The impact of digital marketing strategies on marina preferences of amateur sailors

In this period of digitalization in all areas of life, it has become inevitable for businesses to develop their marketing strategies in this direction. With digital marketing, businesses can reach large masses at low cost and increase their awareness and earnings. In order to turn the advantages of digital marketing into profit, businesses must first define their customer profile, wishes and needs, and expectations well. In this direction, it is necessary to create various digital marketing strategies. It creates digital marketing strategies by developing and transforming the marketing strategies of marina businesses in this developing and changing structure through digital platforms. In this master's thesis, first of all, theoretical information about digital marketing, maritime tourism and amateur maritime was given and a survey was conducted with amateur sailors in order to reveal the importance of the maritime sector. Afterwards, the results of the survey made to 276 amateur sailors were analyzed and explained with SPSS, AMOS YEM statistical programs and concluded with suggestions to marina enterprises. According to the results obtained, approximately 74% of the participants state that they share their positive thoughts about a marina operation, and approximately 80% of them share their negative thoughts with social media tools. In addition, in SPSS regression analyzes regarding the hypotheses; It is noteworthy that the Instagram independent variable has a statistically significant and positive effect on the decision to purchase service, positive and negative information and complaint sharing among the dependent variables.