ONLINE ADVERTISING IN THE TOURISM INDUSTRY AND IT’S IMPACT ON CONSUMERS – J.

SAß: 101-107

ONLINE ADVERTISING IN THE TOURISM INDUSTRY AND ITS IMPACT ON CONSUMERS

A STUDY TO INVESTIGATE ONLINE ADVERTISING TOOLS, THE DEGREE OF USAGE AND CUSTOMER
PREFERENCES

JULIANE SAß
M.A. European Tourism Management, Coordinator Social Media, AIDA Cruises German Branch of Costa Crociere S.p.A.
juliane.sass@aida.de
Submitted: 02.09.2011
Accepted: 12.10.2011

ABSTRACT RESUMO

The study depicts the various tools of online O estudo descreve as várias ferramentas de
advertising and their effects on customers, in publicidade online e seus efeitos nos clientes, em
particular tourists to the Algarve region in Portugal. particular nos turistas do Algarve em Portugal. O
The purpose of this study is to find out about the objetivo deste estudo é averiguar o grau de utilização
degree of Internet usage of travelers and tourists as da Internet por parte de viajantes e turistas, bem como
well as their preferences in online advertising. as suas preferências em relação à publicidade online.
Furthermore, modern online marketing methods are Além disso, os modernos métodos de marketing on-
researched and compared in order to find the most line são pesquisados e comparados, a fim de se
successful ones. Current trends and most effective encontrar os mais bem sucedidos. As tendências atuais
online advertising methods are researched through e os mais eficazes métodos de publicidade on-line são
secondary literature, a personal interview with the pesquisados por meio da revisão da literatura, uma
marketing & sales manager of the ROBINSON Club entrevista pessoal com o gerente de marketing e
Quinta da Ria in Portugal and a survey. vendas do Robinson Club Quinta da Ria em Portugal
e através de um inquérito. Ao todo 248 turistas foram
Altogether 248 tourists were questioned at Faro inquiridos no aeroporto de Faro. Foi possível verificar
airport in Portugal. Through the investigation it is que a maioria dos turistas no Algarve usa e prefere a
found that the majority of tourists to the Algarve Internet como um meio para obter informação
region uses and prefers the Internet as a medium to relevante da viagem e reservar as férias. A revisão da
gain travel relevant information and to book a holiday. literatura descreve todos os componentes de
The literature review describes all components of publicidade online, tais como Marketing de Busca,
online advertising such as Search Marketing, publicidade interativa, relações públicas online,
interactive advertising, online public relations, viral marketing viral, opt-in mail marketing e parcerias on-line.
marketing, opt-in email marketing and online Destes métodos, o Marketing de Busca, sobretudo
partnerships. Out of these methods, Search Marketing, listagens patrocinadas, gera rejeição, se comparado
especially sponsored listings, generate rejection, if com os resultados orgânicos de classificação. Além
compared to organic ranking results. Furthermore, disso, os turistas têm atitudes negativas em relação à
tourists have negative attitudes towards banner and publicidade banner e pop-up e consideram-nas spam.
pop-up advertising and consider them as Spam. Opt- Opt-in E-mail marketing, por outro lado, gera uma
in E-mail marketing on the other hand generates percepção positiva e consequentemente é um dos mais
positive perceptions and as a result is one of the most bem sucedidos métodos de marketing on-line. O uso
successful online marketing methods. The use of dos mídias sociais representa uma forma de
social media represents a very effective, widely spread comunicação e ferramenta de publicidade muito
and well-liked communication and advertising tool. In eficaz, amplamente difundida, e do agrado dos
general, tourists have more negative attitudes towards utilizadores. Em geral, os turistas têm atitudes mais
advertising on the Internet. negativas em relação à publicidade na Internet.
KEYWORDS PALAVRAS-CHAVE
Online Advertising, Tourism, Search Marketing, Publicidade Online, Turismo, Marketing de Busca,
Interactive Advertising, Viral Marketing, E-Mail, Publicidade Interativa, Marketing Viral, E-Mail,
Banner, Internet. Banner, Internet.
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1. INTRODUCTION

