E Mail Marketing Platforms and Performance of Tour Operating Companies

Abstract

E-mail marketing is a component of the worldwide digital trend that presents tour operating companies with new opportunities due to its ease of use, capacity to reach a wider audience, and capacity for customer involvement. The main objective of the study was to establish the effect of email marketing and performance of tour operating companies in Kenya. The study was anchored on use and gratification theory.Cross-sectional and correlational research design were utilized. The study used a target population of 212 general managers of tour operating companies. The study adopted census approach. Online questionnaire was used to collect primary data. The supervisors and expertswere used to examine validity of the instrument while Cronbach Alpha were adopted to test reliability where a threshold of 0.7 and above was deemed reliable. Descriptive statistics consisting of mean and standard deviationswere used to summarize data while inferential statistics was used to examined the relationship between email marketing platforms and performance of tour operating firms. The study found out that, email marketing platform was adopted mainly in sharing information andacquisition of new customers through referrals. However, there was low adoption of email in sending promotions messages and advertising the organization. Therefore, e-mail marketing platform had statistically significant effect on the performance of tour operating companies (β=0.345, P=0.000<0.05). The study concluded that e-mail marketing had a positive significant effect on performance of tour operating companies. The study recommended tour operating companies should involve content development for email in promotions.