Getaway or Getawayhouse is a tiny-cabin vacation rental company that puts “nature within reach” and is considered a member of the travel/hospitality industry (Getaway House, 2023). For its guests and social media followers though, Getaway is a lifestyle, a vibe, and something (or rather someone) to aspire to.
"At Getaway, we believe in making space for more free time. An easy drive from the city, our tiny cabins are your window into nature—giving you the wide-open space you need to rest and rediscover the best part of you." (Getaway House, 2023, para 1)
Success is evident at any access point to the brand. Their website, Getaway.house, shows a majority of “no availability” dates across their 29 tiny-cabin locations (About Getaway, n.d.). And their social media following is the dream of digital marketing professionals the world over. Their cabins – nestled in some of the most stunning natural settings across the US – may be tiny, but Getaway’s social media presence is anything but. With the exception of LinkedIn (more on this later), they have a presence across all major social media platforms. The number of followers on each platform ranges from Pinterest with 1,619 followers and roughly 41.7 thousand monthly views; X (formerly Twitter) with 6,508; TikTok with roughly 63 thousand followers; Facebook with 164 thousand followers; to Instagram with over 1.1 million followers and growing (Facebook.Com/Getawayhouse, n.d.; Getaway (@getaway) Instagram Photos and Videos, 2015; GETAWAY (@getaway_house) / X, 2017; Getaway (@getawayhouse) Official, n.d.; Pinterest.Com/Getawayhouse/, n.d.).

Social media is perhaps the most widely used space where intercultural communication exists. And as a marketing and multimedia professional who spends a lot of time in the social media universe, I got to thinking about how intercultural communication is woven deeply and richly into the fabric of social media practices and engagement. This is also the easiest place to find examples of intercultural miscommunications, misinterpretations, and a lack of intercultural sensitivity and misappropriation.

For example, a white teen girl wore a traditional Chinese dress to her prom and faced national backlash for it after posting photos of the night to her social media accounts.

Sustainability is a hot topic in everything from personal practices to global politics these days. And "while attitudes vary across generations, countries, and industries, 85% of consumers have become ‘greener’ in their purchasing in recent years” (Business Wire, 2021).  So where does one start if seeking to develop a broader knowledge of what it means to be green?

I always like to start with a big picture and work my way down into granular details, so I started by looking at going green on a global scale!