In recent years, destination management organisations have invested heavily in digital marketing, with online advertising accounting for over half of the total budget. This chapter aims to understand how tourism marketing has been adopted by Portugal's national tourism administration and the role of digital marketing in the country's tourism strategy. The country has been awarded as the best destination in the world (2017 to 2019) and Europe's leading destination (2017 to 2020) and has registered a significant evolution of the tourism sector. Turismo de Portugal is responsible for the country's tourism strategy and the international promotion of the destination, having been awarded as the best official tourism body in the world (2017 to 2019). This chapter combines secondary data (statistics and policy documents) and data from an interview with the Director of the Sales Support Direction of Turismo de Portugal. The results show a change in its communication strategy, being currently performed exclusively online, accompanying the consumer during all stages of the travel cycle.
TopIntroduction
Consumers’ increased use of the Internet over the world, and especially consumers in tourism, is “transforming the economics of marketing and making obsolete many of the function’s traditional strategies and structures” (Kaur, 2017, p. 72). The proliferation of digital technologies and platforms has led to a modification of traditional marketing, leading it to adjust to a new era, which is constantly evolving. Digital marketing, thus, seeks to respond to the needs of consumers, who currently occupy a prominent and influential role in making purchase decisions.
Currently, digital marketing is indispensable for the success of any business, being even more relevant for tourism, due to the strong dependence of this sector on information. Stakeholders providing relevant and quality information according to the needs of consumers and destinations providing information faster, with greater emotional appeal and lower cost (Kiráľová & Pavlíčeka, 2015) will have greater success and competitive advantage in the global market.
Destination Management Organisations (DMOs) play an important role in providing information and promoting a country, region or city to visitors and other stakeholders in the sector, which will determine the destination’s image and affect its market positioning. The proliferation of the Internet changed the process of communication, becoming the main information communication channel for DMOs (Lončarić, Bašan & Markovic, 2013). However, it has been difficult for most DMOs to “keep pace with the evolution of new technologies, the emergence of innovative advertising strategies, the changes in the consumer market, and the growing competition due to increasing globalisation” (Gretzel, Yuan & Fesenmaier, 2000, p. 146).
Digital marketing has been addressed in several studies, but needs further evidence of its application to tourism (Hayes, Page, & Buhalis, 2013). This study aims to contribute to the increase of knowledge in this area with evidence from this sector, when looking to understand how digital marketing has been used by the Portuguese national DMO – Turismo de Portugal. It is responsible for the country’s tourism strategy as well as for the international promotion of the destination, having been awarded for three years (2017-2019) as the best official tourism body in the world. This chapter combines the use of secondary data (policy documents and internal reports) and primary data (interview with the Director of the Sales Support Direction of Turismo de Portugal), and it is divided and structured into four parts. The first part focuses on the literature review, namely in digital marketing in tourism destinations and the role of DMOs in the digital era. Subsequently, the methodology used for the study is described in more detail, and, finally, research findings are reported and discussed, and their implications for further research are highlighted.