Tourism Marketing

UNIT 16 MARKETING STRATEGIES IN

DIGITAL AGE

Structure

16.0 Objectives
16.1 Introduction
16.2 Tourism and Digital Age
16.2.1 Technological Solutions in Tourism Industry
16.2.2 Tourism Marketing – A Historical Shift
16.3 Social Media as a Powerful Marketing Tool
16.3.1 Digital Marketing Platforms
16.4 Service Business Transformation
16.4.1 E- Marketing as a Digital Marketing Strategy
16.4.2 E-Commerce and Tourism
16.4.3 Complementary Marketing
16.5 Developing Digital Marketing Strategy for Tourism
16.5.1 Creating Digital Marketing Strategy for Tourism
16.5.2 Disadvantages of Digital Marketing
16.6 Let Us Sum Up
16.7 Further Readings
16.8 Clues to Check Your Progress Exercises
16.9 Activities

16.0 OBJECTIVES
After learning this unit, you will be able to:

explain the transformative function of technology in tourism business;

outline the influence of technology in tourism marketing;
identify the functions of various social medias in tourism marketing; and
categorise various digital media used for tourism marketing

16.1 INTRODUCTION
Tourism is one of the fastest growing and fastest changing industries in the
World. Technology is one of the major transforming agents for tourism
industries in the 21st century. Digitalization paves the way for a fundamental
transformation in major sectors of tourism as well as the way people started
travelling. Technology has direct influence on designing a tourist destination
272 to the pattern of tourist travel and competitive modelling of tourism and
related businesses. Technology has been highly acknowledged as a tool for Marketing
Strategies in
increased destination competencies, visibilities, dynamic modelling of Digital Age
tourism related businesses, consumer behaviour, marketing and promotion of
a tourist destination. It is so prevalent, that according to a Google Travel
study, 74% of travellers plan their trips on the Internet, while only 13% still
use travel agencies to prepare them. In fact, the influence of technology these
days have transformed tourism industry by changing the fundamental forms
and shapes of tourism.

In this unit, we will discuss the changing nature of tourism marketing in this
digital age. In the previous unit we have discussed the different forms of new
age digital marketing. In this unit we further discuss the use of technology in
tourism business as well as the marketing strategies that need to be used in
this digital age.

16.2 TOURISM AND DIGITAL AGE

There is a sea change continuously happening in travel and tourism industry
due to the intervention of technology. Historically, during the origin of the
grand tour, the industry was fundamentally functioning based on manual
services offered by different sectors of tourism. Major influence of
technology in the tourism industry was during the Industrial Revolution 3.0
and 4.0. Major transformation during IR 3.0 was the introduction of Global
Distribution System (GDS), since GDS specifically made a change in
booking procedures using computers and networks. Airline and hotel
industries were the major beneficiaries of the IR 3.0. Industrial Revolution
4.0 (IR4.0) was the major transformer of shaping the travel and tourism
industry to today’s form. Major transitions due to IR 4.0 are due to
technology, mainly on the basis of Artificial Intelligence (AI), Virtual Reality
(VR), Robotics, and so on.

Another important area of influence of technology on tourism is marketing

and promotion of tourism product, services and destinations. Several
technological applications such as Virtual Reality (VR) have reduced the
issues of intangibility of destination and help potential tourists’ to make a
decision while choosing destination to visit.

The introduction of social media was a major turn in destination marketing,

promotion and management and today social media such as Facebook,
Twitter, Instagram plays an important role in marketing tourism and related
service products. Within a short span of time, social media became an
important influence of potential tourists in their choice of destination.
Today’s tourism industry, in digital age, have been shaped by several web-
based applications, digital services such as cloud computing, unified
communication, social media, Online Travel Agencies (OTAs), big data, near

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Tourism Marketing field communication, predictive analysis, intelligent personal assistance,
tourist experience, and so on.