The main principle of media in the world is The most important part of an E-business,
according to Rowley (2005 in Burman and according to Chaffey and Smith (2008) is electronic
Söderberg 2007) to connect and bring information marketing. Using digital media channels as Search
to the audience. The online travel business has Engines, online advertising and affiliate marketing
shown considerable growth and improvement over gives competitive advantage in terms of
the last couple of years, which was dependent on understanding customers better, adding value to
the enhanced information technology and products, broadening distribution channels and
telecommunication. The increased use of the increasing sales through marketing campaigns.
Internet and electronic commerce has had positive Furthermore, it includes creating and managing
effects on the tourism sector, as described by websites to generate customer leads, sales and after
Cooper et al. (2008). The tourism online business is sales services. The latest definition of E-marketing
growing fast and competition is fierce. Online was developed by Chaffey et al. (2009) saying that
advertising is essential in this particular industry for E-marketing achieves „marketing objectives through
companies to gain customers and therefore to make the use of electronic communication technology.‟
profit. Tourism-related businesses need to About two years ago, Dave Chaffey developed
understand the full potential of this marketing tool another definition together with Smith (2008),
in order to succeed against the major players, as which points out that E-marketing consists of
Expedia.com or Lastminute.com. Through the marketing tools and techniques online as websites,
Internet gaining more and more of importance, advertisement, banners, E-mail, interactive kiosks,
online advertising does, too. Expansion possibilities TV or mobiles, blogs, feeds, podcasts and social
as well as reaching out and penetrating new networks. According to Schlosser et al. (1999)
geographical markets are enhanced. Cost advantages Online or Internet Advertising (IA) entails many
as well as simplified processes turn online forms of commercial content, which range from
advertising into a unique marketing opportunity. electronic ads that are very similar to conventional
This research is a new approach towards specified tools (banners, billboards), to entirely new ones as
tourism advertising through the use of the Internet. corporate websites. The researchers further
It is undertaken to explore the current and most investigated the consumer‟s perception of IA and
used Online Advertisement strategies as well as found out that a clear definition or image is hard to
techniques in the tourism sector. come by. They described electronic advertisement
as follows: “…any form of commercial content
• To investigate the degree of Internet usage by available on the Internet that is designed by
travelers and tourists businesses to inform consumers about a product or
service.” (Schlosser et al. 1999). The Internet
• To find out about the modern online marketing
represents a major source for advertising and as a
efforts on a B2C basis
result Internet marketing can be delivered by using
• To compare different techniques to find out any channel as video, audio or graphical and in any
about their impact on customers and therefore form as E-mail or interactive advertisement (Chung
to investigate the most successful ones and Zhao 2004).

• To explore the online advertising strategies 2. LITERATURE REVIEW

available to meet the needs of website visitors
Search Marketing is a term applied to marketing
and the company (website owner)
techniques implemented at Search Engines such as
• To identify current disadvantages as well as Google, Yahoo! or Ask.com in order to drive and
advantages of Online Advertisement increase website traffic (Moran and Hunt 2005).
Search Engines have become the central access gate
• To make future prognoses for the tourism to booking a holiday or purchasing tourism
industry products and services. In order to achieve favorable
positions two different Search Marketing techniques

