"College Student Satisfaction Levels with Tourism Promotion on Social Media": Senior Thesis Project
I wrote this thesis paper in collaboration with the capstone experience at Spring Hill College which allows communication arts seniors to synthesize their entire program of studies. Inspired by my own travels, the paper research student satisfaction with tourism promotion on social media. During my final semester of college, I conducted primary research through the form of in-depth interviews and wrote a 30 page research paper. At the end of the semester, I presented my findings to the Communication Arts faulty via the Zoom platform. The presentation was the culmination of four months of late nights and hard work. It was an extremely rewarding moment. An abstract can be found below. View my Zoom presentation: HERE |
Abstract: College Student Satisfaction Levels with Tourism Promotion on Social Media This research paper aimed to find if college students are satisfied with tourism promotion on social media. Ultimately, the study revealed students are satisfied, but there is a large opportunity for improvement. Students are most satisfied with tourism promotion on social media if promotions build trust by being reliable and meeting students’ visual expectations. The study was conducted in response to the very limited body of work researching the impact of using social media to promote tourism on social media from the student traveler perspective. Destination Marketing Organizations (DMOs) would benefit from a greater understanding of the best practices. Secondary research was conducted through a literature review that revealed key themes of satisfaction on social media to include building trust, using influencers, and cultivating emotion. Primary research was gathered through ten 25-30-minute in-depth interviews with current college students using a semi-structured interview style. The interviewees were found through a purposeful sample and all saw social media promotion prior to traveling with other students. The interviews revealed major themes of photographic deception/success, trust, and expectations, and influencers. This study was important because it revealed information about the “student personality” when traveling and the need for further research on student’s interest in social media influencers. |