16.2.1 Technological Solutions in Tourism Industry

Among many, smart mobile phones are still the most important tech solutions
in the travel and tourism industry, since communications and other personal
assistant facilities are fully embedded in a smart phone and therefore,
undoubtedly smartphones are inevitable in the paradigm shift of travel and
tourism industry. At the same time, mobile phones have become our map,
tour escort, travel agent, locator for several tourism services, and be used
throughout in the tourist lifecycle (Belen, 2019).

Based on the survey, the second most influencing tech solution is the
Augmented Reality (AR), which helps to teleport potential tourists to a
destination virtually. It can be a pre-visitor sample experience or perhaps for
those who can’t travel for some reason. Using AR/VR technology, one can
virtually experience a destination without being present there. Several apps
are available to provide a prior tour experience that helps to choose a tourist
destination. If one would prefer to climb the Mount Everest, using a VR app,
he/ she can virtually experience and enjoy the beauty of Mount Everest.

Internet of thins (IoT) is another fundamental transforming technology in

tourism related business. The Internet of Things (IoT) provides significant
updates to the tourism industry, which helps to provide up-to-date industry
information, personalisation of customer experience, tracking of services and
managing their journey using digital technology.

Another transformative technological intervention in tourism industry is the

Virtual Assistance (VA). This technology helps tourists to get personal
assistance through specially designated applications. It also helps tourists to
access information on a destination which in turn helps the tourists to get a
personalised and service engaged personal experience.

Big Data plays another important milestone for travel and tourism industry;
specifically hotel and airline sectors use this technology to analyse
customer’s data to understand their interest, likes and tastes. This technology
helps in better segmentation and personalise the target markets in order to
increase efficiency and optimise their budget plans.

Block chain technology is another important transformational technology in

the tourism industry. Its wide networks with several services can be useful in
identifying passengers at the airport, guaranteeing transparency in tourists'
opinions, and easy and secure payments.

Finally, travel technologies such as VR, virtually assisted tour guiding

techniques, Online Travel services have made a special impact on how
tourists travel these days.
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16.2.2 Tourism Marketing – A Historical Shift Marketing
Strategies in
Digital Age
Like any other industry, tourism also has significant level of historic
transformation due to the technological interventions. Marketing in the
tourism industry has distinct characteristics due to its very nature of
temporality ‘the movements and space usage’ of tourists are temporary. The
crucial time is the experiential time of the tourists while they are passing
through the tourism system. Successful marketing strategies involves
providing a memorable and sensible experience during their travel and stay in
a shorter period of time.
There is no doubt that Digital Marketing is used by so many businesses of
different industries and has proven its worth in delivering many more leads to
them and of course, more leads mean more business and more business
means more profit. Tourism industry has adapted well in the realm of the
digital world to increase their brand awareness and be able to reach more
possible customers as much as they could. Marketing in tourism requires a
good knowledge of the exigencies and trends of the market, the orientation of
the supply of tourism products according to the size and structure of the
demand, the establishment of a price and pricing strategy, and a distribution
platform (SOFRONOV, 2019). Digital applications made the stakeholders of
tourism to avail that information easily, accurately and available fast.
Analysing the historical growth of tourism, use of technology in tourism for
tourism promotion, marketing and sales is considered as the most important
transformative occurrences of tourism and service marketing.
The importance of marketing within the travel and tourism industry has been
popularised after recognising the power of tourism for economic
transformation of the World and nations, particularly in the 21st century;
which has led to the improvement in living standards, an enlargement of the
population and an increase in discretionary income and time. Infrastructure
developments such as transportation, hotel and lodging industry, recreation
facilities and destination development paves the way for an increased demand
of tourism leading to a rapid growth that makes the industry more competent
in the market. As more and more people started travelling, the industry
became a leading economic source for almost all the countries of the World.
Traditional way of marketing such as billboards, newspaper, TV
advertisements, magazines, tabloids, and other visual communications such
as videos and movies were popular during the early history of tourism
marketing.
The most important transformation of tourism marketing was due to the
invention of technology and its application in tourism and service marketing
through. Website, blogs, user generated content, reservation tools, Online
Travel Agencies, smart booking tools, AR and VR. Technologies have
influenced the industry to a significant level of transformation in the area of
tourism marketing and promotions.
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Tourism Marketing
16.3 SOCIAL MEDIA AS A POWERFUL
MARKETING TOOL
Social media can be a powerful marketing tool if it is managed strategically.
Social media pages can be a memorable one or totally silent and unknown
based on how the platform is exercised to popularise travel related products
and services. There are several ways to boot the social media to get public
attention and hence can be used as a powerful marketing tool. Following are
some important strategies adopted by tourism stakeholders to increase lead
using their social media platform: -

