The Impact of Digital Marketing Channels on Customer Buying Decision Process: A Study on the Egyptian Tourism and Hospitality Services

Abstract

Digital marketing channels (DMCs) have become crucial to the success of tourism and hospitality businesses wherein customers have access to information on the latest offers and best prices. Despite the significant role of DMCs, there is a lack of studies investigating the impact of DMCs on customer buying behavior in the Egyptian tourism and hospitality industries. Accordingly, the current study aims to fill this gap by examining the impact of DMCs on the customer buying decision process in the context of Egyptian tourism and hospitality services. The study adopted the five-stage model of the customer buying decision process (need recognition, information research, evaluation, purchase decision, post-purchase) (Kotler & Keller 2012). Furthermore, it examines the effects of the four DMCs (e-mail, mobile, social media, and website) on the suggested model in Egypt's tourism and hospitality settings. The data collected from tourism and hospitality customers (foreign and Egyptian tourists) is based on the 10 times rule method. An online questionnaire link was sent, and paper-based questionnaires were distributed to the target sample. The number of valid questionnaires is 242 foreign tourists and 323 Egyptian tourists. The data were analyzed using SPSS ver. 22. The results confirmed the significant effect of the four DMCs on the five stages. The findings also indicated that foreign tourists utilize e-mail and websites for recognition, mobile, social media, and email for information research, and websites for evaluation. The Egyptian tourists use e-mail and mobile for recognition, social media for evaluation, and the website for post-purchase.