The Importance of Digital Marketing in the Sale and Promotion of Tourist Accommodation Klemen O čko Hotel Sava Rogaška d.o.o., Slovenia ockoklemen@gmail.com Tina Vukasović International School for Social and Business Studies, Celje, Slovenia and University of Primorska, Faculty of Management, Koper, Slovenia tina.vukasovic@mfdps.si Purpose: The research explores the role of digital marketing and its tools in tourism, including a case study of a hotel. The first part of the paper focuses on the theoretical background, describing different tools used in the industry and focusing on those particularly useful in the field of tourism. In the second part of the paper, we wanted to examine how these insights are reflected in an actual tourist facility. Study design/methodology/approach: In order to better understand how the target group of the selected hotel behaves online and on social networks, we decided to use a quantitative research method. The data collection technique chosen was a survey questionnaire. As our target group, we have chosen Slovenian-speaking guests who benefit from the selected "Pampering for Two" package. This package is aimed at couples who are the target group of the selected hotel. The survey was carried out in person, at the hotel reception, at the time of check-out so that we could also get an impression of the stay itself. Findings: In the last eight years of presence in the tourism industry, and more specifically in the hotel industry, the importance of this type of marketing has become increasingly apparent every year, and in general, we have seen a rise in social networks and tourism offers on them. Our research has confirmed this and demonstrated the importance of digital marketing in tourism. Originality/value: Based on the results and findings, we wrote proposals that will enable the hotel to design a digital strategy that will help increase online sales and strengthen its brand. Introduction Trends around the world are changing rapidly. Fifteen years ago, it was unthinkable for people to shop online and entrust their data to an unknown website. Things have changed a lot by now, as online shopping has become normal, and we no longer have concerns about giving out our personal data. According to statistics, 15.7% of the world's population used the web in 2005, and 62% of the world's population used it in 2020. (Miniwatts Marketing Group, 2020). That is three times more users in 15 years. Tourism is also changing, gone are the days of printed brochures and newspaper advertisements. It is now important for tourism businesses to get as many positive online reviews as possible, to get as many guests as possible to share their holiday impressions online with their friends, and to have as visible an image as possible on the web (Tas, n. d.). As a result, tourism companies have experienced higher growth and better capacity utilisation due to digitalisation. Modern information and communication technology (ICT) has also played its part. It allows companies to promote their offer more effectively on social networks like Facebook or Linkedin. Photo and video content can be easily edited with software such as Canva or Adobe. In addition, using mobile phones and the information provided by users helps companies make even better use of online advertising to identify their target audience. (Chhun, 2021). Modern ICT also benefits companies' internal processes. This is reflected in processes involving information and different skills. ICT makes acquiring, encoding and storing International Journal of Management, Knowledge and Learning | ISSN 2232-5697 Volume 13 (2024) 1–12 | https://www.doi.org/10.53615/2232-5697.13.1-12 knowledge much easier (Ažman, 2013). This includes online training, online workshops, in- house databases, etc. ICT also allows us to collect and analyse customer data that can be used for different campaigns or to create target groups. Digitalisation has also affected marketing, with more and more marketing activities moving online and digital marketing becoming more popular than ever. Given the many benefits and results that digital marketing brings, a large part of companies' marketing budgets is spent online. Digital marketing trends and tools are constantly changing and complementing each other. It is advisable for a company to run different marketing campaigns using different tools, so that they can reach more customers and more conversions. This article presents the most important tools, including websites, SEO (Search engine optimisation), and social networks. The selected hotel does not have a defined digital strategy, which is also a research problem. That is why we wanted to explore digital marketing tools and what is important to guests before booking their hotel accommodations. With the results and findings, we have outlined concrete suggestions that will help the hotel to create a digital strategy that will help increase online sales and strengthen its brand. The motive for choosing the topic and carrying out the research is the increased digitalisation in tourism and the lack of this type of research that would help to achieve improvements in the field of digital marketing (online sales and raising the visibility of the company's reputation among the target audience) in the selected hotel. The selected hotel does use digital marketing but does not have a defined digital marketing strategy. Digital Marketing Digital marketing basics With the development