A critical review of e-marketing strategies implemented in the tourism industry of Botswana

Abstract

The primary goal of this study was to critically review the e-marketing strategies implemented in the tourism industry of Botswana with specific reference to Small Medium Tourism Enterprises (SMTEs). The study envisages that e-marketing strategies can benefit SMTEs by helping them to reach global markets, increase interaction between SMTEs and their customers, help customers to find information faster and allow round-the-clock online payments. To fulfil the primary goal the following key objectives were put in place: the first objective was to analyse e-business strategies for harnessing the potential of tourism in stimulating socio-economic development, specifically in the case of Botswana; the second objective was to analyse the current marketing challenges, processes, successes of SMTEs in the developing tourism environment; the third objective was to analyse the adoption and extent of the use of e-business strategies by SMTEs with specific reference to e-marketing strategies in contributing to business success in the tourism industry; and the fourth objective was to develop the e-marketing strategy for tourism SMTEs based on the critical review. The study adopted a mixed research methodology involving structured questionnaires for 199 SMTEs, 101 visitors to SMTEs and face-to-face interviews with 14 Botswana government officials dealing with SMTEs in their departments. Data from these three samples was collected from across Botswana. The use of qualitative and quantitative data sources helped the researcher to obtain richer data and have an in-depth understanding of the phenomenon under investigation. A statistical package, IBM SPSS version 20.0, was used to analyse the quantitative data through frequency tables, graphs, and combination descriptive statistics. Thematic analysis was used to analyse qualitative data by identifying common themes and patterns in the data. The key findings of the study were that the commonest tools used for advertising by SMTEs, and visitors were word-of-mouth and social media, although the use of social media was more prevalent. Whilst SMTEs were aware of the strengths and weaknesses of social media, they were not aware of the potential of this tool in terms of customer relationship management and its impact on quality-of-service delivery. Both SMTEs and visitors use Facebook and search engines as information search and dissemination tools, but the use of WhatsApp is almost twice for visitors compared to SMTEs. There is also significant potential for other less popular tools such as Instagram and Twitter. Both SMTEs and visitors confirmed that social media is a useful tool for

marketing purposes in terms of customer attraction, growth and expansion, communication, and searching for prospective tourist destinations. The study revealed lack of time, insufficient resources, lack of skills capacity, lack of SMTE management support, slow penetration of the Internet across Botswana, security concerns, and inadequate knowledge as the major barriers to the adoption and implementation of social media by SMTEs. The other challenges were lack of websites, policies, and procedures that describe how and when e-marketing-related independent reviews are performed and insufficient government intervention strategies on the promotion of e-marketing in Botswana. The study recommends that gaps in social media usage by SMTEs and visitors should be closed for greater effectiveness of the marketing effort by SMTEs and enhanced access to information by visitors. This is particularly true of tools like Facebook and WhatsApp, which are used at different levels and proportions by SMTEs and visitors. SMTEs should capitalise on social media's effectiveness on customer relationship management, which can attract and retain customers, thus generating revenue for a more extended period through repeat visits. The study proposes implementing the framework to improve social media use and application through a coordinated APP. The pooling of marketing services by SMTEs will contribute to economies of scale in terms of sharing of costs of /which are critical resources. There is also a need to train existing employees on how to effectively harness the marketing potential of social media so that there will be increased awareness about the tool. There is need for the Botswana government to improve Internet accessibility by setting up the proper infrastructure which connects the entire country. This study concludes that the web presence of SMTEs is very low, which can be attributed to poor internet infrastructure across Botswana. Most SMTEs do not have policies and guidelines to drive e-marketing and this challenge can be solved through greater intervention strategies by the Botswana government. Currently there is no significant efforts to implement existing ICT and e-business policies and guidelines formulated by the Botswana government more than 10 years ago. This study contributes to the literature by highlighting that social media usage by SMTEs should be trained and managed in a coordinated effort, especially in developing countries. Using social media as a business tool is different than using it for personal gain. The study's practical contribution highlights the importance of a tailor-make framework to improve the current usage of social media as an e-marketing tool. This application of this framework will contribute to the improvement of visitor numbers, higher levels of awareness of what Botswana can offer,

improvement of business skills and knowledge of SMTEs, and overall improve Botswana's image as a tourism destination.