Abstract
The purpose of this study is to investigate the effect of customers' attitudes towards traditional and social media marketing on brand trust and purchase intention. Reviewing the extant literature unveiled that the subject of traditional versus social media marketing in the airline market is not sufficiently studied. Thus, we studied the mentioned subject in Turkey because the aviation sector has shown noteworthy improvements due to a significant increasing volume of e-commerce, not only on the passenger side but also on the cargo side as well. On the other hand, thanks to the passenger demand growth since starting the recent century, the Turkish airline industry leads a giant contribution to the enlargement of the global economy due to the increasing number of connections and falling air transport costs. Data was gathered in Istanbul airports from 341 passengers of the airlines of Turkey to compare the impact of traditional and social media marketing on brand trust and purchase intention of customers and analyzed by using structural equation modeling. The findings reveal that in recent years digital marketing and online advertising campaigns has been more effective than traditional marketing for augmenting brand trust and purchase intention of the passengers.
Highlights
During the 1980s, the development of the travel and tourism industry was coincident with the amplifying trend of the air transportation industry in Turkey
The air transportation policy of Turkey was rehabilitated at the end of 2003, so that limitations on private airlines were improved entirely and for additional incentivizing the flight' tax was diminished. This opportunity was the preamble of huge competition in the Turkish airline market where they were growing promptly (Ülkü, 2015; Orhan & Gerede, 2013)
Over the past few years, many airline service companies have realized the need to engage with a social media platform to communicate with a large number of their existing and potential customers (Hsu, 2012)
Summary
During the 1980s, the development of the travel and tourism industry was coincident with the amplifying trend of the air transportation industry in Turkey. Turkey due to its geographical locality performs alike a crossway surrounded by Europe, the Middle East, and Asia (Torlak et al, 2011) This geographical endowment gave the chance to the Turkish Airlines company and the other private airlines in Turkey to fortify their fleets (Sevkli et al, 2012). The air transportation policy of Turkey was rehabilitated at the end of 2003, so that limitations on private airlines were improved entirely and for additional incentivizing the flight' tax was diminished. Likewise, this opportunity was the preamble of huge competition in the Turkish airline market where they were growing promptly (Ülkü, 2015; Orhan & Gerede, 2013). There is a drastic increase in the number of wide-body aircraft in Turkish airline routes from 259 to more than 500 while it demonstrates the seats capacity growth from 42,335 to 90,259 (Atalık & Arslan, 2009)
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