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are used by marketers. The first is Search Engine messages or distribution offers. If compared to
Optimization (SEO) at which the focus lies with other direct and online advertising methods E-mail
altering the websites content and structure in such a has a lot of advantages such as building customer
way that the website is ranked naturally high for relationships, real-time interaction, digitalism and a
certain keyword phrases. The second technique is relatively high response rate (DeCormier 1999,
paid advertisement or placements also known as Wreden 1999, Di Ianni 2000 and Rosenspan 2000
Sponsored Listings, which plays a more active part cited Rettie 2002). Nowadays there are different
in advertising than SEO. Sponsored listings are part types and formats as E-newsletters, text E-mails and
of Search Marketing and are situated above the HTML E-mails (Bennison 2009). Customers often
organic results on Search Engines. They are a form consider such E-mails as Junk or Spam and opt-out
of online advertisement and are mostly shown (Marinova et al. 2002). Therefore, this tool is highly
separated from other search results. suited for personalized advertising and intense
targeting, which will be of more use and relevancy
Another method is Interactive Ads, as explained by for the recipient (IMT Strategies 1999 cited Tezinde
Bezjian-Avery et al. (1998) saying that interactivity is et al. 2002).
fundamental for an ad to deliver its message.
According to Rodgers and Thorson (2000) the Viral Marketing is a term used to describe messages
advertisement has different formats as pop-ups, that replicate exponentially, with increasing
banners, hyperlinks, displayed and skyscraper ads. geometrical territory as for example a virus (Wilson
Chaffey and Smith (2008) define banner ads as a 2005). The idea of Viral Marketing is to share and
form of interactive advertising, that if clicked on, pass on content, which interests and entertains
refers to the site of the company that pays for the people on the Web. This kind of marketing focuses
display, “…which links through to a specific on the C2C approach to deliver a message using
campaign microsite.” This method provides content word of mouth.” (Kirby and Mardsen 2006). Viral
tailored to the advertising and traffic campaign in advertising come in formats as video, interactive
form of the microsite (Chaffey and Smith 2008). games, images and text. Therefore this type of
Research undertaken by Brill (1999 cited Rodgers advertising is highly relevant in creating brand
and Thorson 2000) states that if a banner, hyperlink messages or promoting products. Electronic Word
or any other ad is clicked on, attitudes towards the of Mouth is mainly delivered through Social
ad seem positive and the intention to purchase is Networks or Media Networks.
encouraged in comparison to unclicked ones. The
difference between interstitials and pop-ups is that As said by Learmonth and Klaassen (2009 and
Interstitials are usually separate full-page Wakolbinger et al. 2009) there is currently no best
commercials, which appear between two content practice approach when it comes down to
pages, while pop-ups (also called superstitials by measuring online advertising effectiveness. The
Chaffey and Smith 2008) are interrupting in a new general tendency is that marketers move away from
window on top of a particular page. Pop-ups are clicks as a proxy for effects and possible sales.
seen to be interrupting and disturbing the web user Learmonth and Klaassen (2009) go further and say
and are therefore perceived as Spam or unwanted. that two different strategies of measuring the impact
Research done by Ryan in 2003 and (Boone et al. of IA have developed. One is using a more
2006) shows that marketers use new formats to advanced model of clicks, the web interaction rate
overcome the trend of resistance by implementing and the other is focusing on brand awareness,
pop-ups at sites concerned with sports, attitudes, behavioral and sales research, using
communities, games or travel. As a result it can be customer data, surveys and other metrics.
said that pop-ups and Interstitials have different
3. METHODOLOGY
effects on the web user.
This study is undertaken to investigate tourists‟
Marinova et al. (2002) found that E-mail marketing
degree of usage and preference for online
offers a great advantage as a flexible and cost-
advertising methods. The investigation examines in
efficient marketing tool to reach existing and
what way online advertisement boosts traffic on a
potential customers in order to deliver promotional
website and how customers are influenced by it. It
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seeks to determine how important online services. The focus of the research is to target the
advertising is nowadays and if this tool is a main tourist-groups.
sustainable marketing technique. Through the
research disadvantages as well as advantages of 4. MAIN RESULTS
certain online advertisement techniques are
To summarize the one hour interview with the Sales
presented, which result in a comparison of the
& Marketing Manager of the Robinson Golf Resort
different tools. The following Hypotheses are linked
Quinta da Ria in Tavira, Portugal, one can say that
to the research questions and will be answered
on a B2C basis the company website is the main
mainly through the primary research approach of
communication channel for the Hotel. In terms of
this study.
online advertising the company focuses on Search
H1a: The majority of tourists prefer the Internet as Marketing as organic and paid listings, entries in
a channel to retrieve destination or holiday hotel directories, high profile entries, online travel
information. agents and E-mail marketing as E-newsletters and
promotional E-mails. The company shows a
H1b: The majority of tourists tend to book holidays tendency to increase the financial funds for such
or tourism related services online. tools.

H1c: The younger a tourists is, the more likely is Therefore, social networks are new tools to the
he/she to book via this channel. company to create spreading word of mouth, a
good company image and higher brand awareness.
The following hypotheses are stating the effects on
web users of the different online advertising tools. 4.1. THE SURVEY OUTCOME
The impact of the main techniques is as follows:
Altogether 248 questionnaires were conducted and
H2: Tourists have positive attitudes toward analysed via the statistical software SPSS. Of all the
advertisement on Search Engines. respondents 48% uses only the Internet for gaining
travel related information. 225 people confirmed
H3: Tourists have negative attitudes toward the preferred usage of the Internet. Through a
advertising that disturbs their work flow or Internet Binominal Test different levels of proportion were
session. tested, which result in an observed significance level
higher than 5%.
H4: The majority of tourists use social networks to
retrieve destination information. The tested proportion of 87% creates a significance
level just under 0.05%. For the proportion of 88%
This study consists out of secondary as well as
the significance level is 10.8%, which results in
primary research. The secondary research has been
rejection of Ho and favors H1a – the majority of
conducted over a period of four months and a
tourists to the Algarve prefer the Internet as a
variety of sources. The primary research is divided
medium to gain tourism-related information.
into two methods, interviews and a quantitative
Moreover, it can be said that 87% of the tourists to
questionnaire survey. This combination ensures a
this region book holidays and tourism-related
view from a C2B as well as B2C perspective which
services online. Therefore, Ho is rejected and the
will be compared to the theory of the secondary
following hypothesis is supported: The majority of
data collection. One semi-structured interview is
tourists tend to book holidays and tourism-related
chosen as a primary research method in order to
services online (H1b).
investigate marketers‟ points of view.
In order to find out about a relation between age
The quantitative research method is chosen to
and the tendency to book tourism-related products
investigate traveler‟s opinion and usage of online
and services online a cross-tabulation followed by a
advertisement in regards to touristic products and
chi-square test were performed.

