Marketing visitor attractions in the digital age: a study of the e-marketing adoption in the visitor attraction sector

With the emergence and diffusion of the Internet and its rich digital array, tourism marketing has been drastically transformed by the advances in Information and Communication Technology (ICT). This is particularly relevant in a context of Visitor Attractions (VAs), a sector which appears to lag behind in terms of embracing the multi-faceted spectrum of digital marketing tools, particularly in medium and small-sized organisations. With this in mind, the supply-side viewpoint of the VA sector is poorly understood, with scarce empirical evidence relating to digital marketing practices. The proposed study offers an overarching model to empirically investigate E-marketing adoption in the VA sector. The main aim of the research is to systematically examine the complexity and extent of E-marketing forms and the causal relationship of the factors affecting the adoption of E-marketing and the continued adoption of E-marketing in the VA sector.