1) Increasing the Brand Awareness: Service providers and Destination

Marketing Organisations (DMOs) use innovative strategies to increase
their online shares which helps for a wide reach to their potential
customers. Several tourism related companies are actively incentivising
the users to share information with other networks in order to increase
their public presence. Incentives such as vouchers for complimentary
services (coffee/ tea/ snacks etc.) or complimentary breakfast, transfers,
are some of the added values of the social media users who have already
used a service for tourism. The goal of the service providers is to
increase online shares on news/updates through honest customer
experiences with their brands. The tourism establishment can increase
the brand awareness and overall exposure in the general public domain
through these interaction with present and potential customers.

2) Responding to Negative Feedback: Although, social media are

intended to spread positive information about a product and services, the
platforms are often opened to discuss genuine feedbacks. Negative
feedbacks are also part and parcel of any tourism services as it is not
necessary that in all events the things can go right. Prompt feedback by
recognising the values of the comment is inevitable. It is also important
to reflect upon the services and what went wrong. The team who manage
the social media must be trained in handling negative comments and
address it with its genuineness.

3) Provision of Exciting Information to the Clients before the Trip:

While tourists are on their trip, most likely they are in an unknown place
where they need several information to move around and experience the
place. Providing additional information prior and during their trip is
important. A guide to the place of visit, visitors trip sheet, dining
information, do’s and don’ts, safety trips, etc, are considered as
additional information to exhilarate and increase confidence of tourists
planning their trips. This approach will help positive comments, more
online sharing leading to increase brand loyalty among customers.

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16.3.1 Digital Marketing Platforms Marketing
Strategies in
Digital Age
In the previous unit you have read about the different ways and tools of
digital marketing that has become popular in present times. These tools are
used as the platforms for marketing strategies. These digital platforms and the
marketing tools for destination marketing are discussed below:

1) Destination Websites: Destination Management Organisations (DMOs)

play an important role in destination marketing and is considered as one
most reliable source for information to the potential tourists. The vast
information in a destination website is the most important source for
tourism stakeholders and tourists. Major information sources available in
a tourism destination websites are:

i) Latest news and media information - Information related to the

latest happening of the tourism industry. Potential tourists can get
updates on national and global travel information from this platform.
ii) Activities and Promotional Programmes - Audience can gather
information on the latest fairs and promotions related to tourism.
Registering through this will help tourists get personalised assistance
about one or several tourist destinations. List of promotional
programmes, dates and scope of activities are normally published on
this platform.
iii) Nichè Products - This platform provides the nichè of tourism in a
destination. Those exploring different travel experience and special
features of a destinations will be able to generate information from
here. Tourists can opt as per their travel taste, a specific product and
make plan from here.
iv) Stakeholders platform - Major reputed and authorised agents,
service providers are available on this one platform. Potential
tourists are able to contact and pursue their intended travel plans
from an authorised website.
v) Tour Packages - Several thematic travel package options are
available to choose through this platform. This will provide an
opportunity for the potential tourists to plan their holidays.
vi) Travel and Tours - This link offers various information on various
packaging options, information on various transport services, car
rentals, coach information, classification of vehicles, description of
places, videos, etc. Tourist can choose as per budget and options.
vii) Dining Information - Choice of food is always an important choice
of tourists. Names of national authentic cuisines, places of available
places for the cuisines, name of etc. are available at one place.