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Table 1: Chi-square Test

Value df Asymp. Sig. (2-sided)

Pearson chi-square 47,108a 4 ,000
Likelihood ratio 35,954 4 ,000
Linear-by-linear association 11,005 1 ,001
N of valid cases 248
A. 1 cells (11,1%) have expected count less than 5. The minimum expected count is 2,83.

The expected value of each cell shrunk to less than ups as Spam and unwanted, hence not helpful
5% in the chi-square test, which indicates a relation advertising for tourism-related products or services.
between age and the propensity of booking online. The result shows a strong negative reaction towards
It can be concluded that the younger tourists are the pop-ups. As mentioned before, Drezé and Hussherr
more likely are they to book holidays or similar (1999) explained the negative attitudes towards
services online (H1c). intruding advertising and the reaction of ignoring,
blocking or feeling threatened. The survey findings
4.2. SEARCH ENGINE ADVERTISING
complement the research done by other
The majority of the tourists questioned, with 93.5% investigators and result in accepting the hypothesis
uses the Google Search Engine, which is a result of H3: Tourists have negative attitudes toward
Google being the most advertised and distributed advertising, which disturbs their Internet session
Search Engine in North and Western Europe. The and work flow.
results of the survey show that 50.4% would click 4.4. OPT-IN ADVERTISING
on the first organic result coming up on the Search
Engine Result Page. Reasons for choosing so are The majority of questioned tourists is receiving
that about 15% of the questioned people are aware promotional E-mails willingly and considers them
of sponsored listings and therefore would not click to be helpful (51.5%). The findings of this study
on them. To summarize, the majority of questioned differ from research done by Morimoto and Chang
people favor organic results (58.9%) over sponsored in 2006 or Drezé and Hussherr in 1999, as their
listings (35.9%) as it has been found out by Jansen research revealed E-mail marketing as unwanted
and Resnick in 2005 as well as by Drezé and and disturbing. However, the tendency for tourism-
Hussherr in 1999. The homogeneous subsets reveal related promotional E-mail advertising is optimistic.
that respondents who would click on sponsored If looking at E-newsletters, respondents answered
listings rate these more helpful than other differently with 55.7% not subscribing such
advertising. As a result H2 can‟t be rejected due to advertising. E-newsletters are seen as an alternative
respondents favoring sponsored listings in to E-mail marketing, however, the majority of
comparison to other advertising. However, the tourists don‟t subscribe them.
outcome is inconclusive in terms of supporting H2,
due to the fact that tourists make more use of Customers might think that E-newsletters are not as
organic listings. (H2: Tourists have positive attitudes personalized and topic relevant as promotional E-
toward advertisement on Search Engines.) mails and as a result do not make as much use of
them.
4.3. INTERACTIVE ADVERTISING
4.5. THE USAGE OF SOCIAL NETWORKS
People at the airport in Faro were questioned about
their attitudes behaviors towards banners as well as The respondents‟ answer to whether they would
pop-ups as part of interactive advertising tools. The gather relevant tourism information via social
majority (81.3%) does not think of banners being networks was deemed inconclusive. If summarized,
helpful. Further, 97% of respondents consider pop- more than 60% have used social networks as
facebook, Tripadvisor.com or holidaycheck.de.

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Table 2: Gather information via Social Networks

Frequency Percent Valid percent Cumulative percent

Vali Yes 93 37,5 37,5 37,5
d No 96 38,7 38,7 76,2
Some-times 59 23,8 23,8 100,0
Total 248 100,0 100,0

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