed by the respondent's using the smartphones. The finding indicated that the most popular social media platform was WhatsApp (93%) closely followed by Email (84%) and the least being LinkedIn used by only 25% of respondents. Employees' gender (χ 2 =5.880, df =1, p<0.05) and position at the workplace (χ 2 =9.585, df =2, p<0.05) had minimal influence on the selection of social media preference. The majority (81 %) of the respondents perform up to 50% of their official duties with the help of their smartphones translating to improved and effective customer services, reduced operation cost, and healthier business performance. The study concluded that WhatsApp and Email were the most preferred social media network and were used to communicate and transact business with customers and other stakeholders in the tourism and hospitality industry. Smartphones are no longer luxury tools but are part of the technology that every employee in the industry must adapt to. Contribution/Originality: This study is one of the very few studies that have investigated the preferred media network by employees in the tourism and hospitality industry in Kenya. The paper's primary contribution is the finding that WhatsApp and Email were the most preferred social media network and were used to communicate and transact business between employees and customers and stakeholders in the industry. 1. INTRODUCTION Notably, more than 90% of employees in Kenya own a smartphone and in most cases; you see people performing different services using a smartphone more than their laptops and desktop computers. This may be partly because mobile application capabilities allow users to access browsers while hybrid App-web installed in a smartphone enable users to access the internet Lama (2019) and Kvist and Mathiasson (2019). Mobile applications are used as constant reminders of business existence and engage customers' in the hospitality industry. They increase customer accessibility with reduced communication costs and increased efficiency. Most people in Kenya who have Smartphones can easily gain internet connectivity and access to social networks. In Kenya, 87% of adults own a mobile device while only 3% do not use a mobile phone.

Construction of a Virtual Reality Model of Smart Tourism Scenic Spot Based on Cloud Computing

“…From the perspective of travel booking, relevant scholars point out the role of network information technology in online travel booking, and through the study of the development trend of online travel booking, it is concluded that there will be a series of changes in online travel booking, which is the basis for the further exploration of travel e-commerce [10]. e development space provides development ideas and promotes new breakthroughs and progress in the tourism industry.…”