DETUROPE - The Central European Journal of Regional Development and Tourism 2022, 14(2):82-107 | DOI: 10.32725/det.2022.015

Online Customer Engagement in the Hospitality Industry: A Mixed Method Research

Buket Komsuoğlua, Aydın Çevirgenb
a Alanya Alaaddin Keykubat University, Graduate School
b Alanya Alaaddin Keykubat University, Faculty of Tourism




Focusing on accommodation establishments, such as hotels, this study examines the factors that lead customers to engage in social media platforms and determines whether the importance of these factors differs according to the customers’ demography. We used exploratory sequential mixed method research (MMR) design. Customer reviews on the Facebook page of a 5-star hotel in Alanya, Turkey analyzed for the qualitative part of the study. Subsequently, in the quantitative part, a questionnaire was created based on the results of the qualitative study and the relevant literature. The quantitative part employed the convenience sampling method using an online survey filled out by 602 social media users. Based on the factor analysis we identified seven customer engagement dimensions: experiential benefit; identity; appreciation; information; advocacy; recommendation; and satisfaction. The appreciation dimension was introduced to the literature as a new dimension that had not been used in previous empirical studies. One of the most striking results obtained from the study was that there were significant differences between all demographic variables (gender, marital status, education, and age) and customers’ perceptions of the information dimension. 

Keywords: Online customer engagement, social media, demographic variables, hospitality industry

Received: May 27, 2022; Revised: August 6, 2022; Accepted: December 29, 2022; Published: December 29, 2022  Show citation

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Komsuoğlu, B., & Çevirgen, A. (2022). Online Customer Engagement in the Hospitality Industry: A Mixed Method Research. DETUROPE - The Central European Journal of Regional Development and Tourism, 14(2), 82-107. doi: 10.32725/det.2022.015
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