E-Marketing Practices from Jordanian Tourism Agencies Perspectives

Abstract

The article aims at providing a deep understanding of electronic marketing practices and investigating the current status of e-marketing (benefits, tools, and barriers) in Jordanian tourism agencies. Methodologically, the article adopts a qualitative design to achieve its objectives. In-depth interviews are employed to generate data. The purposive sample is used to choose the target interviewees. Eight executives from different tourism agencies have been selected to conduct the interviews. The qualitative data of each interview have been analyzed using the thematic and textual analysis. Based on a holistic view of the study, the interviews themes have been extracted. The article concludes that cost minimization and time saving are the most important advantages for e-marketing. Moreover, promotional offers information is the most important type of information provided by e-marketing system. Social media and e-mail marketing are the common tools for e-marketing in tourism agencies. However, privacy issues barrier is the major challenge which is encountered by e-marketing practices.