Page 700 - MARSIUM'21 COMP OF PAPER

FYP

AHIBS UTM SKUDAI JANUARY 2022

HOW PINTEREST ENGAGE WITH CONSUMER FOR TRAVEL

NURUL AZIFAH BINTI AZDI, ASSOC. PROF. DR NOOR HAZARINA HASHIM

Azman Hashim International Business School, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, Johor Bahru

*Corresponding author: azifahazdi99@gmail.com, m-hazarina@utm.my

The tourism sector relay on the digital platform nowadays to reach consumers. Pinterest application is one of the platforms has been choosen by the tourism
destination. This study is focusing on how tourism destinations adopt and implement Pinterest to engage with local tourism to help them in deciding travel
destination. The use of Pinterest is not widespread in Malaysia for now. That is the reason why certain tourism destinations faced problems to get the reach
of viewers on this platform. Besides that, they did not aware of the specific elements that can increase engagement in this platform. This study is aiming at
local tourists that use Pinterest in their daily life as well as in helping them to decide on traveling. There are four variables that will be investigate in this
research which are perceived ease of use, perceived usefulness, perceived trust and social capital. Those four variables are influencing the consumer
intention to use Pinterest page in past research and minimum 100 respondent needed to succeed this research.

Keywords: Pinterest, Tourism, Local tourist

■ 1.0 INTRODUCTION

The tourism industry is hard to define rather than other industries because it does not have a clear product and incorporates other industries
as well like lodging, transport, travel companies, attraction, and more. Tourism can be defined as activities of persons traveling to and staying
in places outside their usual environment for not more than one consecutive year for leisure, health, business, and other purposes. According
to S.Lock (2021), globally, travel and tourism's direct contribution to GDP was approximately 2.9 trillion U.S. dollars in 2019. This industry
is affected by the Coronavirus pandemic due to the travel ban. According to Mohammad Ari Je Ulfy, (2016), the Malaysian Association of
Hotels (MAH) has estimated a loss of RM560.72 million revenues for the movement control order (MCO) period. So, for now, they rely on
the digital platform to keep on promoting and make a special offer like open for a certain period according to the government rules. Moreover,
in this digital era, this industry uses a digital platform to make promotion, attract tourists, and more. One of the platforms used by Malaysian
people to market their products or services is Pinterest. Pinterest became the fastest social network that reaches 10 million users, growing
4000% in 2011 alone (E.Gilbert et.al, 2013). As cited in Datareportal (2021), for the past few months in 2021, 6.72 million Malaysian citizens
age around 16 years old until 64 years old used Pinterest in life. The success of tourism destinations in any digital platform can be a benchmark
for them to prove that their marketing strategy excellent in attract and help consumers to make decisions, especially on travel issues.

1.1 BACKGROUND OF THE COMPANY

Tiarasa Escape is located at Janda Baik and just 45 minutes from Kuala Lumpur city. Tiarasa Escape is own by Puan Sri Tiara Jacquelina.
Tiarasa Escape itself is her idea in trying to bring the luxury tented accommodation experience to Malaysia based on what had she experienced
in a Berber tent at Sir Richard Branson’s Kasbah Tamadot in Morocco. Tiarasa Escape Glamping Resort had won awards which are
Landscape Design Award (Excellence) in the professional category as well as Project of The Year Award at the 11th Malaysia Landscape
Architect Award on 20th April 2019. As mentioned in one of the lifestyle news, Tiarasa Escapes is lauded as Malaysia’s first premium
glamping resort. The reason is the destination environment, Nestled in the cool foothills of Genting Highlands, Tiarasa Escapes offers guests
the option of stylish designed luxury safari-styled tented villas or breezy treetop villas with spacious wraparound verandahs, sprawled over
7 acres of the beautiful landscape that’s the perfect symbiosis of natural rainforest and clever design.

1.2 BACKGROUND OF THE PROBLEM

One of the tourism destination that has also been affected by the pandemic and keeps in touch with its followers on social media is Tiarasa
Escape. Normally in the tourism industry, the use of omnichannel is their aim. The reason is that the tourism destination could monitor their
customers more effectively. Omnichannel focuses on where the customers are located and ensures that whatever platform they used, these
customers will experience the same things. Besides that, by using the omnichannel approach, customers can access any information
constantly and the tourism destination’s view of customers is clear. Tiarasa Escape has different social media to attract its target audience
like Instagram, website, Pinterest, and more.

Tiarasa Escape could achieved great performance and successfully attract the thousands of followers on its website or Instagram
but it have a problem in getting followers in Pinterest, where Tiarasa Escape Pinterest page just get 5 followers on Pinterest. Why this famous
travel destination that could get artists or influencers as its customers but have fewer followers on Pinterest? Wondering about the experience

Pembentangan Projek Sarjana Muda 2018, Sekolah Perniagaan Antarabangsa Azman Hashim UTM SPACE

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