The effect of digital techniques on tourism marketing performance and its role in the buying tourist product decision process

In recent years, rapid developments in Internet technologies have been experienced and consequently, the devices developed for using Internet have commonly been used by both businesses and consumers. Accordingly, marketing studies have started to be done in the digital environment and the concept of digital marketing has emerged. Digital marketing has been applied by many businesses. The COVID 19 epidemic process has further increased the application of digital marketing. Businesses have been applying digital marketing techniques to carry out their marketing activities in the digital environment. Digital marketing has been applied by use of marketing techniques such as web page marketing, e-mail marketing, social media marketing, content marketing, SMS-MMS marketing, mobile marketing, marketing with marketing automation, search engine marketing, referral marketing, dynamic pricing, semantic marketing, predictive marketing, touch point marketing, big data marketing, and wearable technology. Digital marketing techniques have also been applied extensively in the tourism industry. This research aims to determine the effects of digital techniques on the marketing performances of the travel agencies in Turkey and on the decision to purchase touristic products. Within this scope, primarily, two scales have been developed. The first scale is the Attitude Scale on the Effect of Digital Techniques on Tourism Marketing Performance, which consists of four factors. The second scale is the Attitude Scale on the Role of Digital Techniques in the Decision Process of Purchasing Touristic Products, which also consists of four factors. The results of the scales developed for the research and the analyzes performed can be stated to contribute to filling the gap in the literature, providing researchers with a different perspective, helping travel agencies determine different marketing stratagies, and ultimately raising consumers' awarenesses of using digital techniques during the purchasing stages of tourism products. In the tourism industry, the marketing function is generally carried out by travel agencies which are members of the Turkish Travel Agency Association, that was established with the law numbered 1618. Hence, the first universe of the research consists of the officials of 10.480 travel agencies holding A group certificate which carry out the marketing of touristic products (package tours) in Turkey. The second universe of the research consists of consumers (tourists) who have purchased touristic products at least once by using digital techniques. A questionnaire was used as a data collection tool in the research. Group A travel agencies located in Edirne, Kırklareli, Tekirdağ, Çanakkale, and İstanbul provinces were visited and paper questionnaires were hand delivered. Due to constraints such as money, time, and distance; questionnaires were sent to agencies in other provinces of Turkey via Google forms, Word and PDF files, TURSAB e-mail groups, corporate e-mail addresses, and social media (Facebook, etc.). In the research, purposeful sampling was preferred for both businesses and consumers. In this context, a total of 461 questionnaires, 334 of which were online and 127 of which were printed, obtained from the Group A travel agency officials engaged in marketing activities using digital techniques were evaluated. On the other hand, a total of 1062 questionnaires, 808 of which were online and 254 of which were printed, obtained from the consumers who have purchased touristic products at least once by using digital techniques, were evaluated. Analyzes were performed using SPSS (Statistical Package for Social Sciences) and AMOS (Analysis of Moment Structures) package programs. According to the results of the research; agencies use e-mail, SMS, MMS, social media and websites effectively and particularly benefit from promotions and comments and content marketing is preffered because of its cost advantage. Search engine marketing, wearable technologies, and semantic marketing are less preferred by agencies. The use of digital technology generally reduces the tourism marketing costs of travel agencies and provides significant increases in sales. Consumers aged 30 and under use digital techniques more effectively in the stages of emergence of need, decision making, and realization of purchasing during the decision process of purchasing a tourism product. Education and profession variables are very effective in the stages of the emergence of the need for the tourism product, the evaluation of alternatives, and the decision-making. This effect is even more evident in the income level variable. Digital techniques facilitate making decision of purchasing. Thanks to digital techniques, very few problems arise associated with payments made through websites and this is decisive at the purchasing stage. While the digital environment is full of advantages for businesses and consumers, it also carries some risks. Therefore, it is recommended for businesses to have official web pages and for consumers to reach the businesses through other channels, if necessary, after first examining the official websites of the businesses and obtaining the necessary information. Keywords: Scale Development, Digital Technologies, Marketing Performance, Purchasing Decision Process, Travel Agency, Tourism Product, Tourist.