Tourism marketing through conservation in the digital era: A literature review

AbstractThis study followed an innovative trajectory towards sustainable marketing approachesthat a brought about through digitalisation. The focus being that tourism destinations arelikely to attract more tourists if they apply digital marketing tools as compare to othertraditional methods. Also in the sense that global tourism businesses are no longerlooking at how to improve their bottom-line only but also considering the planet in theform of conservation. The reason being that modern tourists are now consideringenvironmental sustainability before they visit a tourism destination such that tourismdestination marketers should be ahead in setting up eco-friendly environments. It isthrough this study that digitalisation was considered to have an influence in sustainabletourism marketing through exposing conservation practices in destination. The thereforestudy applied a literature review methodology in order to obtain insights on theapplication of digital marketing and the influence it has in promoting conservation forimproved tourism destination attractiveness. The findings of the study showed thatdigitalisation has intervened between tourism marketing and conservation. It has beenfound that digital technologies are spearheading conservation of the environment andculture which is also being used for promoting and selling the tourism destinationsthrough showcasing on various digital platforms. Digital technologies have been foundto have autonomy in predicting tourism demand, managing tourism destination carryingcapacity and help tourists to do a pre-visit evaluation of a tourism destination. As part ofa conservation initiative it showed that community involvement in tourism destinationmarketing sustainability is enhanced through digital technologies. The study thereforerecommends an integrated approach by various stakeholders towards digitalisation intourism destination for improved market where all conservation, training of destinationmarketers on the application of digital technologies to meet with potential tourists so asto sell their conservation initiatives and and coming up with clear digital marketingpolicies through public private partnerships (PPP).