Page 67 - Azerbaijan State University of Economics

THE JOURNAL OF ECONOMIC SCIENCES: THEORY AND PRACTICE, V.82, # 2, 2025, pp. 61-78

(F.A.Alıev, E.R.Shafızadeh, R.M.Alıev, N.O.Hajıyev, U.M.Galandarova (2019). The
information about natural heritage sites of Bulgaria is present in Wikipedia, YouTube,
Google Maps, online travel guides, websites of ministries, government agencies,
municipalities, and pseudo-official private web-pages. But the natural heritage sites
still remain underrepresented in information channels (the score of official websites
is 24% of the best possible level). Especially they lack information about financial
accessibility and organizational details for planning visits.

Finally, it is worth noting studies on digital marketing for specific segments of customers
or businesses in tourism sector. Sharma & Sharma (2024) focused on digital marketing
in small and medium enterprises in tourism industry. Kapota et al. (2024) analysed gender
aspects, in particular use of digital marketing by women-led travel agencies. Digital skills
development can both stimulate tourism and empower women in entrepreneurship.

Hysa et al. (2021) provided social media analysis with a breakdown by generations (Baby
Boomers, X, Y, and Z) in Poland. Younger people are more active users of social media,
in particular for checking opinions about destinations before making a travel decision and
for short-term apartment rentals. Intergenerational differences are small in such activities
as travel planning, finding information about local history and culture of tourist places,
possible barriers, and establishing relationships with the local community. Women are
more likely to pay attention to positive and negative comments in social media about
places to visit. Karagianni et al. (2021) focused on the attitude of generation Y to digital
marketing in tourism sector (peer-to-peer short-term rental services). Theofanous et al.
(2024) developed a conceptual framework of digital inclusivity and accessible tourism
including sustainable development, user-friendly technologies, stakeholder
engagement, implementation strategies, evaluation and refinement.

Katsikari et al. (2020) found correlations between push and pull motivation factors for
travels in Greece. For example, more knowledgeable, educated and intellectual tourists
are more attracted by cultural and historical content in social media. Content about sports
and outdoor activities attracts more customers with novelty and adventure as a motivation
for travelling. Wildlife and parks content is associated with knowledge, intellectuality and
sports as push variables. Security and luxury are correlated with escape, entertainment
and prestige. As we see, most of the studies use a microeconomic approach in estimating
effects of marketing tools. A lot of studies a focused either on specific countries or
customer segments or types of tourism or marketing tools.

METHODOLOGY
This paper considers developments in popularity of use of digital marketing tools by
tourism enterprises in 27 EU member states. These are the growth rates in the shares of
enterprises (10 persons employed or more) using various instruments of digital marketing
(the share in 2023 or 2024 in % minus the share in 2016 or 2015 in % because availability

67