Title: Effectiveness of social media marketing: special reference to Kerala tourism

Authors: C. Pradeep Kumar; R. Sakthivel; Hareesh N. Ramanathan

Addresses: Bharathiar School of Management and Entrepreneur Development, Bharathiar University, Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu, India; Pranavam Panaikkal Lane Eroor West (PO), Tripunithura Ernakulam, Kerala, 682306, India ' Govt. Arts College, Coimbatore, India ' Department of Management Studies, Toc H Institute of Science and Technology, Kochi. Kerala, India

Abstract: International tourism has continued to show robust growth in the year 2013 and the trends show that there is enough space for emerging economies such as Kerala to grow and reach new heights. By seeing these opportunities the Government of Kerala, by way of a modern marketing strategy, has envisaged to achieve a yearly growth rate of 15% in foreign tourist arrivals, and 7% on domestic tourist arrivals. The Government is formulating a plethora of new strategies to strengthen the existing international markets such as the USA, UK, Australia, France, and Germany, together with the untapped markets of Russia, South Africa, the Middle East, etc. Thus, the tourism industry in Kerala by means of various marketing techniques, sophisticated advertisement methods and diversified products, have decided to achieve the targets by 2021. The present study is to evaluate the effectiveness of social media marketing techniques adopted by tourism operators and developers, who operate in Kerala.

Keywords: social media marketing; Kerala; India; tourism industry; website effectiveness; tourism websites.

DOI: 10.1504/IJICBM.2015.070257

International Journal of Indian Culture and Business Management, 2015 Vol.11 No.1, pp.128 - 136

Received: 11 Mar 2014
Accepted: 17 Jun 2014

Published online: 01 Jul 2015 *

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