of the World Wide Web, digital marketing has become an indispensable part of sales and marketing. It first appeared as a concept in 1990, and the first banner advert was produced in 1993. In 1994, the first "webcrawler", a synonym for a programme that searches the World Wide Web for specific information, was launched. We can say that this was the beginning of web optimisation. Such a programme, which we all know today as Google, was published four years later, in 1998, to be precise (Kingsnorth, 2016, p. 7). It has been a little over 20 years since then, and in that time, the World Wide Web has changed completely; we have social networks, various communication tools, artificial intelligence and other tools that make it easier for us to do business and to reach potential consumers that we would not have otherwise. What is digital marketing anyway? Most people think of digital marketing as advertising online, but digital marketing is much more than that. If we look at the exact definition, we realise that even experts have different opinions about digital marketing. Jan či č and Žabkar (2013) define digital marketing as "a paid form of communicating with consumers through digital media" (Jan či č & Žabkar, 2013, p. 301), while Chaffey and Ellis-Chadwich (2016, p. 11) define digital marketing as "achieving marketing objectives by using digital technologies and media". Digital marketing tools Digital marketing is a very broad concept and comprises many tools. We want to highlight those that are most important for tourism, the first among them being the website. Ryan (2014) believes that the website is the most important digital marketing tool, as in most advertising campaigns, this is the destination where we want to bring the customer (Ryan, 2014, p. 35). A website is a basic tool where we can educate our potential customers about our company while at the same time selling and promoting our services and products. O čko & Vukasovi ć | The Importance of Digital Marketing 2 Another key digital tool is SEO optimisation. This type of digital marketing is very important because more than half of the people visiting our website visit us via a search engine. SEO can be interpreted as the optimisation of the content on our website, both in terms of content and technical aspects, to make it easier for web browsers to find it by keywords. Simply put, we need to create the kind of content that our potential customers are looking for, and technically we need to make sure that the browser recognises it by keywords (Lundberg, 2019). The third type is PPC (Pay per click), and, as the name suggests, we pay for every click that our advert generates. Many platforms offer such advertising, but the two most popular are certainly "Google Ads" and "Facebook Ads". Google shows our ad as a search hit, while Facebook shows it as a traditional post (Patel, n. d.). Email marketing, which should also not be overlooked by companies, is, according to Vaswani (2022), one of the cheapest types of digital marketing, as this form of marketing sends promotional content to one's own contact base and, therefore, does not cost a lot of money. While this is a low-cost type of advertising, it still achieves good results, as most of the contacts to whom we send content are already familiar with the company and its products and are, therefore, more interested in the content they receive (Vaswani, 2022). Influencer engagement has become a very important part of digital marketing in recent years, as companies reach their target customer and, as a result, get good results from their promotions because consumers trust influencers and are, therefore, more likely to make a purchase decision. (Chen, 2020). One tool that we have been using for entertainment online for a long time and for digital marketing for the last few years is video marketing. This type of marketing is becoming increasingly popular as more and more other forms of digital marketing support video content, and video content makes it easier to emphasise the emotions with which you are addressing your target audience. (Lundberg, 2019). The final area of digital marketing is social networks. It is hard to imagine today's web without them. Kaplan and Haenlein (2010) describe this concept as a group of applications that work with an internet connection and allow the user to create and modify its content (Kaplan & Haenlein, 2010, p. 53). Social networks can also be simplistically described as platforms created to allow people worldwide to socialise and network (Wölwer, 2021). This is why social networks are gaining more and more users every year. In October 2021, Facebook had 2.91 billion active users (Kemp, 2021). As a result, social networks are becoming increasingly important digital marketing tools with every passing year. The role and importance of digital marketing Digital marketing can also be defined as one of the marketing tools companies use for promotion and sales purposes, and it is carried out on all digital media. We link these media to the World Wide Web and modern technology. As the use of these technologies is at an all-time high, digital media is gaining in popularity. This is why companies are increasingly investing time, resources and staff in this type of marketing. This is also reflected in the results, as more companies report higher sales (revenues) from online sales every year. But that is not all, as digital marketing offers us countless opportunities to benefit