What is the Visibility Level of Cultural Heritage on Hotel Instagram Accounts? An Evaluation Based on Hotel Posts

Özet

Purpose – The main purpose of this research is to determine the extent to which hotel businesses use the cultural heritage elements of the destination on their Instagram accounts. In particular, the place of tangible and intangible cultural heritage elements in social media marketing is examined.
Design/methodology/approach – The Instagram accounts of a total of 34 hotel businesses belonging to the DoubleTree and Hilton Garden Inn brands of the Hilton hotel chain operating in Turkey were analyzed with a qualitative research approach. The data were collected from posts between 2023-2025 and subjected to content analysis. The posts of the hotels were classified under four main categories: product/service, commemoration/celebration, other and cultural heritage.
Results – The findings show that DoubleTree hotels have very limited cultural heritage-oriented content, whereas Hilton Garden Inn hotels share more and various cultural heritage elements. In the analysis of DoubleTree hotels, it was found that most establishments do not share content related to cultural heritage, and those that do usually offer posts that are mostly visual and limited in information content. In some destinations, such as Çanakkale, Kuşadası and Gaziantep, more detailed and narrative posts are available. Hilton Garden Inn hotels operating in culturally rich cities such as Konya, Kütahya, Mardin and Şanlıurfa systematically promote both tangible (historical buildings, museums) and intangible (food, rituals) cultural heritage elements.
Discussion – When a general comparison is made, it is observed that Hilton Garden Inn hotels excel in incorporating cultural heritage elements. It is also evident that the posts contain more information and that both tangible and intangible cultural heritage are equally important. DoubleTree hotels, on the other hand, focus mainly on on-site services and campaigns. It has not sufficiently placed cultural heritage elements at the center of its marketing strategy. This difference indicates that the two subgroups of the same brand exhibit significant variations in their level of integration with the destination.