Exploring Digital Adoption and Media Impacts on Travel Decision Making in Indian Hospitality: An Empirical Multiple Regression Approach

Abstract

The introduction of digital marketing strategies has led to a great change in the tourism and hospitality industry as it affects the choice of customers to travel by providing a better interaction, more personalized content, and real time interactions. This empirical research aims to examine how different digital marketing variables such as tech-driven effects, online persuasive effect, content effect and media effects on tourism, influence the customer decision making in the Indian setting. Based on the results of the study, which is based on the analysis of the survey data of 500 respondents, a strong positive relationship between the variables of digital engagement and trust and the decision-making in relation to the type of travel is observed. The main results are that tech-driven effects can be strongly predicted by the digital adoption (β=0.658, p<0.001) and the content influence has the essential role in developing the reliance. These findings highlight why tourism companies should use digital technology to promote immersive experiences and target promotions. Practitioner implications may be the incorporation of data driven approaches in an effort to increase customer loyalty and booking intentions. The study is relevant to the literature as it offers an inclusive model of digital impacts in tourism that can be updated to the new markets.