our business. Digital marketing can help to: − build the brand and strengthen the company's "image", − enter new markets, − educate consumers about our company, − look for new potential buyers, O čko & Vukasovi ć | The Importance of Digital Marketing 3 − persuading potential customers to buy, − encourage regular customers to buy again, − check satisfaction with our services, − test what our customers want. Social networks and tourism Tourism and social media are closely interlinked, with much social media users researching what is in store for them before they travel and what others who have already been there have to say about it. They rely on other people's reviews, and during their stay, they share their impressions with their friends via social networks (Tas, n.d). Many people use social networks to plan their holidays and search for their next holiday destination using pictures and posts. That is why our publications must be aesthetic, and our facilities be photogenic. The advantage of social networks is that they allow us to communicate with consumers, as it is often the case that consumers use social networks to enquire about a stay or even to book a stay (Rodriguez Lang, n. d.). But it is not enough just to be present on social networks; it is important to be active and to publish quality content. Our posts answering frequently asked questions, sharing attractive photos and videos, sharing positive reviews about our company, promoting special experiences, suggesting things guests can do while staying with us, sharing special promotions, sharing pictures posted by our guests, etc., are very well received. In addition to traditional posts, we can also create paid ads that are shown to our potential customers. The advantage is that we can specify the country of advertising, gender, age and other characteristics, one of the more popular ones is to show the ad to people who travel frequently. Social networks have become an indispensable part of digital marketing in tourism. However, we need to know the target customer for our business and, based on that, choose which networks to promote ourselves on and how. Research design Methodology, data collection and sample In order to better understand how the target group of the selected hotel behaves online and on social networks, we decided to use a quantitative research method. The data collection technique chosen was a survey questionnaire. As our target group, we have chosen Slovenian- speaking guests who benefit from the selected "Pampering for Two" package. This package is aimed at couples who are the target group of the selected hotel. The survey was carried out in person, at the hotel reception, and at check-out to get an impression of the stay itself. The survey was carried out in July 2022. The survey sample included 120 respondents. The questionnaire consisted of 23 questions, mostly closed-ended questions with a choice of one or more answers, in addition to basic demographic questions. Some questions offered the possibility of answering on a scale of one to five. The results were exported, properly edited, and analysed using the SPSS programme. The following hypotheses were tested: − H1: Consumers most often obtain information and knowledge about tourist accommodation via social networks. − H2: At least 30% of all respondents have already booked their holiday through Facebook or Instagram. − H3: Younger respondents (aged 30 and under) pay the most attention to an attractive photo and video presentation of the hotel before booking their accommodation. O čko & Vukasovi ć | The Importance of Digital Marketing 4 Research results Demographic data A total of 120 people took part in the survey. Of these, just over half (53%) or 64 respondents were female, while the remaining 47% or 56 respondents were male. The average age of consumers is 34.4 years, while the mean or median value is 33 years. The results also show that the youngest respondent was 18, and the oldest was 74 (Table 1). We also grouped the respondents into age groups. The largest number of respondents in the survey were between 31 and 45 years old, almost half of them, 49% to be precise. The age group under 30 came second with 37%. Table 1: Age of respondents N Valid 120 Missing 0 Average 34.37 Median 33.00 Standard deviation 10.487 Minimum 18 Maximum 74 Analysis of the substantive issues How much time do you spend online each day? We started by asking how much time per day the consumers surveyed spent online. We found that almost half of all respondents, namely 48%, spend more than 3 hours a day online, followed by 23% who spend between 2 and 3 hours. At least 12% of people are online for less than 1 hour per day. Based on the results of this question, we can say that respondents spend quite a lot of time online daily. Which device do you use most often to spend time online? For this question, we wanted to know which device respondents use most often to spend time online. This information is very important for the marketing plan, as we can optimise our marketing activities per device. The results showed that the vast majority of respondents spend most of their time online using their mobile phones, namely 79% of them, the second highest percentage of respondents access the web using a computer (18%), and only 3% of all respondents spend most of their time online using a tablet. We assumed that the answers would be arranged this way, as most people always have a mobile phone handy, which