Assessing Therapeutic Tourism and Hotels Marketing Using the Video-Sharing Websites in Egypt

Abstract

Social media is considered new potential wave in the online business marketing. Tourism and hospitality marketers are beginning to drive the use of social media as a new tool in their marketing plan to stretch out to customers. YouTube is a popular video-sharing site and considered one of the most important social media sites that can be used in tourism and hotels marketing to keep up with incremental changes in the information technology applications. This paper aimed to explore the advantages of using YouTube in tourism marketing in general and therapeutic tourism and hotels in particular based in Egypt. The research problem is that there is no any governmental YouTube Channel in Egypt to market the therapeutic tourism and hotels. Two phases of data collection methods were employed in this research: first, using the online content analysis of the available YouTube videos and channels; second, using questionnaire strategy targeted the Egyptian experts in the marketing field. The research implications that can be inferred from this research are twofold: first, this paper highlighted a new social media tool in E-marketing using YouTube for academics; second, it will help practitioners to depend on the developed strategy to use YouTube in marketing the Egyptian therapeutic tourism and hotels. Finally, this study recommends the need for further research to develop a conceptual framework using a mixed methods research to widen the roles for which social media can be utilized for the Egyptian marketers.