Digital Technologies and Digital Marketing: New Opportunities for Tourism and Hospitality Business

Abstract

The tourism and hospitality business have been significantly influenced by its sociocultural nature in recent years. The processes of globalization in the economy and the adaptation of the economy to the changes associated with the COVID-19 pandemic and the reorientation of the flows of tourists and travelers have become the priority problems of the scientific and economic discourse of our time. There was a need to actualize the tools which are able to minimize the negative impact on the economy as a whole and on the tourist and hotel and restaurant business in particular. Digital technologies and digital marketing have become such elements, which have the necessary potential to implement business development strategies. The purpose of scientific exploration is to analyze an effective marketing strategy for the tourism and hospitality industry based on digital resources. The key elements of digitalization are search engine optimization (SEO), social media marketing (SMM), search engine marketing (SEM), influencer marketing, content marketing, and advertising on digital resources. It is relevant to analyze the principles of digitalization in the marketing cluster of the tourism and hospitality economy. The objectives of the article are to determine the balance of the organizational, logistical, financial, production, and entrepreneurial features of the implementation of economic strategies for tourism development in a digital environment. The result of the study is the formation of the principles of marketing activity in tourism, leisure, and entertainment in today's digital economy: interactivity, dynamism, accessibility, flexibility, and responsiveness. Information and communication in digital marketing is not only a format of economic activity but also modifies the content elements of the economic space. The ICT cluster defines new opportunities for economic activity under new (partly unfavorable) sociocultural conditions. The COVID-19 pandemic has led to ambiguous processes in the marketing elements of tourism and leisure. On the one hand, there has been a rapid reorientation of marketing strategies toward digital work; on the other hand, the contradictions between innovative digital marketing and traditional market elements have opened up after the pandemic restrictions were loosened. Thus, digital technology and digital marketing have demonstrated their relevance and effectiveness in the real sector of the economy in times of economic instability. The prospects of the study are to develop methodological and practically oriented attitudes to approve the digital cluster in the tourism and hospitality business as a fundamental component (rather than a situational, temporary, or alternative element).