Abstract:

Through the development of technology, widespread use of the Internet and smart phones, bilateral communication between consumers and consumers, consumers and and other has become possible. With the increasing information sharing in the tourism sector and the increasing role of social media on this issue, tourism enterprises have to be active in social media. In addition to traditional marketing methods, the importance given to social media marketing is increasing day by day. Thus, in this study, social media use cases of hotels in Rize province, which is one of Turkey's popular tourist attractions and its effect on hotel occupation rates were examined. First of all, the websites of the hotels were examined and their status in social media accounts was determined. Afterwards, if any, shared photographs were analyzed through social media accounts and their interaction with visitors was evaluated. Then, the effects of social media use of hotels with social media accounts on hotel occupancy were tried to be revealed. In this study the qualitative research method was chosen and interview technique was used to collect data. At the end of the study, results revealed that factors such as a lot of photo sharing in instagram accounts of hotels, giving more attention to the sharing of visitor-themed photos within the instagram account are effective on increasing the number of followers and this was resulted in an increase in the Hotel demand.

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