Use of Facebook in the US heritage accommodations sector: An exploratory study

Social media is often considered a potential marketing channel for heritage tourism. However, there is limited research addressing how heritage tourism providers employ social media for their marketing communication. The goal of this exploratory study is, therefore, to examine the use of Facebook among heritage accommodations. A content analysis of 549 Facebook messages from 6 heritage hotels in the USA was conducted. Facebook posts were analyzed in terms the message content type, message media type, and the overall engagement of users and hotels. The descriptive results show that the most posted Facebook message topic is general hotel information, and the media type is text. In terms of engagement, most hotels put more focus on delivering their messages to their fans rather than engaging in conversations with them. The theoretical and practical contributions of this study are discussed.