is the easiest way. Do you use social networks? If yes, which social networks do you use? As many people use social networks, we also wanted to know how many of the consumers who used the selected package also use social networks. For those who chose yes, the question continued. In the second part, we asked which social networks consumers use. Multiple answers could be selected here. This is very important information for the hotel, as it tells us which social networks its guests are using and on which networks it would be wise for the hotel to be featured. In the first part of the question, respondents were almost unanimous, with 95% of all respondents using social networks and only 5% or 6 people not using them. In the second part, we wanted to know their social networks. Multiple answers could be given here. We found that the largest number of people use Facebook - 90% - which means that almost everyone who uses social networks also uses Facebook. Instagram comes second, with 78% of O čko & Vukasovi ć | The Importance of Digital Marketing 5 consumers using it. The third place is the social network used for watching videos, namely YouTube. It is used by 63% of all respondents. 45% of consumers use Viber, a social communication network. It is followed by TikTok, used by 43% of people, and WhatsApp, chosen by 42% of people. Quite a few of the respondents also use Snapchat, which is designed for sending pictures that disappear after being viewed once. A few other social networks, such as Pinterest, Linkedin, Twitter and Tumblr, followed. One person added Reddit to the "other" category. This is an online forum where users discuss various topics. Do you actively follow any influencers? Here, we wanted to know whether hotel guests actively follow any influencers. The responses show that less than half of all respondents, 43% of all respondents, actively follow influencers. Who usually initiates the holiday? For this question, we wanted to know who in the relationship usually initiates the holiday. This information is important when advertising online, as you can target both genders or just one. We found that most men indicated that both were the initiators, namely 25%. The second most frequent response from men was that female partners were the initiators, at 15%. Only 7% of all men indicated that they themselves initiated the holiday. For women, the pattern was similar, with the majority of female respondents indicating that both of them were the initiators of the holiday, with the second most frequent answer being that they were the initiators. Only 5% of women indicated that their partners initiated the holiday. In most cases, both partners are the initiators of the holiday. However, if we break it down by gender, we find that 38% of the people surveyed indicated that women are the initiators. In comparison, male holiday initiators account for only 12% in our survey. For this question, we also wanted to know if there were differences in the answers when comparing the age groups. To find out, we ran an ANOVA test with the help of the SPSS statistical programme. First, we set hypotheses, which were: H0: No difference exists between age groups regarding who initiates the holiday. H1: There is a difference between the age groups regarding who initiates the holiday. Using the ANOVA test, we found that the P-value is 0.123 (Table 2), which means that it is greater than the alpha of 0.05, so we confirm the null hypothesis. So, we can say with 95% confidence that there are no statistically significant differences between age groups regarding who initiates the holiday. Table 2: ANOVA Sum of Squares df Mean Square F Significance Between groups 4.415 3 1.472 1,967 ,123 Within the groups 86.785 116 ,748 Total 91,200 119 How do you book a holiday? For this question, we were interested in how consumers book their holidays. Multiple answers could be selected here. Table 3 shows that most of the guests surveyed booked their holidays online. 68% of respondents chose this answer. The second most popular answer was that they book their holiday over the phone, chosen by 36% of respondents. This was followed by the answer that they book their holidays by email, with 33% of respondents booking their holidays this way. Only 12% of respondents book their holidays in person. The survey results show that O čko & Vukasovi ć | The Importance of Digital Marketing 6 the selected guests use different methods, but the first answer stands out, so we can conclude that most guests book their holidays online. Table 3: Ways to book your holiday OnlineVia telephoneBy e-mailIn personOther N Valid 120 120 120 120 120 Missing 0 0 0 0 0 Percentage % 68 36 33 12 0 Have you already booked your holiday through social media? For this question, we were interested in whether respondents ever book their holidays via social networks, as most tourism providers are also represented on social networks, and some users find it much quicker to send an enquiry there than to search the website for an email and write. The results show that 51% of all respondents have already booked a holiday via social media, while 45% have not yet done so. Only 4% of people could not remember whether or not they had ever booked a holiday via social networks. We explored whether there is a correlation between people who actively follow influencers and people who have already booked accommodation via social media. In this case, since the variables are nominal values, we