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The Effect of Social Media Usage of Tourism Students on Academic Success: The Case of

Çanakkale Onsekiz Mart University

Abstract

Social media stands out as a concept that is used by today's societies in almost every aspect of

life, almost completely integrated in daily life. The necessity of doing more research and more intensive
research on the concept of social media has emerged. The implications regarding the future of the

tourism sector, which tries to overcome the heavy effects of the pandemic process due to its sensitive
structure, seem to be possible by focusing on the education of tourism students. The aim of this study is

to determine whether the social media usage during academic activities of students who receive tourism

education affect the academic success of them. The study is thought to be important in terms of
awareness of students and informing educators who carry out the lessons. In line with the purpose of the

study, quantitative research method has been adopted. Questionnaire technique was used as a data
collection tool. The research population consists of 1130 undergraduate students enrolled in Çanakkale

Onsekiz Mart University Tourism Faculty. The sample consists of 437 tourism faculty students. Social
Media Usage Disorder Scale and demographic questions were used in the data collection questionnaire.

The reliability of the scale (Cronbach Alpha) was quite high at 0.768. The kurtosis and skewness levels

of the scale were found between -1 and +1. As a result, there was statistically significant and positive
effect of the use of social media on academic motivation. The most used social media platforms among

the students were identified as Whatsapp, Instagram, Youtube, Facebook and Twitter respectively. In
addition, the average of the students' grades was determined as 2.69 / 4.00.

Keywords: Tourism Education, Social Media, Academic Success

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