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Tourism Marketing viii) Top Destination - This platform provides information of must see
places in the destination, and allows the potential tourists to choose
the ideal places for their visit.
ix) Things to Do - Every destination has several memorable activities,
which perhaps be the best choice of activities such as leisure hunts,
trekking, health tourism, festivals, fairs, dance, music drama and
several other activities that has some touristic interests.
x) Plan Your Trip - This platform indicates where to stay, e- brochures,
visa and travel document details, travel information, travel care,
newsletters, etc.
xi) Social Media Links - In order to exhilarate with information and
user content generated feedbacks, most of the websites are linked
with social media such as YouTube, Facebook, twitter, Instagram
etc
xii) Awards and Accolades - This platform provides leadership position
of the destination through national and international recognitions as
well as through associations and bodies. The intended traveller gets
extra confidence on the quality of their visit.
xiii) Language Options - Since the tourists are coming from different
countries, websites provide language options. This is mainly based
on the top tourist generating countries of the destination. Through
this facility, potential travellers can navigate through their interested
choice of language.

2) Social Media: Travel is one of the most shared topics on ‘The big 3’
social networks such as Facebook, twitter and Instagram (Vanessa,
2019). User generated content in the social media, feedbacks and review
provides several decision making information to the tourists. Peer tourist
review of social media could very easily get them thinking about how
they could follow in their friend’s footsteps and enjoy the same exciting
experience. They read such great things about a place that it helps the
tourists to make their appropriate choice. Following are the benefits of
social media in destination Marketing:-

i) Travel Research (Review Platform): Social media platform such

as TripAdvisor provides an ocean of information about travel and
choice. Travel reviews by almost 390 million users attest any
intended travellers’ decision making. This platform also helps to
push queries through the peer travel reflections, through forums, etc.

Providing travel experience comments on Facebook and sending

tweets out on Twitter about their experiences is also a feedback
mechanism. Recently, social media platforms have also become an
excellent resource for gathering information about destinations,
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 packages, accommodations, activities, dining, and destination Marketing
Strategies in
experiences (Vanessa, 2019). Even the websites of a destination or Digital Age
hotel or attraction like theme park has a feedback from a visitor on
their web page.

ii) Recommendations: Valuable recommendation by those who have

travelled and their experiences are reflected through social media.
Rating provided and narrative recommendations help the potential
tourists to make decisions on the choice of a destination. Ratings are
mostly given in the form of stars.

iii) Choice of Destination through the Sharing of Places: Many times

social media is not only intended to share tourists own trip photos
and experiences. It is also becoming popular for supporting potential
tourists to plan their trip and inspire them to travel, as social media
help the potential travellers to identify a suitable and affordable
place for their trip.

iv) Customer Services through Social Media: Social media also act a
platform for customer services. Intended travellers can push question
mainly through social media on the services offered. Destinations
are actively engaging in inspiring potential tourists through their
social media platforms.

3) Blogs: In the tourism industry, blogs plays an important role in

marketing and promotion of tourism and related services and engage
them with tourism service providers.

i) Search Engine Optimisation- Blogs always helps to bring fresh

content about a company and services. It helps potentially rank the
websites higher in their search results.

ii) Updated Source of Information- Blogs provide fresh contents as

customers can write in the blogs anytime, anywhere and constantly
engaging contents allows potential tourists to know in detail about
the places, its merits and demerits, service related information, etc.

iii) Sharing of Content- Contents in the blogs can be shared to access a

wide range of audience for their product and services. It will also
help to bring more audience to the product and services websites.

iv) Trust and Loyalty- Sharing the content of the blog articles through
various social media such as Facebook, newsletters etc. will help in
creating brand awareness. Information of a service a different
platforms help readers to read information multiple times leading to
improved brand awareness and loyalty.

