The Role of Online Marketing in the Travel & Tourism Industry

Tourism is one of the largest industries in the world. Tourism has a great contribution to the world economy. Not only in the economies of developed countries but also in developing countries depend largely on the tourism industry. As the trend of online marketing is increasing very fast in the field of tourism, it has become a subject of research. With the development of the Internet and its availability to the common man, there has been a lot of change in the behavior of the customer in the field of tourism. Internet is playing a vital role in their approach since it has been covered in every corner of the world. Internet is using maximum in the tourism industry for different types of marketing or promotional activities. Internet is the most suitable way to make a direct relationship with customers. Travel agencies today are adopting online marketing instead of offline marketing so that they can reach more and more people in less time. From this, it is clear that online business has emerged as an essential tool especially in the field of tourism. This paper focuses to examine the basic elements of online marketing and the significance of the same in the travel and tourism industry.