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Abstract. Destinations across the world heavily compete with each other, in order to maintain their attractiveness and competitiveness in the global tourism industry. Developing a competitive position among tourism destinations is usually accomplished by creating and transmitting a favorable image to potential tourists through appropriate destination marketing. In addition, Destination marketers targeted the digital media marketing in order to reach a wider audience and generate leads because the most effective form of word of mouth is happening online. Today's tourists seek out high-quality digital resources and experiences that lead to a better decision in making destination selection. Various studies have shown that digital media influence the travelers' intentions to visit or revisit one destination over another. However, the literature has paid little attention to the concept that how digital marketing is transforming the tourism industry. This study, therefore, attempts to find out the emerging trends in digital tourism marketing-with special reference to Dubai as a tourism destination and this study will also discuss how digital marketing is transforming the tourism industry and the level of their adoption in Dubai tourism industry. To achieve these objectives, data were obtained from tour operators in Dubai through interviews and questionnaire survey.
Keywords. Digital tourism marketing, tour operators, tourism industry.
Introduction
The world is changing, and tourism marketing is embracing the new dynamics and trends. Companies are adapting their selves to this change. In today's' business life, companies are using new technology tools based on computer based automation systems. Tourism is one of the industries that is most affected by this digital development
Tourists tend to be more critical with the destination, particularly with regard to infrastructure, and travel information. Tourists search for destination information that helps them make better decisions regarding the destination selection, and they do so using different channels (Ho, Lin, & Chen, 2012) that have evolved over time. The Internet has deeply transformed the manner in which travelers access information, plan for and book trips, and subsequently share their travel experiences (Bilgihan, Barreda, Okumus, & Nusair, 2016; Hays, Page, & Buhalis, 2013; Xiang & Gretzel, 2010; Buhalis & Law, 2008; Chung & Buhalis, 2008). Understanding how tourists access this information is important in order to make marketing choices (Bieger & Laesser, 2004).
Digital media...