Digital marketing applications in thermal hotel establishments operating in Pamukkale

Objective: Digital marketing encompasses all activities that reach consumers and promote or sell products or services through digital channels. Therefore, digital marketing is the process of promoting a brand, product, service or business on the internet. Today, with the advancement of technology, the concept of digital marketing comes to the forefront. Digital marketing activities have become important in the field of health tourism, which has become prominent in recent years. For this reason, this study aims to determine the digital marketing practices of thermal hotels in Denizli Pamukkale district and to determine to what extent they use digital marketing tools effectively and efficiently. Materials and Method: Authorized persons in thermal hotels in Pamukkale district of Denizli province constitute the study group of the research. The research was designed according to case study, one of the qualitative research methods. Semi-structured questions were prepared by the researcher by taking expert opinion as a data collection tool. The data were collected from 11 thermal hotels operating in the region and interviews were conducted with the participants using in-depth interview technique, one of the qualitative research methods. Face-to-face interviews were recorded. The recorded data were tabulated and analyzed according to the content analysis method. Findings: In the study, it was concluded that the most commonly used digital marketing tools used by hotels are internet, social networking, search engine optimization, search engine marketing, remarketing, affiality (affiliate marketing), content marketing, display ads, mobile marketing. It was concluded that the most commonly used social media applications of hotel businesses are Instagram, WhatsApp, Facebook. Twitter, Youtube and Linkedin social media applications were found to be less preferred. Conclusion In the conclusion section of the study, the results obtained from the tables are evaluated. As a result of this evaluation, it was determined that Pamukkale thermal hotels benefit from digital marketing as a marketing strategy, but there is no authorized department in the hotels on this subject. As a result of the interviews, it was seen that hotel managers emphasized the importance of digital marketing and were in favor of using it. In the age of developing technology, it is recommended that studies should be carried out to provide adequate training and encouragement to hotel staff on this subject in line with the result that the staff do not have sufficient knowledge about digital marketing in hotels in the absence of a separate department. Since the studies in this field are in the minority in the researches, it is predicted that the study to be carried out will lead the way. Keywords: Digital Marketing, Pamukkale, Health Tourism, Thermal Hotel