performed a chi-square test. The hypotheses were as follows: H0: There is no correlation between the variables "Do you follow any influencers?" and “Have you already booked your accommodation via social media?" H1: There is a correlation between the variables "Do you follow any influencers?" and “Have you already booked your accommodation via social media?" α = 0.05 Table 4: Chi square test Value Df Significance Chi square 10.033 4 ,040 As can be seen from Table 4, the significance level is less than 0.05, so the null hypothesis can be rejected. This means that there is a correlation among the variables "Do you follow any influencers?" and “Have you already booked your accommodation via social media?". In order to find out how strong this correlation is, we also ran a Phi test and a Cramer's V test using SPSS. The hypotheses for this test were: H0: There is no significant correlation among the variables "Do you follow any influencers?" and “Have you already booked your accommodation via social media?" H1: There is a significant correlation among the variables "Do you follow any influencers?" and “Have you already booked your accommodation via social media?" Table 5: Phi and Cramer's V test Value Significance Phi ,313 ,019 Cramer's V ,221 ,019 Contingency coefficient ,299 ,019 N of Valid Cases 120 Table 5 shows that all three coefficients are non-significant, and their value is identical. There is a correlation between the two variables, the null hypothesis can be confirmed, but it is not significant. Therefore, it can be argued that the correlation between the variables "Do you O čko & Vukasovi ć | The Importance of Digital Marketing 7 follow any influencers?" and “Have you already booked your accommodation via social media?" exists only at the level of the sample analysed. The correlation ranges between 0.22 and 0.31, and since it is greater than 0.2, it falls into the moderate correlation group (0.2 < value ≤ 0.6) and can therefore be considered statistically significant. Thus, we can conclude that the correlation between the variables "Do you follow any influencers?" and “Have you already booked your accommodation via social media?" exists and is considered moderate based on the results. Where do you get your holiday information? We wanted to know where the consumers surveyed make enquiries about the location and accommodation, or more generally about the holiday they are going on, before the holiday itself. Respondents could choose more than one answer. We found that the most frequent way for respondents to get information about holidays is on the provider's website. 75% of all respondents chose this answer. The second most common answer was social networks, which 58% of respondents chose. Respondents also chose the answer "other" a few times, where they could write their own answers. In addition to the answers agency and the web, they also replied that they get information about holidays from acquaintances or relatives. What plays a role when choosing your holiday accommodation? Competition in tourism is huge, with an increasing number of accommodation establishments, from luxury hotels to boutique apartments. Therefore, we wanted to know what makes guests decide to visit a new accommodation. We found that most guests choose to visit a new accommodation based on the attractive photo and video content, with 65% of all respondents choosing this answer. The second most given answer is "an interesting package", with 54%. The last two answers, with about the same number of responses, are "recommendation from friends and acquaintances" (35%) and "own wish" (32%). Do you check the comments and reviews about the accommodation online before your stay? For this question, we wanted to know whether guests check what others have written about the hotel before their stay and what their impressions were. Graph 1 shows that more than half, 73%, of all respondents check online reviews of their chosen accommodation before their stay. The remaining 27% said they do not read comments before their stay. Graph 1: Monitoring comments and reviews about the accommodation before the stay O čko & Vukasovi ć | The Importance of Digital Marketing 8 Please rate how true the following statement is in your case on a scale of 1 to 5: I have visited a tourist site/landmark solely on the basis of photos I have seen on social media. For this question, we wanted to know whether respondents had ever decided to visit a tourist destination or attraction just because they had seen beautiful photos of it on social media. The average answer was 3.71 (Table 6), which means that the majority of respondents had visited a tourist destination or attraction before because they were persuaded by the beautiful photos on social media. On a scale of 1 to 5, 36% of all respondents chose 5, namely confirming that this statement is completely true. Table 6: I have visited a tourist destination solely on the basis of photos I have seen on social media N Valid 120 Missing 0 Average 3.71 Median 4.00 Please rate how true the following statement is in your case on a scale of 1 to 5: The presentation of the hotel I saw online is realistic and met my expectations. Everyone wants to present themselves as the best and the most beautiful online, so this question asked whether the expectations that guests have created on the basis of online information about the hotel of their choice have been met. We found that the average answer for this question is 