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Tourism Marketing Check Your Progress - 1

1) What do you understand by AR and VR?

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2) Why tourism related companies use digital platform for marketing
their services and products?
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3) Explain the role of blogs in marketing with example.
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16.4 SERVICE BUSINESS TRANSFORMATION

As technology has become an inescapable part of any business, the business
establishments, entrepreneurs and other service providers in the tourism
industry have taken steps to use several technological innovations as part of
their business strategy. Some notable transformation in the travel and tourism
sector are e-business, e-commerce, e-marketing and complimentary
marketing.

16.4.1 E- Marketing as a Digital Marketing Strategy

E-Marketing is the act of promoting and selling products and services by
leveraging online marketing tactics using digital technologies such as social
media marketing, search marketing, and email marketing.

Digital marketing helps tourism in several ways. Firstly, tourism is an

intangible service, which means customers are unable to view or experience
services in advance. Several digital interventions such as 3D Videos (Virtual
Reality), pictures etc. are made available by several companies to make it
more appealing to the potential customers and help them with their buying
decisions. Increasing number of consumers use the internet, and smart phones
to search for travel and tourism facilities and attractions. The reach and
advantage of these have options have made the travel and tourism industry to
adopt digital marketing strategies.

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Travel and tourism industry stakeholders adopted digital marketing strategies Marketing
Strategies in
to increase customer participations and their market share. Lets take the Digital Age
example of India Tourism, who have adopted the following digital platforms
and methods to do digital marketing;

Incredible India Campaign–Mini Case

Incredible India campaign by Ministry of Tourism (Govt. of India) established

several digital marketing strategies to ensure the market leadership of Indian
tourism all over the world.

i) True Indian Representation – Video – The website landing page is

designed with a short video that represents all the Indian states, including
the major tourist attractions. India’s historical, cultural and heritage
experiences, the beauty of nature, and profiling of the country are
represented by this video so as to provide an appealing destination feel
for the potential customers. The website contains videos and pictures of
(a) must visit destinations, (b) explore before you visit, (c) immersive
experiences, (d) celebrations of India.
ii) Incredible India App – Incredible India has a popular app rated five
stars, which enables tourists and potential tourists to meet all their travel
needs. The app have several options for the services needs of a tourist
like places to visit, cuisines, the history, schedules, culture and the major
touristic interest of the country.
iii) Blogs – Blogs provide an in-depth understanding of tourism in India,
which allows the tourists to choose their places of specific interests
guided by the information included in it. There are several blogs such as
(a) heritage cities of India, (b) Glamping in the Western Ghats, (c)
Caravan trip of Madhya Pradesh – Your little home on wheels, (d) Quick
Weekend gateways.
iv) Share Your Moments – Major tourist experiences reflected by the
tourists in social media are also included in the websites under ‘share
your moments’ that allows the true experience reflection of the tourists,
while in India.
v) Social Media – Incredible India is active on Facebook, Twitter,
YouTube and Instagram, which is continuously updated with all touristic
elements of India. This helps the extensive reach of Indian tourism and
its features in the world and potential tourists.

16.4.2 E-Commerce and Tourism

E-commerce in tourism strengthens business development, enhances quality
of services and improve relationship between tourism enterprises and tourists.
E-commerce has several advantages for the travel and tourism industry, the
main benefits of the e-business is to make the travel and tourism products and
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Tourism Marketing services more tangible to the potential tourists and enhance tourist services.
E-commerce have changed the way of tourist consumption, expansion of
tourism markets, active reach of products and services to the potential
customers as well as enhancement of service delivery quality. Some of the
major advantages of e-commerce on travel and tourism industry are :

i) Online Booking – Travellers and tourists are able to purchase their

services through online booking. Introduction of credit and debit cards,
online banking system creates an online platform for the tourism service
providers where customers can access their products and services. An
example of this is ‘If you wish to travel to Malaysia, and you are looking
for an airline ticket, you can book your ticket by yourself through the
online platform of the airline of your choice. You are also able to
manage your ticket after booking such as change of date, purchase of
additional services, cancellation, etc. In another way, through e-
commerce, tourist can buy their tour packages online using the same
system. Now a days, travel and tour companies display their packages,
specifications and prices on their website to allow the tourists to view it
and eventually purchase it instead of going to their offices.

