Assessment on the Role of Internet in Tourism Marketing: A Case Study of Mwanza City-Tanzania

Abstract

This study assessed the role of internet in tourism marketing in Mwanza City. The objectives which guided the research were to identify the status of tourism marketing through internet usage in Mwanza City, to analyse the use of internet in marketing tourism in Mwanza City, to identify the relationship between tourism growth and the use of internet in Mwanza City and to identify the challenges facing the internet usage in marketing tourism in Mwanza City. The sample size of the study was 16 marketing or communication officials whose companies or organizations have registered and have the websites. The research used qualitative and quantitative methods in the presentation of data and research data were collected through interview and content analysis and the use of the secondary data. Data was analysed using thematic analysis, SPSS and Microsoft Excel and findings were presented in narrations, frequencies, percentages and charts. Findings of this research described that internet doesn’t play much role as it should. Also the researcher discovered that there is no harmonization within tourism sector in electronic environment as well. But thanks to god the government has played a major role to ensure that the harmony is built within tourism industry by creating a tourism marketing portal which is incorporated by every recognized tourism company information needed by customer (s) or consumer(s) and which will ensure that there is cooperation and collaboration among stakeholders.

Keywords: Role of internet, Internet, Tourism marketing, Mwanza, Tanzania