4.10, meaning respondents' expectations based on the web have been met. As many as 38% of all respondents chose the highest rating. An independent t-test was used to test whether there is a statistically significant difference between the cohesion regions and the expectations met in the selected hotel. First, we set hypotheses, which were: − H0: The expectations met in the selected hotel do not differ significantly between the Eastern and Western Cohesion Regions, meaning the arithmetic mean is identical. − H1: The expectations met in the selected hotel differ significantly between the Eastern and Western Cohesion regions, which means that the arithmetic means differ. The p-value of Levene's test is 0.888, greater than the characteristic's alpha level (Alpha (α) = 0.05). We can, therefore, confirm the null hypothesis. The p-value of the t-test is 0.296, which is also greater than the significance level of 0.05. Thus, with a 5% risk or 95% certainty, we can say that the responses on the selected hotel meeting the expectations do not differ significantly or are statically insignificant between the eastern and western cohesion regions. Hypothesis testing H1: "Consumers most often obtain information and knowledge about tourist accommodation via social networks." The survey results show that 58% of all respondents get their holiday information from social networks. However, this was the second most common answer, with the most frequently chosen answer being that consumers most often get information about accommodation from the provider's website, with 75% of respondents choosing this answer. Based on the findings, we reject hypothesis H1, as consumers most often obtain information and knowledge about tourist accommodation from the provider's website. H2: “At least 30% of all respondents have already booked their holiday through Facebook or Instagram.” O čko & Vukasovi ć | The Importance of Digital Marketing 9 From the quantitative survey results, we found that 51% of all respondents have booked a holiday on social media. Based on the findings, we confirm hypothesis H2, as more than half of the consumers surveyed booked their holidays via social networks. H3: »Younger respondents (aged 30 and under) pay the most attention to an attractive photo and video presentation of the hotel before booking their accommodation.« Using the SPSS programme, we divided the respondents into age groups, which were compared according to the attention they had gotten before booking the accommodation. Results show that for respondents aged 30 and under, attractive photo and video content is the most important factor when choosing a new destination, followed by an interesting package. Hypothesis H3 is confirmed, as respondents in the under 30 age group were most likely to say that attractive photo and video content is most important to them when booking new accommodation. Recommendations and suggestions for the use of digital marketing tools for the selected hotel Based on the knowledge gained from the theoretical part and the quantitative research results, we have made some suggestions for the selected hotel to improve its online sales. A website is a powerful digital marketing tool and sales support. We also found that most of the guests surveyed sought information about their holiday on the provider's website. Therefore, we took a closer look at the selected hotel's website. After reviewing it, we noticed that certain information that may be important for booking is too inconspicuous. We would, therefore, advise the selected hotel to update the website and make it clearer. We also found that it is not optimised for mobile users, as the mobile phones' booking process is very opaque. This certainly is an issue, as the survey showed that 79% of all respondents spend most of their time online on their mobile phones. We would also recommend that they include more attractive photos and especially video content on the website. Video marketing itself is also underused by the selected hotel. The hotel offers excellent medical packages for preventive treatment, and video marketing could be used to promote these packages and show what they include. The doctor present at the hotel could outline some of the benefits of the package. Alternatively, a guest could be followed through their stay, and they could make a statement describing the package in their own words. The selected hotel regularly uses paid ads on Google, both search and display, to achieve good results. However, we advise hotels to start using SEO optimisation to better position themselves online and in organic search and, as a result, reach more potential customers. The survey results have shown that social networks are one of the more important tools for the selected hotel, as only one person out of all respondents does not use social networks, and a large percentage of respondents have already booked their holidays this way. The company should, therefore, continue with its current activities and posts on selected social networks. The hotel also works with various influencers, so we asked about this in our survey questionnaire. Interestingly, more than half of the respondents indicated that they do not actively follow influencers; however, a surprising number of hotel guests found out about their chosen accommodation through them. We can conclude that respondents follow influencers, not actively, but still notice what they are promoting. Therefore, it makes sense to