Adoption of Social Media Marketing by Tourism Product Suppliers: A Study in Eastern Province of Sri Lanka

Abstract

This study aims to examine the social media adoption models used by the tourism product suppliers in Sri Lanka and the challenge confronted and the opportunities available when they adopt social media marketing are also addressed. In this qualitative study, social media experts and managerial people from these firms were interviewed. The findings reveal that two main social media tools namely Facebook and Twitter are used by tourism product suppliers in Sri Lanka and the adoption of such media is still in early stage. Rather than using these tools as a medium of engagement with customers, these firms see them as an advertisement and promotional tool to push their customers. It was identified that based on firms’ strategic framework they use SOM and in maturity level perspective they use SMSLC and SMMM as the social media adoption model. The study was limited to only the Eastern province of Sri Lanka and future researches can extend this to the entire country.

Keywords: Social media marketing, social media adoption model, Tourism product suppliers, Eastern province, Sri Lanka.