Digital Marketing: Strategies, Trends, Implementation, and Practices. A Case of Uttarakhand Star Category Hotels

Abstract

Digital marketing is the new mantra for marketing hotel products. Digital marketing strategies have played a major role in the overall growth and development of the star-category hotels of Uttarakhand. Star Category hotels in Uttarakhand have experienced enhanced customer interaction, a faster medium to reach the global market and its impact on the hotel's overall revenue. The state of Uttarakhand in northern India is one of the most beautiful states with many tourism products, for instance, mountains, wildlife, pilgrims, monuments, hill resorts, rural tourism, and many more. Uttarakhand relies heavily on the tourism and hospitality sector as it contributes around 3 % to its overall GDP and around 10 % to its state employment. However, the adoption of new marketing tools i.e. Digital marketing appears to be relatively low in the case of major hotels due to unfamiliarity with digital tools, investment costs and hotels still relying on traditional marketing techniques. A considerable number of research and project work have been carried out on digital marketing and hotel performance but very limited work has been carried out for star category hotels of Uttarakhand. The current study aims to analyze how digital marketing impacts the overall growth and development of Uttarakhand hotels. The study has also attempted to examine the shift from traditional marketing to digital marketing and the use of various digital marketing strategies in the star-category hotels of Uttarakhand. The present study is exploratory and endorses the qualitative approach of primary research methodology and used the case study method by taking major star hotel chains of Uttarakhand. This paper concludes by discussing and highlighting the benefits of digital marketing over traditional marketing techniques and how major chains like Taj, Marriott, and Hyaat are using digital marketing strategies to target domestic and international tourists.