Marketing and Branding Research

Abstract

The emergence of new trends in a fast-changing environment is inevitable – the tourism industry is not an exception. Thus, travel agencies, which provides help on travel and tourism-related services, must be highly competitive in order to adopt to these changes to rise above the competition.  This research has been comprehensively conducted by interviewing managers and/or owners of the five selected travel agencies in Cordillera Administrative Region to determine their marketing strategies in today’s generation. With the use of thematic analysis, the researchers came up with three themes; traditional marketing, digital marketing and future platforms. Where, traditional marketing refers to marketing strategies that does not utilize the internet. While, digital marketing refers to marketing strategies that utilizes the internet through various digital platforms. The results indicated that most of the Department of Tourism-accredited Travel agencies in the Cordilleras uses traditional marketing to acquire and retain customers. Furthermore, they have been utilizing digital marketing tools to widen their reach and increase customer traffic; however, their digital marketing is still on entry level. Having said that, they have shared their plans on their future platforms they wish to fully utilize to adapt the digital competition on travel and tourism industry as well as to succeed in customer acquisition and customer retention.