The effect of service quality, price and digital marketing activities on the ticket purchase decision of passengers traveling between Turkey and Germany

Taking the first place among the tourists coming to Turkey and forming the most important target group of most airline companies, the most preferred type of transportation in terms of speed and comfort in international travels is the airline. Due to the intense competition that airline companies are in, it has become compulsory to differentiate their companies by service quality or price. The online travel market has increased in recent years, online shopping has become widespread and the influence of airline companies on online channels has increased considerably. Hence, the aim of the research is to reveal the effects of digital marketing, price and service quality elements of airline companies on the ticket purchase decision of passengers. For this purpose, a questionnaire was applied to a total of 382 passengers traveling between Turkey and Germany at Antalya International Terminal between May 2021 and March 2022. The data obtained from the research and the hypotheses formed were measured with logistic regression, t and ANOVA tests. According to the logistic regression analysis, the price and service quality variables have an effect on the ticket purchase decision. However, the digital marketing does not have a significant effect on the purchase decision. In addition, there is a strong relationship between the "price/ service quality" and the "purchase decision" variable; and an increase in the price and service quality variables also increases the probability of making a decision. According to the t-test, no statistically significant difference was found between the male and female groups. According to the analysis of variance, there is no statistically significant difference between the demographic characteristics of the passengers (age, education, and employment status) and the purchasing decision. At the end of the study, recommendations were presented in accordance with the results obtained.