ii) Technology assisted customer services – As a traditional customer

service enabled by e-commerce for the past many years it was common
for a customer to send an email or make a call to the customer services
AI assisted chatbots are the recent development in the e-commerce sector
to enhance service quality in various business entities in tourism. The
new advancement of this technology helps to provide services to
multilingual customers and effectively manage a large number of
customers at a time. An example of a virtual chatbot in travel and
tourism industry is Virtual Spirits.

iii) Global Reach – E-commerce enabled travel companies to access their

customers from anywhere, any time without geographical boundaries.
Company website and services are accessible to all customers in the
world. Therefore, if anyone wishes to travel then they can find something
of their choices and reach any country in the world. This option has
made, travel and tourism industry more competitive than ever. This helps
a wider market access and in turn increases more tourists participation
globally.

iv) Easy Customer Access – E-commerce has brought better market

accessibility, including the provision of tourism package design,
booking, payment as well as access to these products and services for the
potential customers. The provision of e-commerce has made more
speedy access in terms of knowing customer profile, booking, payment,
monitoring customer behaviour, customer service, business plan
development, and marketing strategies.
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16.4.3 Complementary Marketing Marketing
Strategies in
Digital Age
While there are several platforms for the tourism industry to reach their
potential customers, the websites and digital mediums are having abundant
information on a tourist destination/products or services. As a service
Industry, while promoting a tourist destination, it is important to look at
complementing strategies of different service providers such as travel
companies, airlines, car rental services, Destination Marketing Organisations
(DMOs), etc. A destination is known not only by its attractions, but it
includes various services offered, places of interest societies and culture,
food, etc. Any tourism marketing and promotion is required to complement
all aspects of the destination, as it helps a better wholesome image of the
destination and market reach.

16.5 DEVELOPING DIGITAL MARKETING

STARTEGY FOR TOURISM
Those in the marketing field need to know the strategic skills of developing
digital marketing platform for tourism and related services. The strategy
needs to be developed tactically to ensure that the digital marketing space is
attractive, cost effective and will attract potential tourists. Following are the
strategies that can help to develop an effective digital media marketing tool
for successful tourism marketing:-

i) Develop Customer Information: Using a survey, it is important to

create a potential customer database, this includes demographic
information such as age, gender, occupation, interests etc. These detailed
information further helps to narrow down and segment the market based
on several features included in the database. There are several software
available in the digital market to create and use customer data for the
purpose of digital marketing.

ii) Set the Goals and Develop the Marketing Tool: Customise the media
based on the set target and goals. A workable Gantt chart helps to
measure the targeted accomplishment of tools, its testing as well as
operational aspects.

iii) Set the Blogs: Developing authentic, truthful and quality contents are
important in digital marketing. By developing a blog, if the potential
customers are interested in the information provided in the blog then they
are directed to the website which directly helps to increase traffic to the
website. If the blog is updated regularly with high quality information
then there is a high chance of the website to be easily found in the search
engine.

iv) Evaluate the Current Digital Marketing Channel: It is important to

review the content compatibility and visual appeal of the existing digital 283
Tourism Marketing channels including website, blog content, social media accounts, native
advertising, Google Adwords, paid advertising, etc. (Jager, 2019). It is to
ensure that all the contents and media are as updated and exists as per the
existing trends in the market force.