continue working with influencers and find new ones that appeal to the same target group. We noticed that many respondents stressed that attractive photo and video content is important to them when choosing a destination, and many people said that they had visited a tourist O čko & Vukasovi ć | The Importance of Digital Marketing 10 destination based on attractive images on social media. We advise the selected hotel to invest in photo and video content further. We also recommend creating an attractive photo corner where guests could take photos for social media. This corner should also include the hotel's logo, name and hashtag. This way, guests could promote the hotel on their social media accounts by simply taking pictures there. We also noticed that guests do not share many impressions on their social networks during their stay, so we recommend that the hotel encourage guests to post more. The questionnaire has shown that the selected hotel met the expectations of the guests surveyed. For this reason, the hotel should actively work on getting as many positive online reviews and comments from its guests as possible. As shown by the answers to the questionnaire, most consumers always check the reviews of accommodation online before their stay. If negative comments about an accommodation dominate online, the hotel may lose a potential consumer. It would be regrettable if satisfied guests did not share their impressions with others to help us raise our profile. The hotel has a very good online presence and makes good use of selected digital marketing tools, but there are still areas where they can improve and achieve even better results in online sales. Conclusion Digital marketing has become an important part of every marketing activity plan, more so in some industries and less so in others. It is very important in the tourism industry, as consumers go online to find ideas for their holidays, make enquiries and book their holidays online. This is why this type of marketing has become increasingly important over the years, as online sales bring more and more sales results every year. In the last eight years of presence in the tourism industry, and more specifically in the hotel industry, the importance of this type of marketing has become increasingly apparent every year, and in general, we have seen a rise in social networks and tourism offers on them. Our research has confirmed this and demonstrated the importance of digital marketing in tourism. Throughout the research, we have learned that digital marketing is a very complex tool that requires a lot of analysis, validation, and creation, or, in short, a lot of time investment. But if we know how to use it properly and take advantage of its benefits, it can be a very powerful tool that can bring us great sales and marketing results. As we live in a time when we want to digitise and simplify everything, we are convinced that digital marketing will only become an even more powerful and bigger tool in the world of sales and marketing. The target groups will also become more specific, and we can define the target consumer in more detail. Throughout the survey, we learned all the tools, how they work and what they are used for in great detail. We have found that sometimes theory describes something, but things turn out very differently in practice. It is important for each company to test what works best for them, which tools deliver the best results and which tools are best suited for a particular application. In the article, we were also faced with a number of limitations. One of the constraints was that the chosen topic is very broad, so we had to write the article in a very deliberate and planned way. Another limitation was that the literature quickly became outdated, especially on topics such as social networks. Trends and how networks work are changing so fast that the literature from eight years ago is no longer relevant and accurate. So, we looked for more recent literature or literature that had been updated by the author to keep it up to date. As a limitation, we would like to mention the broadness of the topic of digital marketing, and more specifically, digital marketing tools, which is why we have only described the most well- O čko & Vukasovi ć | The Importance of Digital Marketing 11 known and cost-effective in the field of tourism. The unwillingness of hotel guests to participate in the survey or the partial and incomplete completion of the questionnaires were also limiting factors. The research is limited to the Slovenian market and the selected sector (tourism). All findings relate exclusively to hotel guests, so the survey results cannot be generalised more. The existing research can also serve as a basis for further research in the field of digital marketing in the tourism industry. The selected hotel can extend this research to foreign markets and use the questionnaire to determine the target group's behaviour in another market for another selected package. The selected hotel can continue the existing research and explore the chosen digital marketing tool more in-depth. The analysed hotel can create a new survey to research the target audience's behaviour on the website to find out what is important to them and what they are looking for on the website. References Ažman, A. (2013). Management znanja. Zbornik 10. festivala raziskovanja ekonomije in managementa 22.–23. marec 2013. 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