Impact of Social Media Engagement on Tourists’ Choice of Sustainable Accommodation in Maasai Mara, Kenya

The rapid growth of social media has reshaped how tourists select accommodation in eco-tourism destinations, yet limited empirical work has examined this dynamic in flagship African settings. This study examined the impact of social media engagement, operationalised through online reviews, influencer marketing, user-generated content, and direct interactions, on tourists’ choice of sustainable accommodation in the Maasai Mara, Kenya. A descriptive research design grounded in qualitative secondary data analysis was adopted, drawing on six authoritative sources synthesised through a documentary checklist. Aggregate trend data (2020–2023) from the Narok County Tourism Department and the Kenya Tourism Board were further analysed using Pearson correlation and simple linear regression in IBM SPSS 28, with the small-sample caveat treated as illustrative rather than predictive. Findings showed that over 70% of tourists visiting African eco-tourism destinations rely on social media for accommodation search, dominated by TripAdvisor and Instagram. A very strong positive association was observed between rising social media engagement and tourist arrivals (r = 0.997; R² = 0.994; p = 0.003), with arrivals growing by 62.5% from 2020 to 2023. Tourists also demonstrated a clear preference for eco-friendly accommodation when sustainability practices were prominently featured in social media content, and institutional digital marketing further amplified these effects. The study concludes that social media engagement substantially shapes the choice of sustainable accommodation in the Maasai Mara, and recommends that lodge operators, destination managers, and county governments treat social media not as a peripheral promotional tool but as a core component of sustainable tourism strategy.