v) Adoption of Digital Marketing: Using the new technology and

software helps the service provider for a lead in digitalisation of their
marketing strategies. Always, the updated and optimised software will
help increase online traffic and eventually customer demand.

vi) Mobile Optimisation: Data shows that 87% of Indian travellers are
influenced by a mobile device to make travel decisions. Based on this
interesting figure, it’s important that the service provider ensure as that
the mobile versions of the websites and other social media platforms are
simultaneously developed with computer based social media platforms.
This helps the potential clients to access information anytime anywhere.

vii) Customer Friendly Digital Access: User friendliness of website and

digital platforms are another important matter to address. One has to
Keep in mind that the customer does not like to spend too much time to
find information on the website. Therefore, navigation on the websites is
important. Considering that the customers are in different age groups,
have different interests, and different digital skills; it is important that a
user friendly landing page, that takes it through different menu without
having any confusion and avoids asking unnecessary information is
inevitably made available for digital marketing.

viii) Select the Right Technology: It is to ensure that the services use
appropriate and latest technology platforms to build marketing strategies.
Building the marketing materials in the most popular platform helps easy
access and to the customers, the familiarity of website navigations.

ix) Strategic Differentiation: It is important to ensure that the key selling

points are appropriately highlighted in the websites and social media. A
key differentiator about the services and products, comparing a similar
company will help you to increase market demands leading to better
customer responses. Every company has a Unique Selling Proposition
(USP), which has to be strategically highlighted in the landing page of
the website.

x) Tracking the Process: Since social media and website always have the
provision of customer interactions, feedback and addressing the queries,
it is important to ensure that information on the websites and social
media is appropriately tracked. Comments not addressed or improper and
outdated information the social media will discourage people to use and
affect the reputation of the business.

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16.5.1 Creating Digital Marketing Strategy for Tourism Marketing
Strategies in
Digital Age
Due to the increasing popularity of using digital marketing tools in marketing
and promoting tourism services, its important to market the website or social
media and make it known to the customers. A website blog or social media
page can stand unique if it is strategically managed in content generation and
dissemination. Major disciplines of online marketing are as follows:-

1) Content Marketing: Designing, selection and creation of contents are

important function. The content must meet the needs of the customer
who are searching for authentic and reliable information, and in the
process help attract the potential tourists.

2) Native Advertising: Native advertising is also called as advertorials

(Vendasta, 2019). This is a strategy to disseminate the main web content
through advertisements. This helps to highlight the products and services
through some keywords and accomplish multiple hits by the potential
customers.

3) Pay-Per-Click (PPC): A marketing strategy that involves online

advertisements. The advertisers pay to the source company based on the
number of clicks on their advertisements (Vendasta, 2019).

4) Search Engine Optimisation: Search engine optimisation is the process

of optimising web pages and their content so that they are easily
discoverable by users searching for terms relevant to the website.
Appropriate keywords are developed to make the websites more user
friendly and to give access to the right information which provide an
extra mileage and popularity of the company’s website.

5) Social Media Marketing: Social media is a robust platform for digital

marketing in these days due to the popularity of social interactions. Data
indicates that 58% of tourist use Facebook, 38% are Instagram users and
overall 74% of the tourist use some kind of social media before, during
and after their trip. The width of the influence of social media also
indicated that 40-50% of the travellers post reviews on social media after
their trip. This is a good indication of the importance of social media as a
means of digital marketing.

6) Email Marketing: Customised email to contact the clients as well as

potential clients both for repeat visits, other visits as well as review of
their trips, helps. The email source allows different service providers to
keep actively engaged with their current and potential customers at the
same time.

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Tourism Marketing 16.5.2 Disadvantages of Digital Marketing
Although there are several possible advantages mentioned above, digital
marketing has its own disadvantages as well. Comparing to the advantages,
the disadvantages are less and manageable. Following are some of the
important disadvantages of digital marketing.

