Abstract:
Messenger marketing is part of global digital trend that acts as a new avenue
for tour firms to adopt based on convenience in interaction, ability to reach
more audiences and collaboration with customers. The study aimed to
examine the effect of messenger marketing on performance of tour operating
companies in Kenya. The study was anchored on diffusion innovation
theory. Cross-sectional and correlational research design were utilized. The
study applied census approach to a target population of 212 general
managers of tour operating companies. Online and physical questionnaires
were used to collect primary data. The supervisors and experts were used to
examine validity of the instrument while Cronbach Alpha was adopted to
test reliability was 0.783 which was above a threshold of 0.7, hence reliable.
Descriptive statistics consisting of mean and standard deviations were used
to summarize data while simple linear regression was used to test
significance at 5%. The results revealed that messenger marketing platform
was practiced by the tour operating companies through using mobile
services platform for sending messages, chatting and soliciting sales. It also
assisted in obtaining customer feedback, blogging and chatting with
customers. However, the Chatbots were hardly used by firms which adopted
artificial intelligence in communicating, sending random messages and
could be integrated to existing online platforms. The results indicated that
messenger marketing had positive significant effect on the performance of
tour operating companies (β1=0.428, P = 0.000<0.05). The study concludes
that messenger marketing platform marketing significantly influenced
performance of tour operating companies. The study recommends tour
operating companies should apply Chatbots, mobile service, mobile
commerce and conversation commerce to enhance customer relationship
and improve performance.
