The overall transition towards a low-carbon economy is expected to pose a solution for several global problems, including the ongoing climate change while ensuring economic and social development. Large oil and gas companies are aware of the need to transform their business, turn to renewable and clean energy sources to build a positive image and reputation, and have the economic power to do so. This paper aims to evaluate the marketing communication of leading European oil and gas companies on their Instagram accounts in the context of reputation building through using social media and identify to what extent the companies reflect the environmental aspects of corporate social responsibility. Content analysis and the Social Blade tool were used to examine the marketing communication of the five biggest companies by revenue. All the companies are active on Instagram, but it has been found that the Russian companies have remained inactive and have even been losing followers since March 2022, when the war conflict in Ukraine started. Surprisingly, Shell uploaded only a few posts during the reference period but is recognized as the company achieving the highest social media effectiveness. Although all observed oil and gas companies continue their business as usual, they incorporate and communicate efforts to support the development of electromobility, clean and renewable energy projects, as well as ecological projects.

The paper focuses on evaluation the use of social media Instagram, YouTube and Twitter by 13 attractive European tourist city destinations for online marketing communication concerning building their reputation in the tourism sector. The following data were collected for all individual social media accounts using the online tool Social Blade: number of uploaded posts/media; number of comments, number of likes/views; number of follower/subscribers. According to the results of the analysis of available data, the quantity of the published content does not automatically mean the high degree of interactions of specific social media users. To determine the effectiveness of published posts (images, videos, textual posts) for individual analysed destinations, the index of Social Media Effectiveness (SME) was created and applied.

The paper focuses on the social network Instagram and its use by Czech university students during the COVID-19 pandemic lockdowns with restricted travel and services in comparison to typical Instagram activity in the pre-pandemic period. As Instagram specializes in visuals, it is perceived as an attractive online tool for promoting a wide range of products and services, including hospitality services and tourism destinations. The research aimed to determine which aspects of the use of this social network were affected by the pandemic lockdown period in 2020 among the young generation of active Instagram users. The analysis of data collected from a survey of 1138 respondents, for example, showed that students often started to follow new topics - especially in the areas of politics, health, personal development, sports, or hospitality services - in the context of the pandemic and its associated restrictions. At the same time, they started to spend more time on Instagram daily, typically 1-3 hours longer than they did in the pre-pandemic period. The analysis findings suggest that this social network should be seen as an increasingly important tool for effective online communication with the younger generation with tertiary education.

Research background: Two related effects of the COVID-19 global pandemic on tourism and hospitality in the Czech Republic are already evident for the upcoming summer months. In the first place, it is the effect on the Czech tourists’ preferences. The pandemic forced them to reconsider their plans and, as a result, it is evident that more tourists will spend summer only in the Czech Republic. This change in preferences is connected with a second effect, concerning the strategies of the domestic accommodation facilities - their managers should adapt marketing mix to meet the demand of Czech clients, because unlike the previous years, these tourists will become their main target group.Purpose of the article: The aim of the paper is to identify the preferences for summer holiday in 2020 of the Czech tourists who have decided to spend summer holiday only in the Czech Republic because of the COVID-19 global pandemic as well as to find out their wants in terms of accommodation facilities’ marketing mix.Methods: During spring 2020, a survey of 637 respondents was conducted to determine the preferences of the Czech tourists for summer holiday in 2020. This paper is focused on the analysis of data from respondents who decided to spend this year’s summer holiday only in the Czech Republic (a total of 202 respondents).Findings & Value added: Based on the results, we will define findings for accommodation facilities regarding the possible update of marketing mix to meet the actual demand of Czech tourists.

Mystery shopping can be characterized as a marketing method used for anonymous and objective evaluation of the quality of provided services. The method helps the owner of the company, where the mystery shopping is applied, to gain better images of processes in the company, information about employee behavior towards customers, quality of provided services, environment, atmosphere, etc. It is realized by mystery shoppers who give the owner the information about used services gained by secret purchases. The aim of the paper is to examine the use of the mystery shopping method as a tool for evaluating the sales process in hospitality facilities. We research the use of mystery shopping from two points of view. On one hand, based on the structured interviews with managers of mystery shopping agencies and, on the other hand, based on structured interviews with managers of hospitality facilities that use mystery shopping method. All researched companies agreed on the statement that mystery shopping is very good primary impulse for changes in the company but has to be followed by training and to achieve success and guests’ satisfaction devoted work of the management and all its employees is necessary.

Entrepreneurship and Sustainability Issues is a peer-reviewed journal which publishes original research papers and case studies