1) Competition: With the increasing numbers of users, a digital marketing

platform has been one of the toughest competitions these days. Research
indicates that 90% of mobile phone users are not certain of the brand
they want to buy from and about 33% have purchased from a different
brand than the one they had in mind, because of the information provided
by another website or brand (DD, 2020).

2) Technological Dependency: Technology is always prone to errors.

There are incidents when the clients could not access technology like
while tourists travel to different countries, the firewall and ban of certain
website always create issues in internet access and usage. Also, some
cases the link can not work, temporary errors to access the websites, etc.
may cause dissatisfaction to the customers. Due to severe competition,
there is a high chance of potential tourists switching to another website
or company in order to gather information and booking a tour package.

3) Time Consuming: Digital marketing consumes a lot of time for its

maintenance as well as services. Since most of the platforms can
generate user generated contents, feedbacks, rating, it is important to
address all the information in the digital space regularly which is
considerably time consuming.

4) Security and Privacy Issues: Data reveals that misleading and

inaccurate information are widely spread on social media, which
sometimes mislead in taking appropriate decisions. According to
Alliance Global Assistance (2017), there are Millennials, Gen X and
baby boomers tourists who post misleading information on their trip in
the ration of 36%, 15% and 5%, which in turn provides false data to
analyse and affect the business. Travel industry fraud is another issue.
Scams are on the rise in hotel industry. There are about USD 4 billion
misleading hotel booking happening every year. There are 8-25% false
decline happening in the online travel business every year and due to the
suspected fraudulent activities airline industry needs an addition review
of their 26% of booking annually.

Check Your Progress - 2

1) What do you understand by digital marketing?

……………………………………………………………………………
……………………………………………………………………………
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2) Why tourism related companies use digital platform for marketing Marketing
Strategies in
their services and products? Digital Age

……………………………………………………………………………
……………………………………………………………………………
……………………………………………………………………………
3) List down major strategies of Incredible India on their e-marketing
strategies
……………………………………………………………………………
……………………………………………………………………………
……………………………………………………………………………

16.6 LET US SUM UP

The influence of digital media is important to consider in tourism and
service marketing. A well designed and systematically used digital media
space will increase the reputation and visibility of the company and hence
help to attain more business deals. The main advantage of digital
marketing is its ability to reach targeted customers in a cost effective and
measurable way. The successes of the use of digital media always relayed
on the trust, accuracy and quality content together by continuous reviewing
and follow up of the digital media. Although, digital media has wider reach
and access among tourists and potential tourists, it has disadvantages
especially in service business such as it need specific skills and training, its
time consuming, has security and privacy issues, also sometimes negative
publicity happens due to customers feedback. A well-planned, developed
and followed up digital marketing space always bring value, reputation and
increased patronage of potential tourists.

16.7 CLUES TO CHECK YOUR PROGRESS

EXERCISES
Check Your Progress - 1

1) Refer to Section 16.2

2) Refer to Section 16.3
3) Refer to Section 16. 3
Check Your Progress - 2
1) Refer to Section 16.4
2) Refer to Section 16.4
3) Refer to Section 16.4
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Tourism Marketing
16.8 FURTHER READINGS
Sofronov, B. (2019). The development of marketing in tourism
industry. Annals of Spiru Haret University, Economic series, 19(1), 117-
127.

Meng, Y. (2017, july). Analysis of the impact of tourism e-commerce on

the development of China's Tourism Industry, 9th International
Economics, Management And Education Technology Conference
(IEMETC 2017), Atlantis press.

Websites

https://martech.zone/social-media-statistics-travel-vacation/

https://digitaldimensions4u.com/advantages-and-disadvantages-of-
digital-marketing/

16.9 ACTIVITIES
Activity 1

Identify a travel industry website and discuss its advantages and

disadvantages.

Activity 2

Conceptualise a travel business and develop its digital marketing plan.

Activity 3

Conduct a self-study on various e-marketing strategies of your respective

state tourism (State Tourism Development Corporation).

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